December 8th School Board Meeting

The meeting went very late last night so I didn't stay up and write it. The meeting was attended by a few more than we have had lately.
Here is my summary of the meeting.
The field trip procedure was presented to us. The teachers will plan what they would like to do. They will estimate the cost, then they  will get approval from the administration and figure out how to fund all the expenses for the field trip. Hopefully they can get the donations they need to be able to provide the activities for the children.  There was no further guidance as to how the teachers can go about raising the money. I know the community has been very willing to help out the kids when asked, I know there are those who would be willing to help with field trips.  
Virtual field trips were also talked about. The high  school  has the equipment in a media room to present a virtual field trip,  just like if you were there seeing whatever  is being presented. The teachers will be encouraged to use this more.
Mr. Kunz asked for permission to get a bid for a new 72 passenger bus. The district used to buy a bus every year, but  I believe since 2007 we have bought one every other year. The buses are built better than they used to be, so they last longer. We have also done this to save money. Unless we can start buying buses more regularly at some time in the future we may have a problem with our buses getting too old before they are replaced. Later a suggestion was made that the district get bids from the private bus companies, to see if we can save money going with them. We will ask for bids before we purchase the new bus. We would like to continue owning our own buses, but it is worth checking out.
We then had a long discussion about the board committee changes I have proposed and explained in my last couple  posts. I first read policy no. 4000 from our school district policy manual that talks about building good community relations. After I read through my ideas how to change the committees, there were a lot of questions asked, and I tried to answer them the best way I could. Some of the concerns were over having the board member in charge of the committees, and the idea of giving the committee limited voting authority.
I didn't provide my list of ideas to the board ahead of the meeting, and that was a mistake, I should have done so. They were put on the spot trying to understand my intent for making these changes. It is hard trying to figure out the best way to bring up ideas like this in such a public way. Everything has to be discussed in public, so it can lead to awkward situations. It was very obvious we weren't going to be able to come to a consensus as to how to change the committees, so it was decided to have a work session on January 10th at 7:00 to figure out the best way to proceed with the committees. Whatever we come up with, I think will be better than what we do now.
Mr. Tubbs then talked about the online classes that will have to be offered next year. One idea to help us not loose the funding for the school, is to work an arrangement to have West Jefferson offer a class to us and us offer one to them, that way the funding would offset so neither school would lose money. I think this is a good idea and I hope something like this can be worked out. It was also mentioned how this might effect our funding for teachers to provide the technology. When fully implemented in 2016 our funding could drop  15% from our previous funding level. This could mean a total of 7 teaching positions. I sure hope we don't have to lose that many teachers.
The spending of the remaining jobs funding money was talked about. The district employees received about 1.5% of their salary in a one time stipend. The total money to be distributed to the staff was $41,000 the rest, another $41,000 went to pay for the districts increased cost to provide the staff with insurance.
We then had a very good presentation given to us about starting a soccer program. Two girls that played soccer in Aberdeen presented most of the information in a PowerPoint presentation. They have estimated all the costs of a soccer program, including recruiting volunteer coaches. They have the cost estimated without paying anything for coaches and optimistic projections for gate admission and fundraisers, from a low of $1088 to a high of $2092.
I still have concerns about what a soccer program's impact would have on our very good cross country team. The girls would have to compete at the 3A level, because 2A soccer is not sanctioned. So competing at that level would be a big challenge. Even though they have the costs very low, I still don't like the idea of spending money on something new at this time with money so tight. We will have  to vote on this next month.
After going over a few policy changes we went into the public comment period. Lance Mecham talked about a PTO fundraiser that Kings in Shelley is offering. If you buy a tree from Kings they will donate $10 to the PTO. There were several who made comments supporting the committee changes and some for and and some against having a soccer program.
After the public comment period we went into executive session.
It's not an easy  job being a school board member. The decisions you  have to make effect a lot of lives. We are all just trying to do the best we can. If I said anything in this meeting that may of offended anyone I am sorry. I still have a lot to learn about being a good school board member. As always let me know if you have any comments or questions.
Everyone have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Thank you, Brian

Summary of Proposed Committee Changes

Proposed Committee Changes

1. Change name from Superintendent Advisory Committee to School Board Advisory Committee.
2. The board member who serves on each committee becomes the chair of each committee. The chair, working with the staff over the committee, helps to develop the agenda and becomes familiar with topics that need to be discussed.
3. Change from an informational distribution type committee to a true advisory committee. Give committees limited decision making authority that then gets presented to the full board for approval or disapproval.
4. The board member and staff would be able to recruit anyone to participate on the committees. Leave committees very open to anyone with a desire to serve.
5. All committees need to have access to information to easier understand budget details.
6. Each committee should meet regularly, at least quarterly, or as often as committee members think it is necessary. Each committee reports to the full school board what has been discussed following each committee meeting.
7. Any specific information (not considered confidential) that may apply to each committee’s purpose should be available upon request from committee members.

This is a summary of the ideas of how I want to change the committees. If anyone has any questions, I would be willing to explain any of these points in detail. I plan on presenting this at our board meeting next week, and will print some copies to hand out at the meeting. I hope I can get enough support to make these changes. I believe these changes would be a big improvement from how they are run now. If the board is unwilling to accept changing the committees, I will make a motion to discontinue them all together, and just have the administration hand out the same type of information at board meetings that they have handed out at the committee meetings in the past. In my opinion the way they have been run, it has been a waste of time for all those involved. Thank you and I hope to see as many of you as possible at next weeks meeting. Brian

Some Ideas of How to Run a Budget Committee November 18th

I would request if possible a detailed budget in a format easier to understand than we are normally given. I would like the budget broke down in each revenue and expense category, with the non discretionary spending separate from the discretionary spending. I would like a detailed explanation of where each category's funding comes from and how it's spent. I would like to see where we stand on our contingency budget, and how that fund has tracked over the last few years.  I know there are other funds we have that are dedicated to certain reserve accounts that are hard to spend, I would like details of these funds, and how the funding works in and out of these type of accounts. How are unspent accounts or overspent accounts tracked. Without further cut backs how soon will we be below the minimum contingency fund recommended by the state? With current information available how much less funding can we anticipate next year? With the online class requirements coming how are we planning on managing that? What classes do we anticipate offering, and how will that effect our current teachers? Without stating specific positions or teachers how many teachers and aides do we anticipate needing to RIF at the end of this school year? I think this type of information is important so we can plan way ahead how this is going to be done. If we must RIF teachers, they need to know as soon as possible, so they can look for other employment. Last year, because of the failed levy, and slow information coming from the state, these decisions came very late and caused a lot of stress on our teachers. If the RIFing of teachers looks like it will be too extreme, and will hurt the students education, or we might have to cut programs, this is the type of information the community deserves to know, so the patrons can help decide if we need to have a levy, and for how much.
We have cut funding for text books, computers, class supplies, buses, and many other items. We have limited funding for repairs and replacement of all but the very necessary  building needs. We have cut teachers coaching stipends to where they do a lot for free just to keep them going. We have very few school clubs, because in order to have them we have to have a teacher volunteer their time to run them. How long can we expect the teachers to keep volunteering time away from their families to run the school programs. Some put in hundreds of extra hours of volunteer time because they really care about the kids and want to provide these types of opportunities for them. We are charging the athletic teams and clubs probably about as much money as possible. If we charged more we would probably loose participation to the point it would be hard to maintain the programs we have. A recent survey indicated there are kids now that would like to participate but are unable to because of the cost. This year we had to quit paying for the hotel rooms when they travel to any state competition. At what point are we going to be able to replace the high school bleachers. They are used for many activities, and to me look very unsafe. Are we going to act after someone gets badly hurt falling through them, I hope that doesn't happen. But the cost for new bleachers is tremendous on a tight budget, I believe over a $100,000. What do we cut to be able to fund them? We just can't continue making cuts in things like text books and computers. The quality of education we can provide the students will drop, and the cost of catching up to where we need to be will keep going higher and higher. 
So where do we go from here? I get budget information from the school, but as I said before, it is hard to understand how everything gets funded. So much of the budget is dedicated funds that we have hardly any control over. We went over this a lot when we had the levy discussion, but not detailed and as easy to understand as I would like. 
I would like to have a committee learn about the budget in a lot more detail. Once the committee has a good understanding of the budget, and asses the needs, they can help find the best solutions. The community has proven to be willing to step up and help with fundraisers whenever they have been asked. Why not ask for help to solve the big issues we face? I think we still need to have a levy sometime soon. I don't look forward to asking for a third time for some hard earned money from the patrons, and don't want to ask for money until we thoroughly study other ways to raise money. For example, there has been talk about asking for grants. I have no knowledge of how this is done, but maybe someone in the district is good at it. Would there be support for raising money in a creative way for computers or text books? Would someone be willing to help fund some type of scholarship for kids to use so they can participate in sports or other activities? Theses are just a few ideas, I am sure there are many more out there if we just ask the right way, and they know we will listen to them. In some areas like when talking about future lay offs the committee can have little input, because it becomes a school board and administration issue. But they should understand how these lay offs can effect the students and possibly the programs. 
The current structure of the budget committee does very few of the things I just talked about. The full board does not have the time to review in this much detail the things I suggest. The more patrons understand about all of this, the more support we will have as a board to go forward and implement whatever course of action we need to provide better funding and learning opportunities for the kids. 
I kind of rambled on about all this, and I am not a very good writer, but I hope I can get people thinking, and developing their own ideas to better our schools. Thank you, and please let me know your ideas, I would be glad to hear them. Brian

Thoughts about school committees November 14th 2011

We seem to do things the same way not because it is the right way it's just the way we are used to. We need to find the best way to accomplish our goals, by stepping out of our comfort zone and get more input from others in our community. After failing to pass two levies, it is obvious to me we need to do things different. We need to build trust with the patrons and truly listen to their ideas, and one way we can accomplish this is by changing how we use our committees.
We need to define the general purpose of committees.
If the purpose is for the administration to hand out information to committee members only, what benefit is there in having them? If that is their only real purpose then why not just hand out the same information at school board meetings? There has been complaints about how poorly attended these meetings are. Without being able to provide constructive ideas and feedback to the administration, it is very understandable why so few attend. Whatever committee it is, I believe smart, interested patrons could be recruited to contribute. 
If committees are to succeed and have a valuable purpose, I believe there needs to be major changes to them. 
My recommendations are:
1. Change the name. Instead of the SUPERINTENDENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE change it to the SCHOOL BOARD ADVISORY COMMITTEE. The board is ultimately responsible for what is accomplished in each of these committees, we should have their recommendations come back to us. A big part of the committee discussion comes back to the district budget or student achievement, which is the responsibility of the school board.
2. I believe the board member representative should head the committee not just be a participant. The board member working with the administrator over each committee should discuss the agenda before the meeting is held, so the board member can have input into the agenda and be informed about the topics to better lead the discussion. 
3. The committees should become a true advisory committee, holding regular meetings, and be able to discuss and make decisions. Whatever decision they make then gets presented back to the full board for final approval or disapproval.  I have served on two of the committees, the technology and budget committee which in the past have rarely met. I am not fully aware of the exact purpose of the other committees because I have never heard a report to the board as to what, if anything, they have done. I can assume for example, that the curriculum committee has been given information as to how the district is doing maintaining up to date text books. If it is not already being done, and I doubt it is, why  not have the committee help prioritize the replacement of old text books? In some cases, because of lack of funding, the committee could look into ways to raise funds to replace text books. I think the committee should have an understanding of how bad these needs really are. I know we are behind in replacing text books, but what impact is it having on the students education? I would like information like this presented back to us.
Having the committees more involved will better explain to the patrons our needs in each area. They can help come up with ways to save money in some areas or raise funds in others. Doing this may delay the time before we need to try again for another levy. When that time does come, we can better show what we have done, and better explain why we need more funds. The patrons serving on these committees can explain to others the ideas they have brought to the board, how they were implemented, and what the results were. If patrons know we are involving committees in helping us find solutions, rather than ignoring the real potential benefit the smart minds out there can bring to us, the more likely we will be able to pass a levy.     
For those who read my last blog know I was disappointed we couldn't empower a committee to review field trips. If field trips are paid for mostly through donations and not directly from school funds, I think it would have been appropriate to have a committee of parents, teachers, and the PTO (who actually raised most of the money) help decide how best to fund field trips, and if or how they should be changed. Perhaps a committee could survey the parents to see the level of support there is to maintain field trips and what they might be willing to contribute to have their children be able to go on them, instead of just dropping them without even telling them. I do believe there will be field trips this year but I am unsure how it will be handled.
I guess my summary is this: I have a strong belief we need to change the committee structure, and trust the community to help provide us with answers to the challenges we face. I think the more we involve the community the better off we are. I know the board has to be responsible for the final decisions and may not always agree with what comes out of the committees, but more input, I think, would be a very positive thing.
One point I also made in my last blog, I don't have much support to change things the way I have stated. I tried to involve a committee to help with field trips, and that idea went nowhere. If you think the board should make these kinds of changes you need to encourage your board member to support these ideas. I am not trying to say I have all the answers, and maybe some of my ideas aren't the right ones, all I know for sure is there needs to be a change, and I need your help. Thank you, and as always if you have questions or comments let me know. Brian
 

November 10th 2011 Board Meeting

There was more people at this meeting than the last couple, at least when it started. It went on so long the crowd dwindled down pretty small by the time it was over. We covered many topics and I have to say I had a lot to say about some of them. I was at a dairy meeting in Boise until 2:00 yesterday and got home about an hour before the meeting. I started out being very tired and with a bad headache that got worse as the night went on. I didn't write this last night because I didn't get home until almost midnight.
Well here goes my version of the nights events after saying the pledge of elegance for the 3rd time in two days.
There was a discussion about the request to sell property to the Firth cemetery. The comment was made that another party might be willing to sell them the property, so with this idea in mind, not much more was said. I think we would prefer not to have to sell school property that is used by the school. Later Trevor Clayson presented a report about the work he did measuring out the field behind the elementary to see if it would work for a soccer field if we chose to start a high school soccer program. He basically determined there would be room for a practice and regulation size field. And also if we chose to sell ground to the cemetery, there would be room for that too.
Jeff Gee went over the athletic survey results update. Ninety four kids had participated in it so far. Some of the highlights. Ten kids said they don't participate because it is to expensive. I wish we didn't have to charge the kids so much, or there was a way to help them raise the money they need. Of any possible sport that could be offered that we don't have now soccer was at the top. Computer club was the most popular choice of non athletic activities. Other club type activities students would like are debate as the top choice, followed by chess and honor society and foreign language. Overall most kids are satisfied with their athletic experiences. Jeff said they would work on the idea of having more clubs, but the teachers don't get paid for them, so it is hard to expect them to take them on.
The boys and girls cross country teams were recognized for both being the academic state champions. The girls had the highest GPA in any classification. Firth has won 44 academic state championships since 2001. I think this accomplishment doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
Jeff Gee presented a report on the potential cost of starting a soccer team. He presented what you might call a worst case scenario. The potential travel cost would be about $1500 which could be covered by the student athletic participation fees of $100 each. Officials would be about $1144. If the coaches were paid like other sports it would be $3027. For soccer goals, field paint, uniforms, and basic equipment it would be $8000. Most of this cost would be one time expenses, and goals might be able to be made cheaper. So the total not considering any potential savings would be $13729.32. After he presented this information I expressed my concerns, of which I thought were very obvious. With a very tight school budget, and at some point in the future probably needing to try for another Levy, I don't feel like taking on more athletic expenses is a good idea. We already have such a tight athletic budget that some coaches are not being paid now, like the C team coaches, so I don't feel this would be fair to those who donate their time now. There was comments made that fundraising could be done, and receiving donations from sponsors, but things like this may not be dependable sources of funding. Another major concern I have is, I don't believe we have enough students to start a girls soccer team and still maintain a top caliber cross country team. This was tried in North Fremont, but soon the cross country team was all but dropped. They had no girl cross county athletes and only one boy this year.They also have a boys team, which might partly explain why their football team hasn't done very well the last few years. I wish we could have a team, some of my kids played AYSO and I enjoyed watching them play, but I just don't think it is a good idea. After some discussion, some of the other board members thought we needed more information and this decision was put off until next month.
Scott Jolley presented the district testing AYP results. The way this is done it is hard for me to understand. The state has goals for us in different categories which we try to achieve. The elementary and high school met their goals, but the middle school has problems in reading and math. The reading program is in the worst trouble. They have missed the goal for four years in a row now. If the goal is missed another year, the state steps in to try and force things to improve. I can't remember all the consequences mentioned, but it isn't good. We don't want them to fail to make AYP again. They have a plan to improve, I sure hope it works.
Sid Tubbs presented the results of a survey they did about the four day week. Most of the responses came from the elementary. So far a large majority of all surveyed like it. I asked after just having the talk about AYP scores, if he thought the students were doing as well academically. As far as he can tell so far they are, but it is early. I also asked if they had any idea yet if we were saving any money on four day. Some is surely being saved but it is hard to figure out how much yet. Time will tell as the year progresses.
The next topic that was discussed and we spent the most time on was the field trips. As those of you who read my blogs from last month know, I didn't like the direction the Superintendent chose to go on this issue. I was given the floor to express my thoughts. I stated how important I thought field trips were for the kids. We were given a break down of each field trip and the cost, and also how they were paid for last year. I stated I felt bad the 1st graders weren't able to go to the spud field this year, and that the cost of it last year was only $25 which was donated. I talked about how we spend so much on the older kids, and were even considering spending more for soccer. Last year the elementary field trips cost $1906.50 and the middle school cost was $1477. The high school went to mostly career fairs which was covered by grants and private donations which added up to $628. The elementary field trips were paid for with the combination of the PTO, the Education Foundation, private donations, and teacher night at McDonald's. Student fees covered the middle school. The PTO was very successful in raising money at a fundraiser early in the school year. They have about $3500 and would be willing to give most of it for the school field trips. I presented my ideas I wrote about last time. Like having the budget committee review the field trips, and go over the funding issues, or having the committee work with the PTO, teachers and parents. My ideas were shot down pretty quick. The board chairman thinks the administration should make these decisions. I just thought it would be a good purpose for the budget committee to do. They could spend the time and really go over all aspects of the field trips and bring back their ideas to the board. I requested the administration come back with their plan next time. Some unanswered questions. Is it okay to ask parents for a small volunteer donation for a field trip if necessary. How will it be decided what field trips are cancelled or changed. If the PTO is asked to help fund field trips, what limitations will they have in how they go about doing fundraisers or asking for donations. I would like to know the answers to these questions and wish this could have been resolved better last night. One idea that the PTO president talked about, and I would support. When it is determined what field trips each class will go on and the cost, they can apply for a grant from the PTO to fund it. If the PTO has the money and agrees with the proposal, because it is money they raised, they then would give the money to the school to provide funding. I hope this all gets resolved in a good way so these kids can have an opportunity to experience a fun memorable activity outside of the class room.
We finally approved the school board meeting procedure and board goals. We also went over some recommended policy changes from ISBA.
We had a little more public comment. Most comments were allowed during the board discussion time. It was mentioned how Kings in Shelley had donated some supplies to the school and was willing to do more. We then went into executive session and discussed some confidential issues and finally adjourned about 11:45.
I hope to see many of you at the big game Saturday. At the dairy board meeting, John Bilitz the state Idaho High School Activities Director spoke to us. He knows me, and knows I am from Firth. He talked about how he had once said you could probably rob about any home in Firth during a state playoff game because they all had to be at the game. That is one thing I like about Firth, we rally around our kids and support them, weather it is at a sporting event, or a Halloween bizarre, or a fundraiser. Have a good Thanksgiving, and let me know if you have any questions or comments. Brian

October Followup

I  have some updated information since our board meeting that I wanted to post. As you know from my last post about our discussion on the field trips, I didn't like how this decision was made and thought the board should have had input. I called ISBA (Idaho School Board Association) and asked if the board should have discussed this issue and made the decision about field trips and not had the policy changed by the Superintendent. I found out my thinking was right we as a board should have decided this. In the Idaho code for responsibilities of board members it says. The board of trustees of each school district shall have the following powers and duties. Under the list of duties at no. 12 it says. To supervise and regulate, including by contract with established entities, those extracurricular activities which are by definition outside of or in addition to the regular academic courses or curriculum of a public school, and which extracurricular activities shall not be considered to be a property, liberty or contract right of any student, and such extracurricular activities shall not be deemed a necessary element of a public school education, but shall be considered to be a privilege.
After finding this out I decided to call Bart Cook the board chairman. I explained what I found out and requested this issue be put on our next board meeting agenda on November 10th so we can discuss this in open session and get public comment. As I said in my last post I have a dairy board meeting and convention on that date and didn't think I would be able to attend. Since this came up I will miss the end of that meeting and come home in time to be at school board meeting.
Since the board meeting I have talked to some patrons and a couple of teacher about this issue. I was told by them they were told having no more field trips was a board decision, which it was not. I didn't know this had been changed until the day of our last board meeting.
I also found out the PTO fundraiser they had at the beginning of the school year raised about $3500 and they had intended to give most of this money to the school to help pay for the field trips.
I have some ideas that I want to propose at the board meeting. One is to have the school district budget committee, which I am on review the field trips, discuss each one they have had in the past, consider if they are appropriate, the cost, and ways to fund them, and to decide if they should be modified to do something less expensive. Then after their review, present what they decided back to the board to make the final decision. Another idea is to have the committee work with the PTO and others to determine what money there is available for field trips, ways to raise more money without putting a burden on the patrons, then give each grade a certain amount of money for field trips. From there the class teachers working with some interested parents can decide what field trips or activities to spend their allotted amount of money on. I feel an approach like this should be acceptable to most patrons.
You can ask my wife and she could tell you I don't always remember things like I should, but I do remember some of the field trips I went on in Firth elementary school over 40 years ago, and I would bet if you asked old timers like me what they can remember from their elementary years, I would bet going on some of the same field trips would be a big part of those memories.
I don't have a list of the field trips they have gone on in the past. I talked to April about this issue and she is going to get a list, and what the cost has been in the past from the school so we can go over this at the board meeting.
I would encourage anyone interested in voicing their opinion, or just to hear more about this issue, come to the November board meeting. If anyone would like to talk to me about this issue or any other send me any email or give me a call. Thank you, Brian

October 13th School Board Meeting

This was another very poorly attended meeting. I think counting the administrators, and newspaper reporters there were fifteen people in attendance. Maybe there are some that would have come that are still in the potato harvest. Maybe it's a good sign that patrons think things are going good and don't feel the need to come. Or lastly maybe there are those out there that just like to wait for my blog to tell them what happened and that's good enough. It does make me wonder why we have the meetings in the high school auditorium with so few in attendance.
Well here goes my summary.
We approved the audit report that was presented at our last meeting. As I said last time the auditor was very pleased with how things looked, and thought our business manager did a great job with the financial records.
Jeff Gee presented some results of a survey that is on the district web site about the interest the students might have in wanting to have other sports or activities that are not currently offered in our school. It is a good survey but so far there has not been much response to it yet. I would encourage everyone to have a look at it. This was done mostly with the idea in mind if there was interest in starting a girls soccer team. There was a couple girls that went to Aberdeen to participate with their team and they had a lot of fun and did well there, but the families would much prefer having a soccer program in Firth. Later in the patron comment period Paul Jensen presented some information about the idea of having a soccer team. He said he himself had a list of 19 girls in high school that would be interested in having a soccer team. There is no 2A soccer program in the state so if we had a program they would compete with the 3A teams. North Fremont and Aberdeen have 2A teams now that compete against the 3A teams. The most that can be on a team is 18 so it sounds like there is enough interest in soccer to consider starting a team. There had been concern that this would hurt cross country, but Mr. Jensen said he talked to a coach and he said in some ways it would help the cross country. In North Fremont the soccer team basically is the cross country team. Another concern that came up and kind of leads to the next item of discussion is that the only place big enough to have a soccer field is behind the elementary.
The cemetery board presented a proposal to the board to buy some ground, up to .66 acres, the school owns by the cemetery so they can expand the cemetery. They don't have any more plots to sell, and are having a hard time coming up with more ground to expand on. One of my concerns is if we sell them the ground, will it make it so we wouldn't have enough room for a soccer field. They offered to pay somewhere between $3000 and $5000 for the property depending on the size we would sell them. Later in the public comment period there was some comments made in support for us selling them the property. We discussed this issue in executive session. After our discussion and when we went back into general session, we decided we need more public input and needed to know if this would interfere with a soccer field, we will discuss this more next month and would like to know what patrons think about this. Another issue in having a soccer field that I didn't mention is it would mess up the AYSO fields also, so they would have to be moved somewhere too. At the end of her presentation about buying the property for the cemetery she mentioned they could acquire the land by eminent domain. I think the threat of that kind of bothered some of us. I hope a resolution can be found without going that far.
We discussed the school board meeting procedure and changed it a little from the draft so we will vote on it next month. I think it is a good plan that most patrons can support. When it is approved it will be posted so all can read it at the meetings.
We went over our school board goals again. April thought we needed to emphasize that our number one goal is to provide the best education to the students as possible, and I agreed with her so they are changing the list a little and adding another item so it to will be discussed again next month.
We went over a couple first readings of board policy changes. One requiring those wishing to run for the school board to have the ballots in nine weeks before the election instead of five that it used to be. And another policy about providing public records to those who request them.
We then had public comment which I already talked about. One other concern was a request to get feed back sooner on the four day week. I think they will try and get some feed back at the parent teacher conference coming up.
We then went into executive session and  discussed the cemetery proposal and Mr. Tubbs goals.
After we went back into general session a few more items were discussed. I asked how many students we got from open enrollment the administrators thought 15. I asked if there were any issues with these students, and I think so far it has been positive without any problems, which was good to hear because I know there was concern we would have problems. I was always a strong supporter of open enrollment, as long as we followed the guidelines set up by the administration.
One last issue that I brought up was the change made regarding field trips. I had heard and it was confirmed at the meeting that the school will no longer have any field trips even if they were able to get donations to go on them. The only field trips allowed will be educational field trips that directly relate to the class work, like the FCCLA or BPA might need to go on. I wasn't aware of this change until it was told to me by a patron. The explanation given by Mr. Tubbs was it wasn't fair to some groups to go on field trips that could get donations and not let others go on them that couldn't get the money. He is concerned also with the four day week, having kids miss class time. And also he thinks that is what the patrons want. He thinks failing to pass two levies in part meant patrons thought spending money on activities like field trips was a waste of money, and patrons didn't like the idea of groups asking for money for field trips. He said things can be brought into the school but students would not leave. I can understand his concerns on some of these issues, but I strongly disagreed going this far. I especially have a hard time denying the elementary students going on their year end field trips. I wish this could have been brought up sooner for discussion, and we would have been allowed input into this change. I do want to emphasize this is my opinion, I do not speak for anyone else. The school used to get funding from the state to support field trips, but that was completely dropped last year. I do hope sometime in the future the state will better fund schools and some of this type of funding can be restored.
Well it is late and I again have said a lot more than I thought I would. If you have and questions or comments let me know. Thank you. Brian
P.S. I may not be able to attend the next board meeting. I have a state dairy board convention going on the night of the next meeting. So if you are one that just waits for me to write my blog to find out what went on at the meeting, next time you probably better go and find out first hand what is said.

September 8th School Board Meeting

In the middle of fair week, and the first big NFL game on TV, very few came to the board meeting. I think I would have chosen football too, over our meeting if I didn't have to be there.
Well here goes my summary of the meeting. The audit report for last school year was presented to us. I can not remember the gentleman's name, and don't see it in the report, but he is from an accounting firm that has done our audit and several other schools audits for many years. Last years final budget balance was a loss of $13,653. The money we received from the state after the fiscal year ended in June of about $176,000 was included in this report. We had budgeted for a loss of $200,000 so with these numbers added together our budget was very close to the final outcome. Even with this money added in, our revenue from the previous year went from $4,273,060 to $4,133,392 or $139,668 less money. The Auditor pointed out our revenue in 2001 was $5,000,000, so you can see how much less the district has to work with. I know some of this is less students, so less income, but this is a big loss of funding. Our net expense per student was $6,362. It was asked how we compared to other districts. He said a district about the same size as ours that he audited spent $7650 per student and another district that is a third larger spent $6242. He pointed out that it usually costs more for small districts to educate kids. So he really commended us on how we have kept our costs so low. He thought overall we were in sound financial shape, and maintained the funding reserves we should, about 75 days worth of expenses.
Mr. Gee asked for the approval of a cooperative agreement with Aberdeen school district to have two girls play soccer for their district, which was latter approved. He also talked about doing a survey and study to see if there is interest in starting soccer teams in Firth. I expressed concern if there were enough kids to maintain a football, and volleyball team if a soccer team was started, and what it might do to the quality of those teams. The costs of such a program will be looked into also.
The board goals were discussed. Besides the goals I mentioned last month we all had some ideas for additional goals.
1. Ensure that the physical facilities are clean and well maintained.
Activity: Develop and prioritize list of projects ( example: bleachers in the high school gym)
Activity: Develop strategies / time lines to address each project.

2. Maintain open communication with patrons, staff, and administration.
Activity: ensure that school board agendas, meeting minutes etc. are posted in a timely manner on the district website.
Activity: Mr. Esplin to blog about school district matters as an individual.
Activity: Mrs. Christensen to write / contact the members of her zone at least once every three months.
New idea at this meeting. Put a quarterly news letter on the web site, and maybe if not to costly send a paper letter out.
Another new idea. Have each advisory committee give a report three times a school year.

3. Financial responsibility
Activity: Monitor the finances of the district each month.
Activity: Ensure financial reports are posted on the school district website as required by law.

4. Review and update district policy.
Activity: Establish a monthly calendar of policies to review and update.
Activity: Review policies monthly and revise as needed.

5. Ensure that students are offered educational opportunities and extra-curricular activities.
Activity: Attend district sponsored activities.
Activity: Visit district schools.

April expressed concern about the online duel credit classes. Mr. Gee explained how it works and what is available through the IDLA or Idaho Digital Learning Academy. There currently are a few students doing this, I think in English. It was discussed that parents need to be informed better about this program.
There was some discussion on how we can work on building better relations with the teachers and community.
During the February board meeting we will discuss the four day week and how it is going. We will also before this meeting put out a survey on the web site to get input from the community on what patrons think of the four day schedule. It will probably still be to early to determine the cost savings in much detail. We are going to review the goals one more time and vote on them next month.
We had a long discussion on how we should revise the procedures for board meetings. When we had such long and sometimes contentious meetings, it was thought we needed to bring some kind of order to how the meetings were run. There has been talk of having each patron that wants to speak at a meeting sign up before or sometime during the meeting to be able to speak. I have been against this idea, for at least most of the meetings. I think as the meeting progresses patrons may have something they would like to say, and I don't want them do not be able to speak, just because they didn't sign a paper. And in most cases I don't think the talking time should be too limited. This will be reviewed again next month, but I think the final consensus was to have those who want to speak come up to the front and state their name in the microphone. That way Mr. Tubbs can write down who speaks, so there is a record. There will be new language written up on this encouraging being respectful and trying not to talk too long.
There was some talk about maybe moving spud harvest back a week, because of the late growing year. Only one patron had said anything about this, and because of other conflicts this would cause the schedule was left as is.
We talked about the annual school board convention held this year in northern Idaho. The cost of going there is high. We discussed the idea of having some training brought to us. I would not be able to go whatever the decision was. Maybe one or two members will go, but at this point I don't think so.
During the public comment their was a comment that it would be very helpful for people to follow the discussion if some of the documents presented could be put up on an overhead. I think that was a good suggestion and will be done in the future.
The Firth cemetery board representative presented a request to buy some property in the far north eastern corner of the elementary playground. They are running out of burial plots. After a short discussion, it was determined that this should be presented as an agenda item at our next board meeting. So if you have an opinion that you would like to express about this come to the next meeting. One concern that came up is if Firth were to start a soccer team sometime, the east side of the elementary school is probably the only area big enough to have a soccer field, and that it gets used for that now in the summer by the AYSO kids. If the ground was sold, it would not be big enough to able to be used that way.
One last item that I brought up was if there was any way a private transportation company could be contracted to transport small groups of kids to activities, and there by saving some costs, for the district and parents. Mr. Tubbs said he would look into it, but mentioned the safest way to transport was on a bus.
Each time I start writing these I don't think it will be very long, but again I was wrong. I hope this is helpful to those who like to know what happens. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thank you, Brian

August 11th School Board Meeting

I am a little late writing about this meeting. I left town for a few days.
The meeting was very poorly attended, maybe a dozen people. I guess things have died down enough, after the levy, there isn't much interest in the meetings anymore. I wish they had left it at the middle school. I think the auditorium is too big, and so far they can't get the microphones to work right.
Well here is my summary of the meeting. We had to wait about 20 minutes for John to get home from work to start because Casey was gone, and April wasn't officially a board member at the start of the meeting. When we started April Christensen was sworn in as an official member of the board. It is good to have a full board again. I think April will do a good job.
One new teacher was hired to teach social studies, I think in the high school and some in the middle school. He is a Firth graduate named Trevor Clayson. He will take over some classes that Darvel Jolley was teaching, so he can take over the math classes that Brett Hill had been teaching. There is probably a little more shifting around to fill the gaps from the changes in staff that were made.
Liz Killpack presented some free training to the board, which in turn I think explained some things to the patrons that were there also. She talked about the meaning of being a Trustee and who we represent, the students, the school district, and our zone. Trustee's are given a lot more information about issues than the patrons are given, some of which needs to be kept confidential. Because of this the Trustee's might vote different than the patrons would like. She also talked about how the Trustee's have no individual authority, we have to have a majority to change anything. Trustee's govern over the district policies, set goals, and oversee the budget. She gave a good presentation, and I thank her for presenting the information to us.
Sid talked about the superintendents meeting he attended. He told us about the state's plan to go to a student achievement testing patterned after what they do in Colorado. They are calling it the Idaho Growth Model. Like a lot of things in our state education lately, we didn't receive much information about how this will all work, but it should be an improvement of how things have been done the last few years.
Sid also talked about the merit pay, or the pay for performance plan for the teachers. I think this is another work in progress, as to how this will be done. It is not based as much on individual teacher performance as I thought it was going to be. The first step, as I understand it, is each section of student performance, however that is determind will have to meet a high standard. Like the test scores in certain areas will have to meet state standards to even be considerd for merit pay. Not until after this is met will we as a district have any input into who should get this extra pay. I believe the teachers that will qualify for this will not get it until the next school year. It will be interesting to see how this plan will work.
He also talked about a consolidation study the state was offering to do in each county that has multiple districts. The state would give an organization that would do the study10,000 for each school district that wanted to paticipate in the study. Blackfoot and Snake River are planing on participating. I don't know about Shelley and Aberdeen. I might be wrong, but I don't believe there is much interest in consolidating in Firth. As was pointed out several times during the levy discussion, our district currently has a lot lower taxes than any other district, and very little building debt. I think no matter how consolidation would be done our taxes in Firth would go up considerably. Unless we were to have interest in consolidation, I think doing the study could work against us. The state says now they will not force consolidation on us, but if by doing this study they determine some money can be saved, they then might force us into consolidation. I have been involved with dairy research projects that have been done, with the idea by doing the research we will get some answers to questions we need. Then after the research is done we might get the opposite answer we wanted, that then can be used against us. So to me unless there is real interest in consolidation, we should stay away from participating in it. I understood the state has already looked at administration costs and detemind not much could be saved there.
The school board goals were discused, and how we would try and make sure they would be achieved. The main goals are.
1. Ensure that the staff and faculty are treated honestly and fairly.
2. Ensure that the physical facilities ar clean and well maintained.
3. Maintain open communicaton with patrons, faculty and staff, and administration.
4. Financial responsibility.
5. Review and update the district policy.
6. Ensure that students are offered educational opportunities and extra-curricular activities.
We talked about our indivdual ideas under these catigories. In the past we have done a walk through of each school in January to see the condition of each building, what maintenence has been done and what might need to be done. With limited funds priorities have to be determind. We plan on reviewing these issues more often and updating our priorities.
I plan on writing this blog after the board meetings and at other times I think it is nessesary, to inform patrons of what is going on in our board meetings from my perspective, and to aswer questions that may come to me. If at some point I feel like I am wasting my time writing this, I may stop doing it.
Some other ideas were discussed. We are going to go over them at our next meeting.
A patron had a question about how to find out if he had a concern about something, how soon he could find out if the concern was taken care of, and how the procedure works. I thought it was a good question. I do believe patrons should get answers. It was discussed how this should work.
This question brought up something to me. Last meeting I asked a question that was asked of me. How they were going to handle the stress of a longer school day on the little kids. They had ideas but no real plan at our last meeting, so I asked what their plan was now. The school got a grant to provide a nutrition break in the afternoon. They are also planning on having the more active class subjects in the afternoon, to keep them moving.
They are planning on having an item on the agenda to discuss old business. So when questions like this get brought up in a meeting that have to be looked into, the answers can be reported at the next meeting. This also should help with communication.
I decided it is easier to write this right after the meeting if possible. I can't remember the details as well as I would like. But this is plenty long. If anyone has questions let me know. Thank you, Brian

How Best To Communicate

If anyone is reading my posts. I would like input as to how I can let the patrons know about my posts. I would like to know what you would like me to write about. If you have comments about what I write I would like feed back, like what you think of a virtual academy, and if you think this would work in Firth. I have heard some who are interested in this are upset the district went to a four day week. If this is truly the case we as a board need to hear about it. As we go through this next school year on the four day schedule, we will need input on how to make things work as well as possible. We will need all the input we can get to decide if it should continue past this year. I have many concerns about the four day week and would really like your comments. Thank you. Brian

School Board Meeting 7-14-11

I thought I would provide a summary of tonight's meeting.
The first matter of business was to appoint a new board member to replace Ramona who resigned from the board last month. April Christensen was the only applicant. She was asked several questions by the board. I think she responded very well and will be a very good board member and I welcome her on the board. She was appointed tonight, but won't be officially sworn in until the next board meeting in August. She will finish Ramona's term which will expire in May of 2013.
The current board officers were re-elected to their same offices. Bart Cook President, Casey Park Vice President, and John Monson Secretary. Bart and I were sworn into new four year terms. The Superintendent Advisory Committee Representative Volunteers were changed. I am now on the budget committee, John is on the strategic planning committee, Casey is on the technology committee, and April will be on the curriculum committee. The board meetings will continue to be on the second Thursday of the month, but will now be held in the high school auditorium every month.
There was talk of running the board meetings a little different. The process comes from ISBA. I think the public comment period will be at the same time it has been, but in most cases the comments that people might want to make during the board discussion on an issue will have to wait until that comment period to have things run more orderly. I am not sure if it was decided to have anyone who wishes to make comment to sign in ahead of the public comment period. Doing this, the board would have a better idea of how much time to give each person, so meetings wouldn't go too late, and to try and control repeated comments. I don't want to limit comments too much, but I do agree this process needs improvement, from what we have done in the past.
Brett and Shannon Hill's letter's of resignation from the school district were read. I wish them luck in their new jobs, and they will be missed. Marsha Jones was re-hired as the school music teacher.
There was a presentation given by Charlotte Reid about starting a virtual charter school. There was a lot of discussion about this. Charlotte is running a virtual charter school in Bonneville, so she has a lot of experience with this. She said she thinks as many as twenty kids from Firth might participate in Bonneville's program. It would be a k-8 program. There was a lot of interest from the board, but with school starting in just over a month, there was a lot of concern about being able to get it all figured out that quick. We have to be careful and not get into something that costs us more than it might return. Firth would have to attract at least twenty five students from outside the district to make it profitable. It was recommended by Mr. Tubbs to spend some time studying this. In the end no motion was made. I think it will get looked at closely and if it is determined it can be all worked out and profitable to the district it will start for the next school year.
The new zone boundaries were discussed to comply with the law to balance the zones based on the 2010 Census. There was some changes, but I wont go into them here. They have to finish up on some of it. I think at some point they will get posted on the district web site like they currently are.
April Christensen presented a proposal from the cemetery board. They want to buy some land by the Firth cemetery to expand. The board has a plan to go look at the site to better understand how much property they would like to buy. It will be decided further at the next board meeting.
There was a few questions asked and answered during the public comment period relating mostly to the discussion that took place during the meeting.
One big positive news, we received our share of the money from the state budget surplus that was just announced. Firth got $175,000. This money will really help out our deficit budget for this year, and help us get back to the level of contingency fund we are supposed to maintain. With more cuts coming next school year, and a reduction in Medicaid reimbursements, and who knows what else. I think we need to be very careful spending this money.
That is pretty much all that was talked about. If anyone has questions, email my school address and I will try and respond. If anyone has an opinion of Firth starting a virtual charter school, let me know what you think of this idea also.

Followup to 6-6-11 email

I thought I would respond to some more of the questions asked in this email. Some of the questions I think were answered at our board meeting, and some are confidential, so I can't answer them.

There was a lot of questions about the personnel decisions. I can't get into this very much. We as a board met with the superintendent at 8:00 p.m. on the Tuesday after the levy vote to go over how we were going to make the cuts necessary. I have managed my dairy for over 30 years. I have never had to lay anybody off. Making these decisions was one of the hardest things I have ever had to be a part of. We knew we had to decide who had to be laid off that night so they could be informed. Knowing how lives would be changed made this a very somber meeting. We met that night until nearly 1:00 a.m. before we decided we couldn't go any longer. At the conclusion of the executive session, we went back into general session and voted to make the lay offs and changes that had been discussed.Teacher evaluations are done by the administrators not the school board. I don't even know personally all the teachers that were laid off. We met again the next Saturday morning and went over other budget matters.

You asked about the year end goals of the board and how well they were accomplished. The superintendent has goals every year that he presents to us that are reviewed. I don't think we as a board have had written goals. We talk about things we would like to accomplish but I don't remember this being very formal. I think it would be a good idea to improve this process.

You asked about the district office and administrative staff. They have all taken pay cuts. As it was pointed out in the board meeting, when the money came from the Federal Jobs Bill the teachers were given, as a bonus, the wages they were reduced for the year in their contracts, but the district staff did not receive any more money added to their wages. I heard in some other districts they took money out of their general funds to restore the funding to their administrators. I believe our district staff more than puts in the time required to fulfill their responsibilities. They are paid less than almost all other district administrators in the area. Mr. Tubbs is also taking on the added responsibility of being the Elementary Principal without receiving any more pay.

You ask about what our plan is for next year, and to plan on what more cuts we may have to make. I think we took a big step forward in this process at our board meeting, going to the four day week and open enrollment. There will be more discussions coming up soon about raising extracurricular fees, and changes about what we will pay for when groups go to state. Possibly raising school admission fees also. I believe with the added teacher discretion in salaries for the next school year, we may require one or two less teachers. Hopefully this can be done through attrition not lay offs. I am sure many more ideas will be discussed to save as much money as possible. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know and we can discuss them as a board.

The budget presented at the board meeting was figured very conservatively. Hopefully the state will restore some funding. There wasn't any money for windmills figured in the budget, because we don't know for sure how much we might get, if any. But I think you have to plan for the worst, and do all you can to make it better.

One final point you make is wanting the board to be more transparent and open with communications. I hope my efforts to write this blog and answer questions will help a little in this effort. I am not trying to hide anything. I would like the community to trust that we are trying our best to make the necessary decisions and we take none of these decisions lightly.

Thank you.

Brian Esplin

June school board meeting

In case you weren't there, I will give a summary of the business and decisions made at the meeting.
Ramona Mitchell resigned from the board for health reasons. Anyone who would like to be considered to being appointed to replace her can pick up an application at the district office, which will be available June 13th and needs to return it by July 7th. The term would be until the next election in May, at which time you could run to finish the term that would be for one more year. The zone is #5. At our next board meeting on July 14 the applicants will be interviewed, and the board will make the appointment that will officially start at the August 11th board meeting.

The budget was presented by Julie Cederberg the district business manager. Their was a break down given of where our budget stands. The staff reductions added up to a $248,700. Other cuts in revenue were explained also. The budget approved had a deficit of $232,346. We had a contingency reserve of $180,000 which leaves us with a deficit of $17,359. We are supposed to have a reserve of $200,000. So the board is going to have to look for any other savings we kind find.

There was a lot of discussion about the school calendar. I think a lot of people were wishing we could wait and decide the schedule at a later date, but the state wanted our calendar last month, so we had to decide it tonight. I have expressed my concerns about the four day week before. One comment by a teacher that really sold me on the idea of the four day week instead of just taking out more days was about consistency of the school week. Taking out more days leaves to long of gaps not in class. Four days you always have one day a week but not such long gaps out of school, like for example this past year we had two full weeks at Christmas. Under the new plan it is shortened to just over a week. The board approved the four day week with Fridays off. School will start on August 18th and the last day will be May 24th. The school day will start at 8:00 and end at 3:51. A very long day for little kids. There was concern about if there would be an extra recess for the young kids, and worry they would get to hungry with such a long day. Hopefully these concerns can be addressed to lessen the impact on them. The estimate was given that the district can save about $40,000 by going to this, which will help in the savings I mentioned we needed above. There were also comments made that in other districts the four day schedule helped improve attendance. If we can somehow get our attendance to go from 94% to 97% that alone would bring $100,000 more to the district.

The other main matter of business was a vote on open enrollment. There was surprisingly little talk about this issue. There was a policy change to allow this reviewed, with a list of guidelines. Some of which included making sure the number of students coming to a certain grade would not be large enough to impact the students already here. One was not to allow students here that were suspended or expelled from another school. And only one foreign exchange student would be allowed. These guidelines would be subject for review and changes can be made when necessary. Both of these policy changes would be for a one year trial. If it is determined that we should go back to a five day week or change back to closed enrollment it will be determined then.

There was a lot of concern brought up about Medicaid billing being done right. This is a new issue to me. I had not heard this brought up as a potential problem before. I think this will get looked at to make sure we are getting all of these funds we are able to get.

There was also a concern about public comments at board meetings not getting put into the minutes. I do believe they should get mentioned in the minutes. I have to admit I don't read them very much, I guess because I was there and know what was said.

One idea I heard that came out of the budget committee meeting yesterday was to have the education foundation come up with a list of things the school needs that the patrons could help to better fund. Like for example if it was determined one of the worst needs was to have money to replace a computer lab, patrons would be encouraged to donate through the foundation, so it can be easier to have it tax deductible. This would help improve the district in a way that everyone could identify. After the board meeting I asked Mr. Tubbs if he could ask for a presentation from the education foundation to better explain how the foundation operates, and so people know how to contribute.  He will see if a presentation can be given at our next board meeting.

I think I covered everything pretty much. If anyone has questions or comments let me know. Thank you, Brian

Learning more how to blog

I found out tonight that my blog would not except comments. I fully intended to let people comment and ask more questions on my blog. I think I have it so anybody can comment now. I would like to know who is making the comments if possible. As I said this is all new to me. I also have a face book page under my name and school email, that I am still learning how to use also.

Response to email sent 6-6-11

I will answer some of the questions that were asked by a group of patrons. On some things I am waiting for more information to be able to give a more accurate response.
We are going to discuss open enrollment at our board meeting on the 9th. I think from past conversations, we will probably vote to have open enrollment and try it for a year. But as I have understood the process of allowing outside students come to Firth, I do think the rules were followed.

I answered a question to some others about a possible conflict of interest regarding having family members working in the school district. So I will respond to you as I did to them.
Since I am one who has a son working as a teacher for the district, I will tell you what my thoughts are about this. There is no policy against being on the board and having adult children working at the school. In some ways I don't think it is much different than having children going to school in the district. One reason I wanted to serve on the board was to try and help the schools succeed. I have a daughter that will be a sophomore and a granddaughter in 2nd grade with more grandchildren coming. My son was hired as a teacher before I became a board member. As a board member I don't have individual authority to hire or fire anyone. If, or when, my son might get recommended to be laid off by the administration, I won't stand in the way for that to happen. At this point my son has not been recommended to be laid off. I don't think as a board member I should be able to dictate how the administration manages the employees unless there is some kind of major concern that comes up.

I don't think there is any plans to combine K-8 in the same building. The elementary is the oldest building by far but it has the kitchen, so it would be hard to close it down. At this point it doesn't look like there is any practical way to close a building.

There are no current plans to have another levy. If the public encouraged us to consider one maybe we would. I think it is too early to say.

As far as board elections. Bart and I will continue as board members for a term of four more years, since no one ran against us in May. The other three board positions will all be up for election in two more years. The state changed this procedure I think before last years elections. I thought it was an odd way to set the elections, but we had no say in how it was done. I am unaware of all the ways the district promotes the elections.

Your concerns about the four day week are similar to mine. If the levy had passed, I doubt we would have considered going to a four day week yet. I wish we had more time to study the idea and how to best implement it. Throughout the discussion about the levy we said if the levy failed we would probably have to go to the four day week to save as much money as possible. One estimate is that we can save about $1,100 for each day we are not in school. One problem I think we have had is convincing patrons that we have made numerous cuts and that we really needed the money to cover expenses. I think if the school year looks different, and they can see the lay offs we have made, we will have followed up and made all the changes we said we would have to make. The state wanted our school calendar in May to verify that we are following the required hours of class. We are going to discuss this at our board meeting this week. I think we will have to vote on it Thursday, and probably give it a try. I don't think in the long run a four day week is the best way to teach kids. I am concerned how many students we might loose, but if they go to Shelley,the lower grades will have a much larger number of students in their classes than we will have. If we don't go forward with all the changes we said we would have to make, I think we will loose credibility with the patrons, that we didn't really need the money as bad as we indicated. I think it helps us with the teachers  and other staff, the more we can save, or try to save, maybe we can prevent some of the future cuts we may have to make if we stayed at the five day schedule.

I don't think the board has any desire to consolidate with another district. I think it would be the worst possible thing that could happen to our district. Our taxes would go way up and our representation would go way down. I am concerned if we can't maintain the required contingency fund or show our schools can succeed in student achievement with less staff, we could be forced into consolidation. The community, board and our staff needs to work together and make sure this doesn't happen.

Most high school teachers at least won't have to worry about the lay offs effecting them. My understanding is you can only lay off teachers that you can cover their classes with other teachers. You can't lay off a tenured teacher and bring someone else in to take their place at a lower pay. So for example, if a teacher teaches an advanced math class that no one else in the district is certified to teach, that teacher really has no worries about getting laid off. But if they choose to leave, we will have to hire another certified teacher to teach that class.

I know you had more questions and concerns, but I am waiting for an email so I know for sure the best way to give you your answers, as I am still learning too. I wanted to make sure I sent you what I could so you could read this before our board meeting. I will answer most of the rest of your questions as soon as I can. I plan on using this blog to relay information to the public after our board meetings or when patrons have questions. Thank you for your input. Let me know if you have further questions and I will do my best to answer them. I have learned a lot over the last few months and have more to learn going forward.

Brian Esplin

Answer Questions

I thought I would give a little background as to why I decided to try and answer questions. I serve on the National Dairy Board, a group of 36 dairymen from accross the country that manages the national check off funds. An issue came up in a meeting this past winter that I had a real problem with. I had a long list of questions, I met with the Pesident of the board and he gave me very political non answers. I became very frustrated with the response I recieved from the leadership. I was told by other board members that the leadership didn't like to give direct answers to tough questions.
So through all this I can understand patrons getting frustrated not getting their questions answered. Since I am one who can provide some answers I feel that I should. I may not know the answers to all the questions, but will try and find out and respond. But one thing as I have said before, this is from me, I don't speak for the whole board. I will try and answer questions as direct and honest as I can. On some things people might want to know, may be confidentual, and I won't be able to respond to these type of questions. Thank you, Brian

Not as easy as I thought it would be

I am a slow learner. I messed things up several times trying to get this set up right. One thing I want to make clear. What I post on this is my thoughts only I don't speak for the whole board. I meant to have a little different web address that didn't sound like this was from the board directly, but I messed setting it up so it will have to stay as it is. I will post more when I think someone is out there reading it.

My first blog

I will try and post my thoughts about what is going on at our board meetings, and other thoughts I may have. I get questions about what is going on, this way I can communicate easier with more people.