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
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