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