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