I'm sorry this is so late getting written, I've been very busy. One thing I want to say since I didn't write a blog last month is thank you to those who supported our Supplemental Levy. It isn't easy to ask for you to pay more in taxes to support our schools. It's disappointing that the state funding support leaves us no choice but to ask for local support. At least taxes won't go up. These funds will help us stay in sound financial shape. Hopefully the state will come through with some meaningful funding increases in the next couple years. But I'm not going to hold my breath counting on it.
We started out honoring the Mock Trial participants. They did very well and had a good time doing it.
Two resignations were announced. Brett Malcolm is retiring after many years as a district maintenance worker and electrician. He kept a lot of things going for a long time. Rebecca Thayne is also leaving to move with her husband to Alaska.
We then went into a discussion about the upcoming budget. Mr. Tubbs just received some information two days before the meeting. Mr. Tubbs and Julie didn't know all the details yet. Since it is early and not all the details are known I won't go into it very much yet. The main point I got out of it was. The state has a way of making it look like the funding is better, but not much has really changed. Every point of potential funding increase Mr. Tubbs would say, this has many strings attached. In other words we are told pretty much exactly how all the money will be spent with very little discretion.
Teacher minimum pay was increased from $31,000 to $31,750. Not much difference. I don't think any other level of pay was increased. They did come up with what they are calling this year Leadership Awards. Similar to Pay For Performance in the past. The total money we will get will be about $850 per teaching unit, or FTE. But like the supposed budget increase they clamped down on our discretion for how we can distribute these funds. We are not allowed to give any of this money to non certified teachers. We can't simply divide up these funds as long as teachers achieve a certain level of improvement in their classroom, kind of how we did it last year. We are supposed to reward only leadership. The administration team with input from the teachers will come up with a recommendation to the board in how they think we should set up the awards for these funds. But ultimately the board will have to decide what to do. I worry this process could be contentious. Someone who surely deserves a share of these funds will be left out.
We then went over policy updates. Many of the updates were about Superintendent and Principal evaluations. Last year with some outside committee help we developed a new Superintendent evaluation, which I thought was done pretty good and worked well. Now the state wants us to make changes more how they want us to do them. The principal evaluation policy is very long and more detailed than before. After going over this Bart expressed his frustration saying something like thanking the legislature for making life miserable for the district to comply with their requirements, and added, you can print that in the paper, which they did. He questioned if we are required to adopt the recommendations from the state. Mr. Tubbs said it might cause a problem at some point if we don't comply. Since it was the first reading we will discuss it further next month. We then went over the second reading on some policies without anymore comment, and voted to adopt them.
We then went into executive session to discuss personnel issues.
As I have said in past years, I believe there is too much top down management of our schools. It is very frustrating how it seems the Department of Education and the legislature have little trust in how we educate the kids or spend money in the district, or even how we feed the kids. I forgot to mention we had to approve a new wellness policy around the school lunch program. For those who think as a board member we have a lot of control over these issues, we don't.
I know many of our legislators are trying to do their best for the kids, but I think far to many just follow along with the party leadership or the Education Department's wishes. I feel like I can say this because I see this same attitude on the national dairy board I serve on. Some board members are intimidated by leadership and don't dare stand up and say anything against what they want. Believe me when I say I am not one who does this. I always speak up and state what I think, which at times has got me in hot water, but I haven't conformed to their wishes. But I have also learned I am heard because many of the 100 board members support me, even if they don't always express it, so they pay attention to what I say, and even though I am only one person I have made a difference. If or when the day comes that I feel like I no longer make a difference that will be when I quit serving on the school or dairy boards I'm on. I might also add that I struggle with fibromyalgia and numerous side effects from this condition. I have dealt with this for many years. For those familiar with this, life can be a challenge some days. I guess I'd like to think that being involved in so many things helps me to force myself to keep going and make the most of the energy I can muster. I hope I have made a difference on the school board, and will do my best to continue trying to make a difference.
I'm sorry this ended up so long and I got on my soap box so much. I also didn't mean to bore you with my personal experiences or problems the way I did. Thank you, and as always if there is anything you would like to talk to me about or comments you might have let me know. Brian
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