January 8th 2014 School Board Meeting

Well this is a first for me. I am starting this as I'm flying back from a dairy board committee meeting in Chicago. I received a free iPad and training on different apps to use. We also received training from a media expert on how to use Facebook and a little about blogs. Even though I already use these things, I still learned a lot. I might try and write a dairy blog. They tell us, consumers really trust farmers and we need to tell our story and defend our industry against those who don't like us. I'm not sure if I will try and do this or if many would read it, or for that matter for sure what I would write about. The technology is amazing and changing all the time. I'm not sure who out there is reading my school blog obviously not just local district members. I often get over 200 page views after every blog I write. So maybe some would follow me on a dairy farm blog. I've had around 7,000 page views since I started writing it, and my page views are increasing. 

Well enough of that here goes the school blog. I was surprised that hardly anybody attended since the topic of a supplemental levy was on the agenda. I don't know if that means the patrons except our proposal I posted last month or were just not interested in coming to the meeting. I won't go into all the details of what we are proposing you can read it on my blog from last month if you would like. We discussed the funding ideas further but didn't change anything from last month. One thing we talked more about was the elementary boiler. It still works but is original to the building. If it failed in the middle of the winter and wasn't fixable we would really be in trouble. We would have to try and crowd up the kids in the other buildings somehow until we could replace the heating system, which would take a lot of time to do. We also talked a little about other funding needs that we will not be able to address with this two year levy, like cooling units in the middle school. As our technology grows so does our need for air conditioning. As you know computers put out a lot of heat and can have operational problems if they get to warm. Let alone the kids needing to sit in those rooms working on the computers. I always hear about how hot it gets in the elementary, but not much about the middle school. I guess they are tougher there. But I'm sure if the teachers and students are more comfortable it is easier to teach them. After the two years have past we will need to reevaluate our financial situation and decide if we might need to continue with another levy.

 I am disappointed that our state has been so slow restoring our funding. From what I've heard so far it doesn't sound like our funding will improve much this year either. Without trying to sound to political I find it interesting to hear Mr. Luna insist that the state restore the funding back to pre recession levels. I didn't hear him trying to encourage more funding near as much as this year. Maybe it's the coming issue of his re-election. Sadly I've even heard they might reduce teacher pay. If this trend doesn't change it will be hard to keep good teachers or for that matter get new teachers to replace those who move on or retire. We do have several teachers that are getting close to retirement. States like Wyoming pay a great deal more than Idaho pays. It's good that our teachers choose to live in Idaho for other reasons than what they are paid here. 

Well back to the meeting. We did vote unanimously to request a supplemental levy for the amount of $230,000 each year for the next two years. This is about $20,000 less than our expiring middle school bond, so taxes shouldn't increase. I hope we can get the support we need. The election will be held in March. I would be happy to answer any questions about this. 

We had a report from the Education Foundation. They were able to meet their goal of raising $20,000. They gave money to the school to help buy some little tablets that can be used to look up research information in a classroom. They have also granted teachers funding requests to better equip them with some needs they have had for their classes. I really appreciate all they have done for our schools. 

After this we reviewed a few policies and went into executive session for employee evaluations. 

That is pretty much all we did. Again if you have questions or comments let me know. Thanks, Brian

P.S. I sure don't like flying and will be glad to get back home late tonight. 

School Board Meeting December 10th, 2013

The board meeting started with the recognition of the football and volleyball teams. The football team ended up third at state. Coach Drake said that four players made all state, and several others were second team. The official honors weren't out yet. Coach Drake said he never had a harder working group of young men. 

The volleyball team finished the season as state champions. They had an amazing season. At state they only lost one set, the very first one. From there they dominated winning every set and match on their way to become state champions. Coach Reeves talked about how proud she is of the team, and what wonderful young ladies they are. She talked about how supportive the team has been to her, helping her deal with some serious health issues in her family. 

It was talked about how spoiled we are at Firth. Our teams constantly do very well, while many in our district struggle. It was mentioned that this was the first year in school history that North Fremont had made it to state in volleyball. Congratulations to the football and volleyball teams for a great year. 

We then approved our emergency school closer day, when the power was out. A day of school is considered six and half hours of class time. We are provided eleven hours of emergency  hours during a school year. It was also said our calendar has twenty two hours more built in. So we have twenty six and a half hours of emergency time left or something like four more days of school before we would have to go on an extra Friday to make up the time. 

We then had a discussion from the Strategic Planning Committee. They have spent a lot of time going over the needs of the district. With the new Idaho Core Standards we will have to update our math and science curriculum. We will also have to do a lot more testing on computers. We don't have near enough computers in either the high school or middle school for the students to do the research and testing that will be required. 

Our middle school bond pays off next June. The annual payments have been about $250,000. The committee is recommending to the board that we consider a two year supplemental levy for $230,000 each year. So taxes wouldn't go up. At the start of the school year we had about $800,000 in our contingency fund. Based on our current budget we will end up with around $600,000 or so. At our recent report from our district auditor, he recommended we maintain a three month budget reserve, just in case there is a problem getting the money from the state in a timely manner. I think our budget is around $4,500,000 a year, so $600,000 isn't even two full months worth. 

 

This is the breakdown from the Strategic Planning Committee. The top needs identified for the year 2014-2015. Math curriculum $69,626. Science curriculum $54,547. I think they said the math books are 9 years old. Under technology they recommend $18,000 for 30 desktop computers @ $600, and $26,000 for 200 tablets @ $130. The tablets would be kept in the classrooms to do research.  The students can't do testing on tablets. They recommend for the middle school, $18,000 for 30 desktops. More and more of the curriculum is moving to computers from textbooks. Mr. Gee said there are only 18 working computers in the high school computer lab. Most classes have around 25 students, so it will be hard to do the required testing. With 30 more computers for each building they can set up another lab, so the students can keep up with the new mandated testing requirements. With all the new technology we have in the district and the need to maintain the new tablets and computer labs, we will need to hire another IT person. The estimated annual cost of an IT person is $40,000. So for the school year 2014-2015 it adds up to $226,173.

For the school year 2015-2016 they recommend new english curriculum amounting to $69,626 and new social studies, history, and reading curriculum for $51,382. They were joking about how old our history books are. They also recommend $18,000 for 30 desktop computers for the elementary. Overall our curriculum is getting very old. With our budget cuts over the last few years we are behind on replacing the curriculum. The needed requirements for common core have also been slow coming out. The new requirements force us to update what we have been using. There isn't enough money in our contingency fund to cover these needed costs, and maintain our contingency fund anywhere close to the levels we need. 

The next most important recommendation for the 2015-2016 school year, is for us to upgrade and replace the heating system in the elementary. The building heat is mostly from a boiler that is original to the building. There has been a big concern about the reliability of such an old system and the cost to replace it. It also has been a concern for many parents as to how hot it can get in the building at the start of the school year. The recommendation is to replace the boiler with a HVAC system to provide efficient heating and air conditioning for the building. The new system should also save us a lot on our heating bills. The cost of the new system is estimated to be $70,000. This is also a cost that would be hard to cover without some additional funds. So the total for the 2015-2016 year is $230,000. 

At our next board meeting we will have a discussion about wether we should go forward with the committee's recommendations. It was also requested that they provide the board with other district needs that they have talked about. If the board decides to go forward with a levy, the district will submit the paper work to have an election in March. I personally think we should go forward with this. I hope with our needs specifically identified and the fact that taxes won't go up we can get the support we need for this. The state may miraculously increase our funding, but given recent history we can't count on much help from them. Even if they do decide to increase our funding we wouldn't know until the end of the legislative session, which would be too late to have a levy for next year. 

We talked about the certified employee evaluations that were just completed on schedule, and reviewed some policy updates. We also changed next months board meeting from Thursday the 9th to Wednesday the 8th, to allow Bart and Paul to attend a girls basketball game.

Some final thoughts. I know we tried to pass two levies a couple years ago, which were close but we failed to get the necessary support. We fortunately have been able to get by without added funds, but this situation can't continue. Our contingency fund keeps dropping and our needs keep growing. To maintain our district at the high standards we have been able to achieve we really need to upgrade the items I listed and others.

 I was recently told by a young man who is considering building a new house something I think is quite telling. He is trying to decide to build within Firth or Shelley school districts. He likes Firth but is concerned how well supported our district is. If we can't get support to meet the basic needs of the district, it will be hard to encourage young families to settle in our district.

We were asked to find out what the patrons in the district think of us requesting a levy. Do you agree with the needs as identified? If there are any questions about this proposal let me know. Almost all districts have been forced to supplement their budgets with supplemental levies, because of lack of funding. It's only because of good district management and holding back on updating things like curriculum that we have done okay. I would really like input. Thank you, Brian

Some Thoughts About Politics

As you know I am involved with several different boards. I have seen how politics work on a lot of different levels. As I see it there are so many things wrong with how things are done. There seems to be less opportunities for there to be any real opposition, or even being able to ask questions within organizations or political parties. If you don't tow the party line and agree with leadership, there are those who will do all they can to force you aside. What happened to the idea of compromise. I know there are some things like your personal values, that can have an influence on how you vote that you shouldn't compromise on. 

I really see this in national and state politics. They are either hard right or hard left with no middle ground. Nobody is willing to cross party leadership for fear of repercussion. For example I was told by a Washington D.C.  Lobbyist if the House of Representatives republican leadership would allow a vote on the Senate immigration bill that it would pass. But since leadership doesn't like the senate bill, they will not bring it up for a vote. So a very few are controlling all of government on this important issue. Congressman Simpson is a man who stands up and is willing to make the right votes that at times goes against leadership. But by his willingness to compromise and get something done, he has a serious hard right challenger, that basically vows to fallow the hard right agenda.  

In state politics much like at the national level there are two factions in the Republican Party fighting for control. I support Republican ideas, but I don't support what seems to be rubber stamping of the leadership agenda. This was very obvious during all the discussion about the education bills. Tom Luna wanted to dramatically change education and all he had to do was get the Governor on his side. And once that happened every Republican followed in line without serious questions being asked. Once the public was able to weigh in on these laws, they were all soundly defeated. With a super majority of Republicans in the state they don't question some of the bills that come to them like they should. They just don't worry about what the public thinks at times. There used to be more moderate state Republicans. But with redistricting and leadership being able to close the primaries a lot of the moderates were weeded out of the party. So now the hard right Republicans are getting more bold. This can be clearly seen by those wanting to have all candidates vetted by party leadership to be able to get on the ballot to run. I don't think these ideas would have been considered at all if the Republican Party hadn't moved so far to the right. 

I am worried about the direction our country is headed. Is it possible for things to change for the better? I'm sure it is, but it will take time, and we the voters need to make our voices be heard where possible. I know if we are willing to do what we can, we can make a difference. I recently wrote an editorial mostly about how much I didn't like what Mr. Smith, Congressman Simpsons challenger, was saying about Mr. Simpson. Through my political connections, my editorial was sent to Mr. Simpson. A few weeks after this was done I was in a state dairy board meeting and Mr. Simpson spoke to our group for about an hour, and he personally thanked me for my editorial. In our area most all state elections are decided in the primaries. We need to know what positions the candidates have and support who we think is best. When the legislature is contemplating legislation that effects us, we need to let them know what we think. 

If the public would have been more in tune with what was going on in our last national election, and not so much about all the promises of how much they were going to get for free, maybe we would have had a different outcome and wouldn't be in the mess we are in now. Lets all hope and pray that eventually our country can get back on the right track. Lets just not sit back and assume that either its hopeless or not worth the effort to be involved. 

Sorry for all the rambling, I guess I needed to vent. I originally wrote more about the national dairy board I'm on, but decided not to include my thoughts about that. Thanks, Brian  

School Board Meeting November 14th, 2013

I was attending a church program that my daughter was involved in so I was late for the meeting and missed the recognition of the cross country teams. They had a good year. The Veterans Day activities were also talked about. The board approved the Audit report from last month. This is when I made it to the meeting. 

There was a report from the Strategic Planning Committee. They are working hard to come up with recommendations to present the board by the end of the year. They are working on four main goals. Finance being the main goal. We need to maintain sound fiscal practices. Our middle school bond expires next June. The annual bond has been about $250,000 each year. It is hoped that we can address the needs of the district by proposing a supplemental levy for the same amount. That way taxes wouldn't go up. 

Some specific needs they have been discussing. 

Curriculum. With the new Idaho Core Standards we will need to purchase new and updated curriculum. Curriculum is very expensive and without additional funds it will be hard to buy what's needed.

Technology. This also goes with the new core standards. The students will be required to do a lot more testing  and school work on computers. To be able to adequately do the testing and work with the new curriculum we will need to have two computer labs in each building and have one to one devices for the high school. With our budget shortfalls it has been hard to maintain computer labs.   

With all the new computers and other technology needs, it is anticipated we will need to hire a second IT staff member.

Facilities. They are looking at the needs for each school. There is a need for heating and cooling upgrades at the elementary. Windows need replaced at the middle school, and flooring at the high school. There are other needs that they are still discussing. I appreciate the work they are doing, and I think when they are done, we can make the case for why we really need to have a supplemental levy. 

The Education Foundation reported on their activities. They have provided grants to teachers for $3325.00 so far this year. They have put out a breakdown of where these grants have gone, so I won't detail it here. They have also helped arrange and provide attendance rewards for the students, which has improved our overall attendance, which in turn brings more funds to the district. They have been a great asset to our district. 

Mr. Tubbs then provided us with a budget update. This was to show how our funding is matching up with our expenses so far this year. Overall it looks like the administration is doing a good job balancing these accounts. 

We then had a detailed report about the soccer program. After completing the two year trial period it is now time to decide if we want it to continue. One of my main concerns at the beginning was how soccer might effect the other sports participation. With the success of the volleyball and cross country  teams, it appears soccer had minimal effect. They won two games this year and had good participation. They are working on player development in the off season by encouraging students to join winter clubs, camps and other ideas. They have had good fundraising activities and other outside and parental support. To continue the program the main expense will be for the coaches stipends. It was estimated for it to continue like any other sports program in the district it would cost around $3000 to $3500. I thought with the added benefit to these students, that soccer was well worth supporting. After some more discussion we decided to vote for the continuation of the soccer program.

We then went through several policy updates. Because of multiple conflicts with the date of next months meeting, we voted to move it up to Tuesday December 10th. As always if you have any questions or concerns let me know. Thanks, Brian

School Board Meeting October 10, 2013

Sorry this has taken me so long to write. I have been very busy since getting back from my vacation to California. 

This was a short meeting without very much business to discuss.  The main matter of business was having our district audit report presented by Morgan Hatt. He provided us with some interesting information about our current budget status as well as how school funding has changed over the years. 

Our capital outlay was a lot higher because of our purchase of the high school bleachers and a school bus. With all our funding sources added up we received about $64,000 less than the year before. Our federal funding was down over $200,000. Our funding would have been a lot worse without the $113,600 we received for the pay for performance plan. If you don't count the extra capital expenses we spent $5801 per student. We had 751 students last year. We have about 776 students this year. It is good to see our enrollment going up some after several years of declines. Part of the reason for the increase is because we went to open enrollment. This school year with the help of the Education Foundation we are rewarding attendance at school. Last year our average attendance was 96%, a 2% increase from the year before. It will be interesting to see how this years attendance ends up. We were told that an Idaho Falls district spends over $15,000 per student, an amazing amount compared to Firth. But overall we are not much different than most districts.

If you followed my blogs about my conversations with Senator Bair and my letters to the newspapers, where I wrote about our school unit funding, and about how it bothered me that Mr. Luna and others made it sound as if they had done such a good job of restoring our funds, this was illustrated in the audit report. Our main funding comes from the unit funds. A unit is a formula of how many students we have and the ages of the students. We had a total of 151.4 units, and received $19,706 for each unit for a total of $2,983,488.40. The year before our unit funding was $19,626 per unit, so we gained a paltry $80 more per unit or around $12,000 more. Not much difference. In the year 2010 our unit funding was $25,459. Based on this past years units if we had been funded at the same level as 2010, we would have received an whopping $871,004.20 more. So $12,000 doesn't even make a real dent in the funding difference. 

Some other things Mr. Hatt pointed out. We used to receive a separate budget amount for our share of the state lottery funds. In the year2009 this amount was $49,588, a nice check courtesy of the lottery. Since then they just somehow factor the lottery money in their funding formula. So there is no way to know what if anything we really get from the lottery. In the year 2009 we also received $53,500 for facility maintenance, and $34,700 for early retirement. Funds we haven't received since. Funding for class supplies of over $13,000 and AG replacement of close to $13,000 ended in the year 2011. He didn't specify amounts, or even bring it up, but our transportation reimbursement has dropped a lot too. Mr. Hatt expressed his concern for our schools if our funding from the state doesn't increase. I brought up how they are emphasizing getting a college education on TV and on the radio, but they need to do more for schools. 

A couple other items presented. Thanks to Mrs. Obama's push to have healthier school lunches, our school lunch participation rate dropped from 66% in 2012 to 55% last year. Just because it may be a little healthier doesn't mean the kids will eat it. Another fact that shows how things have changed. In 2006 43% of the meals served were paid in full by the families. Now only 32% are paid in full. So to me this even makes the participation rate worse, considering how many could eat for a reduced price, or free.

The district overall fund balance is $782,762. The administration has done a good job of controlling our costs. We have cut a lot of things to maintain our fund balance. There are things that will need more funding soon, that we can't keep putting off. This is why we also have a committee working on our Strategic Plan. There is several on this committee including Bart from our board. They are going to report their progress at a future meeting. 

Casey talked about our board goals. After some discussion it was decided we need to get our Strategic Plan updated and tie our goals to the plan. We also need to frequently discuss our plan and goals which we haven't done very well. 

We then discussed  some policy updates. One of them is how we handle sex education in school, and the procedure when parents don't want their kids to participate. We had some questions about this policy that will be clarified at our next meeting. 

Well that is pretty much all that was discussed. As often happens, I seem to write a lot more than I think I will. I hope you find this information informative. If you have  questions about our budget or other comments or concerns let me know. After traveling through California and stopping briefly in Las Vegas, I'm sure glad I live where I do. Thanks, Brian 

School Board Meeting September 12, 2013

It seems as if I have done this before. I am currently in Chicago at a dairy board meeting that starts tomorrow. I probably stay busier  doing other things besides staying at home and running my dairy, than I should. I guess I just try and make a positive difference by being so involved in so many things.

Well on to the meeting. I sure like having the meetings at the middle school library more than the auditorium. It sure is easier to have a discussion without having to worry about the auditorium sound system.

We first recognized Rachel Schiess for her efforts writing a grant and working on the elementary library. She should know pretty soon if the school will get the grant. We then accepted the resignations of Cherise Alvey teaching in the middle school, and Rachel Olsen as the softball coach. Cherise has serious health  issues that forced her to resign. She has been a very good dedicated teacher, and she will be missed. Bryon Moratz was hired to replace Mrs. Alvey. 

We then had a fairly long discussion about our school board walk through of the schools. There is some cosmetic outside problems with the middle school that need fixed. The roof is also getting close to the age where it might need to be replaced. There is carpet issues like usual. We talked about the idea of removing the haul carpets in the middle school and high school, and polishing the cement floor. 

The elementary is getting old and there was some concern expressed about what we might need to do when the infamous boiler quits working. The roof has had some leaking issues, but only in the newest part that was built in 1991. The old siding looks pretty bad. But the building itself is sound. There was some discussion about the costs to do major repairs and options of what could be done when this day comes. Would we consider remodeling the building, building a new building, or abandoning the building and add onto the middle school, to bring the elementary students into the middle school. For strategic planing purposes, we talked about how to go about having someone come to the elementary building to give us cost estimates and ideas of how to replace or repair different things. I suggested we didn't need to have such a detailed plan that we would need to hire someone to do this. I don't know how the heating system for example could be replaced, but I would guess there is a way to replace it and put in some air conditioning. The heating bill is a lot higher than the middle school, but if we improved the outside of the building, insulation could probably be added. Bottom line for me. I will have a hard time being convinced the old elementary, which I think was mostly built in 1962, is anywhere close to the point that we need to consider abandoning it. We have a lot of extra rooms in it, so crowding issues isn't a concern either.

The high school overall looks pretty good. The high school is undergoing the same process as the elementary building did a couple years ago of getting new lighting. Even the old Ag shop will get new lights. We later talked about the parking and bus lane issue by the high school. We might decide to make the improvements in stages. If the costs of a project is kept under $25,000 a year, we don't have to put it up for bids and can probably save  money overall. We will get more ideas about this by next board meeting. 

We approved the Differentiated Pay plan that we had talked about in depth during two previous meetings. Mr. Tubbs had a guideline written up about how this could all be done, which I thought was written very  well. We were told by the press in attendance that on this issues we were way ahead of most other districts getting this plan done. It was good to hear. 

The strategic planning committee met once with about twelve in attendance. I suggested the committee needs to have recommendations to the board in time to go forward with a supplemental levy next spring, if it is determined that we need one, and for how much. 

We had a technology update given to us. Destry is working hard to update the wireless in the buildings, and improve the district web site. We are going to get fiber optics in the elementary school soon. There hasn't been a good way to have dependable Internet in the elementary school. It is a big job trying to use new technology with old, but progress is being made. 

Some teachers were in attendance to talk about the flex program in the middle school and high school. If students have all their assignments turned in and are not failing classes, they get an extra half hour just before lunch. They can go to the library and study or just visit. There is plans for some fun activities for the students to do. On Thursdays the high school students can leave and have a full hour lunch break. The students that have problems have to spend this time in the classes they are having problems in. There is a lot of pier pressure to improve grades and get assignments in. It was expressed how this is a way to reward good habits, instead of always punishing students for bad habits all the time. Darvel Jolley told us in all his years of teaching, I think he said twenty eight years, he has never had his students do so well having their work turned in. He has 107 students in his classes and only had two students with their work not current, and even those two had good excuses. They also said students are  helping other students study to improve their grades. I guess there had been quite a few students in the past who would get way behind turning in their work close to the end of the semester or the school year that would be on the verge of failing, and maybe risking grade advancement or graduation. It looks like this flex program will greatly improve this situation. I would think overall grades should improve too. 

The Education Foundation gave a report. They have a goal to raise $20,000. We were presented a plan of how they are going to go about doing this. It listed how tax deductions are used, to encourage donations. A donor can donate to something specific if they choose to. Their efforts to reward students for perfect attendance seems to be working well so far also. Little kids get really excited about small rewards. Their efforts to help improve attendance should improve our school funding. The foundation has also been doing a lot to improve the elementary library. If you have a chance you should look at the room. My wife made all the little padded chairs, I think they call them poofs. The kids really like them. 

We talked a little about this years school board convention in North Idaho this year. I won't be able to attend, but I think some might. 

I think that was about all we talked about. I get home Thursday evening and will probably try and go to the foundation meeting. I am getting pretty good at typing on my iPad. I know my punctuation and grammar isn't always correct, but I do my best. I hope you find this information beneficial. If you have comments or questions let me know. Brian    

Letter to the Editor, New P.E. Requirements

Letter to the editor

Just what our school district needs, more unfunded mandates from the state. How can the State Department of Education require more P.E. credit requirements without at least restoring more funding to the schools first. When our district was faced with deep funding cuts, we let go of one of our P.E. teachers to reduce our deficit spending. If we have to rehire a P.E. teacher to meet these new requirements it will be a big burden on our district. Also requiring the extra credit will limit some students elective options. These issues should be left up to each district to decide. Maybe when the state restores our funding to pre -recession levels, they could consider these changes. If it was put off until the funding is restored, it will probably never happen, because I very much doubt the funding will ever go back to those levels.   

Brian Esplin 

Firth School Board Member