Firth Student Achievement

During my time on the school board, the State Department of Education has changed the student achievement testing and evaluation process many times. When Common Core was first implemented in Idaho, there was a lack of support for the new testing methods and questions asked. I heard some of the concerns parents had. I am a big supporter of parent’s rights in deciding what they think is best for their kids. One problem brought on by the lack of support for Common Core testing, which became known in Idaho as the Idaho Standards Achievement Test or ISAT, was a lack of serious effort among a few students and encouragement from a few parents. Some parents chose not to allow their kids to take the ISAT. I remember the first year of the testing, the district really didn’t know what the questions were going to be, and teachers couldn’t even be present during the testing. With a small district these factors hurt our district’s results. I think over time there has been a better understanding of the new standards, and they have been better accepted. Districts can now teach Common Core much more efficiently. I believe the transition in curriculum took time to adapt to also. 

Before last school year, our middle school was designated as a low performing school. Along with this came a lot of help from the state. Two Capacity Builders were provided and funding of over $100,000 a year for three years to help improve student performance. With a portion of these funds, an additional teacher was hired to work in the middle school. The district formed a committee of teachers, students, parents, para-professionals, principals, and community members to help develop the School Wide Improvement Plan. The board has received many updates about the development of the plan and its implementation. All of the members of this group really worked hard through this process. With the recent results of the ISAT scores, much improvement was achieved in the middle school and I would anticipate a continuation of this trend going forward. 

I think one of the best indicators of student achievement, is by examining how well the high school students are doing or have done. For the year 2019, 47% of the graduating class received credit for Math 143 from CSI. 30% of the seniors took AP Calculus. This year 50% of the seniors have or will have completed CSI Math 143. 22% of the senior class is now enrolled in AP Calculus. From what we have been told, these credits transfer to any college or university in the state. Firth student SAT scores overall were higher than both the state and national averages. 

There are 115 students enrolled in duel credit classes this semester. Last spring we had 101 students enrolled in these classes. There are currently 13 different classes students can take for collage credit. As the new staff gets more experience, even more duel credit courses will be offered. Firth school district has very good teachers that do their best to teach the students.

95% of the seniors graduated last year, the state average was only 81%. The students who didn’t graduate had opportunities this past summer to make up the classes they needed to graduate. Some are still working toward graduating. For a small school district I have been impressed with all the scholarships Firth graduates receive. 

Improvement in student performance is the goal of everyone, from the board, to the administration and teachers. The school board, working with the Superintendent, is in the process of setting specific goals for this school year. I know there are students who struggle for various reasons, but I think everyone is trying their best to help all students have success in their academic endeavors.

I thought it was important to share some of the data about our district’s student achievement. It seems easy to recognize when students win athletic championships, but academic performance doesn’t always receive the attention it should.

If you have questions about this or any other topic please let me know. My email is besplin@d59.k12.id.us, or call me at 208-521-6217.

Thank you, Brian

How I View the Budget, Finances, and Facilities of Firth School District.

I would like to explain more about our district’s budgeting and the state of our finances and facilities. 

At every June meeting the board is presented the proposed budget for the coming school year by the Business Manager. The Business Manager and Superintendent work together after the completion of the state legislative session to figure out the complicated funding formulas. Over the last several years the district has maintained a Contingency Fund balance of approximately $800,000. This is about two months operating revenue recommended by the accountant that annually audits the district finances. It took probably thirty years to be able to build up and maintain the $800,000 so the district has worked hard not to overspend which would require tapping into this fund. 

In recent years with patrons supporting supplemental levies and the state slowly increasing our funding, our district is in much better financial shape than it was during the recession. Our district has no debt. All our facilities are paid for. In my business as a dairy farmer I have a lot of debt, but constantly strive to reduce it as much as possible. I really hate having the burden of debt, and feel good that our district has none. There is one more year on our current supplemental levy. Most of next year’s money will go toward solving the need for a bus shop. The exact plan hasn’t been determined yet. I am hopeful that with state funding increasing, there won’t be a need to ask for another supplemental levy next year. The Strategic Planning Committee (which is established by the administration, and consists of community members, district staff, and at least one administrator) will meet and determine future needs of the district. If they determine our current needs exceed our revenue they will make recommendations to the board as to what the needs are, and if we should ask for another levy. 

The district is current with curriculum and technology after being behind during the recession. When the district needs to purchase new curriculum, the money will be set aside in the budget to buy it. 

I have always stated when asked about potential facility needs that there are only really two reasons to build any building. One, if a building is structurally unsound, and the other is if we are getting crowded. All our buildings are in good shape. We have spent approximately $500,000 fixing up the elementary the last few years, with a new roof and boiler being the major updates. The middle school now has a new roof and several new windows. Other updates and maintenance, like furnace replacement are scheduled in coming years. The high school has a mostly new roof and other updates, with more planned in future years. 

As far as getting crowded, we are in good shape in this area too. Our district has been growing about twenty five students a year the last few years, but this year we took a step back with a very small kindergarten class of only forty four kids. Last I heard our attendance is about a dozen less than last year. There are several empty classrooms throughout the district. 

I know eventually this will change, but not in the foreseeable future. With the cost of an elementary being around ten million dollars, and with all the money we have spent updating it, I think any plan to abandon the building would be irresponsible. When needed, the most cost effective expansion would be to add classrooms to the middle school. The way it was designed would make adding rooms fairly simple. 

As I have said before. One main reason I chose to run for re-election was to help hire a new Superintendent. There are at least two ways to go about hiring a Superintendent. One would be to hire the Idaho School Boards Association out of Boise to put out the job notice and do the initial screening of applicants, which could be quite costly. The other way would be for the district to manage the process. The district would form a committee with community members and staff to handle the initial interview of applicants. I personally much prefer the later method. There wouldn’t be the cost, and I think we would likely find someone who would be a better fit for our district. I don’t like the idea of Boise academics basically choosing the finalists for our Superintendent. I have no idea what method the other board members would prefer, because it hasn’t been discussed yet. 

Choosing the right Superintendent is such an important decision that will have a lasting impact on the success of our school district. I would appreciate the opportunity to be able to help with this process, and I think my many years of board experience would prove beneficial in helping to make this decision. 

If you have any questions on this or any other issue please let me know. You can contact me at besplin@d59.k12.id.us or call me at 208-521-6217

Thank you, Brian Esplin

School Districts are Governed by Their Policies and Procedures

School districts are governed by their policies and procedures from the student, to the administration and the School Board. One of these policies is the Grievance Policy. If a student or parent has a concern or complaint it’s first taken to the teacher. If the teacher can’t resolve the situation it moves up to the principal. If there is no resolution there, the Superintendent then tries to do what he can. Most issues get resolved before they go this far. Occasionally if every step is followed and there is still no resolution to the problem the school board then can be informed about the situation in an executive session of the School Board. 

The board is purposely left out of the loop as these issues work their way up the channels. It’s better if the board can remain unbiased through this process. 

As an example, if a student violates a school policy and is suspended by the administration, the student has the right to appeal the decision to the School Board. The Superintendent does not give the board details so that if the student comes before the board in executive session, the student will get a fair unbiased hearing. If not, that could result in a legal challenge against the school district. So the Superintendent is always very careful not to give very many details, just in case the issue may come before the board. 

I have heard it said that someone within the administration has encouraged some students to consider dropping out of school, or go to the alternative school. It would be irresponsible for any administrator to encourage a student to drop out. If this actually happened, the Grievance Policy wasn’t pursued through to the board. No complaint by anyone about this has ever been brought to the board. 

There are also many reasons why students attend the alternative school. It’s not always discipline or school performance related. This school can be a great benefit to students to help them through whatever their issues may be. As a board we never hear any details about who, how many, or why students attend it. It’s private information that we have no business knowing. 

The board really doesn’t just write policies from scratch. There is an opportunity to update and change some things, but every change has to be legal. As an example.

There was one policy that was discussed extensively, for months. It is Policy 3080, dealing with open enrollment. Every proposed change required a review by legal council. I think it ended up being a good well balanced policy, but the board rarely has the ability to change policies very much, if at all, from what’s given to us by the Idaho School Board Association. 

The teachers are evaluated twice a year by their principal, using a set procedure. Everyone is evaluated using the same standards. If a teacher has any deficiencies they are provided guidance to help them improve. The Superintendent evaluates the principals using basically the same set guidelines. Lastly the Superintendent is evaluated by the School Board, also with a preset similar set of guidelines. The School Board receives an annual report from the principals about their evaluation of the teachers under their jurisdiction. The Board never interacts directly with the teachers, or principals about anything to do with their job performance. We only critic the job performance of the Superintendent directly. We are informed if there are concerns with the job performance of individual teachers, but it’s entirely up to the administration to provide whatever professional development that may be needed. The Superintendent also informs us of any concerns he might have with the principals. However, like the Grievance Policy for students, teachers can go to the Superintendent to resolve an issue. If necessary a teacher then can come before the board in an executive session. This is the way district policies are required to be followed. 

If you have any questions or comments please let me know. You can email me at besplin@d59.k12.id.us, or give me a call 208-521-6217

Thank you,

Brian Esplin

School Board Election

I thought I would write  and explain why I decided to run for the school board one last time. 

I have been on the board for about eleven years. I was on the board when we went through the big recession. It was a very difficult time, dealing with the financial funding cut backs from the state. Some personnel had to be let go, and wages cut. It definitely wasn’t an easy job, and very unpleasant. It took several years for the state to finally restore our funding and the teacher pay back to pre-recession levels. I think it could have been much worse for our district than it was, if we hadn’t had a financially responsible Superintendent and Business Manager. 

With the help of the patrons supporting some much needed expenditures, like the technology, roof repairs, and elementary boiler, we have been able to keep up on our needs without depleting our contingency funds or running a deficit. Other districts haven’t been able to manage their budgets nearly as well as our administrators. Many have had to maintain large Supplemental Levies. I have felt like the district patrons support us well when we have asked for a Supplemental Levy, as long as we have identified a real need, and followed through in spending the money how we said we would. I am hopeful that if the funding from the state continues to improve, we won’t need another Supplemental Levy next year when our current Levy expires. 

As a school board you only really hire one person, the Superintendent. He or she hires everyone else. The Superintendent hires all the administrators, and annually reviews their performance. The Superintendent, with the help of the Management Team, which includes the Principals, hires all the teachers, determines curriculum, oversees student performance, and student discipline. The Superintendent is responsible for the management of the district finances, and numerous other very important responsibilities. I have also appreciated not having our district in the news for any inappropriate or illegal activities. 

So my main reason to run for election again is to help select our new Superintendent. It’s such a critical decision that could affect our district in either a positive or negative way, for many years to come. 

I would also like to help with the transition to a new Superintendent, to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible. There has been a lot of board turnover in recent years, and with Wade Christensen choosing to retire this year, I thought staying on the board to provide some long term experience was also a good idea. 

I think we have always had very good teachers. Our six kids all went through Firth schools. The education they received here has benefited them in their continued education. I now have a grandson and two granddaughters to attend Firth schools. So even though my kids have all graduated, I still have a vested interest in the continued quality of education in the Firth School District. 

I have always tried to be responsive to any emails, phone calls, or comments on the blogs I have written. I have written many blogs to try and give as much details of board meetings as possible along with my opinions of issues before the board. 

The district operates by the Policy Manual. Each year the State School Board Association sends the district new, or updated policies. There are very few discretionary options in most of the policies because the legislature changed a law or some other legal requirement. The administration and school board follows the district policies very closely. I know some people have problems with various policies, I do too, however, we have to accept and approve them, or the district could get sued for not abiding by the law. 

Every month at the end of board meeting, there is a discussion about what to talk about the following month. Some are issues brought to the different board members. When the board talks about these concerns, ideas are discussed between board members and the Superintendent. If there are any recommendations that need further action, the administration is responsible to research and determine the best way to proceed. The board oversees and approves, but doesn’t overstep the administration when it comes to school education or program decisions. 

As an example,  a concern was brought to the board about student mental health and the need to provide more help to prevent self harm. The administration was asked to investigate a group called the Hope Squad to see if it would be a good program for our district. After some time and research, the administration reported to the board that they recommended a different organization. It was not the board’s responsibility to decide which option was best for our district, decisions like this need to be left to the administration. The district hired a new school councilor, who is also a certified social worker. So now we have a very qualified person on staff that can direct the administration, and school board about any future mental health concerns. 

Any board member wants what’s best for our students, I know I do. However, even if we as individual board members, think we know what’s best, we have to leave these type of decisions up to the real professionals. This is another critical reason why who we hire is so important, and why I request your support to be able to help with the hiring of the new Superintendent. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask. Again, I request your support to be re-elected one last time to serve in Zone 2, on the Firth School Board. The election will take place November 5th at your usual voting precincts. Thank you.

Supplemental Levy Spending Projections

Firth School District # 59

Two Year Supplemental Levy 

Amount:​$ 300,000                                                                                                                                        Duration: ​Two Years        (2018 - 2019 / 2019 – 2020)   

Date:       ​February 8, 2018                                                                                                                                                  Cost per:

Levy Amount	Current Property Value	Cost per $100,000
$300,000	$197,606,477	$152

Year 1 (2018 – 2019)

Item	Cost	Total
		$ 300,000
Middle School Roof	$228,800
High School Roof	$  62,000
HS / MS Music Program	$ 10,000
	TOTAL	$ 300,000

Year 2 (2019-2020)

Item	Cost	Total
		$ 300,000
Bus Barn Removal / Replace / Repair	$  150,000
Elm/MS/HS – Asphalt Repair /Replace	$    27,000
Middle School Berm Removal / Wall Repair	$    48,000
High School Removal of Floor Tile / Polish Concrete Floor	$    25,000
Middle School Windows / Repair / Replace	$    20,000
Middle School Doors / Locks / Interior Repairs	$    20,000
HS / MS Music Program	$    10,000
	TOTAL	$ 300,000

Levy Proposal for 2018	Current Property Value	Cost per  $100,000	Increase over current levy (annually)	Increase over current levy (monthly)
$300,000	$197,606,477	$152	$86	$7.16

Formula:

(Levy amount) divided by (county property valuation) equals (mill) 

(mil) times (property value) equals (amount of tax per year)                                                                             (amount of tax per year) divide by 12 (months) equals (amount of tax per month)

Other local school districts

District	Type	Amount
Snake River	Plant Facilities ( 10 years)	$ 750.00
Aberdeen	Supplemental   (2 years)	$ 675.00
Shelley	Supplemental  (2 years)	$ 575.00

Supplemental Levy Information

I was asked if I would put out the Supplemental Levy information on my blog. This is the breakdown from the district. There will be more information sent out about this I believe next week. 

I would like to explain more why we are asking for this Levy. Our middle school is 25 years old. Because of its age it is needing some expensive maintenance. The shingle roof is original and over the last couple of years has had some leaking problems. We were told that every time a leak is patched it cost approximately $5,000. To me this is a not a responsible way to spend the district's money. When the roof is replaced these expensive patches will be tore off and replaced too. 

The oldest part of the high school roof also leaks and has had patches. Some ceiling tiles recently fell down in the gym, from moisture caused by a leak. 

The first year of the Supplemental Levy funding will be mostly spent on a new shingle roof for the middle school and replacement of the roofing on the old part of the high school. The remainder of the funds would be spent on supporting the new music program. They would like to get new music, repair the old school owned instruments, and work toward buying some new instruments. Some of the school instruments were used clear back when I was in elementary school. That was a long time ago. 

A big portion of the second year of funding would be used on the bus barn. The biggest problem is the bus shop is to small to hold a bus inside, so when he needs to work on one he often has to do it all outside. The barn itself is also to small to hold the busses. Exactly the best solution with the barn hasn't been determined yet. But something needs done. 

Another problem with the middle school is the dirt berms around most of the walls. The berms help insulate the building saving energy costs, but in many places moisture has worked its way between the berm and cement walls. This has caused water getting into the building, damaging floors and walls. The plan is to remove the berms in at least the worse places and repair the leaks in the walls. The berms wouldn't be put back. Many of the windows in the middle school have been replaced, but there are a lot more that need replaced. The doorways into the building also need repaired and new locks need installed. 

There are many areas around all the buildings where the asphalt has big cracks. It needs to be repaired to keep it from getting worse and to make it safer to walk on. Removing of the floor tiles and polishing the cement in the high school, like they have done with most of the hallways is also planned. 

The last thing for the second year would be to put more money into the music program. These prices are estimates and things can vary, but there is a strong desire to support the music program. The community support for music coming back into the school has been very satisfying. I think we also have a great teacher who is very excited to grow the program into something we haven't had for many years. 

We don't get enough funding from the state to take care of these expensive maintenance needs. I don't want to keep paying for roof patches with no lasting benefit. There are other scheduled repairs and replacement projects planned out of other funding we have. I think all our buildings are sound and in overall good shape, but like any aging building, they do need maintenance to keep them that way. The Levy vote will be March 13th in the usual voting locations. There will also be early voting available in the county courthouse. 

I would encourage everyone to vote, and support our schools. We have a very conservative district. These funds will not be wasted. If you have any questions, please let me know. 

Thank you, Brian Esplin 

September 14, 2017 School Board Meeting

I didn't take many notes from last weeks long board meeting, so I hope I can remember enough of the details to explain what occurred. I was about a half hour late getting to the work session, so I missed some of the discussion about goals. The board has these four basic goals, which I think are still not cast in stone yet. 

  1. Increase the use of academic assessments. We want to look at the various testing done closer to monitor how things are going better. 

 2. Analyze the impact of extra-curricular programs on the districts budget. I missed              

the discussion about this topic, but I know there is concern about the number of extra-curricular activities, if there is adequate numbers of kids participating in the sports to be able to continue everything. We have also talked a lot about those who volunteer their time to coach, and if we can go a little further in being able to restore some funding for coaches. 

3. Evaluate the number and effectiveness of courses offered by the district. Missed the discussion on this point too. I know we would like to be able to add more electives however we can, but this will take time. 

4. Analyze the need for a full time Superintendent, which would also give us a full time Elementary Principal. I know we all feel like things would be better accomplished if we had both. My personal opinion on this is we aren't there yet. I don't know where the funding will come from. Our contingency fund isn't growing. Our district budget is still very tight. I guess we will talk more about it.

Superintendent goals are somewhat tied to our board goals, also a work in progress. The ones a little different are. 

1. To provide us an assessment of the district's digital technology capabilities through 2020. The district has invested a lot in technology over the last few years. We want to make sure we stay on top of what's needed and upgrades that might need to be made. 

2. Include the board in pre-budget planning. We haven't really been involved in this area before. 

3. Provide the board with an analysis of the physical facilities of the district. What does he recommend we do with things like the old bus barn and storage building for example. 

4. Provide the board with an analysis of the current employee benefits. Casey working for an insurance company has some ideas on this. We haven't discussed any particulars yet. 

We went over the committee's drug policy recommendation and ideas. I won't get into all the details of the policy now. The committee put a lot of effort into their ideas, and I thank them for that. Before we go any further we decided to have our district lawyer look at the proposed policy to see if he sees any legal issues. 

Now some personal thoughts on this. Every once in a while we are faced with some difficult decisions that have no simple answers. To me this is one of them. The procedure part is where it could get complicated. How many kids would we require to be drug tested is a big question. This policy can't be to costly. Is 10% of the kids enough? 20%, what's the right number? There would be a blinded random draw to determine who would be tested. Parents would be required to sign a consent form to allow their child to be tested to be able to participate in any extra or co curricular activity. There seems to be some parents that want a certain kid or kids to be tested. There is no guarantee that any certain kid will be tested. Will this satisfy the parents that are encouraging the board to implement a testing policy? There were three options presented for what would happen if there are violations. The first one wouldn't require any suspension of any activity, but would require weekly testing and counseling. The second would suspend the student for 20% of the games. But how would this be applied to non sport, or co-curricular activities? The last one would end the students participating after a single violation. It's obvious there are strong differing opinions on this issue, even among the board to some degree. I for one will not support a policy that kicks the student out of the activity on a first violation. I think we want to try and help these kids, and to end their participation, I think would be wrong. As far as a co-curricular activity. I think if we go the route of a 20% suspension, for them the suspension would have to be loosely defined. I think the suspension would have to be determined by the teacher and administrator. If the co-curricular class only had one simple route to a district and state competition, I wouldn't want the student to be eliminated from their chance to go to state on a single violation. There are also potentially a lot of legal concerns in how this is all implemented. I'm beginning to understand why several districts in the area have testing policies, but are not being implemented. I also have a concern that, "catching" a certain kid using drugs is the responsibility of the district. Where is the parents responsibly in all of this? I think if possible it's much better if the offending students own parents took care of the problem, and didn't leave it up to the school district. I'm very much undecided about this issue. 

We received the audit report. Mr. Hatt our accountant was unable to be there. Just a couple things. Our financial status is very good. Our Business Manager and Administrators do a very good job managing the districts money. Our district is growing. Mr. Tubbs stated that he thinks we have more students this year than we have had for around fifteen years. Our contingency fund ended the year at about the same level it started, $850,000. Our total revenue increased 5.28%, much of which went to the teachers. Actual district expense per student was $6,291. The state average was $8,250. 

There was a discussion about our out of district policy, or non resident student policy. The policy has been not to allow any out of district students to attend if the class they would be attending is currently over 70 students. The district doesn't want class sizes to get too big for the resident students. The main change is to allow the 7-12 grades to be able to go to 75 students. Only one grade, the current seventh grade is above that limit, most have considerably smaller classes. I think they said there are 34 non residents attending Firth. There are a total of 57 new students this year, 5 of them non residents. There are 234 in the high school. I think the A2 classification goes up to 319, so we are a long ways from that.

We voted to support the purchase of a new special needs bus. The same Thomas brand bus as the last couple we bought.

Mr. Mecham presented a chart and information for discussion about the challenges of offering a particular elective for the middle school students. With the required core classes, it ends up being hard to juggle all the teachers schedules around. I think he did a good job explaining it. If anyone has questions about this you need to talk more to him about it. 

We talked about what's appropriate for official board minutes. How much detail should be listed. Is there ways to improve them, and what can the district do to show better transparency. This discussion reminded me one main reason why I started writing this blog several years ago. I am a big believer in transparency, and if you want to read this, I can bore you with a lot of details, mingled in with my personal opinions. I also had a teacher come up to me at the end of the meeting, asking me why I wasn't writing this anymore. I get busy and probably a little lazy. It was good to be thanked for writing it. More discussion will take place about this issue.  

One last thing. We talked about our school walk through we did recently. As I talked about in my recent blog, the elementary is in great shape for an old building. The middle school is twenty two years old and is in bad need of some expensive maintenance. The roof has leaking problems. Mr. Tubbs indicated about every time they patch it, it cost $5,000. He just got a bid for a new metal roof, and it was $1,100,000. I don't think we will replace it with metal. The Whole building when it was new was $2,500,000. He is going to look into the cost of a new single roof. I don't like the idea of patches. That money will just be wasted when a new roof is put on. I would like to find out the cost for singles, then figure out how we can get it replaced as soon as possible. Maybe this will be an issue for a potential continuation of our Supplemental Levy. There is talk about what we need to do with our buildings 5-10 years from now. I think we need to worry more about the next five years and what needs done to maintain our current buildings. I won't be on the board forever, but in my opinion we have no need to build any new school buildings for at least 15 or more years, long after I'm off of the board. There was some talk of the idea of a new gym, which I again don't think we need or can afford. I wonder about some kind of bus shop and storage building. There is no place to pull a bus inside to work on it. He has to lay on the ground regardless of the weather to work on a bus. Doesn't seem like a good thing. All of these things need looked at, and the Strategic Planning Committee is going to meet soon to discuss these issues too.

Well so much for not coming up with enough to write about. It was a five hour meeting, so at least you didn't have to sit through all that. I'm currently in Chicago for a National Dairy Management Incorporated meeting. I'm here for a few days. After three years on the National Dairy Board followed by five years and counting on the United Dairy Industry Association Board, they know me pretty well around here too. I've been known to voice my opinion here too. If you have any questions go ahead and ask. Thanks for reading my ramblings. I don't have my personal editor with me, my Wife, so forgive all my errors.

Thanks, Brian