If you looked at the agenda before our meeting you would have thought this would have been a fairly short meeting without much to discuss. But as it turned out it was one of the longest we have had in a long time. By the time we got out of the executive session it was almost midnight. Much of the added discussion came from patron input that April and I received at our cottage meeting. For those who were at the cottage meeting, at the end of it I said we wouldn't overlook their concerns, that they would be brought up at the board meeting. I believe between the regular board meeting, and the executive session, we discussed everything that was brought to us at the cottage meeting, and in some emails or other communication.
Here goes my summary of what was discussed. There wasn't a report from the Excellence in Education Committee, because we had the last meeting the week before our last board meeting. I did bring up the items we intend to discuss at our meeting next Thursday. We plan to develop a mission statement, so we can better define the purpose and direction of the committee. Mr. Tubbs will also present some information about how our school funding works. He will go over all the sources for our funding and how it's spent. We should learn how much is discretionary, and an idea of how this funding has changed the last few years. Since our budget isn't quite defined for this next year, we won't have exact numbers to work with, but I think we can have a good discussion.
We then discussed the calendar options. There was a lot of opinions expressed about the calendar. We were presented with four options. Two versions would move the last day of school into June, with a later starting date, or more breaks during the year. Two others were presented, option #1 was just about the same as the one the calendar committee recommended last time and option #2 that has us starting on August 20th and ending on May 23rd, also there will be no student days on any Friday. The way option #2 reduces the days to fit between those dates is mostly achieved is by adding 7 minutes to the daily schedule and also having no day off for Presidents day. There were two parents that expressed concern about starting on the 13th, and a suggestion that we reduce spud harvest to one week. I had talked to a couple farmers, not my family, that said if we reduced the harvest break to one week, we might as well not have a break. They wouldn't want to hire kids for just one week. We also can't afford to have students miss much school, it really can hurt our funding. Since the calendar committee still recommended option #1, I made a motion to support this option but got no support. So option #2 was presented for a vote and I supported it along with three other board members. Mr. Cook also preferred option #1, and had concerns about making the school day longer. Option #2 also has more scheduled teacher inservice days on Fridays. I do think this is a good compromise. The high school hours for next year will now start at 8:00 and end at 3:59. I hope the later time won't hurt too much.
We then had a presentation by David Schiess. The city of Firth received a grant to improve Center street. The road that goes from the highway between the seminary building and the park. The project will end at the intersection in front of the school. Mr Schiess is proposing the school district take this opportunity to make improvements, between the seminary building and the school, and to tie into the new road that will be built. He is recommending we take out the old trees, remove the old asphalt, put in french drains and sidewalks. Then it would be repaved with a stripped parking lot and a better defined road through that area. He also said the road in front of the Ag shop running along the park is school property. The city road was vacated many years ago. So he wondered if we would want to control access along that road. There was quite a bit of discussion about this idea. He at first didn't have a cost estimate of the project, but later came up with some estimates. He said the surveying would be $1800, removing the trees and asphalt $5000, putting in sidewalks and gutters $5000, two catch basins for $2000 each, gravel fill and pavement would be $40,000, design of the project would be $18,000, and they would need a contingency fund of $20,000. He quoted this very fast, so I might have this a little off. The total cost would be around $80 to $100 thousand. The pavement alone would be about $20,000. There was discussion if it were to be just graveled, and maybe paved later. Maybe some volunteer work could be done to remove the trees. Maybe the city would help with some of the work. The project for the city won't start until next year, so we have some time to think about it. Much like the fund we are using to buy the high school bleachers, there is another fund for outside improvements, that could be used for something like this. Mr. Tubbs didn't know at the meeting just how much this fund had in it but it is a substantial amount. There are probably other areas that could use some improvements around the school. We will have more discussions about this idea, how much this fund balance is, and if we think this is the best use of these funds. There was also some discussion how much might be saved doing some of the work in other ways, or not doing all that was suggested.
Wow this is already long and I haven't even started talking about the cottage meeting yet. I have been out of town most of the last two weeks. April had done some research about district policies and had given Mr. Tubbs a list of the questions we wanted him to answer at the meeting, so he could be prepared to respond.
The first question was about cell phone use. There is a growing problem about kids using them in class. There was a report of someone googling answers to tests during class and texting answers. The policy we have is dated back to 2005. Cell phone use has changed a lot since then. The policy is that if a cell phone is used during class the teacher confiscates it and returns it at the end of class, if this happens several times the phone is taken to the office and parents are called before it is returned. Different ideas were discussed at the meeting but no real answers. The management team will discuss this further and come to the board with some recommendations.
Dress code issues were then talked about. Some examples given were girls with too short of pants or skirts and to reveling of tops being worn. This policy is also old and probably needs some updating. Part of the policy is to have the student change into something more appropriate or have a parent bring some different clothing. Maybe just more inforcement is needed on both of these issues. This will also be discussed among the management team.
One other policy issue that I asked Mr. Tubbs to address is the drug policy. I asked if the recent use of prescription drugs was dealt with correctly and fairly. He stated the basics of what happened. He admitted that he should have informed the board about this issue at the time. He stated the policy and procedure that was used and assured us that is was followed appropriately. One reason he gave for not providing us with the details is, if after the administration suspends students or other punishment, the student can then appeal this judgement to the board. So it's in our best interest not to know a lot about the issue.
We asked about Pay for Performance. He said the school is using the state plan this year. I asked for more details of what exactly the state plan is. He is working with the teacher representative to see how the teachers would like us to allocate this fund in the future. We are going to get some information from some other schools to get an idea of how they are setting up their plans. I think the board needs to be informed of what they come up with and have further discussions on this matter. We need to have this done by September.
April also asked about getting more training to understand our school budget. Mr. Tubbs provided an outline of the school funding that I think he will present in our committee meeting. Maybe I will write another blog about the information provided at that meeting next week. She also asked about the savings of the four day week. Attendance was also talked about. I thought we were told our attendance had improved, but the handout we received was mostly the opposite. 2011 we had 74 kindergartners with attendance at 91.89%, this year there are 60 enrolled with 94.18 % attendance. Grades 1-6 last year had 356 students with 92.76% attendance, this year there are 339 students with 90.27% attendance. Grades 7-12 last year 334 with an average of 98.54%, this year 341 with 96.45%. There was a question if this information was correct, I believe there is an issue of our numbers not being the same as the states numbers. I am a Little unclear as I write this what the problem is and will have to investigate further. I didn't see this information before the meeting. Bottom line if our attendance is much less it means less funding.
I then asked some more questions that I had from the cottage meeting and other input I had received. I asked how our plans for technology were proceeding. They are getting ideas in place, but are waiting to see what might happen with the legislation this fall. I asked about concurrent college credits and having the state pay for them. This was something Senator Bair had told me about. I was told the students have to have all their credits for graduation earned before the state will step in and pay for the online courses for college credits. Students can do this on their own before graduation requirements are met, but the state won't pay for them.
It was asked if we have a grant writer in the school. Mr. Tubbs said some of the administration had written grants, but it didn't sound like there has been much time dedicated doing this. They are trying to get two grants to help pay the cost of the bleachers. One of these had expired before the grant was applied for and they are still waiting for word on the other. I asked if maybe this could be one area we might provide a pay for performance incentive to encourage someone to take on writing grants. I think if we had someone with the right skills writing for grants we could acquire more funding for the schools.
It was asked about the problem of not having administrators in the buildings when they were needed. The biggest problem with this issue is the lack of administrators. With Mr. Tubbs both Superintendent and Principal and Mr. Gee both Principal and Athletic Director, they can't be everywhere. This wasn't talked about a lot during general session, but I might add without going into details because it was during the executive session, that this issue was talked about a lot during executive session. We will work on some ideas that might help improve this situation. But again, it's mostly a funding issue.
I brought up the concern about some classes may be behind on the lessons because of the four day schedule, and the problem that being behind might lower ISAT scores. The administration wasn't aware of any problems with this, but I think they will check into it.
Title 1 Funding was talked about some and how this money is used. This funding comes from federal funds and has been reduced. We use most of these funds for our Aides. There was a concern brought to me that the lower grades didn't have enough Aides to always be available to help in the classroom when needed. Not having a summer school program and also not having enough Aides for the younger kids, is a big concern to me. But sad to say this is another issue where lack of funding makes it hard to improve. I don't know what has been done for sure myself, but I wonder if there would be a way to get more parents involved in the classroom to help these kids.
Common Core Standards were briefly mentioned during the meeting, and I remembered to follow up and ask more about it later. This is where several states are getting together and trying to establish common grade level material. So a student can move to any of these states and receive the same education in whatever grade they are in. They are working on this, but I think have more to do. One concern about this is we are supposed to be on the same material, we might need to be using the same books, which would require us buying different books than we currently are using or newer books. And as you might guess books are very expensive. As far as I know, I doubt the state will also provide the funding for these new books. I hope to hear more about this as they work on it. At some point in the future the schools will go to different testing based on these Common Core Standards.
I also brought up a board training session that the ISBA is putting on August 2nd in Rigby. The topics they plan on teaching about is many of the items I have just talked about, and more. The cost is $70 each if we sign up for this soon. I think it would be very worthwhile for us to attend, and I think most of the board is now planing on going. I had been told also we qualified for some private training in our school. Mr. Tubbs will check on that also.
We are going to have a budget work session May 23 at 7:00 in the high school library. By then we should have the budget information we need to establish our budget for next year, and know how we will end up this year. I think we will need to have a serious discussion about where our funding stands, and if we need to try for another Levy to provide funding for the things we are lacking to better educate our students. If anyone would like to sit in on our committee meeting next week to better understand how our school budget works you are welcome to attend. All these meetings are open meetings to the public.
There was a first reading of a new policy update regarding Evaluation of Certified Staff. Part of it includes an evaluation from parents. There was a concern brought to me about how many of these evaluations would be put into the teacher's file and how they would be selected. There was a concern with the way it had been done it might not be fair to the teachers. There is also a problem getting evaluations from parents especally in the high school, and concern in some cases only parents with complaints would fill out an evaluation. This is all part of the new education laws that were passed last year. I am not sure how exatly this will be changed, but there will be improvements made to this process.
I might add that other items that were brought to our attention at our cottage meeting, and in private were also discussed in depth during the executive session, that is mainly why it went so late. All I can say about these things are, you have to trust me that I want to see improvement, and will keep doing what I can to see that the other concerns brought up will improve.
Sorry this is so long I hope you made it to the end. There was a lot discussed. Thank you for your input. I got asked how I learned about some of the things I talked about, and if the concerns I brought up came from more than one person. I told them I have been getting quite a lot of input, and that some of it was generated from the blog that I write, and the fact that I respond to the input I get. I think of the board members only April reads my blog, maybe I'm wrong, but doubt it. I feel like my blog is getting read by more all the time. I think word is spreading. It is providing a way to get information out to those who can't attend the meetings, plus hopefully provide a way for those who choose to, to be able to respond. Thank you for the response. I always welcome ideas and concerns you might have. If I don't hear these things, I'm not able to help improve them. Thank you again, Brian
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Reply to Anonymous Patron
I wrote a reply to this comment, but somehow it was erased. So I decided to make it a new blog so it can be seen easier.
I hope you look back and read my comments. I can understand how you might not want to identify yourself on my blog, but I wish you would email me on my school address. If you did and wanted your comments kept private, I wouldn't tell anyone who you are. It is hard to address you concerns not knowing anymore details. I don't think any student should be bullied for any reason, including differences in religious beliefs. I would hope that any teacher or administrator would stop this from happening if they saw it. But not knowing any details it is hard to know how to address your specific concerns.
When I hear comments like, accounting for past spending. I would like to ask in what ways do you think we haven't spent money appropriately? When I hear the board needs to make a lot of changes but no details are given. I would like to ask. What changes do you think we should make? If you think the board doesn't try and respond to problems that you see going on but you don't make us aware of them, what can we do?
If you can't attend board meetings, you can still contact me or the administrators or other board members. I always respond to emails.
If you have followed my past blogs, you should know some ways I have tried to change things for the better. A couple things. We now have a lot better committee structure. We meet each month and discuss things to bring to the board. We have made many cuts to save money, including going to a four day week, and laying off teachers. Adjusting to the cuts has caused some problems that we have had to deal with. There are still more adjustments to make.
Again I would welcome you comments in a private email. Thank you, Brian
I hope you look back and read my comments. I can understand how you might not want to identify yourself on my blog, but I wish you would email me on my school address. If you did and wanted your comments kept private, I wouldn't tell anyone who you are. It is hard to address you concerns not knowing anymore details. I don't think any student should be bullied for any reason, including differences in religious beliefs. I would hope that any teacher or administrator would stop this from happening if they saw it. But not knowing any details it is hard to know how to address your specific concerns.
When I hear comments like, accounting for past spending. I would like to ask in what ways do you think we haven't spent money appropriately? When I hear the board needs to make a lot of changes but no details are given. I would like to ask. What changes do you think we should make? If you think the board doesn't try and respond to problems that you see going on but you don't make us aware of them, what can we do?
If you can't attend board meetings, you can still contact me or the administrators or other board members. I always respond to emails.
If you have followed my past blogs, you should know some ways I have tried to change things for the better. A couple things. We now have a lot better committee structure. We meet each month and discuss things to bring to the board. We have made many cuts to save money, including going to a four day week, and laying off teachers. Adjusting to the cuts has caused some problems that we have had to deal with. There are still more adjustments to make.
Again I would welcome you comments in a private email. Thank you, Brian
Monday, April 30, 2012
Cottage Meeting April 25th
I was happy to have a good group at April's and my cottage meeting. Not counting myself there were 18 in attendance. I started out talking about my meeting with Senator Bair, which I have talked about in the previous post. I talked about not really knowing yet how our this years school budget would end up. I talked some about the things we have had to cut, like summer school, and with less teachers how we can't offer as many electives as we would like. I asked as we look forward are these the kind of things patrons would be willing to fund a Levey for. I really don't like the idea of not offering summer school anymore. I understand how summer school can help some kids get caught up in their reading skills. I know this from experience. I was young September born boy. I was also very stubborn and hated to read. I would just pretend to read in class which worked for awhile. Probably just long enough to get me behind in school. I remember having to go to summer school in Shelley to take reading lessons from Mrs. Berg. I can't remember how many years I had to do this, but it did have the desired effect on me. I am still not a big reader, but I was able to improve my skills to catch up with my class. If I hadn't had the opportunity to be in a summer reading program, I probably would have struggled all through school.
Well back to the meeting. We have three high school teachers teaching in the middle school to cover the reduced staff we have there. Because of this we can't offer as many electives as we would like to in the high school. I hope at some point we are able to receive more funding so we can provide more opportunities in the high school. If not before, I hope when the middle school bond levy expires in I think 2014, we can ask for a levy to better fund our schools. The bond is for I think $250,000 a year. That much would go a long ways toward improving our funding.
I talked some about my concerns how the online program might be harder on our budget through lost ADA funding. Having to pay someone outside our school to provide these classes. And the challenge of having someone able to help the kids with these classes.
We talked about the stories going around about someone in the high school selling prescription drugs. There were a lot of stories but not much facts. I hadn't heard anything from the school directly about this. There was some concern about if our school policies were followed dealing with this issue. But again, I didn't know so I couldn't comment. I have struggles to get information on matters like this. I think I should be well aware of these type of issues so when asked I can respond appropriately. I do have an update on this matter. I talked to Mr. Tubbs and he filled me in a lot more. My understanding is at least one student was giving some pain medication to other students that were complaining of being in pain. I don't know if any money changed hands or if the students involved truly understood how illegal this is. The police were called in, and they investigated this issue, so it's up to the authorities how this is dealt with. I would like to think this would be a good wake up call for these students, to set them straight.
There was a lot of comments about the discipline problems in mostly the middle school. Students seem to have little respect for some of the teachers and substitute teachers. There was talk of fights going on during the school day, and complaints that not much was being done about it. I won't get into a lot of details that were brought up regarding this, but there is a growing concern among many how bad this is getting and what to do about it. There were stories how cell phone use in the high school is getting out of hand. A lot of students are texting in class, and someone said a mother called her daughter on her phone during class. The teacher would ask for the phone and the student would refuse to give it to her. There was concern that a lot of these problems were caused because of a lack of parent involvement and the lack of discipline and respect taught from their homes. There was a discussion of ideas of how to teach kids to have more respect for others. There was also concern about what the school policies are on matters like this, and if they are followed, and if discipline is applied fairly between students. April and I plan on studying this better ourselves to see if we need to have better defined policies. There was also concern brought up how many times when a school administrator was needed to deal with these issues they were not in the building. I think most of this problem is because of the multiple duties our administrators have.
There was a suggestion that Title I money could be spent to better educate parents about discipline matters in the grades K-8. I need to understand more about this funding. I have been reading some information about the use of these funds that was sent to me. I do know this money has been cut too. I will have questions about this during our next board meeting, so I can understand how we use this fund.
There was also a concern about the school dress policy. Some were saying kids are coming to school dressed very inappropriately, and that not much was being done about this. I need to find out how the school handles this also and if we need to encourage better compliance and enforcement.
I asked about the school calendar for next year. Those present seemed to support the original plan that was presented by the calendar committee. There were many objections to the idea of going to school after Memorial Day.
There was concerns that in some classes teachers aren't getting through the curriculum fast enough, especially math classes. Those who brought this up think it is because of not adjusting very well to the four day schedule. This is very important in many ways, one being that students need to be at a certain point in the year before they take the ISAT tests. If they are behind they won't understand all the concepts that are tested.
Another follow-up from my last post about Pay For Performance. When I talked to Mr. Tubbs, he assured me what we have done following the state plan this year is okay. There won't be an issue of not developing this plan further as a district. If we want to do our own plan which I think we do we will have to work on this pretty soon for next year. Some of what Mr. Tubbs said about this is very different than what Senator Bair said. I plan on investigating this further to better understand how this works and reconcile for myself the differences in what I was told.
During the meeting some parents expressed concern their children were not getting the proper help they need to succeed in school. They felt the school was slow to react to resolve the problems they were having. I hope this situation will improve and will try and encourage a better response to these parents.
There were a couple more things brought up in private that April and I plan on dealing with during a board executive session.
I feel like it was a good meeting and I am glad we did it. I think most present thought it was worth their time. I assured everyone we would follow-up on the concerns that were brought up. I think the input we received will provide a good board discussion at our next meeting. Thank you. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Brian Esplin
Well back to the meeting. We have three high school teachers teaching in the middle school to cover the reduced staff we have there. Because of this we can't offer as many electives as we would like to in the high school. I hope at some point we are able to receive more funding so we can provide more opportunities in the high school. If not before, I hope when the middle school bond levy expires in I think 2014, we can ask for a levy to better fund our schools. The bond is for I think $250,000 a year. That much would go a long ways toward improving our funding.
I talked some about my concerns how the online program might be harder on our budget through lost ADA funding. Having to pay someone outside our school to provide these classes. And the challenge of having someone able to help the kids with these classes.
We talked about the stories going around about someone in the high school selling prescription drugs. There were a lot of stories but not much facts. I hadn't heard anything from the school directly about this. There was some concern about if our school policies were followed dealing with this issue. But again, I didn't know so I couldn't comment. I have struggles to get information on matters like this. I think I should be well aware of these type of issues so when asked I can respond appropriately. I do have an update on this matter. I talked to Mr. Tubbs and he filled me in a lot more. My understanding is at least one student was giving some pain medication to other students that were complaining of being in pain. I don't know if any money changed hands or if the students involved truly understood how illegal this is. The police were called in, and they investigated this issue, so it's up to the authorities how this is dealt with. I would like to think this would be a good wake up call for these students, to set them straight.
There was a lot of comments about the discipline problems in mostly the middle school. Students seem to have little respect for some of the teachers and substitute teachers. There was talk of fights going on during the school day, and complaints that not much was being done about it. I won't get into a lot of details that were brought up regarding this, but there is a growing concern among many how bad this is getting and what to do about it. There were stories how cell phone use in the high school is getting out of hand. A lot of students are texting in class, and someone said a mother called her daughter on her phone during class. The teacher would ask for the phone and the student would refuse to give it to her. There was concern that a lot of these problems were caused because of a lack of parent involvement and the lack of discipline and respect taught from their homes. There was a discussion of ideas of how to teach kids to have more respect for others. There was also concern about what the school policies are on matters like this, and if they are followed, and if discipline is applied fairly between students. April and I plan on studying this better ourselves to see if we need to have better defined policies. There was also concern brought up how many times when a school administrator was needed to deal with these issues they were not in the building. I think most of this problem is because of the multiple duties our administrators have.
There was a suggestion that Title I money could be spent to better educate parents about discipline matters in the grades K-8. I need to understand more about this funding. I have been reading some information about the use of these funds that was sent to me. I do know this money has been cut too. I will have questions about this during our next board meeting, so I can understand how we use this fund.
There was also a concern about the school dress policy. Some were saying kids are coming to school dressed very inappropriately, and that not much was being done about this. I need to find out how the school handles this also and if we need to encourage better compliance and enforcement.
I asked about the school calendar for next year. Those present seemed to support the original plan that was presented by the calendar committee. There were many objections to the idea of going to school after Memorial Day.
There was concerns that in some classes teachers aren't getting through the curriculum fast enough, especially math classes. Those who brought this up think it is because of not adjusting very well to the four day schedule. This is very important in many ways, one being that students need to be at a certain point in the year before they take the ISAT tests. If they are behind they won't understand all the concepts that are tested.
Another follow-up from my last post about Pay For Performance. When I talked to Mr. Tubbs, he assured me what we have done following the state plan this year is okay. There won't be an issue of not developing this plan further as a district. If we want to do our own plan which I think we do we will have to work on this pretty soon for next year. Some of what Mr. Tubbs said about this is very different than what Senator Bair said. I plan on investigating this further to better understand how this works and reconcile for myself the differences in what I was told.
During the meeting some parents expressed concern their children were not getting the proper help they need to succeed in school. They felt the school was slow to react to resolve the problems they were having. I hope this situation will improve and will try and encourage a better response to these parents.
There were a couple more things brought up in private that April and I plan on dealing with during a board executive session.
I feel like it was a good meeting and I am glad we did it. I think most present thought it was worth their time. I assured everyone we would follow-up on the concerns that were brought up. I think the input we received will provide a good board discussion at our next meeting. Thank you. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Brian Esplin
Friday, April 27, 2012
My Meeting With Senator Bair
I thought since I said I would provide an update after meeting with Senator Bair, that I better get it done before I forgot a lot of what was said. I didn't take very many notes during our two and a half hour lunch and meeting. So here goes.
My wife and I met with Senator Bair and his wife at Tommy Vaughns. I had my topics for discussion broken down into two main items. The funding issues and my online concerns. I asked him if he had read the article questioning the consitutionality of the way schools are funded. He said that he had. I went over the premise that because poorer schools have to tax at a higher level than rich schools that it wasn't constitutional. First of all he disagreed with that premise. He even quoted a state supreme court case he said confirmed that it was constitutional.
I later found out after my emails I had sent him that he was so nervous to meet with me that he woke up at 4:30 and spent several hours going over things he thought I would ask him. He even printed a copy of the Students Come First Legislation and other documents to back up what he was telling me. The pile of papers he printed are at least an inch thick.
He told me how small schools get a better funding formula than large schools. He said it's because small schools without more help from state funds couldn't afford hiring all the qualified teachers we would need to teach all the subjects that need taught. He also said that if we were funded the same as the larger schools we would probably reicieve 30% less money than we get now. But I had pointed out the difference in the tax base per student, for example Firth at $226,000 and Blaine County at $4,000,000 and said that it is a whole lot easier to fund levies for the extra funds needed, and how much less of a tax they would need to have than us. He didn't disagree.
He gave me a paper that had all the cuts in the state budget that were made over the last few years. Public education was cut 10.3% far less than many other things had been. The state budget had gone from a high of $3,000,000,000 to a low of last year at $2,250,000,000. He said they would have had to increase the sales tax 2% to make up the difference in the public education budget, and that would have been too big a burden on the state economy. I can appreciate their concern about raising the sales tax that much, but don't overlook the burden and need for schools to then have levies to fund schools. I brought up what Senator Goeddle had said in the article implying that schools should be funded okay and only need levies if they wanted to fund something extra. And how he had said "just throwing money at public schools does not result in better education". He did agree that Senator Goeddle shouldn't have said that. He mentioned how schools have had levies for a long time before this financial problem. I pointed out how that was true, but that levies were used a lot different before. Levies used to be for the extra things beyond normal funding. Things like paying coaches more and offering a lot of extra electives. Now schools use levies to just try and fund schools to maintain basic education.
On this subjet I was trying to make him understand how in the media, and especially from Tom Luna, they make it sound like they have done well with funding schools and make it look like districts just can't live within their means, and ignore the burden levies have on the community.
I then got into my concerns about the online requirements that are being implimented this next year. He is a very strong proponent of this plan, so I had a hard time convincing him any different. But he at least acknowledged my concerns. I tried explaining how it just isn't the same to have a teacher teaching an online class, compared to having a teacher teaching in the classroom. He said there will be many ways to offer online classes that are not all online, or use the system that allows the students to see the teacher and the teacher to see the students. But he did concede that it isn't the same thing.
I asked him about the reduced funding for schools and teachers to fund this program. He didn't seem to think a lot more funds had been dedicated to this, but admitted that some had. I said at least the plan was a lot better than what Mr. Luna first wanted. He wanted at first for there to be a requirement of four classes instead of two. And for there not to be allowed to have a teacher in the room while they students were taking the class, and some other crazy ideas he had. At first he wanted the students to be able to take whatever class the student chose to take, now instead the school has control of what and how the classes are taken.The Senator explained Mr. Luna was a big idea guy, but he had others around him that took his ideas and made them more workable. I talked about how his ideas sure have a way of making people mad at him, and how he seemed to have no problem reducing teachers in schools to pay for this.
I talked about how I was concerned about the average or below average student succeeding taking these classes. He said there was a remediation plan for students that struggle to do somthing different, but I don't know yet what that alternative would be.
I tried expressing my concern about how do we help these kids taking these classes with less staff, and if we were able to provide the help necessary, how does that save money. I can't remember exatly how he answered this. He went into the idea how soon, the plan was for schools to get back to the same teacher funding formula we were at before. He explained that a teacher unit used to be funded at $24,000, but because of the cuts, it was reduced to $20,000 a unit. For us this meant the loss of three teachers last year. During our conversation he talked up all they had done to restore teacher salaries back to the grid, where they actually have hope of getting a raise sometime in the future. But acknowledged how they haven't done anything yet to restore the unit funding. From what I have read most of the surplus funding at least for this next year, if there is any, will go to fund the online program. I haven't read anything other than a very small amount going to discretionary funds. He said it all depends on the economy, but by the next budget they have plans to start restoring the unit funding, so eventually we should be able to hire more teachers.
I asked him about how I thought cheating would be a major concern. He didn't really say this wouldn't happen, but he explained with how the school manages this we should be able to prevent most of it. It will be up to the district for example, to decide if we let the students take the laptops home. The method of the classes offered could help prevent cheating. He also said the computers will have a chip in the hardware not the software, to filter the content they can access or download on the computer, which sounded like a good idea.
He said they had done piloting of this program in a few schools, I think Sugar Salem was one of them. He also referenced four big Texas school districts that had implimented an online program.
He talked with excitment with how this would be a tool for students to take conncurent college credits, and how this would save a lot of money. The state also plans on paying for the students to take these courses. The students can graduate early and start college with having earned credits for their college degree. He thinks the computers will save schools money for text books. Curriculam is a lot cheaper for a computer than buying a text book.
He did bring up some concerns for me. After the legislative session last year when they presented the pay for performance plan for the schools, we were told we needed to have a plan of how to impliment this plan. Things like how to reward hard working teachers with this money the state will give us if we meet certain state required goals. Because of the short time between finding out about this, and the time the state wanted to know what our plan would be, we were given the option of developing our own plan or going with the state plan, we were advised to go with the state plan so we did. Senator Bair said we should have submitted a detailed plan. In the state plan there is guidlines and suggestions of how to use the money, but no real plan as to axactly how this is to be done. He questioned if we haven't done this correctly, we may not even qualify for the money to be given to the school. I need to find out about this from Mr. Tubbs, but haven't had the chance yet to do so. I was given the impression from Mr. Bair that if we haven't done this right we may already be too late for this years funding. I sure hope this isn't the problem that I am afraid it is.
I also found out we should have submitted a technolgy plan. Detailing how we plan on implimenting the online program and making a request for what our needs will be for computers and the other technology we might need. He said most school districts had submitted their plans. I haven't heard anything about this yet. The administration may be working on it, but it hasn't come to the board. So good or bad, if I understood him right we won't be very high on the list for funding. He did say Snake River decided with the uncertanties with this legislation that it may be overturned by the voters this fall, they voted to not submit a plan until this issue is decided.
There was some other concerns that I need to find out about. But as I try and think of anything else, I believe that pretty much covers my conversation with Senator Bair. He said he would be happy to meet with Mr. Tubbs and talk over issues with him. He said he has never met him, and would like to. I will try and encourage them getting together. I am glad I brought my wife with me and not Mr. Tubbs. My wife had some good imput and I appriciated her support. I think we had a more open conversation, and I learned a lot more than if I had brought Mr. Tubbs. I also think I built a relationship with him. If there are other things that come up in the future, I think he would listen to what I have to say. We talked about a dairy issue that had been put aside. He said when this issue came back up I would be one of the first people he would discuss it with. So in this aspect I think it was well worth my time engaging him in a good debate over school issues.
I was going to write about the cottage meeting in this same blog, but this is very long in itself. As I am finishing, it's after 1:00 in the morning so I am tired and will try and write about the cottage meeting in the next day or two. I am going to have my wife do some editing of this, and since she was there, I will have her remind me it there is something she thinks is important that I may have left out. Thank you, Brian Esplin
My wife and I met with Senator Bair and his wife at Tommy Vaughns. I had my topics for discussion broken down into two main items. The funding issues and my online concerns. I asked him if he had read the article questioning the consitutionality of the way schools are funded. He said that he had. I went over the premise that because poorer schools have to tax at a higher level than rich schools that it wasn't constitutional. First of all he disagreed with that premise. He even quoted a state supreme court case he said confirmed that it was constitutional.
I later found out after my emails I had sent him that he was so nervous to meet with me that he woke up at 4:30 and spent several hours going over things he thought I would ask him. He even printed a copy of the Students Come First Legislation and other documents to back up what he was telling me. The pile of papers he printed are at least an inch thick.
He told me how small schools get a better funding formula than large schools. He said it's because small schools without more help from state funds couldn't afford hiring all the qualified teachers we would need to teach all the subjects that need taught. He also said that if we were funded the same as the larger schools we would probably reicieve 30% less money than we get now. But I had pointed out the difference in the tax base per student, for example Firth at $226,000 and Blaine County at $4,000,000 and said that it is a whole lot easier to fund levies for the extra funds needed, and how much less of a tax they would need to have than us. He didn't disagree.
He gave me a paper that had all the cuts in the state budget that were made over the last few years. Public education was cut 10.3% far less than many other things had been. The state budget had gone from a high of $3,000,000,000 to a low of last year at $2,250,000,000. He said they would have had to increase the sales tax 2% to make up the difference in the public education budget, and that would have been too big a burden on the state economy. I can appreciate their concern about raising the sales tax that much, but don't overlook the burden and need for schools to then have levies to fund schools. I brought up what Senator Goeddle had said in the article implying that schools should be funded okay and only need levies if they wanted to fund something extra. And how he had said "just throwing money at public schools does not result in better education". He did agree that Senator Goeddle shouldn't have said that. He mentioned how schools have had levies for a long time before this financial problem. I pointed out how that was true, but that levies were used a lot different before. Levies used to be for the extra things beyond normal funding. Things like paying coaches more and offering a lot of extra electives. Now schools use levies to just try and fund schools to maintain basic education.
On this subjet I was trying to make him understand how in the media, and especially from Tom Luna, they make it sound like they have done well with funding schools and make it look like districts just can't live within their means, and ignore the burden levies have on the community.
I then got into my concerns about the online requirements that are being implimented this next year. He is a very strong proponent of this plan, so I had a hard time convincing him any different. But he at least acknowledged my concerns. I tried explaining how it just isn't the same to have a teacher teaching an online class, compared to having a teacher teaching in the classroom. He said there will be many ways to offer online classes that are not all online, or use the system that allows the students to see the teacher and the teacher to see the students. But he did concede that it isn't the same thing.
I asked him about the reduced funding for schools and teachers to fund this program. He didn't seem to think a lot more funds had been dedicated to this, but admitted that some had. I said at least the plan was a lot better than what Mr. Luna first wanted. He wanted at first for there to be a requirement of four classes instead of two. And for there not to be allowed to have a teacher in the room while they students were taking the class, and some other crazy ideas he had. At first he wanted the students to be able to take whatever class the student chose to take, now instead the school has control of what and how the classes are taken.The Senator explained Mr. Luna was a big idea guy, but he had others around him that took his ideas and made them more workable. I talked about how his ideas sure have a way of making people mad at him, and how he seemed to have no problem reducing teachers in schools to pay for this.
I talked about how I was concerned about the average or below average student succeeding taking these classes. He said there was a remediation plan for students that struggle to do somthing different, but I don't know yet what that alternative would be.
I tried expressing my concern about how do we help these kids taking these classes with less staff, and if we were able to provide the help necessary, how does that save money. I can't remember exatly how he answered this. He went into the idea how soon, the plan was for schools to get back to the same teacher funding formula we were at before. He explained that a teacher unit used to be funded at $24,000, but because of the cuts, it was reduced to $20,000 a unit. For us this meant the loss of three teachers last year. During our conversation he talked up all they had done to restore teacher salaries back to the grid, where they actually have hope of getting a raise sometime in the future. But acknowledged how they haven't done anything yet to restore the unit funding. From what I have read most of the surplus funding at least for this next year, if there is any, will go to fund the online program. I haven't read anything other than a very small amount going to discretionary funds. He said it all depends on the economy, but by the next budget they have plans to start restoring the unit funding, so eventually we should be able to hire more teachers.
I asked him about how I thought cheating would be a major concern. He didn't really say this wouldn't happen, but he explained with how the school manages this we should be able to prevent most of it. It will be up to the district for example, to decide if we let the students take the laptops home. The method of the classes offered could help prevent cheating. He also said the computers will have a chip in the hardware not the software, to filter the content they can access or download on the computer, which sounded like a good idea.
He said they had done piloting of this program in a few schools, I think Sugar Salem was one of them. He also referenced four big Texas school districts that had implimented an online program.
He talked with excitment with how this would be a tool for students to take conncurent college credits, and how this would save a lot of money. The state also plans on paying for the students to take these courses. The students can graduate early and start college with having earned credits for their college degree. He thinks the computers will save schools money for text books. Curriculam is a lot cheaper for a computer than buying a text book.
He did bring up some concerns for me. After the legislative session last year when they presented the pay for performance plan for the schools, we were told we needed to have a plan of how to impliment this plan. Things like how to reward hard working teachers with this money the state will give us if we meet certain state required goals. Because of the short time between finding out about this, and the time the state wanted to know what our plan would be, we were given the option of developing our own plan or going with the state plan, we were advised to go with the state plan so we did. Senator Bair said we should have submitted a detailed plan. In the state plan there is guidlines and suggestions of how to use the money, but no real plan as to axactly how this is to be done. He questioned if we haven't done this correctly, we may not even qualify for the money to be given to the school. I need to find out about this from Mr. Tubbs, but haven't had the chance yet to do so. I was given the impression from Mr. Bair that if we haven't done this right we may already be too late for this years funding. I sure hope this isn't the problem that I am afraid it is.
I also found out we should have submitted a technolgy plan. Detailing how we plan on implimenting the online program and making a request for what our needs will be for computers and the other technology we might need. He said most school districts had submitted their plans. I haven't heard anything about this yet. The administration may be working on it, but it hasn't come to the board. So good or bad, if I understood him right we won't be very high on the list for funding. He did say Snake River decided with the uncertanties with this legislation that it may be overturned by the voters this fall, they voted to not submit a plan until this issue is decided.
There was some other concerns that I need to find out about. But as I try and think of anything else, I believe that pretty much covers my conversation with Senator Bair. He said he would be happy to meet with Mr. Tubbs and talk over issues with him. He said he has never met him, and would like to. I will try and encourage them getting together. I am glad I brought my wife with me and not Mr. Tubbs. My wife had some good imput and I appriciated her support. I think we had a more open conversation, and I learned a lot more than if I had brought Mr. Tubbs. I also think I built a relationship with him. If there are other things that come up in the future, I think he would listen to what I have to say. We talked about a dairy issue that had been put aside. He said when this issue came back up I would be one of the first people he would discuss it with. So in this aspect I think it was well worth my time engaging him in a good debate over school issues.
I was going to write about the cottage meeting in this same blog, but this is very long in itself. As I am finishing, it's after 1:00 in the morning so I am tired and will try and write about the cottage meeting in the next day or two. I am going to have my wife do some editing of this, and since she was there, I will have her remind me it there is something she thinks is important that I may have left out. Thank you, Brian Esplin
Saturday, April 21, 2012
School funding realities
For those of you who don't read the Shelley Pioneer. I sent this as a letter to the Editor.
It has a lot of the same information as my last post. Maybe just more to the point. I am taking my wife to a lunch meeting with Senator Bair on Tuesday. Thanks, Brian
School funding
There was a recent article in the papers about the constitutionality of how the state funds schools. A nonprofit called Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy wrote a twenty page report about this. I don't quite live in the Shelley school district, but most of my farm ground is in Shelley, so I do have an interest. This article points out the difference between rich school districts like Blaine County and the poorer districts like Firth and Shelley. There are 115 school districts in Idaho. In the state rankings based on taxable value per student. Blaine County is ranked 3rd with a dollar value per student of about $4,000,000. Firth is ranked 100th at $227,000 and Shelley is 109th at $191,000. The state constitution states "that the state, not the local districts, are to provide a uniform and thorough system of public and free schools". Because the state support for school funding has dropped so much it is forcing most schools to have levies to maintain a basic level of funding. It has a lot of information, but the main point is, because of the real need to have levies, the poorer districts have to tax at a higher rate than the wealthy districts and because of this it is unconstitutional.
The article quotes the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He doesn't think this is a problem. One thing he is quoted as saying is, "The current system gives communities the chance to approve property tax levies if they want to spend more than the state supplies". He also says, "just throwing money at the public schools does not result in better education". I find this statement offensive. Districts aren't just throwing hard earned taxpayer's money at schools to fund the deficit brought on us by the state, the state is forcing districts to have levies.
I wish Tom Luna would have the courage to say something like--"It's our fault because of the economy we had to reduce school funding to the point that we now expect the local districts to raise property taxes to fund local levies to support their own funding adequate for their local school districts". But he would never say anything like this, he would rather give the impression in the media that they have funded schools okay, and if there is a deficit in funds it's somehow the local districts fault.
Thank you, Brian Esplin Firth school board member and Shelley property taxpayer.
It has a lot of the same information as my last post. Maybe just more to the point. I am taking my wife to a lunch meeting with Senator Bair on Tuesday. Thanks, Brian
School funding
There was a recent article in the papers about the constitutionality of how the state funds schools. A nonprofit called Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy wrote a twenty page report about this. I don't quite live in the Shelley school district, but most of my farm ground is in Shelley, so I do have an interest. This article points out the difference between rich school districts like Blaine County and the poorer districts like Firth and Shelley. There are 115 school districts in Idaho. In the state rankings based on taxable value per student. Blaine County is ranked 3rd with a dollar value per student of about $4,000,000. Firth is ranked 100th at $227,000 and Shelley is 109th at $191,000. The state constitution states "that the state, not the local districts, are to provide a uniform and thorough system of public and free schools". Because the state support for school funding has dropped so much it is forcing most schools to have levies to maintain a basic level of funding. It has a lot of information, but the main point is, because of the real need to have levies, the poorer districts have to tax at a higher rate than the wealthy districts and because of this it is unconstitutional.
The article quotes the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He doesn't think this is a problem. One thing he is quoted as saying is, "The current system gives communities the chance to approve property tax levies if they want to spend more than the state supplies". He also says, "just throwing money at the public schools does not result in better education". I find this statement offensive. Districts aren't just throwing hard earned taxpayer's money at schools to fund the deficit brought on us by the state, the state is forcing districts to have levies.
I wish Tom Luna would have the courage to say something like--"It's our fault because of the economy we had to reduce school funding to the point that we now expect the local districts to raise property taxes to fund local levies to support their own funding adequate for their local school districts". But he would never say anything like this, he would rather give the impression in the media that they have funded schools okay, and if there is a deficit in funds it's somehow the local districts fault.
Thank you, Brian Esplin Firth school board member and Shelley property taxpayer.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
School Funding Update
I just wanted to point out an article that came out in Monday's Morning News. The front page headline was about school funding and about a report questioning Idaho's system of funding schools. The report was by the nonprofit Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy. The report says because of changes to the school funding system the state may be in violation of the state constitutional requirement to maintain a uniform and thorough system of public and free schools. This is interesting to me because it states many of the same problems with our school funding, and what's happened over the last few years, that I asked Senator Bair and the Department of Education about. The report talks about how the funding problems have brought about the need for local funded property tax levies. It says two thirds of the state's school districts now have them. One major problem with this is the disparities in wealth among school districts. So as I interpret what this means. It's saying because of the differences in wealth among school districts it violates the state constitution to provide uniform and thorough system of education. In other words wealthy school districts can provide better funding to schools than those not so wealthy and that violates the constitution. I would think this is especially the case when the school levy may only provide the very basic funding needed for the district. Funding that I would think should be provided from the state, not the local taxpayers. The report says that changing funding to schools and forcing the local schools to have to use levies in a dramatic way violates the constitution. One thing that the article doesn't point out, is there is an even bigger issue in districts that can't get voter support to fund a levy at all let alone a lesser amount than rich districts. Now the trick will be to get anyone in state politics to accept this report and do anything about it.
The article goes on to quote the Senate Education Chairman John Goeddle from Coeur d'Alene. After reading what he said he must be from a very rich district where funding isn't an issue. He states that the current system gives communities the chance to approve property tax levies if they want to spend more than the state supplies. He goes on to say, he thinks the state has an obligation to fund some equitable level of public school education, and I think it's the option of the local taxpayers to fund anything over that level if it's their desire. Later he says he hasn't read the report, but questions if there is any problem with equity in funding, or anything constitutionally wrong. His last statement was, "just throwing money at the public schools does not result in better education." At least he says if there is a problem it needs discussed.
After reading this, where do I start? When he says schools are given the chance to approve levies if they want to spend more than the state supplies, you wouldn't have two thirds of the districts with levies if the state supplied anything close to adequate funding. I don't claim to understand how state school funding works, but I can't see how districts with a low tax base can achieve an adequate level of sustainable funding without a local levy. We don't just have a desire to have a levy over what the state provides, there is no way we can now even sustain the basics of school funding anymore without a levy. This is the problem I have talked about with the state politicians. They seem to think they have done an okay job of funding schools, and that opinion gets presented in the media. Funding levies for more than what the state provides used to mean, if you wanted to pay more for coaches or teachers than the state funds, so maybe you could attract that star winning coach, or keep your very best teachers you would have a levy. If you wanted to lower your class sizes below state standards you had a levy. If you wanted to fund numerous extra-curricular class electives you had a levy. Now I think most school districts are just trying to fund basic school funding. I know a lot of schools have had to reduce funding for these extra traditional ways levies were used in the past.
In Firth, to my knowledge, we have never funded teachers, class sizes, or coaches or anything else above state funded recommendations. So as the school funding has dropped the last few years, we have had to cut in a lot of other areas. So to me he implies that if we live within what the state provides we shouldn't need a levy. I think he is very wrong, and it bothers me that the chairman of the senate education department thinks this way. As I have written about recently, it sure seems as if most of the politicians just go along and vote with the majority without really studying things over for themselves. And also the fact they have pushed school funding back on local property tax payers. So in the media they make themselves look good and local school boards end up appearing as if they just can't manage what they are provided.
I have not had my meeting with Senator Bair yet. I will write an update after I do. Thank you, Brian
The article goes on to quote the Senate Education Chairman John Goeddle from Coeur d'Alene. After reading what he said he must be from a very rich district where funding isn't an issue. He states that the current system gives communities the chance to approve property tax levies if they want to spend more than the state supplies. He goes on to say, he thinks the state has an obligation to fund some equitable level of public school education, and I think it's the option of the local taxpayers to fund anything over that level if it's their desire. Later he says he hasn't read the report, but questions if there is any problem with equity in funding, or anything constitutionally wrong. His last statement was, "just throwing money at the public schools does not result in better education." At least he says if there is a problem it needs discussed.
After reading this, where do I start? When he says schools are given the chance to approve levies if they want to spend more than the state supplies, you wouldn't have two thirds of the districts with levies if the state supplied anything close to adequate funding. I don't claim to understand how state school funding works, but I can't see how districts with a low tax base can achieve an adequate level of sustainable funding without a local levy. We don't just have a desire to have a levy over what the state provides, there is no way we can now even sustain the basics of school funding anymore without a levy. This is the problem I have talked about with the state politicians. They seem to think they have done an okay job of funding schools, and that opinion gets presented in the media. Funding levies for more than what the state provides used to mean, if you wanted to pay more for coaches or teachers than the state funds, so maybe you could attract that star winning coach, or keep your very best teachers you would have a levy. If you wanted to lower your class sizes below state standards you had a levy. If you wanted to fund numerous extra-curricular class electives you had a levy. Now I think most school districts are just trying to fund basic school funding. I know a lot of schools have had to reduce funding for these extra traditional ways levies were used in the past.
In Firth, to my knowledge, we have never funded teachers, class sizes, or coaches or anything else above state funded recommendations. So as the school funding has dropped the last few years, we have had to cut in a lot of other areas. So to me he implies that if we live within what the state provides we shouldn't need a levy. I think he is very wrong, and it bothers me that the chairman of the senate education department thinks this way. As I have written about recently, it sure seems as if most of the politicians just go along and vote with the majority without really studying things over for themselves. And also the fact they have pushed school funding back on local property tax payers. So in the media they make themselves look good and local school boards end up appearing as if they just can't manage what they are provided.
I have not had my meeting with Senator Bair yet. I will write an update after I do. Thank you, Brian
Saturday, April 14, 2012
April 12th School Board Meeting
Before I get into the board meeting. I have a little update from my last post. Senator Bair emailed me the next day and wants to meet me somewhere for a visit. He said he would meet for lunch or come to my house whenever it was convenient for me. He gave me his cell number to call him. I haven't done this yet. I mentioned to Mr. Tubbs after our board meeting that he wanted to meet with me. Mr. Tubbs asked if he could join us if that's okay. Part of me would like to meet with him by myself, because I had no outside information, for what I have emailed him. But maybe it would have more impact if he joined in. Maybe I wouldn't feel as comfortable telling him everything on my mind if he is there. I will have to decide.
Well here goes my summary of the board meeting, with some of our committee meeting discussion mixed in. It was held the week before.
Bart was not there. His son is very sick with pnemonia. I hope he feels better soon.
Lisa Phelps has resigned from teaching, I think from the second grade. She was a very good young teacher and will be missed. Mr. Tubbs has said her position will not be replaced. I don't know how they plan on moving teachers around to replace her. The second grade will need three teachers with the number of students that age.
We were presented a bid to replace our high school bleachers. The total bid is for $120,475. The money will come out of the student occupied fund. This fund can only be used for things like this. The school has to put a small amount of the total budget into this account every year. It currently has about $280,000 in it. We think it would be a good use of these funds, and we will still have a reserve to cover other things that might come up. The bid was accepted. It will take a long time to get them made and put in. They probably won't be installed until spud harvest time this fall. Mr. Tubbs thinks we can get a grant to pay for part of the cost, somewhere between $10,000 to $20,000. Once we accept the bid it's easier to get the grant. They will be very nice, and will meet all current safety requirements. We will have a few coloring options to choose from.
I then gave a report from the Excellence In Education Committee. We met last Thursday. I went over some of our discussion about the calendar for next year. It was recommended that we adopt the proposal that the calendar committee had come up with. Later the board had many questions and concerns with the calendar. The start date is August 13th. The plan was to have no school on Fridays even after Monday holidays. Have normal time off around holidays, and be done on the Friday before Memorial Day. There was a lot of concern starting that early, mostly because it can be very hot in the elementary building. Adapting to the required time for school on a four day schedule with no school on Fridays, requires some changes. In the committee it was brought up how there are a lot of athletic teams practicing the first of August, so those kids would be around. If they go to school after Memorial Day, it would be a challenge to have finals that week. It was later pointed out by Mr. Gee that it would be very hard for the seniors to have a senior sneak, if school went that late. I think educating kids after Memorial Day would be hard. I still think we should have stuck with the calendar presented or add two or three Fridays that fall after a holiday on Monday. It was pointed out that we could wait and turn in our calendar next month, so I made a motion to table it until next month. The calendar committee will come up with some more options to give to the school board before the next board meeting.
I also talked about our committee discussion about the Virtual Academy. I had asked Mr. Tubbs to present information about the funding problems with a Virtual Academy. He described how unit funding works. We have to have a unit to receive anymore funding. The size of a unit changes with the age of the kids. If the kids are kindergarten age it takes 40 kids to make a unit. I think from 1st to 8th it takes 23, and high school it takes 14 and a half. We were told there might be 12 kids wanting to attend the Virtual Academy, maybe more if they could recruit some from other schools. So bottom line this wouldn't likely bring in any money to cover the costs. Mr. Tubbs also talked about the challenges other schools have had with this program, and the changes that would have to be made with our policies and procedures. It would also be hard to hire a teacher for this program after laying off teachers from the regular classes. I recommended with all the unknowns and more expense to the school that we not go foreword with a Virtual Academy, and couldn't see the value in studying it further. There was more discussion but no more action.
I also talked about how we as a committee talked about ideas of how to get positive news out to the community. There are a lot of good things going on that people should hear about. Mr. Gee at the high school has been putting out a weekly email of the high school activities, and Mr. Mecham just put one out from the middle school, and Mr. Tubbs is working on an email from the elementary. This should help. I mentioned that the PTO spellathon had raised $4200, $1700 more than last year. It shows the community is willing to support our kids, and news like this needs to get to people. There is also ideas of getting more information in the newspapers. The PTO has really done a lot for the schools and should be thanked for their efforts.
In the committee meeting we talked some about the state of our funding. It's not good and sometime we are going to have to have a levy to bring us back to profitability. We have ideas of areas that we would like to have more funding for like summer school for example, but I think first of all we have to get our budget balanced. At our next committee meeting on May 17th at 7:00 I have asked Mr. Tubbs to give us all a lesson in school budgeting 101 you might call it. I want him to explain where all our funding comes from, what it is dedicated to, and what is truly discretional. I want him to go back to where we first started making cutbacks. I want a detailed list of all the cuts we made and the approximate savings from each item. Also to include the increased costs we may have passed on to the students and teachers. Including things like, no more summer school, no middle school football, less games and travel in some sports, no paid for field trips, less number of paid and lower paid coaches, no mid day kindergarten busing, less budget for textbooks and computers, the four day week, less teachers and paraprofessionals and less hours for them, and anything else he can think of. I would also like to have the amounts funding has dropped in each area from federal and state support. With all this information put together in a form easy to understand, I think we can then go foreword with a plan. We need to understand as close as possible where our money goes and how soon we will need to have a levy and for how much. I suggested that the whole board be invited to this meeting. From what I have read and talk about in my two recent posts. I don't believe the state will restore any degree of funding back to the schools, at least not anytime in the forcible future. We are on our own. We have to have a plan that we can make work for us. We can't let our schools fail. Whether we like it or not, the state is pushing some of the school support back to our local property taxes. I just wish they would admit this, and not keep giving the media the impression they have somehow made us whole, because they haven't. If you haven't read my two recent posts read them and you will understand what I am talking about better.
Back to the board meeting. We approved the BPA travel request to Chicago. They raised the money for their competition. One boy and two girls are going. We also approved the senior sneak. They are going to Lagoon and Lava Hot Springs on two consecutive days. They also raised the money or will pay the balance of what they need for this trip.
I also brought up the idea of cottage meetings. I don't think any board member has had one this year. It was asked during the committee meeting if we were going to have them. During the board meeting I asked for a show of hands who might come to one if we had them. Several hands went up. We all have had such poor attendance that I think we have all been discouraged to have them. April and I are planing on having ours together at my house. Hopefully that way we can get better attendance. Anyone can come to anybodies cottage meeting, you don't have to live in the zone. I have talked to April and I think we will have it here on April 25th at 7:00. My wife has volunteered to make some refreshments. If there is a change I will post it, so check back before that date to make sure there aren't any changes. I am not sure what the other board members are going to do. They will have to decide and get the news out to the paper or however they choose. I plan on having ours posted in the Pioneer also. I believe April was going to send out some invitations to her zone.
Well that is pretty much it. I do have a request. I spend quite a bit of time writing this blog. As you can tell from the time below often late at night, when I have time, and it's quiet so I can think. I am not a very efficient writer. I would really like your feedback. Doing this I always wonder if anybody is reading it, or if there is a value to very many in what I write. I see that I have six followers listed. Thank you for your interest. I know there has to be some questions or comments from what I write. Please give me feedback or at least in some way acknowledged you read this and want me to continue. Thanks, Brian
Well here goes my summary of the board meeting, with some of our committee meeting discussion mixed in. It was held the week before.
Bart was not there. His son is very sick with pnemonia. I hope he feels better soon.
Lisa Phelps has resigned from teaching, I think from the second grade. She was a very good young teacher and will be missed. Mr. Tubbs has said her position will not be replaced. I don't know how they plan on moving teachers around to replace her. The second grade will need three teachers with the number of students that age.
We were presented a bid to replace our high school bleachers. The total bid is for $120,475. The money will come out of the student occupied fund. This fund can only be used for things like this. The school has to put a small amount of the total budget into this account every year. It currently has about $280,000 in it. We think it would be a good use of these funds, and we will still have a reserve to cover other things that might come up. The bid was accepted. It will take a long time to get them made and put in. They probably won't be installed until spud harvest time this fall. Mr. Tubbs thinks we can get a grant to pay for part of the cost, somewhere between $10,000 to $20,000. Once we accept the bid it's easier to get the grant. They will be very nice, and will meet all current safety requirements. We will have a few coloring options to choose from.
I then gave a report from the Excellence In Education Committee. We met last Thursday. I went over some of our discussion about the calendar for next year. It was recommended that we adopt the proposal that the calendar committee had come up with. Later the board had many questions and concerns with the calendar. The start date is August 13th. The plan was to have no school on Fridays even after Monday holidays. Have normal time off around holidays, and be done on the Friday before Memorial Day. There was a lot of concern starting that early, mostly because it can be very hot in the elementary building. Adapting to the required time for school on a four day schedule with no school on Fridays, requires some changes. In the committee it was brought up how there are a lot of athletic teams practicing the first of August, so those kids would be around. If they go to school after Memorial Day, it would be a challenge to have finals that week. It was later pointed out by Mr. Gee that it would be very hard for the seniors to have a senior sneak, if school went that late. I think educating kids after Memorial Day would be hard. I still think we should have stuck with the calendar presented or add two or three Fridays that fall after a holiday on Monday. It was pointed out that we could wait and turn in our calendar next month, so I made a motion to table it until next month. The calendar committee will come up with some more options to give to the school board before the next board meeting.
I also talked about our committee discussion about the Virtual Academy. I had asked Mr. Tubbs to present information about the funding problems with a Virtual Academy. He described how unit funding works. We have to have a unit to receive anymore funding. The size of a unit changes with the age of the kids. If the kids are kindergarten age it takes 40 kids to make a unit. I think from 1st to 8th it takes 23, and high school it takes 14 and a half. We were told there might be 12 kids wanting to attend the Virtual Academy, maybe more if they could recruit some from other schools. So bottom line this wouldn't likely bring in any money to cover the costs. Mr. Tubbs also talked about the challenges other schools have had with this program, and the changes that would have to be made with our policies and procedures. It would also be hard to hire a teacher for this program after laying off teachers from the regular classes. I recommended with all the unknowns and more expense to the school that we not go foreword with a Virtual Academy, and couldn't see the value in studying it further. There was more discussion but no more action.
I also talked about how we as a committee talked about ideas of how to get positive news out to the community. There are a lot of good things going on that people should hear about. Mr. Gee at the high school has been putting out a weekly email of the high school activities, and Mr. Mecham just put one out from the middle school, and Mr. Tubbs is working on an email from the elementary. This should help. I mentioned that the PTO spellathon had raised $4200, $1700 more than last year. It shows the community is willing to support our kids, and news like this needs to get to people. There is also ideas of getting more information in the newspapers. The PTO has really done a lot for the schools and should be thanked for their efforts.
In the committee meeting we talked some about the state of our funding. It's not good and sometime we are going to have to have a levy to bring us back to profitability. We have ideas of areas that we would like to have more funding for like summer school for example, but I think first of all we have to get our budget balanced. At our next committee meeting on May 17th at 7:00 I have asked Mr. Tubbs to give us all a lesson in school budgeting 101 you might call it. I want him to explain where all our funding comes from, what it is dedicated to, and what is truly discretional. I want him to go back to where we first started making cutbacks. I want a detailed list of all the cuts we made and the approximate savings from each item. Also to include the increased costs we may have passed on to the students and teachers. Including things like, no more summer school, no middle school football, less games and travel in some sports, no paid for field trips, less number of paid and lower paid coaches, no mid day kindergarten busing, less budget for textbooks and computers, the four day week, less teachers and paraprofessionals and less hours for them, and anything else he can think of. I would also like to have the amounts funding has dropped in each area from federal and state support. With all this information put together in a form easy to understand, I think we can then go foreword with a plan. We need to understand as close as possible where our money goes and how soon we will need to have a levy and for how much. I suggested that the whole board be invited to this meeting. From what I have read and talk about in my two recent posts. I don't believe the state will restore any degree of funding back to the schools, at least not anytime in the forcible future. We are on our own. We have to have a plan that we can make work for us. We can't let our schools fail. Whether we like it or not, the state is pushing some of the school support back to our local property taxes. I just wish they would admit this, and not keep giving the media the impression they have somehow made us whole, because they haven't. If you haven't read my two recent posts read them and you will understand what I am talking about better.
Back to the board meeting. We approved the BPA travel request to Chicago. They raised the money for their competition. One boy and two girls are going. We also approved the senior sneak. They are going to Lagoon and Lava Hot Springs on two consecutive days. They also raised the money or will pay the balance of what they need for this trip.
I also brought up the idea of cottage meetings. I don't think any board member has had one this year. It was asked during the committee meeting if we were going to have them. During the board meeting I asked for a show of hands who might come to one if we had them. Several hands went up. We all have had such poor attendance that I think we have all been discouraged to have them. April and I are planing on having ours together at my house. Hopefully that way we can get better attendance. Anyone can come to anybodies cottage meeting, you don't have to live in the zone. I have talked to April and I think we will have it here on April 25th at 7:00. My wife has volunteered to make some refreshments. If there is a change I will post it, so check back before that date to make sure there aren't any changes. I am not sure what the other board members are going to do. They will have to decide and get the news out to the paper or however they choose. I plan on having ours posted in the Pioneer also. I believe April was going to send out some invitations to her zone.
Well that is pretty much it. I do have a request. I spend quite a bit of time writing this blog. As you can tell from the time below often late at night, when I have time, and it's quiet so I can think. I am not a very efficient writer. I would really like your feedback. Doing this I always wonder if anybody is reading it, or if there is a value to very many in what I write. I see that I have six followers listed. Thank you for your interest. I know there has to be some questions or comments from what I write. Please give me feedback or at least in some way acknowledged you read this and want me to continue. Thanks, Brian
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