This was a very unusual board meeting for me. I was in Washington DC attending a dairy meeting. I had requested to participate by phone. The auditorium is not really set up for this purpose. I eventually was able to participate during some of the meeting over Casey's phone. I could only hear most of what the board said but not any of the audience, so my report will not be complete.
Julie Cederberg gave a report on the budget, which I didn't hear. I also had no information with me about what was being presented. I had hoped there would be some information on the web site to follow, but there wasn't. All I had was the meeting agenda. I knew the finances would be close to what it was last year, but not really any details. In past years we have had a work session to review the budget, this year we didn't. When I was able to get on the call they had already had the budget presented. When I received the agenda the Friday before the meeting and saw that there was no extra meetings on the agenda I requested we have a work session and an executive session to discuss budget questions and other matters that would potentially effect our budget. I received no response to my request. I made the comparison that we review each policy update twice before we approve them, I thought we should have more time to review the budget, since it is one of our most important duties as board members. During the meeting I was asked what questions I had, but like I said I had no information so it was hard to ask specific questions, other than what I just mentioned. Bottom line, the rest of the board voted to approve the budget and I opposed.
Since I got home Sunday I looked at the information that was sent to me the day of the board meeting, by mail. I have questions and requested more information. I received more details like I requested but have not had a chance to review them yet. I have no problems with how our budget was developed and admire how well our district stays within our budget without a supplemental levy. I will try and figure out more of the details. I won't get into all the details of what budget questions I have. Since the board adopted the budget as presented, that's how we will move forward for this coming school year.
We approved the teacher negotiated contract for the year. There was a substantial insurance increase that we covered out of our small general fund increase from the state. But most of the rest of the contract was about the same as last year. Some teachers will get small increases because of a small bump from the state.
Lisa Jolley and Becky Thane were approved as new teachers in the district. Lisa to teach P.E. and health and Becky to teach math.
There was a report about how the district is doing to comply with Common Core Standards. It was hard to follow over the phone, but we were assured we are doing what is necessary to comply.
They had a discussion about how to update our Strategic Plan, but Casey's phone died, so I didn't hear what was said about this. I know this is something we need to develop a lot more and hope this will happen soon. I called April and was on her phone for the rest of the meeting, but for some reason, April's didn't work as well, I pretty much listened to nothing until the approvals at the end of the meeting.
There was quite a bit of public comment, but I didn't hear any of it. I heard later there was a report from the Education Foundation. I look forward to their help supporting our district.
Over the last while I have had a lot of questions. The first part of the month I emailed Mr. Tubbs a long list of these questions. The next day he replied by email then when I had more questions he called me. I will address some of them here, so if anyone may have wondered the same things you will know what I found out.
I had questions about the teacher negotiations. Mostly the fact that the whole board wasn't informed about what was presented and what was agreed to. Mr. Tubbs sent me a long reply explaining the process and the agreement. I encouraged him to provide more timely information next year.
There is merit pay again this year, similar to last years Pay for Performance plan. We will have to decide how to distribute these funds by September. I think we will have more discretion with the process this year, but it still has to be partly based on student achievement. I think they will get the money in November.
I had asked what summer projects the district was planning on doing this year. I didn't get this question answered at the time but there was information in our board packet. The main project for the high school is the area between the high school and seminary building. The estimated cost is $20,000. They also plan on rebuilding the four baseball backstops at the elementary school for a cost of about $10,000. Other projects include more wood chips and paint in the elementary school playground, and some desks and chairs for a couple of classrooms for about $4,400.
I asked if we ever received a grant for our high school bleachers last year. I knew they had applied for a couple of grants but had never heard if we received any money. Well no we didn't get the grants. I guess they are hard to get.
I had heard we received some grant money from the Idaho Dairy Council, which I am involved with. The school received money for new milk coolers and money to help fund the school breakfast program for next year. We received this for promoting the importance of drinking milk at breakfast. We are the only school in Idaho that received this award. The Breakfast award came from the national processor organization called Milkpep. They do the milk mustache adds among other things. I am glad Amy Dye applied for these funds and that the dairy industry provided them to our district.
I asked about the drill team. I heard from my daughter that the current teacher didn't wish to teach the drill team anymore. I am not sure of the status with the teacher, but I know there is consideration to not have a competitive team. They might decide to have an intramural type team that would only perform at home games and not participate at any competitions. I am curious what the girls think of this idea.
I asked about the suggestion box idea that I brought up after our cottage meeting, to make suggestions to the district. I didn't get a response to this question and forgot to ask about it when I talked to Mr. Tubbs on the phone. I will have to follow up on this.
I asked about the reduction of federal title I funding from the federal government. I was told it might result in the loss of up to two more aides. I later found out that with savings in other areas that we won't have to make these cuts. I'm glad we don't have to cut aides. I think we already are short on aides.
I mentioned how I was disappointed with how few scholarships our graduates received. It seems to me like several years ago our students received a lot more. I also mentioned how my oldest daughter was valedictorian, and worked hard looking for not very typical scholarships. She received $1000 from Tylenol for example, and a very good four year scholarship from an old liberal southern senator. I think our students should be able to get more scholarships, but I don't know how. I was told that the school provides a lot of information about scholarships but there seems to be very little interest for the students and parents to pursue any. Only four of the 60 students applied for the Kiwanis Club scholarship. If anyone has ideas for how the district can improve this process, let me or the administration know.
I asked for more reporting on federal programs. Mr. Tubbs oversees this and I would like to hear more about it at a board meeting. I had read where Shelley had done this. Mr. Tubbs said he does provide some information about this, but I think it would be good for the district to hear more about it.
I had questions about the web site and trying to read the policies. He said that was going to be a summer project to fix these issues. Since I asked him this, the problems have been fixed and the policies are much easier to look up. Hopefully the web site will be updated and work a lot better this next school year.
I asked if the district had any idea of how many students that live within our district that don't attend our schools. I think this would be interesting to know, but I didn't receive a response to this question. Maybe its hard to find out. I think they would have a pretty good idea of how many attend other schools by just calling and asking them. We know who attends our schools that don't live in our district. I would also think there are ways to find out how many are home schooled. I think this would be good information to have. Maybe it would help us to find out why these students don't attend here and try to address their concerns if possible, and encourage them to come back to Firth. More students mean more funding.
I also asked about the idea of evaluating the non core programs in the district. This idea had come up during a discussion recently but no action has been taken to do this. The management team has done this, but I think the board should review each program. I think we need to determine the level of support for these programs and the costs. I am not saying I want any of our already limited programs cut, but if we don't have much participation, we need to try and promote them more, find ways to improve them, or maybe try and provide something else if possible that would draw more interest. I will need to suggest further discussions about this.
There were a few more questions that were answered in other ways and some I can't discuss here. Next month we will welcome Paul Jensen as our new school board member. I would like to thank John Monson for his many years of service on our school board. This is also when we have our board reorganization and set the date, and place for our board meetings. I would rather we had our meetings in either the high school or middle school library. We seldom have enough visitors for there not to be enough room in the library. I think if we anticipated a large crowd we could move to the auditorium. Having the meetings in the library we wouldn't have to deal with our problematic sound system, and we could see and hear those who desire to give public comment better. I don't know if the rest of the board will support this idea. Let me know if you have a strong opinion either way about this.
I hope this information is worthwhile. I debated if I should write a blog this month. As always if you have any comments or suggestions let me know. Thanks, Brian
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
May 9th School Board Meeting
This was a fairly good attended meeting. I think most of the interest was about the school calendar. There was a work meeting before the regular session where we went over the superintendent evaluation. Bart did most of the work coming up with the evaluation. The evaluation process will in part require the superintendent to come up with goals to meet the different areas of evaluation. Most areas will have three levels of performance. We will use this plan this year and see how it works, with possible revisions later.
At the beginning we heard about some district accomplishments, starting with the high school. As many of you heard U.S. New magazine published a report on high achieving high schools. From what I understand most of the evaluation was based on the percent of students taking AP or Advanced Placement college level classes, and how well the students taking them performed on the AP tests. Firth ranked 4th in the state and 937th in the nation. Great job students and teachers.
Mr. Mecham then talked about the reading that has been done in the middle school. Reading had been identified as a weakness in some middle school students so they really worked on improving reading performance. The average student read 1150 pages this year. The extra reading has improved testing scores in many areas. Great job middle school students and teachers.
Not to be outdone the elementary through the accelerated reader program has read an amazing number of books and total words from September 1st to May 1st. The second through four grades read 5,519 books. Average number of books read was 33. Total words was 34,894,559. Average number of words per student was 212,121. Great job elementary students and teachers.
We then had a lengthy discussion about next years school calendar. Scott Jolley went over the results of a survey of calendar options that were posted on the district web site. Of the five options surveyed four of them received almost the same amount of votes. So it was left up to the board to come up with a compromise between the different options. There was mainly those who wanted to start school as late as possible, and didn't mind going after Memorial Day, and those who wanted to start earlier and didn't want to go after Memorial Day. There was concern brought up about how much actual learning that would be done after Memorial Day. Ms. Cook who teachers AP calculus said she needs as much time as possible early in the year to prepare the students for the final test. All the AP tests were taken last week, so going later and not starting early hurts them. We talked about going on three Fridays at the beginning of the year, but was advised against that because it might hurt our attendance too much. Well what we finally came up with is to start Monday August 19th. We had planned on having January 2nd off. But decided to start back on January 2nd and also go on Friday the 3rd, the only Friday school day of the year. School will end before Memorial Day. I made the motion to support this option and all the board approved.
During patron input we heard a report from Liz Killpack about reviving the education foundation. She has been doing a lot of research into what foundations can do and how best to function. They held a meeting the day before board meeting with about 25 in attendance. Liz was elected the president of the foundation. They plan on helping the district writing grants and trying to help fund some of the district needs. They will help the board in other areas were they can. She requested a board member sit in on their meetings which they plan on having the third Thursday each month and will report to the board their activities. She also requested the superintendent attend. I volunteered to attend when I can. I don't know very much about what a foundation can do and thought it would be a good way to learn and understand more how we can work together to improve the district.
That is pretty much all that happened. I will be out of town during the next board meeting. I will be in Washington DC lobbing congress in my capacity as president of the Western States Dairy Trade Association. We will have a meeting and I and another Idaho dairymen will visit our Idaho congressional delegation, trying to get them to support immigration reform. The Idaho Dairy Association will also be hosting a fund raiser for congressman Labrador. I wish it wasn't the same week as school board meeting where the board will hear the budget report. If you have any questions or concerns you would like me to hear about let me know on my school email. Thanks, Brian
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
April 11, 2013 Board Meeting
We had a work session starting at about 6:30 to discuss the superintendent evaluation for the future. We decided on a rough format to what we think should be in the evaluation. Rather than go through all the details, Bart and April volunteered to further develop the evaluation and present their ideas in the next meeting.
We were given two drawings of ways to improve the parking area between the high school and the seminary building. The trees would be removed and a cement barrier would be put in possibly similar to the cement and brick barriers by the highway. Costs would have to be evaluated. The barrier would block off a bus loading area, which would greatly improve safety. There was also the idea to have the bus lane in front of the high school, but seemed less acceptable. I like the idea of having it between buildings. Some small trees might be planted too.
Mr. Tubbs gave us some information that will effect our school budget for next year. He said because of sequestration our federal funding that funds some of our aides will be reduced. It seems as if the government is trying to make political points wherever they can. When they know more details we will have to decide how to deal with the cuts. He also told us our employee insurance costs were going to go up 13.2%. Last years increase was surprisingly small. I don't know the dollar impact to the district, but it will be substantial.
In board meeting Mr.Tubbs read the retirement notifications of Kim Williams who has taught for 39 years, and Dianna Pearson who has taught for 29 years. They will be missed. Now the process will begin to find their replacements.
We then had a discussion about the school calendar for next year. Because of when the holidays fall, it is difficult to have the year end before Memorial Day, and not start real early. Of the four options given to us the most popular option with the board was close to the same as this year. There has been a suggestion to add a couple more days to the calendar and reduce a few minutes each day. The preferred plan would be to start on Monday August 12th and end Thursday May 22nd. This would add two days and take away six minutes. Giving the teachers two more days to go through the lesson material is thought to be beneficial. After some discussion during public comment there was concern starting so early, but also support. There were other options discussed. I later requested calendar options that have school starting on August 19th ending the same day. To do this we would have to add the two days back, and have the same length of day as this year. It was suggested we could add back in a teacher's inservice day, the day after Labor Day. We decided against adding this day back last year because of attendance concerns during fair week. We then would have to add one more day or equivalent minutes, by either going a few more minutes each day or going to school on one Friday. I can live with these options but will not support going after Memorial Day. This will be further discussed at our next board meeting.
The senior class president then asked for approval for them to go on their senior sneak. They requested to travel to lagoon on May 22 returning that night. It sounded like they had things planned out well, and their trip was approved.
I then went over items discussed at April and my cottage meeting. The parking area concerns which I already discussed. There was concern about the challenges the kindergarden and first grade teachers have in their classrooms when their usual aide is not able to be in their room assisting them when expected. I didn't think a substitute was brought in if an aide was sick, or excused for whatever reason, but I was told they do have substitutes. There are times when they aren't able to be there for other reasons. I suggested trying to get parents to assist if possible, if they knew ahead of time when these occasions would occur.
I talked about the need to have security cameras in the middle school and elementary. Mr. Tubbs said the management team would evaluate the cost and prioritize the needs of the district. With such a tight budget, I think if funded it would have to come out of the student occupied fund. The same budget we used to fund the bleachers. We also need to update the strategic plan.
I mentioned there was still concern about the school dress code and cell phone use. I also mentioned the challenges of having our administrators spread so thin. The web site issues were discussed. Our school tech person has been very busy and getting the website updated has been a challenge. I also brought up the issue of having some middle school kids attending classes in the high school. On most occasions the students are coming and going at a little different times than the high school, so the administration didn't think there should be much direct interaction. I then mentioned the idea of having a suggestion box for patrons to provide input to the board. The idea was made that it would be good to put a box in each building. I think this would be worth a try to see how much and what kind of input we would receive. I will probably need to follow up on this idea.
We then went over a couple policy updates. We also approved a date change for our June board meeting, from Thursday the 13th, to Wednesday the 12th. There is a conflict for our business manager on the 13th. She has to attend a meeting that day, and June is when she presents the proposed budget for the year.
I am currently at a meeting in Boise for a dairy board I'm on called the Western States Dairy Trade Association. This group consists of associations representing 12 western states that deals with issues like immigration, environmental, animal welfare, and many other similar issues. I have been on this board for several years, and at this meeting I was elected to be the group's president. I think I will be in Washington DC during our scheduled June school board meeting, lobbying our congressional delegation about issues such as pending immigration reform. I also will be attending a meeting with another national dairy group.
I hope this information is of benefit. If you have any questions or concerns let me know. Thanks, Brian
Friday, March 29, 2013
Going Through Proper Channels
There seems to be confusion in how to go about trying to solve concerns some people may have. I want to try and address this here without pointing any fingers at anyone. When your child has some kind of an issue at school that you may need resolved, the first step is to go to the teacher and discuss it with him or her. If it can not be taken care of this way or at least to your satisfaction then you need to go to the building principal. I would hope that in most cases the principal can properly take care of whatever problem your child may have. But if things are still not resolved then contact Mr. Tubbs. He is the administrator over the principals, all the teachers and other staff. It is his job to make sure school policies were properly followed. If you still feel like your issue isn't resolved then you can bring it to the attention of your board member, or I would think any board member you would feel most comfortable discussing the issue with. Your board member will then most likey ask you if you have followed these steps as I just described, and may have further recommendations for you to follow.
It is very important to follow these steps for many reasons. The teacher knows your child better than anyone at the school, so they should know best how to deal with whatever concern you have. I would think the level of knowledge about the student decreases at each level. But this is also why we have policies, so for many issues the school administrators can refer to what is written in our policy manual. We as board members are cautioned not to get too involved with most issues. If there is say a suspension or other punishment given the student has the right to appeal to the board. We should try to stay unbiased so if there is an appeal, we can then hear the facts from all sides, and then as a board issue what I hope would be a fair judgement of the situation. Knowing too much before this would make it more difficult, and perhaps a board member may need to recuse themself by knowing too much.
I know it may be tempting to go right to your board member and expect that board member to solve you problem right away. It is also important to know an individual board member has no authority to take action by themselves. We are a board of five, and there has to be a majority to make any decision. I personally know very few of your children or even very many of the teachers. It is very hard for me to make a fair judgement of the situation. But saying this doesn't mean I think issues should go unresolved. There have been times when a parent talks to a board member about an issue they want delt with, but will indicate they don't want their name used. This is also a very hard situation to deal with. It's not fair to the teacher or administrator to be blamed for a situation that they may have no way of defending themselves over. I have also heard some teachers or aides may be afraid to openly express a concern they may see at the school over fear of being fired. I really don't think this would happen. If ever a teacher or anyone were to feel like their job was in jeopardy over speaking up on anything, as long as their concerns are honest and valid, I would like to know. I could just add from my other board experiences, I have experienced this situation myself and I won't except it at our school.
I would also like to ask for your help. There are some issues with discipline at the school that are very hard for the teachers and administrators to deal with. Please make sure your children of all ages are following the dress code, and for those who have cell phones please talk to them about when to use them. We have new policies addressing both of these issues. I have also heard there is a lack of respect given to some teachers and others. The halls are filled with crude and vulgar language at times. I hope there is a way for this behavior to change.
So to summarize if you have a problem, please follow these steps. Please don't just complain about something without trying to do what you can to solve your issue. It isn't an easy job to be a teacher or administrator, and our budget limitations putting more responsibilities on our administrators make it more difficult also. I hope I didn't offend anyone writing this. I just hope you better understand how to follow proper procedures. Thank you. Brian
It is very important to follow these steps for many reasons. The teacher knows your child better than anyone at the school, so they should know best how to deal with whatever concern you have. I would think the level of knowledge about the student decreases at each level. But this is also why we have policies, so for many issues the school administrators can refer to what is written in our policy manual. We as board members are cautioned not to get too involved with most issues. If there is say a suspension or other punishment given the student has the right to appeal to the board. We should try to stay unbiased so if there is an appeal, we can then hear the facts from all sides, and then as a board issue what I hope would be a fair judgement of the situation. Knowing too much before this would make it more difficult, and perhaps a board member may need to recuse themself by knowing too much.
I know it may be tempting to go right to your board member and expect that board member to solve you problem right away. It is also important to know an individual board member has no authority to take action by themselves. We are a board of five, and there has to be a majority to make any decision. I personally know very few of your children or even very many of the teachers. It is very hard for me to make a fair judgement of the situation. But saying this doesn't mean I think issues should go unresolved. There have been times when a parent talks to a board member about an issue they want delt with, but will indicate they don't want their name used. This is also a very hard situation to deal with. It's not fair to the teacher or administrator to be blamed for a situation that they may have no way of defending themselves over. I have also heard some teachers or aides may be afraid to openly express a concern they may see at the school over fear of being fired. I really don't think this would happen. If ever a teacher or anyone were to feel like their job was in jeopardy over speaking up on anything, as long as their concerns are honest and valid, I would like to know. I could just add from my other board experiences, I have experienced this situation myself and I won't except it at our school.
I would also like to ask for your help. There are some issues with discipline at the school that are very hard for the teachers and administrators to deal with. Please make sure your children of all ages are following the dress code, and for those who have cell phones please talk to them about when to use them. We have new policies addressing both of these issues. I have also heard there is a lack of respect given to some teachers and others. The halls are filled with crude and vulgar language at times. I hope there is a way for this behavior to change.
So to summarize if you have a problem, please follow these steps. Please don't just complain about something without trying to do what you can to solve your issue. It isn't an easy job to be a teacher or administrator, and our budget limitations putting more responsibilities on our administrators make it more difficult also. I hope I didn't offend anyone writing this. I just hope you better understand how to follow proper procedures. Thank you. Brian
Saturday, March 23, 2013
March 21st Cottage Meeting
April and I held a cottage meeting in the high school library Thursday. There were probably about twenty in attendance with some coming late and leaving early.
There was a concern brought up about the area between the high school and seminary building. The students park all over and all different directions. It is a safety hazard with students walking to the seminary building and to get on the buses. Students have come very close to getting hit by speeding cars. We have talked about it as a board and plan on addressing it this summer. We will probably make a bussing lane either in front of the school or to the side with cement barriers. We plan on taking out the trees and putting a barrier across the road coming down I think it's center street, to divert traffic from driving along the east side of the school. The city is going to do major work on this road and we will tie into it somehow.
We talked about the security camera system that was recently updated in the high school. We also talked about the idea of updating and putting in security cameras in both other buildings. I later found out that the cost to do this is estimated to be about $10,000. If we choose to we could pay for this out of our student occupied funds, the same way we funded the bleachers. I think having the added security would be a good idea. The cost of this has come down from what it used to be. Currently wireless Internet is getting installed in the buildings. There is concern with items being stolen from the middle school students.
I mentioned that after looking at the elementary during our walk through that we are going to get a bid to see what the cost would be for weather doorways to be added in the three entrances that don't have them. The wind was blowing that day, blowing in a lot of cold air and the moving back and forth could pinch fingers.
It was suggested that we work on a strategic plan to set priorities. I take the blame for this. Our committee was supposed to go over this but since we haven't had a meeting in a long time we haven't done this yet, but plan too.
There was some discipline concerns brought to us that were talked about at length. I don't feel like its appropriate to discuss it here. There was also some personnel issues brought up that I won't mention either. These type of concerns need to be addressed through proper channels.
There is concerns about how the aides are used in the elementary. When aides are absent they don't have anyone come in and replace them, they just try and move them around the best they can to where they are needed most. When aides are not in the scheduled room to help, it puts a burden on the teachers. I think we need more aides but having more would not be supported by any outside funding. I think this is something we need to talk about during our strategic planning.
There is concern about the dress code and cell phone use. These rules are hard to enforce. It would help if parents would help by making sure their kids are dressed appropriately. Cell phone use in class is a problem that would also help if parents would talk to their kids about using them only at the appropriate time. Some students don't show proper respect for others and their teachers. It's very hard for the school to deal with students that don't show proper respect. These issues need improvement, but parents need to do their part to help.
The school website needs work. The policies are not on the website yet. I think this will be worked on in the near future. Thanks for all who attended. My wife made some good treats you missed by not coming. As a board member I can't solve everyone's problems to their satisfaction, but I will listen and do what I can. I always respond to school emails. Feel free to let me know your concerns. Thanks, Brian
There was a concern brought up about the area between the high school and seminary building. The students park all over and all different directions. It is a safety hazard with students walking to the seminary building and to get on the buses. Students have come very close to getting hit by speeding cars. We have talked about it as a board and plan on addressing it this summer. We will probably make a bussing lane either in front of the school or to the side with cement barriers. We plan on taking out the trees and putting a barrier across the road coming down I think it's center street, to divert traffic from driving along the east side of the school. The city is going to do major work on this road and we will tie into it somehow.
We talked about the security camera system that was recently updated in the high school. We also talked about the idea of updating and putting in security cameras in both other buildings. I later found out that the cost to do this is estimated to be about $10,000. If we choose to we could pay for this out of our student occupied funds, the same way we funded the bleachers. I think having the added security would be a good idea. The cost of this has come down from what it used to be. Currently wireless Internet is getting installed in the buildings. There is concern with items being stolen from the middle school students.
I mentioned that after looking at the elementary during our walk through that we are going to get a bid to see what the cost would be for weather doorways to be added in the three entrances that don't have them. The wind was blowing that day, blowing in a lot of cold air and the moving back and forth could pinch fingers.
It was suggested that we work on a strategic plan to set priorities. I take the blame for this. Our committee was supposed to go over this but since we haven't had a meeting in a long time we haven't done this yet, but plan too.
There was some discipline concerns brought to us that were talked about at length. I don't feel like its appropriate to discuss it here. There was also some personnel issues brought up that I won't mention either. These type of concerns need to be addressed through proper channels.
There is concerns about how the aides are used in the elementary. When aides are absent they don't have anyone come in and replace them, they just try and move them around the best they can to where they are needed most. When aides are not in the scheduled room to help, it puts a burden on the teachers. I think we need more aides but having more would not be supported by any outside funding. I think this is something we need to talk about during our strategic planning.
There is concern about the dress code and cell phone use. These rules are hard to enforce. It would help if parents would help by making sure their kids are dressed appropriately. Cell phone use in class is a problem that would also help if parents would talk to their kids about using them only at the appropriate time. Some students don't show proper respect for others and their teachers. It's very hard for the school to deal with students that don't show proper respect. These issues need improvement, but parents need to do their part to help.
The school website needs work. The policies are not on the website yet. I think this will be worked on in the near future. Thanks for all who attended. My wife made some good treats you missed by not coming. As a board member I can't solve everyone's problems to their satisfaction, but I will listen and do what I can. I always respond to school emails. Feel free to let me know your concerns. Thanks, Brian
March 14th School Board Meeting
I know it's been a long time since I wrote a blog. I don't know if anyone will still want to read my blog. I have been very busy trying to survive in a very challenging business. I hope to get back on track writing this. The last few months meetings have also been mostly about policy updates, not the most exciting information.
This meeting we had more going on. Three of the board seats are up for election. Casey, April, and John. John has decided not to run again. I think Paul Jensen is running for John's seat, and April and Casey are running for re-election. I don't know if anyone else is running. I think John has served for eight years and has done a good job.
This meeting was very well attended mostly because of the visiting government class. The sports teams were acknowledged for their accomplishments. The football team went 11-1 and repeated as state runner-up. Coach Drake was voted the coach of the year. The wrestlers had a great year and finished with one state champion, and four others who placed at state. The wrestlers also have been academic state champions nine times. The girls team went 15-8. In the last nine years the girls basketball team has gone to state five times, coming home with four trophies and has been academic champions four times. The boys basketball team went 17-9. Coach Adams was the coach of the year. They have been district champions eight out of the last nine years. They have won four state championships over that time with a record of 108-8. They also have won two academic and two sportsmanship awards. I hope I got the stats right. All of these groups have done very well. They are a great group of kids, with great very dedicated coaches. I also don't think the kids get the credit they deserve for doing so well academically. During our board walk through a few days ago Jeff Gee said about half the student body is currently participating in sports, besides all the students participating in clubs. I think it's great to live in a small district where so many students have the opportunity to participate and they all do so well.
Mr. Kunz went over the safe busing plan and proposed putting a 1994 bus up for auction. It has something like 140,000 miles, not as many as I would think it would have. He really likes the new bus we bought last summer. It is a different make than the rest of the busses, and is a lot nicer to drive.
April had asked Sid to give us an update about the four day week. He gave us information comparing the ISAT test score from this year compared to the year before we switched. Overall there isn't very much difference. The overall cost savings is estimated to be about 50,000. The student attendance is up a little. Overall I think the four day week has worked out well. I asked the students in attendance how they liked it. A couple comments were they liked the three day weekend and thought it was easier to have the long weekend to do home work. We did talk a little about needing to work on a calendar for next year pretty soon. We might add a few days back to the year. I am very much against going past Memorial Day. It is hard on some students to have such long days. I also don't think it's good to add very many days either, because if we do it reduces our savings.
We also had an update about the soccer program. They had a successful first year. There were fifteen girls who participated. I don't think most of these girls would have participated in any other sport. They had very good support from their boosters, raising funds, and helping to work on the field and goal posts. The program was approved for two years and will be evaluated again after next season.
Sid also talked about the work being done to set up new tee-ball, little league backstops. They are going to put four fields in back to back east of the soccer field. This is a much needed improvement.
There was some discussion about legislative issues, but not a lot known yet. I think we need to consider having a levy a year from now. We have a deficit of $100,000 in our budget this year. Our bond on the middle school ends next year, and I think it would be a good time to have one. We need to start talking about the schools needs, so we can establish a levy amount that will put us back into a positive spending balance.
Thanks to all those who read this. I plan in writing another blog about the cottage meeting. If you have questions or comments let me know. Thanks, Brian
This meeting we had more going on. Three of the board seats are up for election. Casey, April, and John. John has decided not to run again. I think Paul Jensen is running for John's seat, and April and Casey are running for re-election. I don't know if anyone else is running. I think John has served for eight years and has done a good job.
This meeting was very well attended mostly because of the visiting government class. The sports teams were acknowledged for their accomplishments. The football team went 11-1 and repeated as state runner-up. Coach Drake was voted the coach of the year. The wrestlers had a great year and finished with one state champion, and four others who placed at state. The wrestlers also have been academic state champions nine times. The girls team went 15-8. In the last nine years the girls basketball team has gone to state five times, coming home with four trophies and has been academic champions four times. The boys basketball team went 17-9. Coach Adams was the coach of the year. They have been district champions eight out of the last nine years. They have won four state championships over that time with a record of 108-8. They also have won two academic and two sportsmanship awards. I hope I got the stats right. All of these groups have done very well. They are a great group of kids, with great very dedicated coaches. I also don't think the kids get the credit they deserve for doing so well academically. During our board walk through a few days ago Jeff Gee said about half the student body is currently participating in sports, besides all the students participating in clubs. I think it's great to live in a small district where so many students have the opportunity to participate and they all do so well.
Mr. Kunz went over the safe busing plan and proposed putting a 1994 bus up for auction. It has something like 140,000 miles, not as many as I would think it would have. He really likes the new bus we bought last summer. It is a different make than the rest of the busses, and is a lot nicer to drive.
April had asked Sid to give us an update about the four day week. He gave us information comparing the ISAT test score from this year compared to the year before we switched. Overall there isn't very much difference. The overall cost savings is estimated to be about 50,000. The student attendance is up a little. Overall I think the four day week has worked out well. I asked the students in attendance how they liked it. A couple comments were they liked the three day weekend and thought it was easier to have the long weekend to do home work. We did talk a little about needing to work on a calendar for next year pretty soon. We might add a few days back to the year. I am very much against going past Memorial Day. It is hard on some students to have such long days. I also don't think it's good to add very many days either, because if we do it reduces our savings.
We also had an update about the soccer program. They had a successful first year. There were fifteen girls who participated. I don't think most of these girls would have participated in any other sport. They had very good support from their boosters, raising funds, and helping to work on the field and goal posts. The program was approved for two years and will be evaluated again after next season.
Sid also talked about the work being done to set up new tee-ball, little league backstops. They are going to put four fields in back to back east of the soccer field. This is a much needed improvement.
There was some discussion about legislative issues, but not a lot known yet. I think we need to consider having a levy a year from now. We have a deficit of $100,000 in our budget this year. Our bond on the middle school ends next year, and I think it would be a good time to have one. We need to start talking about the schools needs, so we can establish a levy amount that will put us back into a positive spending balance.
Thanks to all those who read this. I plan in writing another blog about the cottage meeting. If you have questions or comments let me know. Thanks, Brian
Monday, October 15, 2012
October 15th My view on the Luna Laws
Our board meeting was mostly just about reviewing policies. One note Mr. Tubbs estimated we saved maybe as much as $70,000 going to the four day week.
At the end of the board meeting we were asked about what we thought of the three propositions. I said some of what I thought about it. After listening to a podcast from a KID radio show where Mr. Luna talked about the new laws, I felt compelled to write a letter to the Pioneer and Morning News. I had to reduce this in half to make it fit in the Morning News. I have not heard from the Pioneer. I get so tired of Luna blaming the school districts and teachers for many of the problems. He has a way of not telling the whole truth, so I thought I would tell some of the other side the way I see things.
After I wrote this I found out if these laws are repealed it will cause a lot of problems that will have to be resolved. The requirement for online classes and technology is now law. If the proposition is repealed it will remove the funding, not the law. I think they will have to pass new legislation to remove the law. Schools can not afford an unfunded mandate like this.
Another concern brought to me is about the pay for performance. With many plans in place setting up the guidelines, if the law fails, it will be very hard for schools to figure out what to do if their plan is under contract with the teachers, and then they don't end up with the funding. I can understand there will be challenges, but I still maintain these are bad laws. I compared it to what I think of Obama care. Some of Obama care is in place, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be changed.
I think if the legislature and the Department of Education would have worked more with teachers and school boards they would have come up with a better plan, and we wouldn't have all the conflict we are dealing with now.
If you have any questions after reading this let me know. Good or bad I guess I say what I think.
Propositions
I am on the Firth school board and wanted to address my thoughts about the propositions. I am basically neutral on Proposition one. I don't think this proposition effects our school very much either way. I want to mainly address the other propositions. I would strongly encourage a no vote on each of these. Prop. 2 pay for performance. They make it very confusing so it's very hard to understand. Basically all schools are evaluated and put on a bell curve, just like some grades are given out in school. The top of the curve schools get a full share of funding from the state. It works it's way down. The lower the evaluation goes the less money is paid, until the lowest get nothing. One thing to keep in mind. No mater what a district chooses to do, a teacher can only get one full share, no more. So if the school is at the top level they will all get the same amount of money. If a district wants to reward teachers for performance, the rewards have to go to a group of teachers teaching or doing the same thing, and only if the school as a whole does not qualify for a whole share. So for example you want to reward the school math teachers because they raised student achievement. But in this example the school only qualifies for half a share. The only way to reward the math teachers is to take away from the teachers who received a half a share, so they will get even less, and give part of their share to the math teachers. Is this fair? What if one math teacher is poor and the all the others are excellent, but because of the weak teacher achievement isn't high enough, then no one will get extra performance money. This can put teachers against each other. Administering this from the state must require a lot of extra time and expense that could be used to raise all teacher's pay.
Proposition 3. To me this is the worst one. Requiring all students to take two online classes will be a real challenge for a small district like ours. I have a hard time believing the state will really provide all the funding for this program. For one thing there is no new funding to replace the teachers we had to cut, because we received less funding from the state and federal governments. Our total funding has dropped $746,000 since the 2009-2010 school year. Now we are supposed to come up with the teachers to help with the online classes. I believe many students will struggle with this requirement. I think it would have been good to offer online classes to those who want to take them, but not to make it a requirement. Since the classes are going to be provided by teachers outside of the district, the funding for these classes will have to follow. There is some ways to mitigate some of this expense, but not all. I don't think funding will go back into the district to replace these lost dollars.
There are so many half truths out there clouding this issue. I recently heard Tom Luna on the radio. I want to set straight a few things he said. He talked about increasing school funding. Schools are paid by a unit of students, for the M&O budget. The older the kids the less kids it takes to make a unit. We used to get about $24,000 per unit. Last year we received $19,626. Each district's state funding for teachers had been based on the number of these units. If we chose to have less we wouldn't save any money, the state would just keep the money. If a district wants more teachers, they would pay for them through a supplemental levy. As the state reduced school funding they made some changes to how this works. The state didn't change the number of units, or teachers we qualify for. They gave districts discretion to lay off a certain percent of the teachers, and can now use the money saved to supplement the drop in the M&O budget and other budget cuts. So by laying off teachers, we look like the bad guys not the state. He talks about funding going up for this year. They raised this budget $80 per unit. Not much of an increase.
He claimed when the districts received federal stimulus funding, that we probably used much of these funds to hire more teachers. So it wasn't the states fault that since this funding is gone that now districts have to lay off teachers. We didn't hire anymore teachers. We used most of the money to help replace part of what I think was a 7% teacher pay cut the state imposed. The rest helped pay for an increase in insurance costs. He also doesn't mention some state funding was lowered when federal money came in.
He says class sizes are determined at the local level. He also says the Students Come First laws don't effect class sizes. Because of less state funding we have laid off I think four teachers. So some of our class sizes have gone up. The only way to maintain class sizes is through supplemental levies, which we don't have. Some of the reduction for funding of teachers may have come first, but most of the new money for education is going back to Students Come First, not used to restore teaching positions or our M&O budget. Others talk about funding for Proposition 3 as an unfunded mandate that will lead to higher property taxes. Well in this sense it is. Because the state chooses not to restore these funds, many districts are depending on supplemental levies, which in fact have raised property taxes.
I have nothing to do with any union. I am as republican as anyone can be. But these so called Luna laws are a big mistake. Thanks, Brian Esplin
At the end of the board meeting we were asked about what we thought of the three propositions. I said some of what I thought about it. After listening to a podcast from a KID radio show where Mr. Luna talked about the new laws, I felt compelled to write a letter to the Pioneer and Morning News. I had to reduce this in half to make it fit in the Morning News. I have not heard from the Pioneer. I get so tired of Luna blaming the school districts and teachers for many of the problems. He has a way of not telling the whole truth, so I thought I would tell some of the other side the way I see things.
After I wrote this I found out if these laws are repealed it will cause a lot of problems that will have to be resolved. The requirement for online classes and technology is now law. If the proposition is repealed it will remove the funding, not the law. I think they will have to pass new legislation to remove the law. Schools can not afford an unfunded mandate like this.
Another concern brought to me is about the pay for performance. With many plans in place setting up the guidelines, if the law fails, it will be very hard for schools to figure out what to do if their plan is under contract with the teachers, and then they don't end up with the funding. I can understand there will be challenges, but I still maintain these are bad laws. I compared it to what I think of Obama care. Some of Obama care is in place, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be changed.
I think if the legislature and the Department of Education would have worked more with teachers and school boards they would have come up with a better plan, and we wouldn't have all the conflict we are dealing with now.
If you have any questions after reading this let me know. Good or bad I guess I say what I think.
Propositions
I am on the Firth school board and wanted to address my thoughts about the propositions. I am basically neutral on Proposition one. I don't think this proposition effects our school very much either way. I want to mainly address the other propositions. I would strongly encourage a no vote on each of these. Prop. 2 pay for performance. They make it very confusing so it's very hard to understand. Basically all schools are evaluated and put on a bell curve, just like some grades are given out in school. The top of the curve schools get a full share of funding from the state. It works it's way down. The lower the evaluation goes the less money is paid, until the lowest get nothing. One thing to keep in mind. No mater what a district chooses to do, a teacher can only get one full share, no more. So if the school is at the top level they will all get the same amount of money. If a district wants to reward teachers for performance, the rewards have to go to a group of teachers teaching or doing the same thing, and only if the school as a whole does not qualify for a whole share. So for example you want to reward the school math teachers because they raised student achievement. But in this example the school only qualifies for half a share. The only way to reward the math teachers is to take away from the teachers who received a half a share, so they will get even less, and give part of their share to the math teachers. Is this fair? What if one math teacher is poor and the all the others are excellent, but because of the weak teacher achievement isn't high enough, then no one will get extra performance money. This can put teachers against each other. Administering this from the state must require a lot of extra time and expense that could be used to raise all teacher's pay.
Proposition 3. To me this is the worst one. Requiring all students to take two online classes will be a real challenge for a small district like ours. I have a hard time believing the state will really provide all the funding for this program. For one thing there is no new funding to replace the teachers we had to cut, because we received less funding from the state and federal governments. Our total funding has dropped $746,000 since the 2009-2010 school year. Now we are supposed to come up with the teachers to help with the online classes. I believe many students will struggle with this requirement. I think it would have been good to offer online classes to those who want to take them, but not to make it a requirement. Since the classes are going to be provided by teachers outside of the district, the funding for these classes will have to follow. There is some ways to mitigate some of this expense, but not all. I don't think funding will go back into the district to replace these lost dollars.
There are so many half truths out there clouding this issue. I recently heard Tom Luna on the radio. I want to set straight a few things he said. He talked about increasing school funding. Schools are paid by a unit of students, for the M&O budget. The older the kids the less kids it takes to make a unit. We used to get about $24,000 per unit. Last year we received $19,626. Each district's state funding for teachers had been based on the number of these units. If we chose to have less we wouldn't save any money, the state would just keep the money. If a district wants more teachers, they would pay for them through a supplemental levy. As the state reduced school funding they made some changes to how this works. The state didn't change the number of units, or teachers we qualify for. They gave districts discretion to lay off a certain percent of the teachers, and can now use the money saved to supplement the drop in the M&O budget and other budget cuts. So by laying off teachers, we look like the bad guys not the state. He talks about funding going up for this year. They raised this budget $80 per unit. Not much of an increase.
He claimed when the districts received federal stimulus funding, that we probably used much of these funds to hire more teachers. So it wasn't the states fault that since this funding is gone that now districts have to lay off teachers. We didn't hire anymore teachers. We used most of the money to help replace part of what I think was a 7% teacher pay cut the state imposed. The rest helped pay for an increase in insurance costs. He also doesn't mention some state funding was lowered when federal money came in.
He says class sizes are determined at the local level. He also says the Students Come First laws don't effect class sizes. Because of less state funding we have laid off I think four teachers. So some of our class sizes have gone up. The only way to maintain class sizes is through supplemental levies, which we don't have. Some of the reduction for funding of teachers may have come first, but most of the new money for education is going back to Students Come First, not used to restore teaching positions or our M&O budget. Others talk about funding for Proposition 3 as an unfunded mandate that will lead to higher property taxes. Well in this sense it is. Because the state chooses not to restore these funds, many districts are depending on supplemental levies, which in fact have raised property taxes.
I have nothing to do with any union. I am as republican as anyone can be. But these so called Luna laws are a big mistake. Thanks, Brian Esplin
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