February 2014 Superintendent Articles
Launch the media gallery 1 playerFebruary 27, 2014
Why Did the BOE Establish Goal 1
Over the course of several months I have written periodically to share information regarding our school district.One article regards the BOE Goals established for this school year and a subsequent article(s) related to these goals.Because of the nature of these discussions, and the potential for rumors and misinformation to be spread, I want to spend a little time re-explaining the purpose for BOE Goal 1.Specifically this goal states, “Identify opportunities to increase revenue and to reallocate resources to meet student needs and facility improvements.”For the purpose of this article, I want to again share why this is a significant issue for our district.
Due to a declining enrollment that has occurred over the past couple of years, and is projected to continue to decline in the long term, this year the district will realize a budget loss of over $215,000.We anticipate another loss to our budget for the 2014-15 school year amounting to at least $75,000.That is almost $300,000 in a 2-year period of time.In addition to this, we have seen significant cost increases in our property insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, Internet broadband charges, and other supplies and services.Adding these additional costs to the loss in revenue would show a loss of between $350,000 and $400,000 over two years.For a district our size, this is significant.
In addition to these losses, there are needs that our schools have that would help our students directly and our teachers as they perform their work.In the short time I have been here, the following are items mentioned as additions that would benefit teachers and students.
- Additional counseling help
- Increased early childhood education programs
- Expand our after school programs
- Elective opportunities for our MS students
Further, a look at our teacher pay schedule shows the district ranked at 214th in the state for the 2012-13 school year.Our base teacher pay for first year teachers is almost two thousand dollars below just the state average.
In addition to these issues, a review of the district’s facility needs shows that there are numerous HVAC and boiler systems that need replacing.We have a track that will need to be replaced in the next three years.We have at least one roof scheduled for replacement in the next few years.And so on …The point being we have a lot of facility needs; more so than our capital outlay budget may be able to handle.And, this does not include the annual expense for the technology needs of our schools.
So the crux of how this BOE discussion all started can be summed up like this, “How do we meet the needs of our students and schools in the coming years when we have shrinking revenues and growing needs?”A BOE discussion took place regarding whether the state will increase school funding, the answer to which was, “do not count on it.”So the solution to the problem defined above was that the answer lies with us.We, as a unified school district whose representation is the local school board, need to address these issues head on.To do so requires a lot of information.
Which brings me to the work currently being done by the BOE.The BOE, through information provided by the district office and administrative team, is learning.All of the information helping the BOE is being placed on our website in the hope that our community will take time to become informed (learn) as well.There is a solution waiting to be had but in order to make the best possible decision, gathering data and information is the second priority in the process.The first of course is to understand the why, which is what I hope I helped to explain to you today.