Board of Education Goals, Past and Current (Part 1)
At the October BOE meeting, the USD 417 Board of Education approved their goals for the 2016-17 school year. Before I share information regarding these goals, let me wrap up the BOE goals that the district has been working to complete since the 2015-16 school year.
2015-16 BOE Goals
Goal #1: Technology – While there were many aspects to this goal, the primary emphasis was to move from a part time technology coordinator to a full time coordinator. A second, yet equally important aspect, was to hire a coordinator who has specific technology training. In August we were able to make this hire. The district hired Mr. Torri McDougal, a person whose degree and work experience is in technology. The district was able to make this happen as part of our district consolidation and reorganization process. With this hire we begin the rest of the work on this goal including ensuring our network is running effectively and efficiently, ensuring we have necessary policies in place, and ensuring we have the equipment and training for our personnel in order to effectively integrate technology into our instructional program.
Goal #2: Salaries, Wages, and Benefits – This has been and will continue to be an on-going goal for our district. This year we were able to make a substantial effort in improving both pay and benefits for our staff. In regards to our teaching staff, we negotiated another two-year contract with our teachers. We were able to increase the base salary by $500 and will do the same for the 2017-18 school year assuming the new state finance plan does not take money away from schools. In addition, we were able to negotiate a different approach to teachers taking bereavement leave. We also changed, to take place over a number of years, the district retirement incentive from a defined benefit to a matching contribution benefit.
In regards to our classified staff, we made the commitment to move our base pay for our custodians and our cooks to $10 an hour. All other classified staff saw their base pay move to $9.35 an hour, or a comparable percentage increase. As part of this process, the BOE reviewed information as to the living wage for employees in our area of the state. Based on this study, the BOE would like to see the base salary for all of our classified employees to be at least $11 an hour. As discussed, this will take time to get to this level of pay. However, the move this year to increase base pay was substantial. Side note: over the course of the past three years, the district has been increasing the base pay with each year’s percentage increase in pay. Five years ago, the common base pay wage was $8.20 an hour. This year, the base pay is now $9.35 an hour. The plan, as long as it is affordable, is to continue to annually increase this base until we reach the $11 an hour level.
In addition, the BOE is offering the same matching benefit retirement plan for our classified staff.
Goal #3: Sports Facility – There were two aspects of this goal. The first part involved having the company that installed our track, Fisher Track, out to inspect the integrity of the track. What we learned is that while there may be some degrading of the sub-surface in a few areas, the track itself is still in good shape. We were told to have the track re-inspected in the next 3-5 years. This was good news as the cost for track replacement can be substantial.
The second part of this goal was the replacement of the visitor’s bleachers. This was necessary due to the fact that the old system was no longer safe and it did not meet regulations for bleachers. The district studied the KSHSAA requirements for seating requirements for state level athletic events. Based on this, we chose to install a bleacher system that held 367 seats plus ADA seating availability. Once we started this project, we were required to ensure that our pathways to bleachers met ADA requirements. This then involved a series of sidewalks that led to the visitor’s bleachers, to the concessions/restrooms, and to the home set of bleachers. The total cost for this project came to approximately $124,863 all paid for from the district capital outlay fund.
Goal #4: Evaluation Process – This goal actually was set aside due to changes in both federal and state requirements being changed. The district had already done significant work on this goal and what was left to do was a federal requirement to develop a scoring system that included student achievement as part of the scoring system. With this requirement essentially being dropped, the district put the rest of our work on hold.
Goal #5: Sale the Dwight facility & property and address the memorabilia for this school – This goal is scheduled to be completed come October 28. In regards to the school memorabilia, the district worked closely with the Dwight Alumni Association. Essentially, the district retained about a dozen state level trophies and a few other items for our display cases at CGJSHS. All other items were given to the alumni association, along with a few display cases, to be displayed in the Dwight community.
After USD 417 had claimed all of the furniture and equipment needed from the school, the remaining items were given to the PHES PTO to sale. This sale took place late last spring at the Dwight facility. All proceeds from this sale will be used by the PTO to make purchases for the students and staff of PHES. The time saved by having the PTO take on this task was substantial for the district office. This ended up as a win-win for our PHES school and for the district. On a side note, we are currently finalizing the identification of excess furniture and equipment (old and no longer needed) at CGES and have given the same offer to the CGES PTO to sell these items and use the proceeds for our CGES students and staff. I anticipate that there will be a sale sometime after spring break this school year.
As for the sale of the property, the district had an initial contract for $100,000 that was to close at the end of May. At the last minute, the buyer chose not to honor the contract and backed out. After collaborating with our district attorney, it was decided to pursue a legal recourse for the failure to fulfill the purchase contract. The district then contracted with an attorney out of Topeka to represent the district in this action. In the end, the district reached a settlement that paid the district $45,000 and essentially ended the contract to purchase the property. As that was being settled, the district had two different offers for the property. The BOE chose to accept the offer for $18,500 from Linda Carr with the district retaining ownership of the property across the street from the parking lot. The BOE accepted this offer with the idea that Mrs. Carr would make a good decision for the Dwight community in regards to what to do with the property. Linda is an alum of the Dwight school. As of this time the district is in the process of closing a sale on the property across from the parking lot of the school.
In the end, upon the completion of this final sale, the district will have realized a monetary gain of $58,136 not including the sale of any equipment. Just as an FYI, since this was a concern discussed by the BOE and I am sure expressed by some in our community, the cost for attorney fees for this work came to approximately $4,516 The decision by the BOE to hold to the original sale contract proved to be positive for the district.