March 1, 2013 at 4:00 PM - Superintendent's Weekly Update to the Board of Education

Description:  As a result of the financial projection model findings, next week we will post teacher openings for the following areas:  1) full-time agriculture, 2) full-time spanish (assignment beginning with .5 FTE high school and .5 FTE elementary), and 3) .5 business (restoring it back to a full-time position).

We are required to first offer Mr. Wisotzke the .5 business opening.  He was placed on unrequested leave of absence (ULA) and is entitled to callback rights according to state statute.  He needs to either accept or turn down the .5 business opening.  He does not have rights to the other (current) .5 business position because he turned it down this past summer when he accepted a full-time position in another school district.  I anticipate he'll stay where he is currently teaching and turn down this .5 FTE position.  Again, he is full-time in his new school.

Description:  One of our school board members shared an idea with me about not charging families for pre-school.  The thinking or reasons are similar to what the District did with not charging for kindergarten.  We all know how positive that has turned out for the District, most importantly and necessarily financial .

I have had some time to think about the cost/benefit and believe it is something we ought to seriously consider.  I do want more information, like Hazel's interpretation of the demographic study.

Do know we have a sliding scale fee already for families who cannot afford pre-school.  This will continue as we look to add a four-day option in the fall.  Right now, it is a half-day, two-day program offering.

One thought is we could NOT charge resident families for pre-school.  Then, offer the same to non-resident families who open-enroll their child for kindergarten.  The hope of course is we get them in the door and they stay.  We don't want them coming for free pre-school and then going back to their resident district.  Those who want to come but not open-enroll can pay the current rate or the rate of their resident district. 

The rationale for charging differently is resident families already pay taxes to support the pre-school program AND non-resident families could receive the same if they'll commit to being a part of the school for future years.  Know we cannot legally require non-resident families to come back for kindergarten.

Description:  Hazel will be here to present her demographic study findings at the special board meeting on March 11.  Please come prepared with some questions you have about the report.  We need to understand it thoroughly as it will become the argument/basis for building or remodeling.  The report can be found in last Friday's letter.  Thanks!

Description:  Liz, Dale, Natalie Schmitt, and I drove to the State Capitol to visit with legislatures about equitable funding for ALL schools.  In total, I believe we visited with 5 legislatures in their offices.  Paul Gazelka and Ron Kresha were 2 of the 5.

I emailed the attached press release to MCR and placed it on the front page of the school web site.  We may or may not make a difference with our governor and state legislatures, but we need to continue to inform our voting public about our financial need and efforts.

Description:  Please contact Michelle if you have interest in helping write 3 or 4 superintendent goals for the 2013-14 school year.  We briefly discussed the purpose of developing shared goals at the last regular school board meeting in February.  You can contact Michelle or me if you have any questions or ideas.  

Description:  Dale, Phil, Joel, Kevin, and I attended another MDE workshop on the new teacher and principal evaluation requirements.  The new requirements for principals must be implemented this coming school year and teacher in 2014-15.

Because there will be so much documentation involved, especially for the teacher evals, we are investigating into software solutions advertised by PEER Solutions and iObservation.  The principals and I will have little difficultly with their evals.  It is the teacher model and expectations I'm mostly concerned about.  We don't have the available dollars to hire additional staffing that's required in the state endorsed model.

Description:  I visited with Barb about her concern with the new lighting at the elementary parking lot.  We are not able to meet all of her requests, but one of them we can.  The lights cannot be turned off at 10:00 PM, as requested, because it uses an eye sensor and not a timed one.  We can, however, turn off the lights completely when school is not in session (June, July, and August).  In the evening hours there is more daylight and little or no activity happens at the elementary school.

We checked with our property insurance agent and there is no concern about leaving the parking lot dark during those three months.

Description:  Wednesday morning police officers with three drug dogs visited our MS/HS building.  There was no cause or concern for their scheduled visit other than it is good practice to keep students informed about the seriousness of drugs in school and we're periodically checking.

The drug dogs did not point out any student lockers as potentially having drugs inside.  This is great news!  A dog did "hit" on a student vehicle and the high school girl was questioned.  As it turned out the father of the NHS student had recently purchased the car from a co-worker.

The last time drug dogs were in the building three or four student lockers were "hit" on by the dogs.  We are not naive enough to think none of our students abuse illegal drugs.  It is a good thing it doesn't appear they're bringing it inside the school.  

Description:  Please find attached the minor recommended changes to policies 404, 420 and 450.  I did not include polices 208 or 407 because the board committee did not find any necessary changes.

Description:  At the March board meeting, I will be making a recommendation to increase the pay for substitute teachers from $90/day and $12.85/hour to $100/day and $15.00/hour.  This is to keep pace with surrounding districts that are competing for the same pool of subs.  We've been having lots of trouble filling positions because of our lower pay.

I am not recommending any changes to the pay for substitute paraprofessionals.  Although Little Falls has advertised their increase to $12.75/hour Royalton's $10.47/hour is still attractively above Foley's $9.00, Swanville's $8.50, Upsala's $7.82, and Mid-State's $9.50.

Description:  Please find attached the weekly bills for your approval.