PTO Needs After-school Enrichment Class Coordinator

Cindy Pilz of the PTO needs an Enrichment Class Coordinator to serve after-school programs like the language programs and the Young Rembrandt program. The person in this position would have to maintain contact with companies in pre-exisiting relationships with the PTO to get the necessary registration forms. For more information, or to volunteer, please contact Cindy at CJPilz@Ameritech.net. And thank you for your help!!

Maintenance at Junior High

Johnson Controls gave a presentation for a Service contract, which would replace the expiring Performance contract. The big difference, other than a lower cost, is that, under a Service contract, energy savings are not guaranteed. Johnson Controls did stress, however, that energy savings would still be realized.

The proposal calls for modifications to the halite lighting in the new gym, and for replacing the halite lighting in the old gym with new flourescent lighting. Board member Bob Nunamaker questioned, if the old gym and new gym have the same kind of lighting, why do we need to replace the lighting in the old gym? Supt. John Hill said it was because of the age of the lights in the old gym, and the difference in the way the two gyms are used.

Johnson Controls said that in both gyms, sensors would be installed to turn the lights on and off.

Johnson Controls also proposed adding an air conditioning unit to the Computer Lab. This unit would have a profile similar to A/C units in many houses. The unit would be placed in the ceiling. Supt. Hill noted that the Computer Lab generates a lot of heat, and the current A/C configuration requires that, to cool the Computer Lab, the A/C needs to be lowered throughout the entire wing. Bob Nunamaker questioned how this could be so, given that the Computer Lab is part of the new addition. He wondered, didn't the architect take the cooling needs and efficiency into account when the Lab was designed?

The contract would contain 12 4-hour service calls.

One of the problems with the proposal was that Johnson Controls was unsure of the cost estimates to the District. They proposed an estimate of $65,000 for lighting in both gyms, and their respective restrooms and locker rooms, $45,000 for air conditioning in the new and old Computer Labs, and $50,000 for the Service Agreement. But these amounts didn't reconcile with the $160,000 estimate for the entire project, when you add in finance charges. So Supt. Hill asked Johnson Controls to come back with indivisual estimates for the following:

1. Lighting in the Old Gym, and it's respective restrooms and locker rooms.
2. Lighting in the New Gym, and it's respective restrooms and locker rooms.
3. Air conditioning in the Old Computer Lab.
4. Air conditioning in the New Computer Lab.
5. Service Agreement
6. Finance Charges

Board member Kay Laube asked Supt. Hill if he thought the School District had the money in the budget to cover this project. Supt. Hill responded, "Not right now."

Kay Laube expressed concern that this is asking for a lot of money, especially with the current budget situation. Bob Nunamaker expressed concern that the air conditioning efficiencies should have been taken into account when the new addition to the Junior High School was being designed.

Volunteer Coach/Sponsor Program

The Board introduced a program whereby volunteers would have an opportunity to help the Junior High School by giving their time to extra-curicular activities. This program would ask for volunteers to perform jobs like, coach, scorekeeper, timekeeper, or other jobs normally performed by paid staff.

The jobs would be available only for those activities where a paid staff member is not required, and all volunteers would be subject to a criminal background check.

If the proposal is successful, it would significantly lower the fees students and their families would need to pay to participate in these activities, while allowing the School Board to keep the programs self-funding.

More information on the program is available here on the District 3 website.

Applications for positions are available here. They should be turned in to the District offices by August 6, 2004.

Patrick Garmoe has an article on this program in the Wednesday, July 28, 2004 edition of the Daily Herald.

Waive to Lincoln

After a brief, and fairly quiet, public hearing, the Board voted to renew the District’s application to waive Lincoln’s Birthday as a holiday, observing President’s Day instead. This is a Five-Year waiver, and is the practice currently followed in the District.

Save S.A.M. Presentation

Beth Diller reported that the Save S.A.M. organization sent 650 letters asking for donations. She said that she received a few responses indicating that donations were possible after the organization became a 501(C)3 organization. She also said that she got an offer of donations of a non-monetary form – a set of antique china. Save S.A.M. is looking into how they can use this kind of donation. Beth also said that Save S.A.M. is going face-to-face with area merchants, and is looking to present other fund-raising activities, such as a Valentine Dance for adults at a local banquet hall.

Supt. Hill followed her presentation with a teaser for the Volunteer Coach/Sponsor Program, which he said might help reduce the fees for extra-curricular activities. He mentioned that Save S.A.M. may have a key role in organizing this program. There is more on the Volunteer Coach/Sponsor Program a little further down in this report.

Public Comment

I got back from vacation just in time to attend the July 28 District 3 Board Meeting. This one was, thankfully, shorter than the last couple of meetings. However, I couldn’t stay for the portion that followed Executive Session. But we'll post the items I did see.

Steve Knar asked about funding from the State, in the wake of the recent State Budget agreement. Supt. John Hill noted that District 3 will still be down about $30,000 for the year, because we have fewer students than we have had previously. He did say that there was a possibility of the district getting some additional State funding as a fast-growing school district. Steve also asked if the Board could comment on the teacher negotiations, and Supt. Hill said that the Board could not comment.

New News Page

The News page is now Blog for Schools! The reasons for the change?

1. Better organization of information. Making the news page a blog will allow us to better give each item it's own place.
2. Faster updates. It's hard to get updates to this section done quickly. If I do them, I usually work on them during lunch hour at work. However, I have been posting Board Meeting summaries as one large item, so I haven't been posting until the entire summary is written. Now, we can post each item individually, so Meeting Summaries will go up more piecemeal, but faster. Also, I can post from work, which my companies firewall and proxy server would not allow without the blog.
3. More involvement from you! Underneath each item is a place for you to post comments. Along with the e-mail list, this provides one more way for you to keep the conversation going!

I hope you enjoy this new format. Please post your comments and let us know!

District 3 Budget for 2004-2005 and May 24,

The budget for 2004-2005 had been posted on the District 3 website. You can see it here. It is in Microsoft Excel format, so if you don't have Microsoft Excel, or another compatible spreadsheet program installed, you can download the free Excel viewer here from Microsoft. Also, the official minutes for the May 24, 2004 Board Meeting have been posted. You can read them here.

June 28, 2004 Board Meeting Notes

It’s the Budget Stupid

The aforementioned title is not a commentary on the budget or the people who made it up. It just appeals to my sense of humor. The GSA or General State Aid report spanning 2004 to 2005 has been issued. The preliminary amounts are based on an assumed $7.6 million supplemental/transfer, and a poverty formula that assumes a 66% Hold Harmless and 50% increase. If this seems like gobbledy gook to you, it does to me too. I do not pretend to be an expert on budget matters. Feel free to email information to augment or correct the writing that follows. FY 04 is last year’s fiscal 2004 budget, and FY 05 is this year’s budget. The FY04 for this fiscal year (7/1/03 to 6/30/04) is now available online.FY04 was unanimously approved at the June 28th school board meeting. It is common for there to be cash flow deficits until tax money is received. $769K in revenue will not be received until this July due to tax collection timing. FY04 recorded $4.9M in revenues, which does not include the upcoming $769K in revenue. Expenditures last year according to the budget and fund balance summary were $5.87M. This will produce a shortfall of approximately $0.2M. Another number the projected fund balance 7/1/03 is at $1.48M. The projected fund balance (dated 6/30/04) = $4.89M-$5.87M+$1.48M=$0.5M.Page 17 of the Budget Form for last year itemizes last year’s expenditures. Approximately eighty percent of the $4.5M budget was paid in salaries and employee benefits. There is a difference between the $4.84M education amount listed in the FY 04 budget and fund balance summary and the $4.5M listed on page 17. I did not find what makes up the $0.35M difference, in spread sheet itemization. Special education purchase services, supplies and materials, capital outlay, other objects, transfers, and tuition make up the remaining twenty percent.Teacher negotiations are now underway. The outcome of these negotiations is very important to our schools, since about eighty percent of the budget is spent on teachers and administrators. Salaries are what make or break budgets. The School Board and the teachers are not at liberty to discuss if the teachers get an increase, or how much it will be, during negotiations. What ever the outcome, it will impact FY05.It appears that GSA will decrease the gross distribution by $221,624 this year. FY04 ($1,150,908) minus FY05 ($929,284) are the figures that create this number. If the GSA increases the foundation level from $4810 to $5060, or by $250, then the difference will decline from $221,624 to $64,134. Hopefully Springfield will increase the foundation level, but the state budget realities are poor.The school has been buying newer buses at the beginning of each year and sells them back at the end of the year. Formerly, the schools owned aging buses that were expensive to repair. The school board preauthorized $29,000 to buy buses. Two less buses are required this year.

There is $83K left over from the JHS building fund

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that the Junior High addition construction fund is a separate from the other education monies. Teachers salaries, retirement, transportation, and other operational funds, can not be paid out from this construction fund. Therefore the $83K left over from building the junior high will not affect the operational budget, and must be used for the building.The school board unanimously approved the permanent transfer of the $83K construction fund balance to the Building and Maintenance Fund. Superintendent Hill discussed how the $83K could be used. He suggested that some of the money could be used to put an enclosure around the buses. The buses are being vandalized. This creates expense and sometimes makes buses unavailable the next day. Flat tires, broken windows, fire extinguishers blown inside the bus interior, are examples of things that temporarily take the buses out of commission. Maybe a fenced enclosure for the buses is the best solution. Does anyone reading this have alternative solutions to bring to the table?Johnson Controls made a Performance Contract Presentation to get a five year contract. Some of the suggestions they made were that our school purchase a $56K security system, fire alarm maintenance, an addition of an A/C rooftop unit over the computer lab, and a more energy efficient lighting scheme.The Junior High School computer lab generates a lot of heat. The school ratchets up the A/C in the whole building to cool down this one room, and the computer room is still too hot. The proposal is to put a roof type A/C (comparable to a house air condition) in order to zone the temperature better. As long as a computer room exists that requires extra cooling, it makes sense to do this, and it is very inefficient to overcool the whole building.The idea with the lighting was to replace the halogen light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs, and make the system motion sensitive. This eliminates the lag time between flipping the switch and having the lights go on. If someone forgot to turn of the lights before leaving the building, the lights would automatically turn off unless motion was detected.

Reading

Dr. Krause spoke about the Diagnostic Reading Center used by the lower grades. The reading gains have been very good. Bar graphs, and charts, and other papers showed reading data in her report.

Policy

All school district employees are now held to an Ethics and Gift Ban.

Save S.A.M.-5th thru 8th

The organization to Save Sports Arts and Music was outlined in an earlier article found on this website. High registration fees for extracurricular school activities are endangering them. Three hundred dollar and two hundred dollar registration fees create a burden on parents, and can be cost prohibitive. Save S.A.M. is trying to get 501(C)3 status to be a nonprofit fundraising organization. Money raised would be used to reduce fees.Save S.A.M faces some temporary hurdles. Hurdle one, get the word out. Hurdle two, to get the non-profit status. Hurdle three, equal play time or let competition rule? Hurdle four, spreading out the cash, certain organizations target donations to a certain sports. Hurdle five, Title X dictates that females get their sports funding due, equity may be a balancing act. Hurdle 6, can the hurdle analogies, this is not a sports exclusive endeavor, it will be used for arts and music too.Save S.A.M received a lot of discussion time. Parents pay these onerous fees, thus their children are entitled to not warm the bench. Kids at this age should not have the stars get all the play time, but should be developing skills. Superintendent Hill said that it is not the purpose of the JHS to be a “feeder school”, but to make the kids more “well rounded”. These are the positions and reasons for the current Equal Play Time policy. The school board wants to know how the parents feel about this issue.After school extra curricular activities are endangered right now. If participation drops because of fees, their will not be enough sports teams to qualify for participation in the league. If there is not enough a large enough cumulative number of teams, in different sports, then they will not qualify to compete against other schools. More taxes, bigger registration fees, and now three hundred dollars for basketball? Save S.A.M is a very good idea.

Dance Dance Dance

Survey Says! Fifty three percent want to keep the 8th grade graduation dance off campus, 46% say return this dance to the JHS as it was many years ago. The school board had previously decided to bring the dance back on campus to save on registration plus graduation fees. School board member Bob Nunamaker was the sole board member who had second thoughts about bringing the dance on campus. On post survey results, Bob Nunamaker said, “If 53% want the dance off campus…that’s the way democracy works.” The majority of parents don’t mind paying twenty extra dollars to send graduating eighth graders off site for a dance, but it wasn’t a landslide. All parents of eighth graders would have to pay this, whether their kid was going to the dance or not.The board decided to pay for graduation caps this year, because the parents wanted them, but will charge parents for the caps in subsequent years (fee collection is already in progress). 93 graduates x $5 hat = $465.

Charge!!

Fifth Third Bank will now have a credit merchant agreement with our school. The school will have to buy a $504 swipe machine. Benefit=bad checks eliminated, along with personnel time and wage to follow up on bad checks. Cost= 2.8 to 2.15 percent goes to the credit card company and not the school. A hundred dollar minimum payment is required to use the credit card.