Make up days
Looking back at December and the relatively nice weather we had, it's hard to believe it's March 1st and so far we've missed 12 days of schools and have had 17 hours worth of late starts and early outs. Since 1992, the most days we had previously missed was 8. On Tuesday, I met with the administrative team to look at some ways to make up at least some of these snow days. We have a special board meeting scheduled for Monday night, March 4th at 6:30 to review the 2019-2020 school budget. At that meeting, I plan to ask the board to approve the following plan.
Beginning on March 12, 2019 we will start school 15 minutes earlier each day and end each day 15 minutes later. Using the elementary as an example, school currently starts at 8:15 every day and ends at 3:18. Starting on March 12th, school will start at 8:00 each day and end at 3:33 each day. We will adjust bus schedules and breakfast as necessary to accommodate these schedule changes. By adding this time, we are able to make up 4 additional days of school and have our last day of school on Wednesday, May 29th.
Here's how we will make up 10 of the 12 missed days of school:
2 days---Built in make up days on November 2nd and March 1st--normally conference comp days.
3 days---Attending school on March 11th, April 8th, and April 22nd.
4 days---By adding 30 minutes to each day after March 12, we will be attending an equivalent to 4 additional days.
1 day---If we forgive Tuesday, February 26th, as it was an early out already and had conferences
That is a total of 10 make up days which means we only have to add two on to the end of the year. This makes the current last day of school, Wednesday May 29th.
November 2nd and March 1st are built in make up days. They can be counted as a day of school to make up for the time spent in the evenings on conferences. We don't count them as a school day until they're needed because we've missed school. Also, on March 11th and April 8th, we will be dismissing at 1:15 both days so our teachers can work on their professional development. They will be working until 5 each day. Unfortunately, it's only March 1st so anything could still happen.
The building principals will be sending out building specific details after the special board meeting Monday night.
School Budget
As mentioned above, on Monday night, March 4th, the school board will have a special meeting. The primary purpose of the meeting is so I can present the details of the 2019-2020 school budget to the board. Then on March 18th at our regular board meeting, they will hold a public hearing on the budget and give their final approval. They are holding this special meeting so that they can learn about the budget and then have a couple of weeks to review it and ask any questions that they may have.
Our proposed tax rate will be decreasing by almost 27 cents per thousand. This year it was $12.11471 per thousand and next year it will be $11.84879 per thousand. I suspect after the state works with it a little more, it will likely drop a few more cents per thousand. I would like to say it's because of great financial management on the part of the superintendent and business manager, but as I've said many times most of our finances are calculated via a formula. The biggest factor in that formula is how many students we have enrolled. The decline in our tax rate is due primarily to two things; our declining student population and our increase in valuations in the district. This year our enrollment declined by 15 students. Our budget for next year is largely based on the number of students who were in our district on October 1st of this school year. Each student is worth approximately $6,875, so the 15 students will cost the district $103,125 in revenue. In addition, some of the other funding is also tied to student enrollment so those funds will also decline.
If you want to learn more about the budget, I would encourage you to attend Monday night's special board meeting. It starts at 6:30 in the high school media center.
Project Based Learning (PBL)
I had the privilege to attend some really outstanding training last week on PBL. As I attended the Midmester Showcase last night and visited with the students it really made me think about the training I had been a part of. As I visited with some of the students and they explained their projects, it was great to see their faces light up as they explained why they chose what they did and what they learned with the project. They had choice in what they did and had an opportunity to learn something related to their interests. That doesn't happen all the time with PBL, but when it does it can be powerful.
During the training, the presenter used an analogy comparing farming and education. Farmer's have no way to make a corn or soybean plant grow. They can't force it or make it grow larger, faster, or better. Instead, they have to work to create the ideal or best conditions for their selected crop to grow in. This may mean they have to make sure the soil is properly conditioned, fertilizer is applied, insects and weeds are eliminated, etc. and then the crop will grow if the proper conditions are present. If any one element is missing the crop may not grow as well.
It's really the same with education. As educators, we cannot force students to learn. We have to provide the right conditions for learning so they can grow their own knowledge and skills. Just as with different varieties of corn and soybeans, all of our students respond to different conditions. That's where PBL comes in. It helps provide a variety of conditions for our students to learn in and gives them more voice and choice in what they're learning and how they're learning it. When I was in school, we were all taught the same which usually meant the information was presented in some way, usually one way and it was up to us to learn it. I'm glad to say we don't have much of that happening in our school and I see less and less as we move forward. We're never going to say we will be doing PBL all day every day, but we certainly see it as a way to allow our students to go deeper in a subject of interest to them that allows them to use their skills from a variety of subject areas. In addition, it provides many opportunities for our students to learn about working with others, handling conflicts, and a host of other interpersonal skills that they will need as adults.
We've been working on PBL for several years now and we get better each year. It's great to see the excitement and enthusiasm in our students when they complete a project. Stay tuned as we continue implementing PBL in the future.
A quick note on the building project. It's coming along as expected. They're telling us they plan to be complete with most everything by the end of June. Keep checking the district's Facebook page as we will be posting some pictures and other updates.
