The school year is now moving full-steam-ahead at this point. With the Great Eclipse and Labor Day behind us, Parent teacher conferences will be here before we blink too many more times.
Our September meeting highlights include the following items -- and then I'll go into a few more items a bit deeper below. Highlights of the meeting:
I wanted to provide an update/comment on a few other things of interest to those in the district: 1) The board is actively listening to all parties regarding our custodial services (OPS). All options remain on the table While I won't speculate on what/when may or may not happen, the entire board is engaged, interested, and passionate about coming up with a solution for our district that provides our students and staff with appropriate maintenance and meets cleanliness standards that we all would expect is reasonable and keeps our children in a safe, clean, and maintained school. 2) We are preparing and taking steps to begin the planning process for evaluating, creating, and eventually creating next steps on a bonding initiative. We have submitted an RFQ for engineering and architecture firms and are in the selection process. Initially, we believe our biggest needs are in a second grade wing/gymnasium at the Primary Building in addition to renovations at our middle school (which was originally built as a elementary building). Our physical needs are large and we're hoping for creative, good, and fiscal responsible solutions from those who we partner. More here in the coming weeks. The board plans on holding multiple public forums down the road and will seek public input throughout the process. We have two challenges here: we are a growing district, and we have significantly aging/inadequate facilities that to fully replace would be at a significant cost. 3) There have been relatively big expenses for the athletics program lately. This includes a new sound system, expenses for a trip to the Alamo Bowl, footballs, among other student activities It's important to remember that the board only approves the expenses and does not see/approve the revenues/reimbursements that are received. The board approves a detailed budget annually with revenue lines in the budget to receive funds from the participants. It can sometimes be deceiving: "oh, look, the board approved a $15,000 expense for the Alamo bowl, we must be flush with money." It doesn't work like that and the student activities budget is held just as accountable as all of the other budgets (supplies, books, technology, etc). This can also be deceiving when the district purchases a good but actually received a check from a donor to cover it. The expense (what the public sees once a month) is only half of the story (the expense and not the revenue), remember. 4) This month, the board amended our agenda to approve the Local Compliance Plan for Special Education. While this wasn't included in the initial agenda and items online, it can be obtained and is required by law to receive more than $200,000 that we receive in federal funds. Some could critique this move (adding, and approving quickly) such a plan -- and that document could be made available if needed. We didn't want to put this funding at risk. We trust and do not want to micromanage) our leaders (Angela Maseman in this case). 5) The more time I serve on the board -- the more one thing becomes clear: we need more help administratively to Mr. Downs. I know other board members worry about the curriculum development of the district and how Mr. Downs is wearing too many hats. His overworking, just like in any business or career, will lead to quicker burnout. He deserves better than this. Some will say that we have too much 'administrative bloat' if this conversation becomes more serious and developed. We are also faced with this reality: to best teach our kids, we need to be following the best practices in curriculum development and help our teachers learn and adapt in their specializations. Amongst the daily activities of the superintendent, he's been also the lead contact on the progress on the architecture/engineering firm discussions, lead for the multiple sunshine requests that have been submitted in the last 3 months, curriculum director, program evaluation evaluator, and is supposed to also be thinking about the long-term growth of our district. The reality is: he can't do it all. I'm not sure what this looks like, but I plant this seed early with you, the public, please ask questions and learn before accusing the district of 'administrative bloat. Even better, get involved and join the conversation about how you think this is true and learn how we compare to our peers in this area and compared to what the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would like us to be at for optimal learning. 6) Lastly, a quick update on the student representative discussion. Mr. Daly discussed this idea with the student council advisor who thought there could be interest. However, it was recommended that we wait to pursue this until after Homecoming. I completely agree and look forward to the conversation continuing later this fall. In a note of closing, I will be unable to attend the October board meeting due to being in Mozambique for work. I'll be in contact with Mr. Downs and Mr. Bequette both before and after my trip to get brought back-up-to-speed. Thanks for reading (or skimming) this long post. I hope this is helpful in understanding our work as the Hallsville School Board from my perspective. :)
2 Comments
Stacy
9/20/2017 08:03:32 pm
Thank you, Craig. I enjoy reading, staying abreast of Hallsville District news and keeping touch of a place I dearly love.
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Jon
9/20/2017 09:30:17 pm
Nicely done Craig. Thanks for taking the time to summarize the meeting. We were busy!
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AuthorHallsville resident. Foster Parent. School board member. Politico. Jesus Follower. Cardinals Fan #MizzouMade Archives
June 2020
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