Hello and Happy 1st Full Week Of School!
It's already been an exciting week. In one day (Monday) we had an eclipse AND a school board meeting. Super exciting, right? Okay, well, it was for me. We had a packed-house for a meeting, which was really great to see. What did we discuss? Our agenda can be found here. A helpful tip for all readers is to make sure you read the "district reports" PDF. This is compiled by each building and is rich of information about the activities within each building, special education, and athletics. In a nutshell, the highlights (in my opinion) included: 1) Approving the tax rate for the 2017-2018 tax rate. This move codified the tax levy increase that voters (you) approved in April. Mr. Downs recommended that we voluntarily roll-back (not tax) the full amount (saving individuals .05 cents/$100 assessed value). I know this tax will hit all of us in December when we receive the tax bills. However, know that I am grateful on behalf of our district and children. 2) We received a brief update on the Hallsville Foundation. This working group is moving forward in positive ways. It's important to remember that this Foundation is a long-term game of being able to make a positive impact on the district, though. The team is working on the founding documents and should make good progress into creating a formal organization in the coming few months. 3) Selfishly, I'll promote that I brought up the student representative (or advisor) to the school board. We had a good discussion on this and next steps included Mr. Daly tasked with bringing this topic up with the student council leadership and faculty to possibly develop our own policies. Discussion will continue. Here is a sample policy from the Crawford County R-1 district. 4) The board also discussed the importance of wanting to increase involvement and inclusion of recognizing our faculty, staff, students, and community who are doing great things. We'll be working to implement some sort of formal recognition of those teachers who are recognized, students or student groups who are recognized at competitions, and other bragging points about our district. It takes a village to raise our children -- and it's important we honor those who succeed and those who help us reach new heights! 5) Lastly, representatives (the ownership) from OPS, our contracting cleaning and maintenance company, was on-hand and fielded questions and concerns from board members regarding the quality and timeliness of summer cleanings. The Board is working to fix concerns from faculty, staff, administrators, and our own experiences with the school not being kept-up to our expectations. We appreciated OPS' willingness to attend and work with the district on concerns. However, we also encouraged faculty and staff to report concerns to their building administrator to remedy the situation and not to be become complacent or apathetic. In other news, the board held a special meeting on August 11th with an MSBA representative who encouraged and brought advice on items to ensure that our district remains and grows in transparency and uses best practices in the solicitation and bidding of items. This was informative and incredibly helpful to me. As we move forward in the beginning stages of discussion about what a no-tax-increase bond renewal could look like in April 2018 -- the board is actively beginning the process of reviewing architectural/engineering proposals to assist with this. Throughout the fall -- the board plans to have work sessions to discuss and begin to map out this process. We look forward to your input and ideas! I'll conclude by saying a huge "THANK YOU" to all of those parents, teachers, staff, and administrators who have made the first week of school a success. There are (and will) always bumps in the road in these first few weeks (ie bus route changes) and those bumps are quickly and widely shared in our small community. However, I'm proud of how professional, helpful, and dedicated our folks are in handling these and the everyday challenges that they encounter. If I can be of any assistance or even just be a listening ear -- feel free to reach out! Remain blessed in the coming few weeks! Craig
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Okay. I admit it. I've slacked. The summertime blues hit me. Well, honestly, it's been crazy busy in the Stevenson household. Between a huge work annual meeting, a 2-week trip to Mozambique, 12 day vacation.
Anyway, enough excuses. Time for an update of what happened with the board over the summer! It's a relatively long update....since I haven't posted all summer. We had a meeting on June 19th (which I was absent, in Mozambique). The board approved the wifi project (which is nearing completion!) and discussed the maintenance and facilities needs to begin discussions for reassessing our capital improvements. An overview of the meeting was published on the district page here. At our normal June board meeting (June 29th), we passed our FY2017-2018 budget. Thanks to the passage of the tax levy in April, this budget process was actually fun and positive! The meeting notes from the district can be found here. In our FY2017-2018 budget that began July 1 -- thanks to the tax levy increase, we were able to: 1) provide a 1.8% raise to staff, 2) add three teachers in crowded classrooms, add a 1/2 time art teacher and added a full time paraprofessional, 3) add $100,000 for maintenance and repair projects that are 1-time and long overdue, 4) put $80,000 in the technology budget -- to replace our aging technology infrastructure. For me, it was very important for the board to publicly state that we wanted to set a target for our fund balance to be at. During the 2016 fiscal year, our reserves dropped to 16.65%. When I ran for the board, I noted how important this was to bring up closer to the state average. I made a motion and the board approved a goal for Superintendent Downs and Jason Hoffman (our consultant on budgetary issues) to bring our reserves as a district to 25%. This is what we'll work towards in the budgets in the future. For this year, we expect reserves to be up to 22.67% or slightly higher if most recent budget assumptions are take place. We discussed other items in June, but the other major highlight includes a discussion and approval of an extension of cleaning services with OPS. The board has some questions about quality of work and will be continuing conversations with their leadership about how this needs to improve in the future. We expect OPS to send some staff to our August meeting if possible. At our July meeting, two of the more unique items included: a presentation on credit recovery and course completion processes at the high school level and approving reinstatement of extra duty positions (Spanish club, art club, and a few more positions to receive a stipend that were cut a year ago. We had a first reading on some new mandatory policies including a wellness committee and food service programs. For August, we will have three meetings. First, we will have a meeting on August 8th that will be an MSBA training that was recommended by the auditors on the best practices of contracting of services and similar topics. This was one of my priorities -- and will provide an additional check/balance to ensure all of the board is updated on the necessary processes for projects. Second, we will have a brief meeting on August 11th to discuss litigation, and our regularly scheduled meeting will take place on our normal day, of Monday, August 21st. A few things to note as we prepare for the beginning of school and the fall that aren't necessarily covered in notes elsewhere: 1) Please be on the lookout for future fall (October-later) public work sessions to discuss a potential bond (no tax increase) for capital needs. The board will be seeking and encouraging the public to attend, provide input, and communicate with the board during this process as we prepare for what the board may consider in January. 2) It's my goal to spend some time in each building's classrooms during the fall semester. We are welcoming new principals (2) assistant principal (1) and a new special education director. We welcome and congratulate Mrs. Morris, Mr. Sides, Mr. Cooley, and Mrs. Maseman! 3) I will work with Mr. Bequette, the board, and administrators to begin discussions on how to increase involvement and recognition with our faculty/staff/students during the board meetings. 4) At the summer meetings, I volunteered to serve as the board member on the PRIDE interview committee for students. These at-risk students are close to my heart and I look forward to serving in this capacity. 5) Lastly at the summer meetings, I expressed and interest and was given the approval to be the voting member that will go to the Missouri School Board Association annual meeting in October. I hope to listen, learn, and gather ideas and best practices to share with our board. All board members have to complete an online and in-person training and I'm scheduled to do mine on August 26th. My focus over the next several months is to continue to learn and listen. 6) I've now been serving you for nearly 5 months and it's been truly an honor and humbling experience. I do not take the position lightly and am only more excited to continue to serve you and our district. Please reach out if you have any questions, concerns, or ideas! 7) There is progress for the Hallsville education foundation (no official name yet). The working group of potential trustees will be meeting tomorrow (Aug. 3) to discuss a draft articles of incorporation, a timeline, and next steps. It's the board's hope that this foundation will increase awareness and provide an avenue for increased community involvement through donations and in-kind support. The district and foundation board of directors will work to publish information and provide a more detailed update as soon as possible. 8) Lastly, please be in positive thoughts for our teachers, staff, administrators, students, and parents as we begin the school year. This is always challenging for everyone involved and takes patience, perseverance, and working together to make everything come together! |
AuthorHallsville resident. Foster Parent. School board member. Politico. Jesus Follower. Cardinals Fan #MizzouMade Archives
June 2020
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