The board has started touring the buildings. It’s interesting to me to see the differences to me just in the four we have toured so far. Nearly all of the kids I saw were engaged and well behaved. Our schools are clean and well maintained. The teachers were teaching and the kids were paying attention. I have to give the kids credit, it had to be hard to pay attention and give answers to the teachers questions with all the "suits" in the room. One child was extremely impressed that we had a doctor (Ph.D.) with us. Only two things disturbed me. One was the fact that one of our elementary schools is so crowded that a child was getting physical therapy in a closet. The other was a conversation I overheard. It seems that enrollment is so low at Silver Lake elementary that if our district hadn’t pushed most of the kindergarten open enrollment there, we would have had to shut down the Silver Lake kindergarten program. The pledge to the community says that a district wide reorganization is to be completed by the 07/08 school year. I’d say it’s time we got started. Most of the buildings in Cuyahoga Falls are busting at the seams. Our bussing system has too many exceptions and too little riders. I see huge busses with 10 –12 kids on them. I have had parents complain to me that mostly empty busses go past their house to schools their own children attend but can’t pick up their children. We have kids walking over or on mounds of ice on Graham Rd. to get to Lincoln Elementary and Bolich Middle School.
And finally I can tell you what all the executive sessions were about. The board has been negotiating renewing our CFO’s contract. It’s on this Wednesday’s agenda. Strangely enough no attachment was with the agenda. I’m sure the media will appreciate that. I find it curious that I am expected to vote on a resolution Wednesday without having seen it. What I was sent last week through my Email and what’s handed to me Wednesday in the board room could be two totally different documents. I think an attachment would have been prudent, if not necessary in this case.
The changes are as follows: (edited to remove contract details) The attorney has suggested that it might not be a good idea for me to post the contract details until after we have voted on it so I've taken them down.
Anyway, in case you’re wondering, I’m OK with this. We have a really smart CFO that has a way with charts and spreadsheets. I appreciate her enthusiasm and zest. And I want stability and understanding of where we are financially when entering union negotiations in a few short months. Our CFO wanted to feel secure in her employment and I can’t fault her for that. Hopefully we all got what we wanted.
There is a special board meeting executive session only on Monday evening, as well as one at the end of Wednesdays board meeting. If we have many more special meetings I’m going to ask for a raise. Better yet, maybe some one will just throw one on the agenda for me.
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3 comments:
What do we mean when we say 'reconfigure'? Do we mean that we will take our existing students and place them in existing floor space? Or, do we mean that we will take our existing students and place them in existing and new rented floor space within walking distance of their homes?
What are all of the variables? Which variables do we want to optimize first, second, and third? Do we have people skilled to do this type of cost / benefit analysis? Does anyone know how to us 'linear programming' to help us look at the cost / benefits? What are the parameters for doing this analysis?
And, lastly but most importantly what is the goal? Do you think we may want to start with a clear statement of our shared goals?
Based on the above comments, please allow me to suggest the following tentative goal statements:
- Train students with similar needs effectively and efficiently.
- Minimize the time of our students on our transport system.
- Minimize the cost of our
transport system.
-=-=--=-=-=-
Do we want to modify or add to the above goal statements?
Hello Floraga,
I agree with you that all day kindergarten is necessary to bring kids up to the level that they need to at to enter 1st grade. If we are to remain competitive with other districts in the area and attain an excellent rating, we must start our kids off right. I know of families that are sending their kids to other districts through open enrollment strictly because of the availability of all day kindergarten. Unfortunately once this happens, we often lose these families permanently because they want continuity for their children.
The extra expense comes in because most (if not all) of the kindergarten teachers here in the Falls teach a morning class and an afternoon class. If we go to all day, additional teachers and classrooms would be needed to cover those 2nd classes. Some buildings do not have additional classrooms available which makes reconfiguration critical.
If we want to make Cuyahoga Falls a school district and city that attract and retain young families, we’re going to have to take a hard look at making some changes.
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