We are facing some of the most difficult global challenges in generations.

Now more than ever we need to work together to address the many challenges that are developing daily.

Buses
On January 14th, 2009 I voted to have 22 of the oldest buses in our fleet replaced with new. These new buses will replace all of our buses that are 14 years or older. By removing the 22 oldest buses from our fleet, we will not only have safer buses but the maintenance cost for our existing fleet is greatly reduced. On top of the large savings in maintenance, the state will reimburse the district for up to 80% of the cost of the new buses over a 5 year period. Since our district traditionally keeps buses for 13 years, amortizing these new buses over time will actually save the district money.

 

Fundraising
Recently the board voted on the equity issue of fundraising for schools in our district. It was decided that all schools fundraising efforts must now be approved by the board. This new policy will keep schools from having an academic advantage over other schools in the district. We are a part of the public school system and I believe that private fundraising for each school should be evaluated carefully.

 

CLIC Cooperative

The CLIC Cooperative is an organization which provides insurance to school districts. Board members of the cooperative are made up of business officials from the member school districts. For the last few years I have been requesting that we bid out our insurance as these co-ops may not be best for a district our size. We went to bid last year on our Workman's Compensation Insurance and CLIC was not the least expensive. We voted to go with another firm and saved at least $300,000 per year with the potential for $600,000 in annual saving.

 

Our Property and Casualty insurance was up for renewal in December but unfortunately was not put out for bid. According to our new bidding policy that I initiated it should have been. The deadline for withdrawl was December 31st 2008. However, according to our agreement, we could still withdraw after this date with approval by the CLIC board. Our board gave direction on January 14th 2009 to ask CLIC to let us withdraw 15 days after the deadline and we voted not to accept the new terms of the agreement. CLIC refused to accept our withdrawl even though the current policy doesn't expire until June 30th 2009. I voted again in February not to accept their new agreement.

 

$5 Million Capital Spending

I voted against this capital expenditure because we did not have our 5 year forecast from the district. This forecast is needed to verify that we can afford to do these projects. It is important that we plan our capital projects based on our long term forecasts. Too often the district has spent funds only to discover that it had to cut spending and programs in future years because of lack of planning. I believe that we need to do capital expenditures but I believe that these expenditures need to be balanced with what the district can afford over the long term student needs. It is a balancing act between capital expenditures and student expenditures.

My 25 years of business experience has taught me that it is necessary to be proactive and solve tomorrow's problems today. I have brought this experience and knowledge to the district for the past 4 years and will continue to do this if re-elected.

 

 

 

Class Size

For the last 2 years our district has stipulated that class sizes for grades K-2 should average 24; class sizes for grades 3-6 should average 26, and class sizes for grades 7-8 should average 28. Each individual school is responsible for determining class sizes at each grade level so that these averages are honored.

The school board does not approve individual class sizes at each individual school. This is the responsibility of each schools administrative team.

The principal and leadership team at each school carefully evaluate the population in each grade level, their existing staff, as well as other variables. After careful consideration this team determines the number of students in each class and in each grade level.

Any class with more than 28 bilingual or 30 regular education students automatically receive additional Program Assistant time to help in the classroom. This second trained adult in the classroom reduces the child to adult ratio and has proven very successful.

I agree that it would be wonderful if every class size was lower, however the cost must always be weighed with the benefits. We must work within our financial resources, particularly in times like these. The board is currently discussing this issue to evaluate the process.

Click here for a link to the district's web site student assignment plan.