A Message from the "Top Dog"

In advance of difficult budgeting decisions for the 2010-11 school year (deficit of approximately 30 million dollars), our school board has invited every stakeholder in the district to participate in an online survey. The survey asks you to rank fifteen budget-cutting options currently under consideration from most favorable to least. I encourage you to make your voice heard. The survey can be found at www.jordandistrict.org/. On the district’s home page, click on “Budget Reduction Survey” under the “Stay Connected” heading in the lower right part of the page, and then click on “2010-11 Budget Reduction Survey” on the page that comes up. It’s the first link listed on the page. If you do not have access to the internet at home and would like to participate in the survey, inquire at the school and we’ll be happy to accommodate you.

Without going into detail on any single budget-cutting option, I’d like to provide some insight into how each of these options might impact your family and our school. On the survey, you will be asked to rank the following options from most favorable to least favorable:

• Increase the number of students in each class (1-5 students; yields $3.5-15 million). Current staffing formulas for elementary schools in JSD are 22.3 students/teacher in grades K-3 and 26.3 students/teacher in grades 4-6. In reality, class sizes are typically smaller or larger than indicated because student numbers rarely divide evenly into the formula. In our school, we use some staffing money for Ms. Wiley, our computer teacher and resident tech specialist. This has the effect of raising class size nearly one student per class, on average. As class sizes increase, classroom management and the ability to provide timely feedback and individual attention to students are affected. Additional assessment, grading, communication, and teaching demands are placed on the classroom teacher.

• Property tax increase of up to $56.38 per $100,000 of market value (yields $14 million). Taxes on a home assessed at $300,000 would go up as much as $14 per month.

• Reduce or eliminate school nurses (yields up to $300,000). We share a nurse with 8 other schools. Our school nurse coordinates vision screenings, trains staff on student health issues, provides consultations and screenings related to specific student/school health concerns that arise, and develops and follows through with health plans for designated students with special health concerns.

• Further reduce non-teaching positions at the district level (each full-time position reduced yields approximately $50,000). District-level administrators, specialists, and their support staff provide essential services, albeit indirectly, to our students. In addition, they have a wealth of knowledge and experience that serve as an excellent resource for those of us who work directly with students. Longer response time, reduced services and increased risk of successful litigation against the district are potential consequences of eliminating district positions.

• Reduce or eliminate the Jordan Alternative Middle School Program (yields up to $200,000). JAMS is an intervention program for middle school students at high risk for failure and drop-out. Instructional services for these students are provided in an alternative, specialized setting designed to keep them in school and help them achieve academic success.

• Raise fees to make extra-curricular programs and activities self-supporting (yields up to $100,000). Families of students who participate in music, drama, athletic, and other extracurricular programs that are partially subsidized by taxpayer dollars would see participation fees increased to cover the actual cost of participation. Our school’s orchestra fits in this category.

• Eliminate funds which provide incentives for new teachers to be employed in Jordan School District (yields $200,000). In an effort to attract talented new teachers, JSD has offered a small relocation stipend (for those who meet the criteria) and a signing bonus for the last few years. Good teaching candidates are not as scarce now as they were when this practice began, but it does give them an additional reason to consider employment in Jordan.

• Reduce or eliminate police officers in secondary schools (yields up to $500,000). The presence of police officers on secondary campuses encourages students to make better choices, often discouraging them from doing things that could negatively impact them for the remainder of their lives. Campus officers typically teach elective classes in law enforcement and handle situations in the school that require police intervention (drug, tobacco, alcohol, theft, assault, etc.). The officers I worked with as a secondary administrator were great role models and worked to develop positive relationships with students.

• Reduce or eliminate funds given to schools to implement programs and services that improve student success (yields up to $1 million). The school improvement funds in question are used almost entirely on literacy intervention programs in our school (about $20,000/year). Our data show the decidedly positive results STAR and SOAR have on our students. These programs will be reduced or eliminated without this funding.

• Permanent reductions in employee compensation (1-3 percent yields $1.6 to $4.8 million). This year, salaries were frozen for all employees in JSD and teachers lost 9 professional development days from their contracts. For the average teacher, this represented a loss of about $250/month. The combined impact of furlough days (next option below), an ongoing freeze on salary increases, and across-the-board compensation cuts of 1-3 percent this year could result in the loss of $400 or more per month for the average teacher over a span of two years. It may be difficult to attract good teaching candidates and retain the great teachers we already have if they can do the same job with fewer students in a neighboring district for $300 or more per month than they can make here.

• Employee furlough days (1-5 days yields $900,000 to $4.5 million). Furlough days generate savings by eliminating work/school days. Exercising this option will reduce instructional time, trim employee compensation, and increase the number of days you spend with your child next year.

• Reduce non-teaching positions at local schools (each full-time position reduced yields approximately $50,000). Elementary schools employ few certified personnel who are not directly involved in instruction, so this option would probably impact secondary schools more deeply. In most elementary schools, the only staff member who fits this description would be the literacy facilitator. Our literacy facilitator oversees and coordinates literacy intervention programs and assessments in our school, and gathers and shares related data with our instructional staff. She provides training for our staff and models good instructional practice in our classrooms.

• Reduce or eliminate hazardous transportation (yields up to $1.2 million). As per state guidelines and board policy, elementary students who live more than 1.5 miles from school have access to bus transportation to and from school. In certain circumstances where walking hazards between a neighborhood and the school are deemed too great, our district provides busing for students who live closer to their school than 1.5 miles. The district has provided this service for the sake of student safety and because funding was available. By my figures, over half of the students bussed to our school could lose this service.

• Eliminate non-mandated programs and services to schools and teachers (yields up to $1 million). This would include program expenses that the district has supplemented over the years that are not strictly required by the state and would impact, at some level, almost every service the district provides.

• Discontinue the employee sick bank (yields $400,000). Full-time employees are allocated a certain number of sick leave days per year based on their status. The “sick bank” is made up of days voluntarily contributed by employees plus additional dollars set aside by the district, and is used to cover extenuating circumstances where an employee’s health condition results in the loss of more days than the employee was eligible for.

As you can see, there are no easy answers – no way to make everyone happy. A solution that balances our budget for the upcoming school year will require sacrifices from all stakeholders and will inevitably affect programs and services for all of our children. This is your district and your feedback is important! Please access the survey and weigh in with your preferences.

Regards,

Ken Westwood
Principal