Online Chat - John Heim
February 24, 2009
Emporia School Superintendent John Heim will answer your questions on the goals, plans and projects for the Emporia school district.
Moderator: Our guest today is John Heim, Emporia's superintendent of schools. He'll be answering questions about school policies and budgets, which are a hot topic for school districts acorss the state and the nation. Feel free to submit questions during the chat and be sure to refresh your screen frequently to keep up with the conversation. We'll begin with a reader who wants to know how much of the schools budget is spent on athletics.
toofast: What percentage of the school budget is used for athletics not academics?
John Heim: The high school budget for athletics is $105,000 and the middle school is $38,000. Coaches supplemental salaries are about $300,000 for a total of $454,000. This represents about 1% of our budget.
Steve_Corbin: With the economy what it is and declining enrollments, why are we still proceeding with village school addition? John, it is time for the school board to act like a regular person in these hard times, cut back on the I want's & survive on the I needs.
John Heim: After studying the plan long and hard and touring the building, the Board of Education came to the conclusion that the Village addition is a major need. Even though the district is losing enrollment overall, enrollment at Village has been relatively constant due to the dense family housing in the neighborhood. Kindergarten enrollment increased this year and class sizes dictate we have four sections of each grade. Students and teachers can often be seen doing small group work in the hallways and three teachers are sharing one room. Other options such as bussing and changing boundaries were discussed and determined to be less effective. From a financial perspective, this is a good time to invest in the addition. The district has saved and set aside capital outlay funds to pay for the project and bids came in $242,000 under budget. The project also will provide much-needed jobs because all major subcontractors are from the Emporia area.
cars: Why is that village school can not get a quest director hired after two months
John Heim: We are focused on getting the right person for this important job at Village. While we do not want the position to be vacant too long, we want to make sure we have a good fit for this position.
moderator: What are your biggest challenges right now?
John Heim: The biggest challenge faced by the district right now was delineated by Brent Windsor at our BOE study session a few weeks ago. He reminded us that we have to continue to focus on improving student achievement while trying to cut budgets. Although we are in relatively good fiscal shape now, the budget problems being faced by the state will soon catch up with us in Emporia. We have to be sure that we do not make cuts that will be detrimental to students. When reviewing programs for reductions, we have to be careful to consider both short and long-term affects of potential reductions. Sometimes cuts that appear easy on the surface have dramatic long-term negative effects on learning. Like the old motor oil commercials, "you can pay me now or pay me later" we have to use caution about cutting programs that pay off in the long run.
moderator: Are there still challenges with No Child Left Behind. What do you think the President Obama will do with it?
John Heim: Indeed NCLB brings challenges to our school district. Our teachers and staff have met these challenges well in the past and I am confident that they will continue to rise to the occasion. The President has indicated support for the general concepts of the law, but has also been interested in making changes in the implementation that would be beneficial. The law places to much emphasis on one test per subject per grade. These tests are designed for ease of administration and grading and are not the best way to inform and improve instruction. Efforts are being made to lobby the President to support changes that would allow schools to use more than one assessment to document student achievement in reading and math. The law itself is over 1000 pages and still cannot allow for all of the special conditions and exceptions that can occur at the local level. Anything that the president does to bring accountability back to the state and local level would be a major improvement. What is best for New York isnt necesarily best for Emporia.
moderator: How is the administration building? Are there any drawbacks?
John Heim: The consolidation of district office and special education cooperative office at Mary Herbert Education Center has been smooth and all of the departments are settled in. We like having our offices in the same building where district-wide meetings are held. Our maintenance and technology departments did an excellent job of getting this accomplished. We are saving money on utilities and maintenance and realizing some benefits as well. The downside is that we miss our old neighbors at the Gazette!
quarterback: What salary do starting teachers make and how much do experienced teachers make. Are we competitive with similar districts our size?
John Heim: Starting teachers in Emporia make $33,595. A teacher with 10 years experience and a masters degree makes $44,331. A teacher with 20 years experience and a masters plus 45 hours of college credit makes $52,367. Many of our teachers have advanced degrees and therefore our average salary including all benefits is around $50,000-$55,000. We are fortunate to have ESU nearby as this makes it easier for teachers to get quality continuing education and advanced degrees. Comparisons with other districts our size are difficult because there are many different ways to compare. On most measures, we compare favorably with other Centennial League Schools. In the past ten years, we have been able to increase our average salary rank in the state from 222nd to 47th, and I would like to see us continue this trend.
lurker75: I've heard of other districts looking into a 4 day school week to lower operating costs. Has there been any interest in this? Or would the con's outweigh the pro's and end up being a headache for the community?
John Heim: A few Kansas districts are implementing 4-day school weeks and they seem to like the results. Most of these districts are small and have relatively high transportation costs. One of tyhe Performance-based Budgeting committees that is working on a review of our budgets right now asked some questions about a four day week. Our costs per day are as follows: Transportation- $2,979 Food Service- $3,332 Utilities- Gas- $1,309 Utilities Electricity- $3,963 Utilities- City- $298 Total cost of these expenses is $11,883. One must resist the temptation to simpy multiply that total by the number of weeks in the year and assume we would save that much. Utilities would not be reduced to $0 on days when we are not in school and transportation and food service are subject to reimbursement from the state. The downsides of a 4-day week include the problem of parents having to find daycare on Fridays and learning loss that occurs over the long weekend. In addition to these disadvantages, an eight hour day is a long time for students to be engaged in academic learning time. Especially younger students grow tired and benefit from shorter days that are spaced out more evenly.
Moderator: That is all the time we have for today's chat. We're sorry that there was not enough time to answer all the questions that came in. A transcript of today's chat will be published in Wednesday's Gazette. Keep your eyes open for the next online chat, which will be annopunced here on the Web site and in the print Gazette.