Finding that delicate balance
John Heim - Emporia superintendent of schools
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Ef·fi·cient — Productive of desired effects; especially: productive without waste (an efficient worker). Efficient suggests acting or a potential for action or use in such a way as to avoid loss or waste of energy in effecting, producing or functioning
Ef·fi·cien·cy — The quality or degree of being efficient; effective operation as measured by a comparison of production with cost (as in energy, time and money).
— Source: Merriam-Webster
I WAS YOUNG when my grandpa taught me that he had to look to the end of the field, not the front of the tractor, to plow a straight furrow. It was part of my early education that it is important to look at the big picture when we are solving problems.
In the current economy, it is crucial for public agencies to find ways to operate more efficiently, and this requires us to step back and take an objective look at traditional policies and practices. Of course, we all want to cut costs without compromising the quality of our products and services. That is especially true of public education where we hold the responsibility to prepare our youth to be productive citizens in the 21st century.
While USD 253 is in a better financial position than most school districts, it is only a matter of time before the state’s financial crisis begins to affect Emporia as it has other districts and state agencies.
The Board of Education has already made cuts to the 2009-10 budget, and we expect deeper cuts will be needed in the next year. We want to be proactive in our financial planning, and the board has asked for an efficiency review of the district. It will be conducted over the next five months by the Center for Innovative School Leadership at Emporia State University. This group will provide the objective, critical review that allows us to see the whole picture without getting stuck in minutia.
CISL was created in 2004 by the Legislature to help school districts realize greater efficiencies and to identify good practices that can be shared with other districts. The goal is to identify savings that can be gained through best protocols in leadership, human resources, facilities management, and teaching and learning. In the end, their studies help districts put savings back into the classroom for a greater investment in students.
Our goal is to find efficiencies without sacrificing good instruction and student achievement. The CISL team will collect information, conduct interviews, analyze policies and practices, and make recommendations. They will work with an advisory steering committee of community and school district representatives that will be appointed by the board of education. The steering committee will help provide direction for the study and provide transparency to the process. The community can expect a full report of CISL’s work in December.
The Emporia schools have a good track record of sound fiscal management and improving student achievement. Overall, our students perform very well, but we still have students who are achieving below grade level and students who want to accelerate their learning to higher levels. We take pride in the high-quality teachers and programs that help meet the needs of individual all students. Federal stimulus funds are allowing us to implement some additional programs to encourage a higher graduation rate and getting more students into post-secondary education.
We want to find the delicate balance between the needs of our students with the fiscal realities of the state and local economy.
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