The people behind the numbers
John Heim - Emporia Superintendent of schools
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
IT’S NO SECRET that anxiety levels are a little higher than normal right now in our schools. The months of April and May always bring additional pressures to the classroom when teachers must give state assessments while end-of-year assignments and final exams are looming. Students feel the pressure, too, and they become distracted as they count the days until graduation and summer break.
Budget decisions for the next year and bargaining between teachers and the board of education add more levels of trepidation for staff. This year, budget planning and contract talks are even more complicated because of the uncertain enrollment we face for the fall of 2008.
We expect to have fewer students next fall because of the job cuts at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant, but we don’t know how many fewer to expect. Our enrollment is down about 50 students since the announcement was made in late January, but that takes into account students leaving and new students enrolling. The district’s budget is based on our enrollment, but it’s only an estimate until September 20, about six weeks after the start of the school year. In most years, we are able to accurately project enrollment based on past years’ numbers. Our district has never experienced a job reduction of this magnitude so we have no past history to help guide our planning.
I’ve said before that planning for the unknown is uncomfortable. That is why our Performance-Based Budgeting process was especially important this year. For the past 10 years, we have invited staff and community representatives to help us make recommendations to the Board of Education for spending priorities. We concluded the process last week with approximately 60 people participating; their recommendations will be presented to the Board at its meeting next week. The Committee met for about nine hours over three nights and included equal representation of staff and community members.
After considering many suggestions for budget reductions and requests for budget enhancements, the message from the PBB Committee was overwhelmingly clear: take care of the employees and stay focused on improved student achievement.
The Committee felt strongly that the district should include raises for all staff in the budget to recruit and retain high-quality staff. This group acknowledged that people are the most important element of a good education. Textbooks, classroom supplies, computers and software programs are important tools for learning, but they are only as good as the teachers and support staff that use them in their instruction.
The Committee also sent a clear message that the district should continue with the existing District Improvement Plan and find ways to fund the professional development and instructional resources identified in the plan. The District Improvement Plan was created two years ago to help all schools achieve Adequate Yearly Progress performance targets under No Child Left Behind.
It was refreshing to listen to the discussions among the PBB teams last week as they prioritized budget items. The Committee reminded all of us that the piles of numbers we are crunching — budget lines, staffing levels and enrollment projections — all represent people. The Committee took time to see the faces behind the numbers. After all, we are an organization of people whose mission is to improve the future for the young people in our community. We want the very best people teaching our children. If we treat them like the best, they will not disappoint us.
I am grateful for the time our PBB Committee members invested in the budget process. After 10 years, we can still count on our community to help us make decisions that are in the best interest of students.
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Posted by native_emporia (anonymous) on April 2, 2008 at 10:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was part of the PBB and I have to disagree about the comment that "PBB Committee was overwhelmingly clear: take care of the employees and stay focused on improved student achievement".
Our message to the district was first to make the cuts have the least amount of impact on our students, and second to take care of the staff. There was also a lot of concern expressed about the pressure on both staff and students to do well on state assessments. It was discussed in great lengths the impact that this stress has put on both the teachers, and on students actually learning in the classroom. As a parent I can say that it disturbs me to sit at a parent/teacher conference to only hear about how important it is that my child does well on some state test rather then what they are learning in the classroom.
The group I was in was not so focused on "improved student achievement", but on making sure we don't overreact and not have enough staff, creating oversized classes in the district. It was secondly concerned that we be able to fill staff positions that are proving to be hard to fill and being left open.
Posted by cloud (anonymous) on April 3, 2008 at 12:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
State tests measure the success of the teachers and schools. They are less about the students and more about the educational system.
Posted by native_emporia (anonymous) on April 3, 2008 at 12:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Which in theory is great, but what is happening is that teachers are only allowed enough time to "teach to the test" and the quality of education our children are receiving is suffering.
I have been told by both teachers and administrators that it boils down to the might dollar, and our kids are who suffers.
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