West Carroll School Board Reviews Tentative Annual Budget

Michael Miller For The Prairie Advocate News

SAVANNA – In a brief meeting on August 19, 2010 at the West Carroll High School in Savanna, the West Carroll School Board took a look at the 2010/2011 tentative annual budget, as well as awarding snow removal bids for the district’s new year and putting out for bid garbage/waste disposal services.

The meeting was attended by Board members Deb Klein, Tim Atherton, Mike Highland, Bill Sweeney, John Brigham, Beverly Kilpatrick, and Board Superintendent David Boyd. Also attending were District Superintendent Craig Mathers, High School Principal Bob Lamb, Assistant High School Principal Monika Burkholder, Middle School Principal Julie Katzenberger, Primary and Intermediate School Principal Jeannette Ashby, and Brad Field of the Technology Department, as well as Recording Secretary/Business Office Manager Sandra Aude.

After the perfunctory opening agenda items (call to order, roll call, approval of consent agenda, public comments), the Board received a thank you card from Peg Haffey on the occasion of her retirement, another thank you card from Carla and Dr. Whitebread for contributions relating to their recent tragedy. Mathers noted that West Carroll had been through a “challenging week,” enduring both the flood and the tragedy that occurred in Mt. Carroll, and that the staff had really “pulled together” to help get through these trying events. He noted also that Facebook had been a great tool to help students express their thoughts and feelings during this time.

Ashby gave a brief report on the Primary and Intermediate Schools. She noted that enrollment was up, and that both schools were eager to begin the third year of RtI, which will include math this year.

In Delp’s absence, Mathers delivered the highlights of her Special Education report. This report noted the use of RtI and AIMSweb screening to screen students’ math and reading skills in grades K-9, so as to quickly identify those students in need of intervention. It also recognized and welcomed three new employees that will be working with the Special Ed program; the new program supervisor for Northwest Special Education Cooperative, new school psychologist Tim Dowling, new school social worker Kassandra Meyers, who will work 3 days a week at the Primary and Intermediate Schools.

Delp’s report also announced that the Early Childhood Block Grant allocations have been finalized and that the District will now be revising and resubmitting it’s FY 2011 continuation grant applications.

Katzenberger delineated the 2010/2011 Middle School goals; raising the School’s attendance to 97 percent this year, make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress, with at least 85 percent of students meeting or exceeding on the 2011 ISAT in reading and math), and supporting “differentiated instruction across the curriculum for all learners”. She also announced that the Mt. Carroll Rotarians and teacher retirees will be volunteering their time to help 6th graders with their reading skills.

Lamb spoke briefly about the athletic teams, most of which already have games under their belt. He said that the recent Freshman Orientation went well and was attended well. He added that he was very proud of the High School student body in light of the recent tragedy and that their actions and attitude made him proud to be a district employee.

Burkholder reported that the High School was “looking great” and that the new literature and grammar texts as well as novels are in. She said the Western Illinois Marching Band would be performing at the first home football game and that they would also be holding a clinic for the West Carroll Marching Band.

Field said that despite a “few hiccups” the new school year was proceeding well, with the Skyward Data conversion process nearly complete, and all ten SMARTboards now installed. He also reported that Jeff Holley has replaced most of the new computers and that ongoing projects such as inventory, connection management, servers, accounts and file management, and general cleanup were still being worked on.

Dealing with State budget cuts

Mathers told the Board about several relevant budgetary cuts in the State’s Alliance Legislative Report. $146 million was cut from student transportation and $65 million dollars was cut from reading improvement block grants in the final fiscal year 2011 K-12 budget, with Governor Quinn restoring funding to the following items: advanced placement, agriculture education, arts and foreign language, after school matter program, national board certification, Teach for America, alternative learning, re-enrolling students program, and truant alternative and optional education funds.

Mathers also supplied the Board with a brief detailing monthly updates to the status of West Carroll deposited state funds. It revealed that $464,861.17 in delayed fiscal year 2010 deposits were received in late June, that $511,896.13 of the same deposits were received in late July, and that deposits that are still delayed from fiscal year 2010 total $570,849.57.

Mathers also noted that energy costs had risen 18 percent this year, and had risen 38 percent lat year.

He discussed a notification that both West Carroll High School track teams and the 2010 softball team have been awarded the IHSA Team Academic Achievement Award; this award is given to varsity teams who achieve a 3.0 grade point average or higher for their entire season. He noted that it is “very rewarding to see teamwork both in competition and in the classroom.”

The Board awarded the bid for snow removal work for the 2010/2011 school year to Ritchie Excavating Services Inc.

The Board then reviewed the tentative budget for the 2010/2011 school year, with Mathers reporting a deficit of $636,324 for the district. Some of the key details listed in the brief received by the Board included the news that Special Education revenue was considered a constant due to Maintenance of Effort requirements, and that all ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ) funds are eliminated from Fiscal Year 2010, in the amount of $459,000.00. One bright spot in the report was the fact that the District should be approximately $177,000 in the black in the transportation fund, due to the sale of its buses.

The Board also unanimously approved a motion by Mathers to go out for bids for the district’s garbage disposal needs. The district currently utilizes Allied Disposal but Mathers said he would like to open up the work for bids in order to get a competitive bid and hopefully drive down prices for the same amount of service.

The open portion of the meeting concluded with the Board voting to go into executive session, to discuss employee issues, collective bargaining and special education issues.