Decisions

Where were the calculators when I went to school? All we had were slip sticks.
Schools play an important role in the lives of American youngsters. On average, 13 of the first 18 years of life revolve around schools and education. The quality of that education weighs significantly on that young person’s future.
One might think that the youngsters whose future is at stake are the highest consideration in any decisions having to do with schools. One would be mistaken more often than not.
The piece of school budgets devoted to employee expense is by far the largest. In our case it totals 83% of every dollar spent. That only leaves 17% to be impacted through better management of expenses. Managing the 83% is no mean feat either.
That 83% figure is in line with other budgets in service industries. And schools are certainly a service. The people who provide the service make up the largest expense.
The unions representing employees have a vested interest in getting raises and insuring that workers have a safe environment. Neither of these charges takes in to consideration the long term best interest of the students except where there are standards to be met by the employees for membership.
The administration is charged with keeping the operation functional and paying its bills which often means making decisions based on numbers rather than the best interest of students.
School boards are charged with seeing to it that the overall operation is conducted according to laws and the state constitution and find themselves operating in unfamiliar circumstances with others dictating much of what must be done.
Students themselves are not in a position to make choices and decisions in their own best interest. They are limited by the circumstances of the place where they live, the quality of schools and courses available at that location and their limited knowledge of what is available in areas unknown to them.
So who is ultimately in charge of schools? Who makes the decisions and how? Teachers? Custodians? Bus drivers? Administrators? Boards of education? Students?
They each play a role in that they are citizens of the community in which they reside. But the larger community that is not directly associated with schools at any given time plays the most significant role. They decide what’s important to them.
By their voices and their votes citizens of the community are in charge of making the decisions about what kind and quality schools the community will support. They make the basic decisions related to funding and regulation that ultimately dictate how schools will operate.
Everyone intuitively values schools, but most of us have only a fleeting relationship with schools and our impressions are formed during that passing association. What and how we think of schools becomes fixed in our minds over that 13 years period and most of us don’t keep up with changing demands, circumstances and opportunities involved with the larger picture of education. We’re stuck in our old models.
I remember buying a metal mechanical device that operated with a stylus and could add and subtract. It was called a calculator. I remember my father showing me how to do multiplication and division with a slide rule. It was also a calculator. Compared to today’s calculators both were like doing math with hammers and chisels on stone.
Today’s kids and tomorrow’s demands find both of those tools only in history. We need to be looking 40 years ahead, not behind.

Free Money

Winston tastes good like……. Well, you know. Or maybe you don’t. Which would be better for you.
School Treasurer David Combs spent nearly four grueling hours with me and new board member Wendy Myers reviewing the wonderful complexities of school finances Wednesday. As usual, it was both enlightening and frustrating.
The enlightening part comes when one of the many intricacies finally makes sense. Frustrating when there remain what seems a lifetime of such puzzles yet a mystery. Further frustrating is wanting to share with folks what I think I understand but cannot find words to begin the explanation.
And yes, we worked on that 24 page document that explains how the state says they give us $5,732 per student in financial assistance which, after the 24 page formula comes down to our receiving something less than $2,000 in real money. More on that another time. Let’s talk about our buildings.
As discussed on several occasions we are having our buildings reviewed by state authorities to determine the status and recommendations. This follows the exam done in 2002 which was required to obtain our place in the long line of districts to receive state funding assistance to build new buildings and repair older ones.
The general rule is that if the repair costs exceed 66% of the replacement cost, the state will insist on replacement. At the time of our original survey, the recommendation was to eliminate all of our Elementary buildings and the middle school. We were to replace them all with new buildings.
At the same time, we were given number 414 in the line of more than 600 districts. Way down the line.
In the intervening time, many districts have built new buildings and renovated old buildings. Some districts have passed on the opportunity. There is a factor at work here that causes us to be doing the research into our status at this time. It’s called losing the money.
Basically, the state of Ohio has $4.2 Billion of tobacco settlement money that it must use within the next 24 months or it goes up in smoke. Which means we as a district must determine if we want to take our place in line, sell bonds to raise the money and be under contract to build before that 24 month deadline in order to get our share of the money.
If not, we will forever lose the opportunity for state money to participate in the project and any new buildings we need will be 100% our responsibility.
We will share more information as the reports become available and we will share what options we have when we know ourselves. The important factor at the moment is to get the facts so we are working from a solid base of information and understand our options.
To answer one question being asked by some…No, these studies are not costing the district any money. There’s that to be thankful for.
What we know so far is that our buildings have not gotten any younger since the study x years ago. And, the cost of repairs has gone up considerably.
What we also can determine is that security standards of today are virtually impossible if not ridiculously expensive to retrofit into the buildings we have. A safety factor not to be ignored.
Meanwhile, if you have opportunity to visit neighboring districts that have moved in to new facilities, do so and let us know what you think. We think our kids deserve the best to compete in the world. The question is, what does the community think?

Numbers - Again. Looking up.

21-0-28. With school in session a couple weeks now it is time to be asking about numbers. How many students this year versus last? What are class sizes looking like? How are the numbers?
Glad you asked. The first number you might be interested in is 60. If you have had that many birthdays you can get a free pass to all Marietta City Schools’ sports events. This policy was in place last year and was continued. A nice bonus for having stuck around that long.
Then there are the total student figures. It gets a bit tricky here. On August 22 of ‘07 the official count was 2974. That was down from the previous year’s 3027. Then on December 12 the number was 2927. And on May 6 of ’08 the official count was 2936.
You can see quite a lot of fluctuation over the course of the year. The beginning number this year is 2987. Up 13 from the beginning number last year. Noticeably, this is the first increase in first day enrollment in memory. Perhaps as long as 30 years. What does this mean? Good question.
Asking questions about numbers yielded far more information than one might imagine. For instance, over the course of the year there are on average about 400 students who must be accounted for as they move in and out of the district.
Sometimes they become incarcerated. Some are on open enrollment. Some move in and out of foster homes and some choose home schooling or community schools.
What’s a community school? It’s not a home school and it’s not a building in the community. Probably a topic for further discussion as we dig deeper, but for the moment just imagine that your student enrolls in a program that he/she attends via computer.
The community schools are sanctioned by the state of Ohio but not subject to the same responsibility and reporting requirements that regular schools must demonstrate. Here’s the not so good part from the district standpoint.
The local district must pay at least in part for tuition, study materials, a computer and other associated costs. Last year this area of expenditures cost Marietta City Schools about $167,000.
We will look more closely at this another time.
These questions also uncovered a phantom building in our district. Really a cyber building where we house students for state reporting purposes that don’t really fit anywhere else, but we must keep track of them on a daily basis. What a nightmare!
Speaking of buildings, our “Central Receiving” building has drawn some interest as we move forward to dispose of it and consolidate that operation. The appraisal number there is $160,000 if you might have some interest yourself.
Then there are some savings numbers worth mentioning. Owing to a change implemented this year where middle school and high school students are responsible for purchasing locks for their lockers we have saved about 6 weeks of custodial time and two weeks of secretarial time.
That’s how long it took in years past to change all the combinations on the lockers and record the changes. Not sure why we weren’t smart enough to do this decades ago.
Apart from the savings, the students get to keep the locks for future use. The number at the top of this letter is my hall locker combination. My gym locker was 15-27-4. Now if I can just remember where I put the locks.
We have some class size issues to address. Sometimes these are readily solvable and at other times not. More on that subject later.

Board Candidate Questions

Following two days of interviewing the 8 candidates Wendy Myers was the unanimous choice to join the board. Welcome aboard Wendy.
Following the interviews Mr. Elliott, Mr. Young and your writer attended the Putnam PTO meeting. Over 50 people were present when I arrived. Questions and answers were flying back and forth. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every PTO meeting had such an active level of participation?
One parent asked, “What were the criteria used to select the new board member?” The question deserves a better answer than was given that evening.
Here are the questions used in the interview process. Some generated more discussion than others but formed a basis for us to get to know the candidates. What we were searching for was someone who would make a complementary fit with the existing board. See how you would answer.
1. Why are you interested in being a school board member and what’s the most important issue facing our schools?
2. If appointed, will you run for re-election next year?
3. There was an election less than a year ago. What has changed to cause you to come forward for this position now?
4. If necessary, would you support closing a school for financial reasons?
5. Give an example of a situation where you changed a rather firm position/conviction based on further evidence or facts.
6. If you could change one thing about Marietta City Schools, what would it be?
7. If needed, will you support a levy or bond issue for this district?
8. What criteria do you use in evaluating educational programs?
9. What do you believe our schools “should” be accomplishing and why are we not doing so?
10. Is there anyone in the system you could not support or with whom you could not work? What connection, if any, do you have with the district?
11. We each bring something to the board, what unique qualities would you add to this board?
12. If not selected, would you be willing to serve on a board committee or provide other assistance?
13. Have you ever been in a position where you were responsible for evaluating, hiring and firing of personnel?
14. Is there anything we have not asked you that would assist us in making our decision? What would you like us to know about you?

We were fortunate to have so many talented folks interested in serving on the board. Each committed to help however they could.
At the PTO meeting it was evident that rumors of closing a school were what turned out so many parents. And as often happens, there were questions about what the board had done or said that were completely unknown to me.
In other words, rumors had driven stories that prompted emotions, questions and assumptions. And this was the first time some subjects were coming to my attention and that of Mr. Elliott.
The advice given was designed to help eliminate the spread of such negative feelings in the future. When you hear a story that just doesn’t seem right on its surface, go ask someone in a position to know the real story. Go to a source. Get the facts.
Your writer was presented one of his own letters from some months ago. Poorly worded, the reader drew an entirely different conclusion than intended by the writer. It happens. Let me be more precise.
This board is united behind the work of moving Marietta City Schools toward a bright future deserving of the remarkable past . We are committed to providing the best for the students of today and tomorrow. With your help we will achieve that goal.