Kansas City to close nearly half its schools
Earlier today I caught the news that the Kansas City board of education was planning to vote whether or not to close nearly half its schools tonight.
The vote passed.
Here’s a story on the Kansas City Star’s website about the decision.
From the story:
A split Kansas City school board tonight approved a historic plan to close 26 schools after turning back an effort to take several buildings off the list..
By a vote of 5-4, the board ushered in Superintendent John Covington’s Right Sizing Plan.
The school closings will cut the number of district buildings by more than 40 percent and underpin Covington’s drive to cut $50 million from the shrunken district’s budget.
The plan will leave the district operating 33 schools.
Covington’s administration spent nearly six months creating and selling its audacious plan, saying the district has to be more fiscally efficient if education reform in the struggling district is to have a chance to succeed.
Subscribe to the comments for this postHorace Good honored at board meeting
Horace Good attended Monday night’s USD 457 Board of Education meeting and also attended a short reception afterward in the Educational Support Center.
After the facilities upgrade projects are complete the middle school, located where the current high school is at 1412 N. Main St., will become Horace Good Middle School.
I thought I’d post some additional photos that I took last night. And be sure to check today’s edition of The Telegram for the story.
The first photo is of Good and his grandchildren and great grandchildren. About 20 of his family members attended the meeting and the reception.
The second photo is of Good talking with members of the board of education and his family on Monday night at the Educational Support Center.
Update from KASB
It’s a busy time to be an education reporter.
In case you missed it, I’ve been busy this week attending meetings at USD 457 concerning budget cuts. Here are stories from Tuesday and Wednesday’s Telegram.
Also related to budget cuts: I get email updates from the Kansas Association of School Boards, often telling me about legislative updates in Topeka.
This information sparked my interest because it came up when I was reporting on the above stories this week. The bill would allow school boards to move the date in which they are required to notify staff that their contracts won’t be renewed.
Superintendents I’ve talked with think more cuts in state aid are coming. Is the state preparing for more cuts in the months to come?
From KASB:
The House Education Budget Committee held a hearing Tuesday afternoon on SB 362, which would allow school boards, by resolution, to move the date from May 1 to June 1, they are required to notify teacher and administrators that their contracts will not be renewed. The date for employees to inform school boards whether they wish to remain under contract would be moved from May 15 to June 15. If boards take no action, they remain under the May 1 and May 15 dates.
KASB testified in favor of the bill, which reflects a resolution adopted by the KASB Delegate Assembly in December calling for more flexibility in the notice date. The bill was also supported by the United School Administrators and lobbyists for the Blue Valley USD 229 and Wichita USA 259 school districts. However, the bill was opposed by the Kansas National Education Association. KNEA’s opposition means the state teachers’ association is opposing a bill which supporters say is primarily designed to benefit teachers.
Funding cuts
I wrote a story for Wednesday’s newspaper about ways that Garden City USd 457 is coping with current and future budget cuts.
That story can be found here.
Also, I’m going to attach the text of a press release from Kansas State University I received earlier this week.
This has since been plastered all over newspapers and news sites, but I thought I’d share it because I’m guessing a large portion of GCHS gradutes either attended or are attending K-State.
K-State president proposes budget cuts coupled with new revenue sources
MANHATTAN — Financial times are tough at Kansas State University and cuts are going to hurt, said President Kirk Schulz during an open budget forum Tuesday.
“I expect you all to say this is going to hurt because we are not going to be able to do something that our campus community is used to,” Schulz told a crowd of roughly 200 with more participating online from the Salina campus. “When we close the Beach Museum two days a week, we are going to put a sign up. What we don’t want the people saying is that Kansas State is doing the same thing they always have, so they must not have needed the money in the first place.”
Schulz said he wants the public and legislature to understand clearly the impact cuts will have.
The forum, sponsored by K-State’s Faculty Senate, was held a day after Schulz released $15 million in budgetary proposals for fiscal year 2011.
Schulz described the cuts as strategic — not across the board — and said the core mission of the university was to be preserved. A concerted effort to reinvest in needed faculty and staff was also at the heart of the recommendations.
Since day one of Schulz’s administration, budgetary matters have been a critical talking point. Over the past several months the budget process has been focused on identifying $15 million in combined budget reductions and new revenue. This is the expected impact on K-State of state level budget cuts.
Among the items listed in Schulz’s recommendations are:
- $8 million in targeted reductions over two years including: the suspension of new Targeted Excellence programs; a 10 percent reduction in athletic operations; reducing university funding to the National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization, or NISTAC; and reductions in several administrative budgets. Included in the administrative portions is reduced funding for the Beach Museum and McCain Auditorium;
- $5 million in revenue for colleges to be generated by a $10-per-hour instructional support fee; and
- $2 million increase in the tuition budget by bringing existing enrollment growth into the base budget.
Schulz commented on the proposed $10 per credit hour fee, which is presently being considered by the Student’s Long Term Tuition Strategies Committee and has yet to be approved by the Kansas Board of Regents.
“The idea of any per credit hour fee addition is that this would be reinvested in the colleges where those fees are being generated,” he said. “They would be able to take some of those dollars to hire faculty to put in the classrooms. It’s meant to address instructional needs and is also meant to be a sort of incentive.”
He said he was working with deans to help target those dollars to make a better case for how they are to be spent.
At the forum, faculty commented on the seeming de-emphasis on research funding and things that could be done to enhance and coordinate instruction across K-State’s three campuses.
“It’s important that we continue to keep a thriving research enterprise but we need to continuously look at what our funding modalities are,” Schulz said. He said additional analysis would help determine where additional research funding will have the desired strategic impact.
Some faculty addressed the impact of cuts on morale.
“I’m concerned about what we can do to keep morale up,” Schulz said. “One big morale killer is for people to not know what’s going on. While the news may not be good, I want to at least keep people informed so they know what actions we are taking.”
Schulz also said that in the immediate future, significant salary increases are unlikely.
Schulz’s full recommendations are available online.
Conference times
Here’s a schedule for parent teacher conferences for USD 457. Conferences are Thursday and Friday.
There are no classes on those days (Enjoy, kids!).
Conference times include:
- Abe Hubert Middle School: 11:10 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to noon Friday.
- Alta Brown Elementary School: 9:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and 2 to 8 p.m., Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Friday.
- Bernadine Sitts Intermediate Center: 4 to 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Friday.
- Buffalo Jones Elementary School: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Friday.
- Charles Stones Intermediate Center: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. Friday.
- Edith Scheuerman Elementary School: 4:20 to 6:40 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 to 10 a.m. Friday.
- Florence Wilson Elementary School: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7 to 11:20 a.m. Friday.
- Garden City High School: noon to 8 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. Friday.
- Garfield Elementary School: 3:40 to 7 p.m. Wednesday for Early Learning Four year-olds only, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Friday.
- Georgia Matthews Elementary School: 4 to 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 to 10 a.m. Friday.
- Gertrude Walker Elementary School: 4:20 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. Tuesday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. Friday.
- Jennie Barker Elementary School: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7 to 11:20 a.m. Friday.
- Jennie Wilson Elementary School: 4 to 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Friday.
- Kenneth Henderson Middle School: 4 to 7:20 p.m. Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Friday.
- Plymell Elementary School: 10 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. Friday.
- Victor Ornelas Elementary School: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. Friday.