On this coming Thursday, October 24, 2019, we will hold first quarter Parent-Teacher Conferences.  When I was a teacher, I always enjoyed this time with parents.   I always had the students prepare for my time with their mothers and fathers by having them set goals for the next marking period.  When the parents arrived we had student writings available for the parents to read, while waiting for their conference with me.  When the parents and I did sit down to discuss their child’s progress, I would start with their child’s strengths. Then we would talk about areas on which I thought the child needed to work.  Finally, my side of our conversation would end by discussing the goals that their child and I discussed prior to the conference followed by any questions or concerns that the parent had.

While I enjoyed parent-teacher conference nights, I didn’t limit parents to just 15 minutes.  I always welcomed parents into our classroom.  I am a firm believer that parents and teachers must work together in order to give children the best opportunity to succeed at school. I think, however, that this collaboration between parents and teachers has changed from when I began teaching.  More and more parents want immediate information about their child’s progress. Teachers have changed the way in which they regularly communicate with parents.  Many use apps on their cell phones to send photos of students learning together, announce events are coming up, and just keeping parents informed about assignments and due dates.

I will remain interested in the parent-teacher interaction because of its strong influence on student learning. Parent communication, however, is only one small part of this interaction.  Additionally, teachers must create opportunities for parents and children to learn together.  This learning can happen at school, like the upcoming “Mad Science” night next Monday evening; or, the learning can happen at home through carefully constructed “homework” lessons.  Either way, through the parent-teacher interaction, children learn what their parents deem important.

Suggestions for parents to prepare for Parent-Teacher Conferences:

1. Talk to your child about what they enjoy about their class or classmates.
2. Be prepared to share what they say with the teacher.
3. In addition, prepare to share information about your child – how they learn best, what you are doing to support the child in having a space to learn at home.

Have a great time at parent-teacher conferences.,

Dr. M

I try to keep our school district Facebook page positive, so I do my best to stay above the fray of negative statements that appear in social media. There is, however, a lot of misinformation that has appeared on Facebook pages of several Worth Countians. So, in an effort for transparency, I am going to try to give the information that I can share with you that led to the decision to combine the elementary music teacher and the HS band teaching positions.

First, let me begin by saying that I am a strong proponent of music education. In fact, when I began my college career in 1983, I wanted to be a music educator. Unfortunately, I could not play piano, which at the time was a requirement for graduation. I attended college on a 100% academic scholarship, which changed to a 100% music scholarship when I joined a touring singing group for the college I attended. I sang throughout high school, college and continue to sing when I can. I have appeared in musical theatre productions of “Hello Dolly”, “West Side Story”, and “Music Man”. I have even performed in one Gilbert and Sullivan Opera, “Patience”. Music has contributed a lot to my life and the life of my family.
When I arrived at Worth County, our district had two teachers working with the music program. Each teacher in the district worked seven periods a day and had one period of planning. One teacher taught 3 vocal music electives, 2 elementary classes, and 2 non-music classes (ISS or study skills). One teacher taught 3 bands, 1 music elective, and 3 non-music classes (Enhancement or PE). Of those Music elective classes, the enrollment ranged from one student to three on average.

This year the HS teachers wanted to move back to a seven period day. Each teacher now works six periods a day with one period for planning. The vocal music teacher has two elementary classes, two HS electives, ISS, and team teaches JH band. The instrumental music teacher teaches three bands (one is team taught with vocal music teacher), study skills, gradewatch/tutor-tracking, and one HS music elective. Of the 3 music electives besides band that are being offered, we have a total of 12 students taking them.
When making the decision to combine these two music teaching positions together. I looked at the number of class periods that had to be taught, which for the vocal music teacher were two elementary music classes, and for the instrumental teacher were the three band classes. This arrangement still left one period per day for a HS elective of the teacher’s choice and a planning period. This arrangement does not include high school chorus, which has been offered, but has had small numbers of students enrolled, making it difficult to sing as a group. This actual choir has been meeting before and after school hours for the past two years.

In addition, the state of Missouri requires all teachers to be certified in their subject area and the federal government requires that teachers be Highly Qualified in their instructional areas. For music teachers, this means in order to teach at the elementary level you must have a vocal or an instrumental certification for K-12. However, to teach band, you must have an instrumental K-12 certificate. So based on the job requirements of the new combined position, we need someone who is certified in K-12 instrumental music in order for them to teach elementary and high school. We have only one teacher that currently has the proper certification and she resigned in December. As of April 15, 2015, both of our music teachers have the proper certification to teach Vocal and Instrumental Music, including Elementary Music. I would like to go on record saying that it was my responsibility to double check the status of new employees certification at the time of application. I take full responsibility for not doing that and I have implemented measures to insure that future employees have the proper certification before they begin working for the district. Speaking of her resignation, I attempted to find a part-time elementary music teacher from January to March, but had no applications turned in. Thus, to present a fair and accurate description to the music teachers, I shared the new schedule of the single music teacher.

Compensation for the new position would be the placement of the teacher on the teacher pay scale, which is based on his or her experience and number of years having taught. For Worth County teachers, this amount is the lowest in the Northwest Region. I am gradually trying to improve our salary schedule to make it competitive with other schools in our region. This improvement, however, has to be done within the confines of our current levy for operating the schools, which is also the lowest in the Northwest region. Additionally, the new position will receive an extra duty contract for vocal music and instrumental music. This amount is a percentage of the district’s base salary, which changes based on the number of years of experience.
What does this mean for the person taking this new position?

Let’s take a teacher who has a BS in Music Education with three years experience. On the current salary schedule (which will hopefully have some increase in June), the instructional salary would be 28,000 plus extra duty contract of 4878 and benefits totaling 10565 for a TOTAL compensation of $43,443.

Our current instrumental teacher has done a remarkable job in revitalizing our band program. He, however, has tendered his resignation for personal reasons. As the superintendent who hired him, I noted his positive attitude and his eagerness to build a quality program. I will work diligently to find someone to carry on the work that has begun, as well as continue the quality program at the elementary level. In my opinion, a quality music program begins in the elementary with the students learning the foundational skills of music.

Communication matters in any organization. The public school system is no different. However, there is a difference between communication and gossip. Did you ever play the Grapevine game when you were growing up? You stood in a line and a message was passed verbally from the front to the back secretly. Then the last person would report the message the he received and the line leader would report what he had actually said. No matter how many times we played the game the message always changed. To me, this game describes how gossip changes what we actually say or do.

Real communication comes from being able to sit with someone and discuss issues openly and honestly. As a school principal, I dealt with many groups of people –parents, teachers, students. The hardest people to talk to were the ones who came in full of anger because of something that they “heard” from their child or someone in the community (who by the way was never directly involved in the situation). If I was able to get them to calm down, we could usually get to the bottom of the situation. Sometimes it involved a teacher and we had to get the teacher involved in the conversation.

I think it is difficult to “confront” situations sometimes. We do, however, have a Board of Education Policy that outlines the process for members of the community to object about instruction, discipline, or learning materials – Board Policy 1480. Basically, it says that you start at the lowest level to try and resolve the problem or concern. If it cannot be resolved, then you elevate the problem to the next level. Any issues about teaching staff are to go to the appropriate administrator to investigate.

With the onset of social media, some people find it easier to just air their complaint to the whole cyber community. Then, like in the old Grapevine game, people add to, delete, and revise the complaint. Did you know that we even have new communication apps that allow people to make whatever statements they want and remain anonymous, no matter how hurtful the statement is?
I have chosen to not respond to things that come to me anonymously because I do not know the full story. If you have a concern about our work here at the school, please, follow the process and allow us to resolve the issue.

Last week I shared information about the operating funds of the Worth County R-III school district – the General or Incidental Fund and the Special Revenue or Teachers’ Fund. These two funds support the everyday operating costs of the school district, including employee salaries and benefits. Two other funds are set up to support the major equipment purchases and the facility needs of the school district.

The Debt Service Fund is used to account for the resources accumulated for and the payment of long-term debt. Amounts in the Debt Service Fund are generated from the Debt Service Fund tax levy and are used solely to retire bonded debt. You may also hear this fund referred to as Fund 3. When the voters approve a bond levy they are actually approving the school district to sell bonds on the bond market for a specific amount, which gives the district immediate funds to complete a large project. Then the patrons will pay a bond levy tax, so the school district can pay the bonds and the interest off over a period 10-20 years.

The last fund, the Capital Projects Fund, is used to account for all facility acquisition, construction, lease purchase principal and interest payments and other capital outlay expenditures. Expenditures for ordinary repairs to school property will not be made from the Capital Projects Fund. Capital expenditures are defined as expenses paid or incurred for the acquisition or repair of assets that will remain useful for more than one year. Examples of these expenditures would be the cost of acquisition, construction, or erection of buildings, remodeling or reconstruction of buildings and the furnishing thereof, and similar property having a useful life substantially beyond the current fiscal year. Examples of expenditures not allowed to be paid from the Capital Projects Fund are the costs of mending leaks, painting, plastering, custodian salaries, maintenance supplies and employee benefits.

How are the Debt Service Fund and the Capital Project Fund financed? The Debt Service Fund must have a voter approved bond tax levy to obtain funding. While the Capital Project Fund can also use a tax levy to generate money, the school district is allowed to transfer money from the General fund to the Capital Project Fund once a year. Basically, this would be like a family household watching their budget and putting extra money in a savings fund to go toward a larger purchase for the household.

So how does Worth County R-III school district generate the money to support these four funds? Currently, we have an operating levy of $3.3703 and a debt service levy of $0.25 for a total levy of $3.6203 per $100 of assessed valuation. If we compare our school district levy to the school districts that surround ours, we find that we are the lowest. The other districts range from $4.11 to $6.4618 per $100 of assessed valuation.

When reflecting on that Senior Center conversation that I had two weeks ago, I hope there is a greater understanding on Public School Funding. We do have projects that are needed to maintain our school and facilities. With the public’s input on our facilities committee, along with the Board of Education, we will continue to work on a plan in which we demonstrate good stewardship of the public’s money. At the same time, our goal will be to maintain the property in a manner in which the community can take pride.

Recently, I had lunch at the Senior Citizens’ Center in Grant City. The conversation around the table eventually turned to how the school district was doing. I told them things were going well. Then one of them asked me about the parking lot and road between the school and the football field. We agreed that it is a bit bumpy at times back there. I explained that it takes money to fix problems like the road and the parking area. The fact of the matter is that it does take money to keep the facilities of the school district safe and functional – just like a home.

Our district, while small, serves the children of the school district well by providing them with a safe learning environment and quality teachers. The citizens of our district provide about half of the operating funds that the district uses each year. The other half of the money comes from the state foundation formula and the federal government. These monies are put into two funds for operating the school: the general or incidental fund and the special revenue or teacher fund. Because the public school is a governmental agency we have certain requirements on how we can spend the money.

The General (Incidental) Fund is used to account for all financial resources except those required to be accounted for in another fund. This fund is where we put local taxes; Foundation Program payments such as Basic Formula, Transportation, Early Childhood Special Education, Career Ladder, Educational Screening Entitlement/PAT and Vocational/At-Risk; along with various other transactions associated with federal projects. We use this fund to pay for the operational expenses of the school system, which includes any expenses that are not teacher related or capital improvement related. We transfer money in this fund to the Special Revenue/Teachers Fund in order to pay the certificated faculty. The Special Revenue (Teachers) Fund is used to account for revenue sources legally restricted to expenditures for the purpose of teachers’ salaries and benefits and tuition payments to other school districts.

These two funds together make up the Operating funds. Our goal ,at the end of the fiscal year in June, is to have the balances in these accounts equal to 25-30% of the next fiscal year’s operating budget. Why you may ask? We keep this amount in reserve in order to avoid having to borrow money to operate the school before property tax money arrives in January. This past year we were able to keep the reserves at 31% as of June 30, 2014. By the end of December our balances for Fund 1 (General/Incidental) was $588,190 and for Fund 2 (Special Revenue/Teachers) was $197,469.

Our operational budget is on track for this year. This money, however, does not allow for facility improvements or upgrades. Next week, I will update where we are on our capital improvements and debt service funds.

Recently a patron of the district asked me why the school was so concerned about attendance this year. While the quick answer to this question is…because we care, which we do. The longer answer is we check on why children are not in school because the Department of Education evaluates our district, at least in part, on our children’s attendance at school. The state strives for each district to have 90% of its students present 90% of the time.

Research shows us that students perform better in school if they are present at school. If you have ever had to help a child make-up work when they have missed school, you know how hard it is for the student to comprehend or understand what they needed to learn from the assignment. I think, ultimately, we all want our children to attend every day of school they can when they are not ill. We, at Worth County R-III, are no different. We understand as the winter months progress students will not feel well. We hope, however, that unless they are running a fever or are vomiting that parents will encourage children to come to school.

Currently our attendance rates this far in the school year are 97% for the elementary and 87% for the junior high/ high school. We do care when a child is not in school and when we see that a child is falling behind in their attendance we do try to make contact if we haven’t heard from the parent or guardian.

Hopefully the whole community can get behind this initiative. Encourage kids to get to school and to stay in school.

While I have no real excuse for not posting to this blog during the past few months, I can honestly say that I have been working. We review, assess and develop our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP) in which our school community determines what we need to focus on for the next school year. We focus on what we will work on as a staff in order for our students to show proficiency. I have approached this year differently out of necessity. Normally, I bring in staff and parents to look at the current plan. I, however, was not able to find a copy of last year’s plan.

Instead, I have generated school district goals that I believe are important to overall district success. I have also written action steps that I believe will lead us to accomplishing these goals. As I finalize the draft, I will take the plan to our staff and get feedback. Following that I will present the plan to the Board of Education.

While this process will have to work for this school year, next year I will go back to my usual way of planning. I hope the school community will participate in the process with me during the next school year.

Here are the goals we will work toward this next school year:

Goals of the Worth County R-III School District
The Worth County R-III School District will:
1. Develop and enhance quality educational/ instructional programs to improve the performance of the Worth County R-III students and enable them to meet their personal academic and career goals.
2. Attract, recruit, develop and retain qualified staff to carry out the Worth County R-III mission goals and objectives.
3. Provide and maintain appropriate instructional resources, support services, and functional and safe facilities.
4. Promote, facilitate, and enhance parent, student, and community engagement in the Worth County R-III education programs.
5. Govern the Worth County R-III school district in an efficient and effective manner, providing leadership and representation to benefit the students, staff, and patrons of the District as well as stewardship of district funds.