Parkview holds on to more students
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Students arrive at Parkview High School by bus at the start of the day.
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Parkview High School Principal Steve Lutzke, left, and Superintendent Patrick Kennedy talk at the beginning of the school day.
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Students arrive in the morning at Parkview High School.
ORFORDVILLE — The Parkview School District had a net loss of six fewer students through open enrollment this year.
It’s a small victory for the mostly rural school district that’s had a flood of students leave.
“We are pleased to report that the out-flow of students … has subsided somewhat,” interim Superintendent Patrick Kennedy said. “We’re much more balanced than the previous couple years.”
This year, 29 students came into the district through open enrollment while 73 left. Each student represents thousands of dollars in state aid for whatever district he or she chooses.
“We even had a bigger impact from the standpoint of morale,” Kennedy said. “People felt good. Kids who said they were going to leave decided not to. It’s a wonderful shot in the arm for the district.”
But he said there’s still plenty to do.
Keeping kids in
A migration committee has worked for more than a year studying why students leave the district and presented recommendations to the school board in spring.
Creating the committee and considering the committee’s recommendations show families that the district wants to improve, and Kennedy said he thinks people are feeling better about the district, its leadership and teachers.
“I think they feel this is a good place to be. Going someplace else is not necessarily an improvement over what they have at home … and we are competitive from the standpoint of tax rate and levy.”
Money needed
But taxpayers might need to shell out more in the coming years to maintain the district.
One of the top recommendations from the study committee is to create a building referendum committee. The district’s biggest detriment is its relatively old buildings, Kennedy said. Neighboring districts such as Brodhead and Evansville have nicer facilities, he said, but “that’s not the guts of the school.”
Construction is on the backburner because more pressing financial issues need to be addressed, Kennedy said.
The district might need to go to referendum in spring or next fall just to balance the budget, he said.
“We are finding it difficult to balance the budget because of enrollment and rising costs, (so we need to) talk to the public about that,” Kennedy said.
The district would need $200,000 to $250,000 over the next five years to keep even, he said.
Other needs that a referendum might address are technology upgrades and building maintenance, which could be $100,000 and $200,000 respectively for five years, he said.
Transition
Kennedy will be leading the district until next year, when high school Principal Steve Lutzke takes over as superintendent. He’s learning those duties working side-by-side with Kennedy as a co-superintendent this year.
“He’s superintendent when I’m not here. He’s in on all decisions. We talk about short- and long-term (planning),” Kennedy said.
The district will be looking for a new principal in January, he said.
Kennedy started in fall 2007 after the district parted ways with previous District Administrator Gary Reineck because the school board and Reineck had different views of the district’s future.
“I think moral may be the highest it’s been in the last five years,” Kennedy said. “When I came in, I think morale was as low as any other jobs I have (worked at). People just weren’t trusting.”
Rick Nettesheim, co-president of the Parkview Education Association, said that morale has stayed the same or increased across the district.
But he said teachers would like to have more of a management style that includes advice from experienced staff members in some of the decision making.
While teachers have always worked beyond their contract, they are concerned about being asked to do things outside of the contract, he said.
Teacher contracts
Frustration mounted for teachers when they didn’t settle on a 2005-07 contract until May 2007, then started work on the 2007-09 contract.
The school board and teachers union reached a voluntary settlement sooner this time around, and the biggest change was switching to health insurance under Mercy and Dean.
Some teachers are paying more for insurance, Nettesheim said, but Kennedy said the overall savings from the switch went into payroll.
Teachers received a 4.2-percent raise for 2007-08 and a 4-percent raise for 2008-09, bringing the salary schedule to about $31,000 for a starting teacher and $63,000 for the most experienced teachers.
Class options
Everyone agrees that changes being made are to benefit students, Nettesheim said.
“People don’t have any conflict with changes that are going on because it’s going to make our school better one way or another,” he said. “If we have 10 more students who stay here or come here from another school, that definitely helps the budget.”
Recent changes include:
-- Joining the Jefferson Eastern Dane Interactive Network, or JEDI Academy, which is a consortium of school districts including UW-Whitewater and Madison Area Technical College. About eight Parkview students attend the virtual school.
The district also ended its off-site charter school when it joined JEDI. The charter school teacher now oversees the virtual school students and gifted and talented, Kennedy said.
-- Joining the Stateline Career and Technical Education project with other Rock County schools. The project will create centers of excellence in areas such as automotive, construction, business, finance, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, pre-engineering and power distribution.
-- Emphasizing student achievement.
“Our goal is improving our curriculum at every level,” Kennedy said. “We’re in the process of hopefully making school more interesting and exciting for kids.”
High school classes have new course descriptions, social studies electives are being revamped and core classes are being evaluated for better sequencing, he said.
In his more than 40 years of education, Kennedy said he’s learned trust is the critical barometer of success. Once the public and teachers trust what’s going on, then the district has a chance to significantly improve, he said.
“We need to continue to reinforce and raise the trust level between the school and the public,” he said.
Nov 22, 2008 at 12:06 a.m.
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I think it's that "new math."
Nov 21, 2008 at 5:39 p.m.
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The printed article also had a chart that made it more understandable.
Last year they had a net loss of 50, I believe it was, so they lost 6 less students this year.
My numbers might not be exactly right but it was something like that.
Nov 21, 2008 at 3:09 p.m.
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Maybe it's my weak math skills, but when I read "29 students came into the district through open enrollment while 73 left" for a "net loss of six", I had to wonder if there is some secret formula for counting students.
Doesn't 73 minus 29 equal 44 net loss?
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