Janesville School Board sweating state aid
Other business
The Janesville School Board on Tuesday also:
-- Heard the first reading of a change in board policy that would allow distribution of commercial materials to students. Superintendent Karen Schulte wants the change so that the district and its supporters can use GoodSearch.com as their Internet search engine. GoodSearch donates one cent per search to the sponsoring agency and also gives a percentage for purchases made through it. The board did not discuss the change. A vote will be requested at the June 9 board meeting.
-- Voted 8-0 to extend a pilot program in single-gender classrooms at Marshall Middle School for two years but did not vote to make the program permanent, as requested. Some members suggested the program be offered at the other middle schools.
-- Voted 8-0 to disband the district discipline committee. Officials said other committees, such as those dealing with expulsions and truancy, would continue to address discipline issues.
-- Voted 7-0 to create a district human growth and development curriculum committee, as required by the state. Bill Sodemann, who will be on the committee, abstained.
-- Approved district sponsorship of a July 1 concert at the Janesville Performing Arts Center by Alex Call and Lisa Carrie. Call is the writer of 1980s pop hits "867-5309/Jenny" and Huey Lewis and the News' "Power of Love." Proceeds will go to a new fund to help students who are homeless or need help paying for drug-abuse treatment.
JANESVILLE — School board members across the state are on the edges of their seats today as the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee begins looking at aid to school districts.
Gov. Jim Doyle has said districts should expect a 2.5 percent cut in equalization aid, the biggest chunk of money the state doles out to schools.
"We really don't know what that means, yet, … but we're certainly watching that very closely," Janesville public schools Superintendent Karen Schulte told the school board Tuesday night.
School board member Bill Sodemann estimated a loss of $1.2 million a year for the next two fiscal years if lawmakers cut aid by 2.5 percent.
That's a good guess, said district comptroller Laurie Clifton, but it's unclear yet whether the state might send some federal stimulus dollars to districts to help bridge the shortfall.
Sodemann suggested the district come up with a plan for the worst-case scenario: The state makes its cut and enrollment drops by a large number over the next year.
Sodemann suggested a district boundaries committee that was recently established be tasked with redrawing school boundaries if the district has to close two elementary schools.
Layoff notices to principals would have to be issued by Jan. 30 next year if schools were closed, Sodemann noted. That date is mandated by state law.
No other board member voiced any objection. Board President DuWayne Severson said Sodemann's idea was sound. Severson referred the matter to the board's finance committee.
Also not clear is the impact of another Doyle pronouncement, that the state would impose restrictions on how much districts could raise property taxes to bridge the gap. No Janesville School Board member has expressed any interest in raising taxes beyond a small amount, however.
Board member Tim Cullen said the district could be asked to cut up to $3 million over two years if the Legislature follows Doyle's lead.
That's a huge amount compared to the $423,000 the board saved in its last budget cutting session a few weeks ago, Cullen noted.
"I think we need to know—and the community needs to know—that we've got a multimillion-dollar problem," Cullen said.
Business director Doug Bunton said the district budget-writing process is in a wait-and-see mode before it moves forward.
In addition to the state budget questions, Bunton said he needed guidance from the board on whether to include in the budget a 3.8 percent increase for employee compensation, as is the norm, or some smaller number, as has been suggested.
The board did not discuss the compensation issue, however.
Jun 28, 2009 at 10:17 p.m.
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Billnewbie, you are spot on. Two-thirds was an attempt to level the playing field in the mid 1990's so that all districts had access to funding in order to equalize educational oppportunity in Wisconsin. Gov. Thompson wrote it into law along with the QEO. It worked as long as the economy was growing at the rate it did during the 1990's. This Legislature and Governor are living with that legacy. Tough to make ends meet when you start a budget $6.6 billion in the hole. Everyone took a hit this budget, including schools. In essence, school districts were handed the bag and no direction on how to fix the shortfall.
Jun 28, 2009 at 9:36 p.m.
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Private schools don't have to educate and/or work with every student in a district. Private schools can start with "the best of the best" if they choose. Private schools typically have more parent involvement because of the financial commitment being made. Private schools have it easy.
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Public schools, for the most part, do a great job working with all types of students. They provide an education for gifted and talented through non-verbal special education.
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You give me a group of motivated students with high parental involvement and it won't take much to educate them.
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I am not meaning to insult private school educators but their classroom is very different from the average public school classroom.
May 28, 2009 at 9:57 a.m.
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the spendaholic school board where bricks and mortar mean more than taxpaying people should have seen this coming. they probably did but don't care. the school board has more or less had a free reign on proposing and ratifying their projects. it is and always will be a joke. and the spendthrifts who run for school board do so with an agenda to build and improve and it flys in the face of a budget concious responsible group of people, theoretically, elected to look after our children, their education and our money. how, i ask you, how can private education facilities continually provide a better education, a better learning environment and better sports programs at a less cost per student than public schools? the school board should get with the private school administrators and beg them to tell them how to do it.
May 27, 2009 at 8:03 p.m.
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Well said billnewbie... you lose local control and you lose local control of your own destiny.
If the state lets the Feds pay a higher share of govt then they lose when the Feds have to cut back. The closer you keep it to home, the more control you have over it..... and less strings...
May 27, 2009 at 5:01 p.m.
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This really ought to teach us how little we can rely on the promises of the state government. They said that they would cover 2/3 of education, a figure they never achieved, and now that they find they are spending more money than they have, they cut their expenses by underfunding their commitments even more and thereby force school districts to raise property taxes to compensate, all while pretending not to raise taxes (state taxes that is).
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