Elementaries could reshuffle grades

With no choice but to cut their budgets, school administrators are considering creating attendance centers for district elementary schools.
That was the news from Monday night’s USD 257 Board of Education meeting.
Moving to attendance centers could save the district about $200,000 by creating efficiencies by having same grade teachers in the same building.
“There would be better staff development, better use of resources and no boundary issues,” with attendance centers, said Brad Crusinbery, principal at Jefferson Elementary.
Lincoln and Jefferson currently host kindergarten through fifth grade students and McKinley houses kindergarten through third grade. Administrators propose the district make McKinley pre-school and kindergarten, Jefferson first through second grade and Lincoln third through fourth grade. Fifth grade would move to the middle school.
Jack Stanley, Iola Middle School principal, said the school has space for fifth grade students and they would keep the students sectioned off from the other grade levels.

USD 257 has boundaries set in place for elementary students. Students attend a certain elementary school based on where they live in Iola. Crusinbery said families often don’t approve of the school they are assigned and request to move. Attendance centers would eliminate this issue completely.
Inequalities of technology have been noted at the elementary schools. PTOs have helpedmoney for iPads at certain schools while others must wait for available funds from capital outlay.
“Attendance centers would allow better access to technology,” Crusinbery said. “Specific devices could be used at different grade levels.”
He also noted this would have a better focus on Title I staff. Transportation might increase some and the district could revamp early release.
“This would be more efficient with teaching and more concise with curriculum,” Stanley said. “The board needs to continue to walk the walk and talk the talk.”
The administrators wanted a consensus from the board to continue pursuing this plan. They would like to have attendance centers for the 2015-16 school year.
“Times have changed and this is something we need to pursue,” said school board president Tony Leavitt.
The board agreed to move forward.

JACK KOEHN, superintendent of schools, and administrators have looked high and low to save money in the district. Attendance centers are just one suggestion. Koehn created a budget matrix and had administrators weigh the cons and pros of possibly cutting certain areas in the district. These items were presented to the board to give them a better understanding of where they could save money.
“We looked at everything to see what our options are,” Koehn said.
School personnel is one area they explored. Eliminating district librarians could save the district $160,000 while eliminating both school nurses could save $45,000. A major con would be a liability issue with not having a nurse on staff.
Many districts are considering a four-day school week. This could save USD 257 $7,000 per day plus utilities. The school day would increase to 4:16 p.m. Board members said they might lose students to other districts. This also could affect elementary students and childcare for parents. The district would not hold school on Mondays due to school activities on Friday nights.
The board showed interest in shortening the school calendar. Starting later in the year and closing earlier would save $7,000 per day.
The school could replace block scheduling at the high school. This would eliminate approximately three staff members and save $120,000. Block scheduling allows for more elective class choices. However, students would be able to receive more instruction time per course if it were to switch to seven period days.
Although there could be community backlash, they looked at discontinuing the use of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. Band students could instead walk to the middle school to use its band room and students would still use the Bowlus Auditorium for performances.
Eliminating activities and certain sports is another option. The district can save money by eliminating freshman level sports teams or sports that have a low participation rate, such as tennis.
In other news the board accepted the resignation of Robin Manbeck as an elementary paraprofessional and hired Becky Carlson as track coach for the middle school.