School Board Meets August 22nd to review progress on budget process

Well for heaven's sake, I forgot to type anything about the title. Summer brain, I guess. Anyway, click on the post to view the agenda for Monday night's meeting. They will summarize the progress made thus far on the business manager transition and budget preparations as well as the audit results, I suspect. Some board members will be exhausted from attending a CESA 3 presentation on how to deal with budgets from 1-4 pm the same day, so I should cut them some slack if they have the glazed look from staring at school budgets for too long, which I know so well.

Join us for a rollicking good time. Superintendent Carvin said if the preliminary budget isn't available by then, then there will be another meeting August 29 (freshman orientation day) to present it. Great. Wonderful. The main reason I have attended all of these summer cluster f@#$s is because I was looking for a budget. Now I may not be able to attend because of family commitments. Probably a bit unreasonable of me to expect a resolved budget for 10-11 and a projected budget for 11-12 under the sad circumstances, but I have this view of the world that conflicts with the Peter Principle which contends that everybody is promoted to his or her level of incompetence. In my philosophy, I have faith that co-workers can take over for somebody in their absence and nobody is indispensable. They did allow at the last meeting that they seemed to be holding their own so far in the process, which is good, I think. Won't know until I see the numbers. Looking forward to that day when they are available for public perusal.

Board Meeting August 15 at 6:30pm

Click on the post for the agenda and packet for tomorrow's board meeting. Sorry for the late notice. I've been communing with the loons in Northern Minnesota for the last 10 days and didn't have any wifi available. There's a lot of interesting things on the agenda, including the summary of WKCE data at JCMC Middle School. That should be interesting.

They are pushing along with the senior project proposal with another pilot project with tweaks from last year. No news on the grading committee front.

I have a lot of irons in the fire now, but my memory of the loons will buoy me up to stay focused on the tasks at hand!

School Board Meeting July 25th at 6:30 PM

Click on the post to view the agenda for Monday's ECSD Board Meeting. The Board and Administrators have interviewed for the business manager position and will present the preferred candidate for board approval.

Additional topics include review of the updated budget projection and several board development topics. I will be able to attend this meeting and the August regular meeting as well. Apparently the regularly scheduled August 8th meeting will be changed to August 15, after I come back from the cabin. This is a good thing, since the budget is still in some nebulous limbo of undefined proportions and I'd like to see what is proposed.

It's not going to be a good year for school budgets and some harsh choices will have to be made. Board membership is particularly difficult wherever one lives these days. Somehow the powers that be have successfully demonized the public schools while painting other areas of the economic sector in an unrealistically glowing light. If any of these so-called politicians would attend any one year's worth of ECSD school board meetings to see what kind of catch-22 choices have to be made at every meeting, month after month, maybe they would have the knowledge of what the hell it is they are doing to education. Meanwhile, they support expanding school choice, the institutions of which have never before last fall been required to adhere to the NCLB achievement stipulations. REALLY? You DON'T know how they are performing as compared to the evil public sector, but your recommend expanding the multimillion dollar program? You guys are ignorant. And that's the nice way to put it.

In other news, there is a new principal at TRIS. I hope to have an article about her in the next few weeks under my Evansville Review byline. Maybe at the same time as I report on the new business manager next week. Stay tuned to the same byline for breaking news on the budget and any plans for cuts to the 11-12 budget.

Agenda for Board Meeting 7-14-11

Click on the post to see the agenda for tomorrow night's board meeting. They will interview a candidate for TRIS principal and discuss approval in closed session followed by discussion of the criteria for business manager. I have a swim meet to attend and won't be there for this meeting.

No Board Meeting on Monday July 11, Special Meetings Scheduled, Agendas to Follow.

Please note that the regular business board meeting will not be held this Monday. The standing dates are the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Instead, there will be a special meeting on Thursday the 14th, the agenda of which is not yet available. I believe they will be finalizing the job description for the District Business Manager and perhaps interviewing a candidate. Stay tuned for the posted agenda here. There is another meeting on July 18th regarding strategic planning and perhaps another interview. The regular meetings of the whole will be on July 25 at 6:30 PM, normal schedule.

School District gets new website!

Click on the link to see the new ECSD website! It's going to take some getting used to, but should be easier to maintain, according to the district.

July School Board Meetings to be At different Times!

Just a heads up on July School Board Meetings. Things will be different than usual, as they often are in the summer. I was always surprised at how much work gets done in the summer at a public school. Anyway, they have to hire three administrators this summer: District Business Manager (first priority), Student Services director and a Principal at TRIS. Things were flying fast and furious at the end of the last meeting, but here's the gist of what I heard. July 11 Business Meeting agenda deferred to August 8 at 6:30 PM. There will be a meeting July 14 at 6:30 PM to discuss qualifications necessary for the Business Manager position and interview a candidate. Monday July 18th at 6:30 there will be a strategic planning meeting, Monday July 25 at 6:30 is the committee meetings of the whole with time set aside for interviewing another candidate for the Business Manager. The meeting minutes will be approved at one of these on a consent agenda since by law they must be done at the next meeting.

Finally, if you're really trying to fill in your "school board" calendar for the year, note that the Annual Meeting date has been changed from September 26th to October 24th at 7pm. This is the meeting I pester and cajole all of you residents of the Evansville Community School District to attend and let your voices be heard. Don't like the fact that the school raised taxes last year by 8%? Did you go and complain? I was at that meeting. I think not. Every district resident has a vote at the Annual Meeting, specifically when setting the levy. I will acknowledge that it is a non-binding vote (the board usually considers it an advisement). The final vote to set the levy only includes the board and must take place before October 29 or something like that. Consider yourselves adequately notified that this meeting is on the radar. I will attempt to keep current with the budget, but expect some glitches as a new person is trained in.