Anonymous thank you for your question. As
previously noted, any thoughts I share on this blog are just that, my thoughts and
should not be misconstrued as the opinion of the Naselle School Board or
Administration. I am not aware of any Washington Public Disclosure
Commission regulations that I may be violating and would be glad to review and
discuss any that you think pertinent.
Anonymous thank you for your questions, I would encourage you to read the “about” box concerning your first two questions. As far as the third question, I believe anyone serving in any public office does not cause that person to give up their first amendment rights. Your last statement about the “school being sued…again”, I am not aware of any prior or current lawsuit. This blog allows people to voice opinions and have discussions and that I think is healthy. When decisions are made by the school board, I think the voters should question and do deserve answers. This is something that I think is now happening.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thanks for your post. I cannot speak for Josh, only for myself. I do not possess any qualifications or experience that would make myself a better candidate to lead the Superintendent contract negotiation than those of any other board member. The full board laid out parameters for the negotiations and Josh and I negotiated within those parameters. This proposed contract was then sent on to the Educational Services District for review. The resulting contract will be on the agenda for approval by the full board at Tuesday’s March 18th board meeting. The full board may do one of several things, approve the contract, not approve the contract and send back to negotiations with recommendations, or not approve the contract and send back to negotiations with different representatives.
ReplyDeleteI have created another topic item called “Open Discussions”. I would like to ask if posters, in the future, would direct their questions and comments under this title.
i heard there is a new principle in the school and the superintendent is not doing the youth camp anymore. when did this happen?
ReplyDeleteAlan Bennett has expanded his role as lead teacher at the Camp to allow Lisa to spend more time at the K-12 Building. For now, Lisa is still the Principal of the Camp School. While Alan will handle more day to day tasks, Lisa is still in charge of the overall program. I hope this answers your question.
Deletethanks. i assume this position was advertised somewhere. how many other applicants were there?
DeleteI received a copy of the budget paper for the adoption meeting next week. Looks like the school district is in great financial shape. One question I'd like to know about: why, with a $95,136.00 "excess of revenues over expenditures" is this district asking the voters for $695,000 in levy? Seems like the district should be asking the voters for less if there is almost $100,000 in "excess."
ReplyDeleteAlso, why such a drop in enrollment? 411 to 301? What's going on?
Also, in looking at the budget paper, some accounts don't come close to paying for themselves. Some program called "Learning Assistance"? What's that? It exceeds the revenues by double!
Is there a monthly budget available on the school district homepage?
Thanks for your questions and sorry for the delay of my responses. I will try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge. I would encourage you to contact Lisa for a more comprehensive explanation. Since the blog only allows for 4,000 word responses, I will reply in two parts.
DeleteQuestion-Looks like the school district is in great financial shape.
Answer- I think the district is in good financial shape but personally would not call it great. Lisa has been working hard on spending the districts monies wisely and I fully expect that to be reflected in the districts future financial position.
Question-over expenditures" is this district asking the voters for $695,000 in levy? Seems like the district should be asking the voters with a $95,136.00 "excess of revenues for less if there is almost $100,000 in "excess."
Answer-What you are looking at is the budget for school year 2014-2015 and is only the districts best guess of next year’s revenues and expenses. While we try to guesstimate as accurately as possible, many things can have a positive or negative effect on the budget such as enrollment, legislative change, unexpected expenses, and so on. The $695,000 levy was passed by the voters in February of 2012 and is being collected in years 2013 through 2015. A new maintenance and operations levy will be presented to the voters for approval in 2015. Naselle would not be able to exist without the support of local tax dollars. The numbers below reflect Naselle “budgeted” vs “actual” beginning and ending school fund balance.
• In school year Sep 2011 – Aug 2012
• Budgeted beginning fund balance $500,000
• Actual beginning fund balance $654,520.
• Budgeted ending fund balance $507,570
• Actual ending fund balance $455,517.
• In school year Sep 2012 – Aug 2013
• Budgeted beginning fund balance $500,000
• Actual beginning fund balance $455,517
• Budgeted ending fund balance $505,000
• Actual ending fund balance $625,099.
• In school year Sep 2013 – Aug 2014
• Budgeted beginning fund balance $400,000
• Actual beginning fund balance $625,099.
• Budgeted ending fund balance $407,510.
• Actual ending fund balance as of June 30th 2014 was $595,472 with two months to go in the districts fiscal year (districts fiscal year runs from September through August). The district is projecting the ending fund balance to be $500,000.
• In school year Sep 2014 - Aug 2015
• Budgeted beginning fund balance $500,000
• Actual beginning fund balance will not be known until October 2014 when books are closed.
• Budgeted ending fund balance $595,136.
• Actual ending fund balance number will be available October 2015
Question-Also, why such a drop in enrollment? 411 to 301? What's going on?
DeleteAnswer
• In school year Sep 2013 – Aug 2014
o The district budgeted for 255 K12 students
o The district budgeted for 150 CVA (Columbia Virtual Academy) students
o A total of 411 students.
• In school year Sep 2014 – Aug 2015
o The district is budgeting for 260 K12 students
o The district is budgeting for 35 CVA students
o A total of 301 students.
As you can see the district is projecting a decline of 115 CVA students next year. While the CVA has been good for the Naselle School District in terms of additional funding, employment, and serving students’ needs, new requirements such as CVA teachers not being able to have students on their case load for which they are not highly qualified to serve and the recommendation by CVA that all partner districts serve a grade band of either K- 5 or 6-12 (Naselle chose K-5, prior years Naselle served K12) were some reasons for scaling back the program.
Question-Some program called "Learning Assistance"? What's that? It exceeds the revenues by double!
Answer
Learning Assistance Program (LAP)
LAP programs serve eligible students who need academic support for reading, writing and math. LAP funds provide supplemental services. At the time the budget was put together, LAP funding had not been determined for 2014-15. We expect less LAP funds for the upcoming school year. At this point LAP expenses exceed revenues in the budget, yes, but remember this is just a best guess at this time. If the revenues are not there, we will not hire staff to fill our vacancies in the LAP program. If revenue comes in higher than projected, we will have the capacity for these expenditures as shown in the expenditure portion of the budget.
Many school programs are not fully funded and must rely on local levies to fully fund the programs so as they can exist. This fight for adequate funding is currently been played out between the courts and the legislature.
Question-Is there a monthly budget available on the school district homepage?
Answer - www.naselle.wednet.edu/ click on “Our District” tab and then “Financial Reports”
Did you get this question Mr. Strange? Let's have some "conduit communication..."
ReplyDeletewhat is this? https://prezi.com/cmlfo7ce0vzc/copy-of-levy-prezi/
ReplyDelete