Superintendent 228 Blog Site

The notion of a property tax levy is sometimes confusing to people, and this year, with the instability of state funding and the country in a state of recession, more attention has been focused on property taxes locally than perhaps in recent years.

The tax “levy” itself means a request for financial support from property owners.  The tax rate is set by dividing the amount of property tax dollars extended by the County Clerk divided by the Equalized Assessed Value of the property within our school district boundaries.

So can a person pay more taxes even if the tax rate is reduced?  Yes, if the value of their property increases greater than the rate of the rate reduction, they may still pay more in taxes.  The document attached here gives some interesting factual data about our District’s enrollment history, tax rate history, some of our Education Fund Revenues and Expenses, personnel trends and a brief explanation of the tax cycle.

2008 Property Tax Levy Information

In response to requests that there be some type of web presence that reviews the content of the SchoolMessenger calls that go out to parents and staff.  You will be able to find this information at the following site:

http://www.gcsdblogs.org/School_Messenger/

We have a new name in our elementary schools for the Response to Intervention Model.  Mrs. Larrison, a kindergarten teacher at Northside School, suggested that we consider “CHILD- Caring How Individual Learners Develop”.

K-5 Staff voted on several possible acronyms/names and selected CHILD.  Mrs. Larrison received a $100 Chamber Gift Certificate for her efforts.  You can see some of her students displaying her prize selection!

We had a wonderful opportunity as an administrative team today to be able to videoconference with Dr. Don White, Superintendent of the Troy District 30C from Shorewood, IL.  Dr. White and I have collaborated on a few projects and have very similar interests as it relates to instruction, technology, data use and continuous improvement.  We had an opportunity today to learn a bit more about his District and some of the challenges that they face.  Though our districts are different in many ways (for example, they have approximately a 35% minority population) our challenges to improve achievement and begin to embrace a 21st century educational system are very much similar.

Both districts will investigate ways that we may be able to collaborate and learn from each other through future contacts.  It was also great to be able to use Skype as a videoconferencing tool, which was a free and efficient use of technology.

The regular November board meeting found the Board reviewing several important pieces of information and taking action on a few items.  The following recounts a few of those items:

1.  Dr. Swanson shared an overview of DRA2 spring data, and gave some trend data on how our students are performing on EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT.  She related the secondary data to the Board’s Academic Target Policy.  It was a wonderful time to publicly recognize District staff  on providing solid instruction and support to continue our path towards improved student achievement.  The numbers of students in advanced math courses continues to grow, beginning in the MS and moving to Juniors and Seniors.

2.  Mr. Schlindwein then covered some history of the District’s expenditures for Health/Life Safety projects over the past five years.  It was quite impressive to hear both the amount of money and the facility improvements that have been made.  The District is now planning to accept bids for geothermal air conditioning at Millikin in the summer of 2009, as well as air conditioning the remaining spaces at the HS.  The Board will also examine an alternate bid to do some remodeling work to the art room at the HS.

3.  The Board approved an early graduation request for a high school student and also changed the date of the January Board meeting from January 9th to Wednesday, January 8th.

4.  The Board enthusiastically approved a one year agreement with Mutual Medical to continue to serve as claims administrator for our District.  This was a combination of action items that also involved a multi-year agreement with Hammond Henry Hospital which increases our discounts from 15% to 20% for inpatient and outpatient charges.  We will also see an increase from 35% to 45% in discounts for charges at Trinity PHO.  This event nearly celebrated the one-year anniversary with our new insurance consultants, Laurus Strategies, who were instrumental with this work.  Next steps will involve reconvening our Insurance Committee to examine our 2009 rates.

5.  The Board approved a tentative property tax levy that has the potential of reducing our overall tax rate by about 2 cents/$100 of assessed value.  The Board is sensitive to the impact that the overall tax request has on our community due to the present economic conditions.

6.  The Board reviewed a proposed  Policy 6:310 “Credit for Alternative Courses”, which includes the proposal for a change in physical education exemptions.  Essentially the proposal would allow students in Grades 11/12 to waive PE for one quarter for each sport in which they participate.  Action is expected in December.

7.  The Board reviewed proposals from the High School regarding changes to the 2009-10 Course Planning Guide.  Congratulations to the departments for some innovative thinking, and a special note to the Science Department for a very nice visual showing the pathways and connections for different course sequences.  The Board is expected to take action on this item in December also.

8.  If you are interested in reviewing the responses from the November 7th Inservice PIC Survey, or the Board meeting agenda and exhibits you can click the appropriate links.

9.  Recently I sent a link to the Building Administrators from the Chicago Tribune.  I’m not sure if the email was distributed to others, but let me clarify that my intentions were not and have not been to force comparisons between schools within the District.  In fact, I believe that I have endeavored to share results as an overall grade level or as a K-5 unit to reinforce the idea that we are ONE DISTRICT.  My source of pride in sending this out was to demonstrate that all four of the District 228 elementary schools tested on ISAT were the four highest achieving schools in Henry County.

I am immensely proud of working in this District and though we know we have much yet to improve, our foundation of caring and committed professionals, gives us a fighting chance against the challenges we face in the coming years.

10.  A final word of thanks for all the professional work that was submitted to me after the November 7th Inservice.  From watching Miss America with “cheeseburgers in Paradise”, to learning how Kindergarten Rocks!, to learning more about how the HS English department is using their Kindles, to knowing that other Math Teachers can help Mr. Kiss iChat–by all appearances we had a successful day!

I am absolutely blown away by the tremendous artifacts and reflections from staff sent to me today!  I myself was at a Leadership and Learning Conference, but kept sharing with colleagues that fantastic iChats, reflective summaries, examples of PhotoBooth, etc.  Congratulations to all of you… there will be much more coming on this Blog regarding staff work.

It sounds like there was some productive learning related to the Gretchen Courtney work on vocabulary at the MS and HS.  Great work done also by the K-12 Math group working on the Promethean Systems.

Mr. Haugse and I attended a collaborative workshop sponsored by the School Business Officials and School Administrators.  Several State Senators and Representatives made presentations about current issues on the Illinois political scene, as well as tips on how to “lobby” effectively.

Certainly the climate in Illinois, politically and economically, will be influenced dramatically by the housing values and the residual effects of the subprime fallout.  The Constitutional Convention was discussed, changes in school funding reform, and speculation on who will serve as the new Senate President, replacing Emil Jones.

Here you see Sara Boucek of IASA sharing some of the new laws that have recently come into effect in Illinois related to schools.

Sara Boucek, IASA, shares new school laws with the IASA/IASBO group.

The proud contingent at the IESA State Meet!

What an exciting day for our cross country athletes. Our boys team finished 9th overall, led by Jordan Starkey who finished in 3rd place individually at the Illinois Elementary School Association state meet.

Emily Ford finished 26th overall in her best time of the year.

Coach Ehlert and Coach Fredericks did an outstanding job keeping these kids fresh and having fun! What a great way to start in the IESA!

Rich Voltz, the Associate Director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, has created a very interactive, collaborative site for superintendents using Ning.  We are “piloting” this in District 228 with an administrative book club and also with the Tech Support Team.

For those of you who are seeking a place to more privately interact in a professional learning community-like setting, it may be worth exploring.  Ning is free and very easy to use.

Mr. Haugse and the HS administrators and staff work extremely hard to create an environment that supports great teaching and great learning.  As a District we try to make decisions using data as much as possible.  This file reports disciplinary infractions over the past 3 Septembers.  (Keep in mind there were 21 school days this September, 2008).

september-3yr-comparison-2008