The Daily Beast and Newsweek have published their list of the best 2,000 high schools in the nation recently.  Geneseo HS makes the grade this year!  Previously we posted that we were part of the US News and World Report’s top ranking in both Illinois and nation-wide, but mysteriously the data changed and we were unranked.  Hopefully that doesn’t happen here!

From their site, this is a quick summary of the methodology: “This year our ranking highlights the best 2,000 public high schools in the nation—those that have proven to be the most effective in turning out college-ready grads. The list is based on six components: graduation rate (25 percent), college acceptance rate (25 percent), AP/IB/AICE tests taken per student (25 percent), average SAT/ACT scores (10 percent), average AP/IB/AICE scores (10 percent), and percent of students enrolled in at least one AP/IB/AICE course (5 percent).”

Congratulations to Geneseo High School!

There will be no school for students on Monday, April 29th. Teachers will be engaged in work to review, revise and input written curriculum for all courses taught within the District, PK-12 so that eventually all parents, students, staff, and those all around the world– will be able to view all units of instruction through a digital platform. The district has partnered with Rubicon Atlas to bring this forward and we expect that at the start of next school year you will be able to view curriculum from the District Website in a clear and easy to use format.

COMPARATIVE COMMUNITIES AND THEIR SALES TAX RATES

Rock Island 7.50                                Downers Grove 8.25

Moline 7.50                                         Rockford 8.25

Galesburg 8.50                                   Bettendorf 7.00

Geneseo 6.75 (Pre April 9th)           Davenport 7.00

Peoria 8.25                                          LeClaire 7.00

Silvis 6.75

The sales tax for some goods would raise to 7.75% in Geneseo after April 9th.  Here’s a link if you want to explore other community sales tax rates.

Assume a person drives from Geneseo to Best Buy in Moline for an item that costs the same at Village Maytag or at Best Buy. We know that

cost of the item, cost of delivery, service, etc. all play into the decision, but assume all factors are equal except sales tax and location of the store.

The shortest route is 22.55 miles one way (45.1 miles)

Assume that you can average 20 mpg and assume 2.255 gallons of gas

Assume $3.60/gal= $8.12 worth of gas

Assume the item costs $400

Total Sales tax in Moline= $30.00

Sales tax in Geneseo= $31.00

So the Geneseo resident would pay $1 extra in sales tax for the appliance at Village Maytag, but would pay $8 in gas.

Let’s now look at a $400 appliance purchased in Davenport versus Geneseo.  This would result in the following

Davenport Sales Tax= $28.00

Geneseo Sales Tax= $31.00

So why would a person buying a $400 appliance travel to Davenport (26.75 miles each way) if it costs the same in Geneseo?

Distance 53.5 miles

Gallons of gas 2.675

Cost of gas $9.63

Is it economical to drive to Davenport, or Moline, even if you do pay a little more in sales tax?  It wouldn’t appear that sales tax then becomes the main criteria in determining many of these purchases?  And if sales tax is such an inhibitor to business/retail/restaurant development, the current sales tax in all of the Quad Cities communities (both on the Iowa and Illinois side) is already higher than the current 6.75% in Geneseo; yet Elmore Avenue, 53rd, etc. seem to have many shopping and dining spots also.

If you also consider the value of the extra 1% as it relates to the Geneseo Schools:

That same appliance purchased in Geneseo generates $4.00 for Henry County Schools.  Geneseo District 228 makes up approximately 31.6% of all Henry County students

So if the Geneseo resident (or Henry County shopper) stays home and pays the extra $4 for that appliance, it’s worth $1.26 to the School District.

Henry County Consumers save $ on travel, and also can contribute to better County-wide school facilities, while lessening the property tax burden for facilities!

Hmmmmm…. shopping and dining in Geneseo and Henry County helps employ people, supports local commerce, and if the additional Henry County Schools Facilities Sales Tax is approved, provides needed– and not just wanted— funds for all schools in our County.  Think about it.  It makes “cents”!

It’s far more common these days to find people wanting to compare test scores, or graduation rates, or results from conference tournaments, etc. Sometimes data helps inform us, sometimes it creates more questions. Here is an example of some data from annual financial reports of the six high schools that make up the Northern Illinois Big 12 schools on the Western side of the conference.

What might be other data you would find useful when thinking about what we do in District 228?

While it’s easy for many of us to complain about whether we can or should drive somewhere during inclement weather, or whether or not there should be school, it’s not always as easy to take a moment and appreciate the efforts that are taken to clear sidewalks, parking lots, roads, etc.

Whether privately done, or publicly done, much work goes into trying to stay ahead of snow, slush, ice, winds, etc.  Much ppreciation to the City of Atkinson and the City of Geneseo, and to the township and state road workers,  for getting the job done, despite tight budgets.

Our own Maintenance Department, led by Randy Bormann, and including Jim Gentry, Dennis Renner, Mike Rusk, Rod Capps, along with morning custodians— begin their days while many are still snuggled in bed…. making sure that we can have places for faculty and students to park, to open entry roads into the buildings, to ensure the heat is on, and that we have as safe an environment as we can.

So thank you to all who often work around the clock during this stretch of weather!

I had an opportunity to visit with Senator Darin LaHood this morning in Springfield. It is truly refreshing to be able to meet with such an accessible, thoughtful and responsive legislator. Senator LaHood certainly has some difficult challenges ahead, as do all legislators, but he asks great questions, is honest and reflective in his responses and truly is a professional legislator.

This session of the General Assembly will be full of debate regarding General State Aid, State Budget, Pension reform and many, many other bills unrelated to education. However, credit should be given where credit is due, and in the legacy of Senator Sieben, I believe we have a state senator who has deep core values and is listening.

Last week school districts across the state received an email from Illinois State Superintendent Chris Koch pertaining to the proposed increase in “cut” scores used for the Illinois Standards Achievement Test ( ISAT) that is administered each spring to students in grades 3-8. Cut scores are used to determine a range of scores necessary to assign a student an overall performance level of “exceeds standards,” “meets standards,” “below standards,” or “academic warning,” in the areas of reading, math, and science.

Superintendent Koch stated in his email to schools that “the increase in performance levels will align our expectations for our grade 3-8 students with the more rigorous standards of the new Common Core State Standards that are focused on college and career readiness.” ISBE staff has made it clear to districts that the increase in cut scores is part of the transition to the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment that all schools will be required to administer beginning with the 2014-2015 school year.

The impact of these new cut scores will be dramatic. Geneseo CUSD 228 staff applied the proposed new cut scores to third grade math results from the 2012 ISAT tests. This would change the number of third grade students who failed to meet state standards in math from 1% to 17%. Similar trends will be seen across all grade levels in districts across the state. ISBE has advised school administrators to prepare to have “tough” conversations with the many parents who will be alarmed that their child is now performing “below” standards on the same state assessment that in previous years they earned a “meets” or “exceeds” designation.  Essentially, Geneseo Schools will become part of a traditional “bell shaped curve” to inequitably sort and separate students, for purposes no one really seems to know.

ISBE acknowledges that Illinois’ previous expectations for grade 3-8 students did not align to the new Common Core State Standards that are now focused on success in college and the workforce. So, why are schools wasting valuable instructional time and resources by continuing to administer a test that fails to produce meaningful results?

Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the “transition” from the ISAT to PARCC assessments and the increase in cut scores is the disregard how these changes will impact the children in our classrooms. Why are we subjecting thousands of children and teachers to the stress of ISAT administration for the next two years and the humiliation of a pre-determined course of failure on the ISAT? How do school staff and parents explain to a 9-year-old that their failure to meet state standards is to due to a statistical adjustment that will enable ISBE to avoid the public relations disaster of a dramatic drop in test scores with the new PARCC assessment? How do school administrators explain to their dedicated teachers that they are doing an outstanding job of working with children despite a dramatic downturn in test results?

Furthermore, we will continue to administer a test in the spring of 2013, called “The Illinois Standards Achievement Test” (ISAT), but this year it will contain 20% of the questions that we will eventually see on the PARCC assessment, and 100% of the test questions in 2014 will be Common Core-type questions.  So again, Illinois schools see a “double whammy”, this time in the form of assessment coupled with increased cuts in state funding.

School districts across the state face historic cuts in state funding coupled with an overwhelming increase in state mandates, rules and regulations. The pace of these changes under the guise of “reforms,” has accelerated at the same time that schools face unprecedented budget deficits, due in part, to existing state mandates. This latest decision by ISBE illustrates the complete disconnect that has developed between the agency and the dedicated school administrators and teachers who work every day with the children in our school districts. It also represents a further erosion of the local control of duly elected school board members, who represent the very property tax owners who are paying an increasing percentage of the cost of education while the state abdicates its responsibility to fund our schools. Most importantly, it is not good for the children that we serve.