SCHOOL BOARD REPORT – MARCH 2011
BETH FRANKLIN, CHAIR
LOTS TO CELEBRATE!
It is indeed a pleasure to be able to report the great things that are happening in our school district every month.
First of all, congratulations again to the FMS “Iron Twinkies” Jazz Band who won the 2011 Maine State Jazz Band Championship in Division I on Saturday, March 26 at Stearns High School in Millinocket, Maine. The band, under the direction of music teacher Jerry Barry, scored 98 out of 100 possible points to place first in the State! It is the tenth time in eleven years the band has been crowned Maine State Jazz Band Champions!
In addition to the band award, 12 individual Falmouth musicians received Outstanding Soloist Awards including Alec Abbatiello, Cayman Bickerstaff, Brooke Bazarian, Alexandra Ertman, Matt Estabrook, Jaspreet Kohli, Griffin Leighton, Scott Lambert, Sam Larson, Callie McMahon, Emma Mooraidian, and Julia Warnock. Matt Estabrook also received the prestigious State Jazz Festival Outstanding Musicianship trophy, recognizing him among the top 5 individual musicians in all of Division I!
Rounding out the jazz band’s 2011 roster are musicians Adam Gardner, Lynnea Harding, Iain Kurry, Alex Levy, Olivia Ring, Cam Wilkins, Nicole Budri, Matt Claar, Stephan Joyce, Keunjoo Kim, and Tom Lesniak.
Also, FHS students placed 2nd at the State Choral Jazz Festival on April 2 in Ellsworth after only three years as a program. Will Wegener received one of five Division I awards for his musical excellence. Congratulations to Wendy Northrup and her jazz choir for this remarkable finish!
Ten students and two chaperones spent a week volunteering at Safe Passage in Guatemala City. Safe Passage works to provide educational opportunities and so much more to children of “basuerors,” people who scavenge the city landfill for recyclables to sell and for food to survive. Students from FHS have begun making this trip every other year. Those attending this year included Alexis Lindberg, Jackie Keroack, Evan Eklund, Jacob Merson, Jenna Serunian, Kyle Grigel, Laney Evers, Lexi Pauls, Maddy Milburn, Sam White, Dan Bennett (Spanish teacher) and Bruce Carver (Spanish teacher). A special word of thanks goes out to Dede Bennell, a Service Learning Coordinator at FHS.
The website, www.schooldigger.com, was recently brought to my attention as a source that ranks individual schools and school districts in every state in the country. THX so much for taking a moment to write. Their methodology is clearly explained as using reading and math standardized test scores and compiling them for all schools – our district’s results deserve a shout-out! On that website, Falmouth School District is ranked second in the State only to the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (the magnet school in Limestone) and first as a district with schools at every level!
A great deal more information about exactly how students in Falmouth schools are performing is on the district website at http://www.falmouthschools.org/supt/supt/start.cfm?id=109. This link is from the District Report Card section of the Superintendent’s page, and it contains data reflecting assessment data for all schools as well as test results and statistics on Advanced Placement (AP) courses at the high school.
THE BUDGET PROGRESSES:
On March 21, the School Board approved the 2011-12 budget. Then on Wednesday, March 30, Analiese Larson, as chair of the Finance Committee and on behalf of the School Board, presented the budget to the Town Council. Public comment was taken, and then the Council was given the opportunity to ask questions.
The budget approved by the Board for next year is $24,535,457 for operations plus $1,710,000 in new school debt. It reflects the third year in a row that operating expenditures have been reduced in the budget process. This budget was developed with the following goals in mind:
· Maintain the quality and efficiency of our schools;
· Identify community values in the context of the loss of state revenues; and,
· Target flat operating costs for the third straight year.
This year, Falmouth will receive a total of $1,329,329 less from the State of Maine. (Since 2008-09, the district has realized a total reduction of $2,132,789 from the State.) Again this year, the district reduced positions and hours across the district, including the elimination of 14.1 positions. Some of these reductions were adjustments to reflect changes in enrollment, but class sizes at nearly every level have risen and are expected to be closer to the district policy limit. Other reductions resulted from the fact that all schools will be on the same campus, and personnel resources can more easily be shared.
There were additions made to the budget this year and they were as follows:
· 3.5 kindergarten teachers to support an all-day K program;
· 0.6 HS at-risk teacher, to support those students at risk of dropping out of school;
· 0.5 social worker for the high school and to support special education students; and
· 1.0 technology assistant to assist the two existing tech staff in supporting the management of over 2000 devices on campus, including the network hardware.
Even with these additions, the school budget represents a reduction of $70,418 (down 0.29%) in operating expenses compared to last year’s budget. This will be the third consecutive year that the School Department has reduced its budgeted operating expenses, a cumulative total of close to $600,000 over three years. Despite this operating expense reduction, the severe decline in State revenues ($1.3M this year alone) will generate a tax increase of 43.8 cents on the mil rate for operations. The School Department had held the mil rate flat for the previous four years.
Pending the sale of the State bond in May 2011 for the new elementary school project, the District will begin making interest payments during FY12, with principal payments commencing in FY13. The 20-year bond will be approximately $38,000,000 (the project was approved at $46,000,000, and has come in $8M under budget!!!!). The State’s share of the interest and principal payments will be approximately 85.6%.
The mil rate impact of the new school debt payment, reflecting a local share of interest payments totaling $246,240, will be 11.5 cents to the mil rate.
Despite the reduction in operating expenses, the reduction in state funding and the local share of the debt payment for the new school will impact the mil rate by an additional 55.3 cents.
To put our mil rate in perspective, the following is a sample of mil rates in the area:
TOWN MIL RATE % OF VALUATION
Yarmouth $19.80 100
Portland $17.92 95
Cape Elizabeth $17.86 80
Westbrook $16.70 100
Gorham $15.90 90
South Portland $15.70 100
Gray $15.35 85
Freeport $12.75 100
Scarborough $12.63 100
Falmouth $12.35 100
Windham $12.20 105
The budget process will continue as the Town Council holds a workshop with the School Board on April 11th and will again take public comment on April 25th, at which time the Council is scheduled to vote on the budget. All Falmouth citizens will then be given an opportunity to vote on the school budget during the Budget Validation Referendum during the June 14th municipal election. As always, voting will take place at Falmouth High School.
COMMUNITY DIALOGUE UPDATE:
The Community Dialogue was held on March 18th at Falmouth High School. Over 250 participants gathered to take part in discussing the priorities for our next two-year plan. Some of the topics that were brought forward and explored included:
· One to One Technology
· All day kindergarten
· Final transition plans for the new elementary school
· Cafeteria/meal options
· Student ethics
· Integrated/project based middle school curriculum
· Information literacy in the 21st century
· Skill building while meeting FHS graduation requirements
· Understanding learning disabilities and executive functioning needs
· Schedules in a 21st century school
· K-5 reporting system
· STEM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) at FHS
This is but a sample of the forty topics that were generated by the participants, and they ranged from basic logistics within the schools to changes that will really affect the way we do business. It is a very exciting time to be in education, as the appetite for embracing the kind of changes that will challenge and support maximum student learning are being examined for implementation right here in Falmouth. We are SO fortunate that we have the talent and motivation among our professional teaching staff and the leadership to make these leading edge programs a reality. Tonight’s School Board workshop (Monday, April 4) will focus on the priorities individual board members would like to identify as part of the district process of creating the new plan. Join the discussion if you’d like – 7:00 FHS Music Room.
