Superintendent Dan Freund voiced his concerns at the October 15, 2013 Lucas School Board meeting over the new legislation their schools are facing.
“In my career, I’ve not seen this amount of change in a decade as what schools are required to do here in the next six months,” said Freund. “It remains to be seen how effective this is going to be in terms of really impacting student achievement. My concern is that we are testing almost all the time. Valuable experiences kids need in a well-rounded education might be easily tossed aside when the pressure is to test as much as we have to test. Also, with student performance being related to compensation, it puts an immense pressure on teachers.”
Freund explained there are a lot of unintended consequences with this new legislation, which demands better communication. “In order for us to really accomplish this and make sense of it, we really got to be involved with parents and the community so people understand what we’re being required to do,” said Freund.
On a lighter note, Lucas schools did a blind taste test between Dairyman’s milk, which the schools have been using, and Smith’s Dairy. The kids picked Smith’s every single time. Following the school board’s unanimous approval, Freund said the school district would be changing from Dairyman’s milk products to Smith Dairy on the nearest possible date. Regarding Dairyman’s, Freund said, “Kids don’t like it. They won’t drink it so they aren’t buying it. We need to listen to the kids on this one.”
The school board also voted to approve the yearbook activity fund. “Tanya (Deal) has done an excellent job with the yearbook,” said Treasurer Larry Lifer. “Coming on late last year, she was able to sell ads. We ended the year not having to advance the yearbook fund money, which says a lot.”
Another vote approval was to move the money saved with the two upcoming premium holidays out of the General Fund and into the Permanent Improvement Fund. This fund goes toward technology, parking lots, windows, school truck, and other improvement needs.
Lifer also explained, “Our revenues are dropping an average of 1.8 percent per year and our expenses are going up 7.3 percent average per year. That trending gives me a little bit of concern.” At this point in the forecast, he’s projecting that they should break even by the end of 2014.
“In my career, I’ve not seen this amount of change in a decade as what schools are required to do here in the next six months,” said Freund. “It remains to be seen how effective this is going to be in terms of really impacting student achievement.”
