Ask The Superintendent

Many questions are asked of administrators and board members around one of our most visible services: the bussing of students.  Recent questions centered on the cost and distances we travel for extra-curricular activities and when they are scheduled have risen.  The following information will hopefully frame this discussion.

As was stated in an earlier “Ask the Superintendent” column, the total number of miles traveled by school district vehicles does vary slightly from year to year.  Our 22-year average is about 198,000 miles / year.  This past year we traveled 198,685 miles.  This includes daily routes as well as extra-curricular trips.   Our bus transportation cost is slightly less than $1.50 per mile. Although our costs per mile continue to rise the number of miles we are transporting students remains relatively stable. 

Over the years the average miles driven to an away activity regardless if it is a game, a speech contest, knowledge bowl tournament, FFA judging event or the multitude of other school activities has increased slightly.  The largest reason for this has been the consolidation of neighboring schools.  The distance between neighboring high schools and the activity programs they sponsor has grown.  Because of fewer schools and changing school populations, the Minnesota State High School League reorganizes competitive sections every two years based upon similar school student populations.  This class size structure has encouraged schools to compete with schools of similar size.  This has increased efforts to find similar sized schools and can cause an increase in distances traveled.  An increase in the size of the Camden Conference has increased transportation for some schools.  Canby’s longest conference trip is 75 miles.  Some schools travel over 90 miles for a Camden Conference contest.

As with any activity in our lives, the host person, company or organization sets the date, place and time of the event.  Contest agreements between schools can become quite formal due to the costs incurred for being a host school.  These associated costs are tied to specific dates that are set as much as a year earlier.  Changing dates can be a horrendous task for activities directors due to the multiplicity in the wide range of events scheduled by the school community.  Canby Public Schools supports activity free Wednesday evenings for religious instruction and quality family time.  Other schools and organization do not share similar commitments.  If one would view the activity schedule of any metropolitan high school, one would soon realize the multitude of activities scheduled on Wednesday evenings.  The Minnesota State High School League has begun scheduling state tournament events on Wednesday evenings.  The host organization sets the date, place and time.  People attending the events have the ability to raise questions about the date but the schedule is controlled by the host.

Canby Public Schools is not the most centrally located school site in the state.  It is important for our students to be engaged in a wide range of activities that will develop their skills for future citizenship.  Whether it be parliamentary procedure in FFA, extemporaneous speaking in Speech, or teamwork of athletic competition these are essential skills that are inherent in our proud education tradition.  To develop these skills we must travel to other schools.  We must go on field trips and take part in activities at a distance to gain the experiences to make the connections to the knowledge learned in our classrooms.

This column and all previous “Ask the Superintendent” columns can be found on the Superintendents Blog at http://www.teacherweb.com/MN/CanbyPublicSchool/SuperintendentLorenHacker/.    

Questions can be e-mailed or mailed to the Canby News.  Individual personnel or personal questions will be answered on an individual basis.  The superintendent may be contacted by phone at 507-223-2001, e-mail at lhacker@canby,mntm.org, or by mail at 307 W. 1^st Street, Canby. MN 56220.

The school board has been discussing joining a number of schools from southwest Minnesota in applying to the Commissioner of Education to allow a flexible school year to restructure our school calendar to start in conjunction with the Minnesota State University System in late August.  During board discussions, Dr. Kaddatz suggested that it would be a great topic for “Ask The Superintendent”.  The questions to be addressed are “What is the flexible school year proposal schools in southwest Minnesota are promoting?” and “What benefit would Canby students receive from reorganizing the school calendar?”

During the last school year a group of two dozen schools began meeting to discuss petitioning the Commissioner of Education Alice Seagren to allow area schools to start before the state mandated school start date of the first Tuesday following Labor day.  A proposal which included rationale for sharing staff, resources, inservice and creating effective practices that would increase student achievement were presented.   The proposal was denied for a variety of reasons including the Department of Education did not have sufficient time to review the proposal, more data was requested to support the claims for increased student achievement, and in the background was the political ramifications from the tourism lobby that created and maintains support for the post Labor Day start. The Commissioner did invite schools to reapply.  She believes with the proper background information, and enough community and college system support the concept makes sense.

The new proposal would allow schools to start August 23, 2010 the same starting date for the Minnesota College and University System.  Many Minnesota school officials believe the only way to start to accomplish a long standing dream of a seamless education system is starting K-12 school systems on the same date and hopefully same page as the university system.  The ability for systems to work together, share staff and resources will be greatly enhanced if they are starting at the same time.  The same goes for neighboring school districts.  Common in-service days will allow isolated teachers to share with other teachers in the same curriculum area.  Having the same calendar and similar schedules will facilitate the sharing of staff and facilitate the addition of or at least the maintenance of curriculum offerings during declining enrollment. 

 The greatest impact will be on learning.  The state university system has always found it conducive to learning to end their semesters prior to Christmas break.  K-12 schools often find themselves in the position of reteaching /relearning the curriculum due to the long break holiday break  and returning after the New Year to a short 5- 7 day chunk of teaching time before the end of the high school semester.  It is not possible to get 18 weeks of education completed before Christmas if you start after Labor Day.   August is prime learning time.  Ask any teacher about learning readiness of their students in the waning days of May or early June.  Ask any parent if their student is ready to go back to school after the 25^th of August.

The early bird catches the worm is an old adage that promotes the flexible school year.  All learning is based upon review and practice.  Any athlete knows practice makes perfect.  The more prepared an individual is for competition the more likely a successful outcome will result.  By starting school 10 days earlier, our students will have 10 more days to prepare and practice for state achievement tests.  It would allow for a greater flexibility of scheduling the second half of the school year.  It would be possible to create scheduled review days prior to the state achievement tests for teachers to review the concepts the students had learned earlier in the year. 

Parents and the community as a whole could see the benefits of an earlier start.  The flexible schedule could ensure consistent school vacation breaks that families can plan around year after year, two weeks at Christmas and a full week in the spring.  The early start in August closely coincides with the closing of the swimming pool and the end of summer recreation activities for the youth.  Daycare providers and family alike know the impact of children with idle time on their hands.   

One of a number of requirements to initiate the flexible school year proposal for Canby Public Schools is to have three community meetings.   These will be held Monday, Oct. 5^th, Tuesday Oct. 20^th, and Monday Nov. 9^th.  All three meetings will be held in the High School Media Center at 7 pm.  To get to the HS media center enter door 3 across from the HS parking lot.   It is located straight ahead at the end of the long hallway.  If you are interested in the flexible school year concept, please plan on attending and share your thoughts and ideas.

Any questions for “Ask the Superintendent” can be e-mailed or mailed to the Canby News.  Individual personnel or personal questions will be answered on an individual basis.  The superintendent may be contacted by phone at 507-223-2001, e-mail at lhacker@canby,mntm.org, or by mail at 307 W. 1^st Street, Canby. MN 56220.

I received an inquiry about summer athletic programs and it seems very poor information is available to community residents around the question, “How are school athletic teams monitored during the summer?”

School athletic teams are not sponsored and are not supervised by the school district during the summer.  Coaches are not paid by the school district for summer programs. Uniforms are not provided for summer competition by school district revenues.  Competitions and practices are not scheduled by the activities director.  Transportation is not provided outside of summer / community recreation policies and programs.  One activity used by a variety of teams is the summer recreation/community recreation supervised weight room and open gym.  Schools may rent or lease equipment, i.e. shoulder pads, football helmets, etc. to students for their personal use in camps, clinics, or leagues during the summer.

Groups of students with supervision are allowed to schedule and use school facilities and fields.  Teams practicing under the direction of high school coaches are governed by rules by the Minnesota High School League.  The rules governing the action of high school athletics & coaches outside a sport’s season are some of the most amended / changed rules in the MSHSL rule book.  Currently prior to and following the high school sports season (starting dates are set by the MSHSL for each sport and end with that sports state tournament),

a coach:

MAY

■ Conduct a pre-season meeting to review team registration, MSHSL rules, tryout information and other administrative items. No coaching or instruction in the skills or strategies of the sport is permissible.

■ Provide camp and non-school team information to athletes if approved for a summer waiver and authorized by your athletic director to do so.

■ Provide coaching during the summer vacation period (the fourth Friday in May through July 31) unless approved for summer waiver.

The summer waiver rule allows high school athletes to attend a camp or clinic owned or coached by a member of his school's coaching staff provided the coach has been approved for a summer waiver. The summer waiver criteria are administered by the local activities director.

Camp/clinic participation fees must be paid by the student or student’s parent or guardian. Coaches and or booster clubs cannot pay for a student to attend a camp/clinic or participate on a non-school team.   Many booster clubs promote summer camp attendance by reimbursing parents for student athlete’s attendance at camps the booster club is promoting.

a coach:

MAY NOT

■ Provide coaching, instruction, training, etc. to athletes of their high school B squad, junior varsity, or varsity teams (unless approved for and during summer waiver period).

■ Direct athletes to play in a league or to attend a camp or clinic.

■ Place athletes on a roster develop or organize a team roster, draft players for a team, select, secure, or otherwise influence the placement of athletes on a team for leagues, tournaments, camps, or clinics, other than those athletes approved for a summer coaching waiver.

■ Direct or unduly influence an athlete to participate in open gym, captain's practice, or on non-school teams, leagues, camps, clinics, or weight training.

■ Organize, supervise, direct, or otherwise participate in the organization of captain’s practice 

Over the years the rules have changed for summer participation.   In every case coaches across the state have volunteered their time during the summer months to work with student athletes in activities they enjoy.  As camps and summer competition has become more prevalent in past years due to the flexibility of the waiver rule, a higher expectation has grown within communities and especially parents for athletic teams to do more during the summer.  The net result is that coaches have volunteered more and more of their time.  As all activities directors know, it is often difficult to find people who are willing to make the commitment to coach children for salaries below minimum wage for a few hours in the middle of the day including numerous nights and weekends, let alone volunteer time during precious summers.  As with any volunteer we always need to remind ourselves of the fact “Volunteers are not paid because they are worth less rather because they are priceless.”

Ask The Superintendent

A resident of the school district asked the questions “What role does the superintendent play in the evaluation of staff?” and “How do you determine how to reduce staff?”

The two people responsible for evaluating the majority of the staff at Canby Public Schools are the high school and elementary principals.  They evaluate and make recommendations on the performance of teachers, counselors, and other licensed staff in their building.  The first three years of employment (1 year if a teacher has successfully taught three years in another Minnesota school) a licensed teacher is on probationary status and may be released for any reason.  The principal’s recommendation after three years of successful instruction is reviewed and approved by the board granting continuing contract (tenure) status to the probationary teacher.   Building principals also supervise all non-licensed support staff  in their buildings including office staff and para-professionals.

Other staff involved in supervisory and evaluation roles are the activities director, the director of buildings, and the bus supervisor.  The activities director evaluates coaches, directors, and other leaders of activities during an annual post season/activity review.  The director of buildings supervises and evaluates custodians.   The bus supervisor oversees that bus drivers are properly licensed, conducts ride alongs, and daily supervises bus operations. 

The superintendent directly supervises the building principals, the district office staff, the activities director, the director of buildings, the bus supervisor, and the district mechanic and grounds maintenance director.  The superintendent does occasionally get involved with supervision and evaluation of other staff on a situational basis.  Those situations include requests from supervisory staff for support, staff that have more than one supervisor, and situations involving employee discipline.

Staff are not retained for a wide variety of reasons of which the most common is lack of revenue to support the position due to declining enrollment.   Besides tenured, licensed teachers and principals, all employees including coaches at Canby Public Schools are at-will employees and serve at the discretion of school board and their appointed designee.  The district is at-will to continue to retain or dismiss any at will employee at anytime.  The superintendent has a three year contract.

The formal process of reducing staff due to declining revenue begins in January when the school board directs the administration to make recommendations for reductions.  These suggestions for reducing positions are reported back to the board in March.  Staff members whose positions are being proposed for reduction are informed in person by the administration.  A suggested staff reduction timeline for school board actions proposed by the Minnesota School Boards Association starts in early April.  The timeline allows for a series of board actions and time lines for appeals prior to the end of the fiscal year (June 30) to ensure the rights of teachers are supported.

The administrative recommendations for reductions sent to the board in March are the result of a series of meetings with administrative team members made up of the principals, occasionally the activities director, and the superintendent.  A targeted amount for reductions is determined by taking the current number of students multiplied by the current state aid amount per student.  This amount is subtracted from the estimated number of students for next year multiplied by the estimated state revenue for next year.  During a series of the 5 to 6 meetings, the administrative team examines possibilities for making reductions in staff and supplies.  The current class enrollment figures and the future anticipated needs of students drive the discussions.  Once the administrative team has agreed on a plan for reducing expenses to match the decline in revenue, the recommendations are presented made to the board for review and action.

Questions can be e-mailed or mailed to the Canby News.  Individual personnel or personal questions will be answered on an individual basis.  The superintendent may be contacted by phone at 507-223-2001, e-mail at lhacker@canby,mntm.org, or by mail at 307 W. 1^st Street, Canby. MN 56220.

Ask The Superintendent

One of the questions people often ask is in regard to the school taxes district property owners pay.  “What are the local school taxes we pay?”   How do the school taxes we pay compare to other area school districts?

School taxes are levied for voter approved building projects, voter approved operating referendums, and levies authorized by the school board in a limited number of categories established by the state legislature.

School district voters approved a $4,035,000 building bond issue to borrow money to pay for the new high school edition in the fall of 2000.  Due to lower interest rates the original bond issue was refunded in 2005.  The refinancing saved district residents $96,306 in lower interest costs over the life of the repayment schedule.  The 2009 payment on the building bond was $313,267.  At present $2,890,000 remains to be repaid with the final payment in 2021.  The building bond payments are levied against all property types: commercial, residential, recreation and agricultural, in the school district based upon the referendum market value of the property.

In 2007, Canby Public Schools voters approved an operating levy of $700.50 per student.  This was an increase from $500.50 per student.  The additional $200 dollars per student increased district taxes levied for the voter approved operating referendum $48,000 to $147,677.  In order to encourage local school districts to hold referendums, the state government matched this amount with equalization state aid of $288,859.  This current year, local taxes on the operating referendum increased $12,790 to $160,466.  This tax increase was caused by increased valuations.  This increase in valuations caused the indexed state equalization aid to fall to $260,244.  Declining enrollment this year caused less total dollars to be levied.  Revenue from the operating referendum dropped.  This resulted in a paradox.  Although local taxpayers paid $12,790 more in taxes, the school district received $15,846 less revenue from the operating referendum levy.   Voter approved operating referendums are levied against only residential and commercial property.  Recreational and agricultural lands are exempt except for the homestead and one acre of land.

Both building and operating referendum tax amounts are combined on tax statements and listed as voter approved.  A number of other levies are combined in a second group listed on the tax statement as “Other”.  The authority to levy these taxes is given to local school boards.  Many times these levies have additional state aid tied to them.  Once again local school boards are encouraged by state government to levy the maximum amount allowed by law in order to capture as much state aid as possible.  These levies include but are not limited to: capital operations-$80,969-(equipment & facilities operation), health & safety-$60,019-(i.e. fire marshal orders & state operational mandates), deferred maintenance-$39,729-(roofs & facility renovation), and a number of smaller categorical levies.  These levies along with community service-$47,652-(i.e. Little Lancers, Drivers Education, and Summer Recreation) are the types included in “Other” taxes levied on district residents. The total amount of the local education levy in the current year is $745,995. This represents a 3.76% increase from the preceding year’s local levy of $718,931.  This small increase did not require the school district to hold a truth-in-taxation hearing this past year.  The school districts total revenues for the current year are estimated to be $6,064,629.   Local property taxes are 12% of the total revenue to operate the school district.

Comparing school district’s education taxes is difficult with Agricultural and recreational land exempt from operating referendums.  One of the best ways is to look at educational taxes on homesteads.  Residences are taxed from both bond and operating referendums.  The chart below gives some area school districts levy amounts based upon the average tax paid per $100,000 valuation per home.  Canby is about 20% below the state average

Questions can be e-mailed or mailed to the Canby News.  Individual personnel or personal questions will be answered on an individual basis.  The superintendent may be contacted by phone at 507-223-2001, e-mail at lhacker@canby,mntm.org, or by mail at 307 W. 1^st Street, Canby. MN 56220.

Ask The Superintendent

Perhaps one of the most often asked questions of the superintendent surrounds the transportation of students on district buses.   Why are there so few students riding on the school buses?”, “Why do we have so many buses?” and “Isn’t this an obvious place to reduce?”

Canby Public Schools will be reducing one bus route next year.  This is the second route to be eliminated in the last 5 years.  Next year there will be nine scheduled bus routes.  During the 1970’s Canby hit a high of more than 20 scheduled routes.  Declining enrollment and smaller farm families mean fewer bus routes.

When scheduling routes, the first consideration is to assign a seat for each student located more than a mile from the school building or in an identified hazardous area.   Students enrolled in Canby Public Schools that live out of the school district are also scheduled to be transported.   These assignments are required by law regardless if the students never ride the bus.  At the start of this year, we had three of our 10 routes scheduled to capacity.

Many students never or seldom ride a bus for a variety of reasons.  The student drives.  The student rides with an older sibling.  The parents choose to transport the student.  The child open enrolls to another district or is home schooled.   Bus allocations need to be reserved if plans change.  We do not deny enrollment to students.

These changes are reflective of changes in society including: two parent working families, more after school activities for students and legislation allowing the flexibility of choice when enrolling in a school.  It is the current policy to honor transportation requests for open enrolled students.  It is a decision based upon revenue.  Each student enrolled generates $8,575 in state aid.  Our current bus cost is $1.45 per mile.  If an open enrolled student lives 5 miles from the nearest stop it will add 20 miles each day (morning and night) to the route.  If the student rides everyday (172) of the school year, it amounts to an additional $5000 in expense for an increase of $3,575 in revenue.  If there are more than one sibling in the family the return is greater.  The biggest factor to consider in this decision is future costs.  Often students open enrolled from a distance begin to drive during high school. Their siblings ride along.  Even though enrolled and a seat reserved on the bus, they very seldom ride.  State aid increases and cost to transport open-enrolled students declines.

Maintenance records demonstrate the size of the bus impacts mileage and the cost per mile of operation very little.  Although vans do operate more cheaply, they cannot be used on regularly scheduled routes and are far less safe than full sized buses.  Increased safety requirements make the height of the bus seats higher and the glass size of windows smaller on today’s buses.  Due to expanded preschool programs, riders are younger and many cannot be seen sitting in a bus seat even from the interior of the bus.  Often times people watch buses leaving town in the afternoons, bus ridership after school is much different than mornings.  After school student activities, daycare arrangements and parents picking up students drastically reduce after school ridership.

The total number of miles traveled by our vehicles varies from year to year.  Our 22 year average is about $198,000 / year.  This past year we traveled 198,685 miles.  Fewer students do mean fewer stops but the miles between the stops get larger as we expand to pick up as many students as possible.  Our buses have and will be going into neighboring towns like Dawson, Boyd, Clarkfield, and Hendricks to pick up open enrolled students.  As we reduce more routes in the future, the looming question will be “How long should pre-school children ride the bus?”  The combination of all these factors makes what appears on the surface to be a simple question more complicated.  Like many observations of life, further investigation reveals one piece of information leads to a complex, interconnected web of causes and effects.

Questions can be e-mailed or mailed to the Canby News.  Individual personnel or personal questions will be answered on an individual basis.  The superintendent may be contacted by phone at 507-223-2001, e-mail at lhacker@canby,mntm.org, or by mail at 307 W. 1^st Street, Canby. MN 56220.

Ask The Superintendent

A question has been asked about buildings and facilities.  Where does the money come from to repair and maintain buildings?

The funds to pay for operating capital come partially from state aid dollars we receive from primarily state income and sales tax sources.  The other portion comes from the local property tax levy.  This current year we will receive $125,712.  Of this $78,225 is from state aid and $47,486 is from local taxes.  We also receive dollars for deferred maintenance for projects such as roofs or larger building repairs.  These funds are mostly local property tax dollars, $36,310 with an additional $4,185 in state aid. 

We also receive $61,480 from previously spent dollars on health and safety projects.  One example in a wide variety of health and safety spending categories would be state fire marshal orders.  When a fire marshal conducts an inspection and determines your facility is not up to code the funds spent making the corrections can be levied on the local taxpayers.  The most recent example would be adding an additional exterior exit to the wood shop/Ag shop hallway and the installation of a fire sprinkler system in the entire vocational wing.  The total cost of this one project will exceed our current local levy so future Health & Safety levies will increase property taxes due to these fire marshal orders.

These three funds make up the bulk of the $235,000 we receive for capital projects.  Half this amount, $119,000, is dedicated to repayment of a QZAB loan.  Three years ago the district was able to borrow two million dollars interest free on a 15 year note.  We make the $119,000 payments into an interest paying escrow account.  After fees, the effective rate on the loan is a negative 1.5%.  The school district is getting paid on average $17,000 per year to borrow $2,000,000. 

The majority of QZAB loan dollars were spent on energy saving measures in the district including replacing the HS boilers, lighting and water usage upgrades and new digital control system to make the facilities more comfortable and energy efficient.  Last year the energy saving summary results from the project engineer reported a $77,417 in annual energy and maintenance savings   from the renovations.  It is estimated the annual savings will exceed the annual $119,000 payment by the note maturity date in 2020.

The overall long range projections demonstrate the sound decision by the board to make the energy saving renovations.  These upgrades will save tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars.  When comparing the $119,000 payment to the $235,000 in revenue it is easy to see other major projects will need to be paid for from district reserves.  The largest challenge facing the district is the reroofing of our schools.  Flat roofs always present challenges for school districts.  This past year the district began re-roofing the elementary school.  The elementary project, when finished, will cost $250,000.  The high school project is expected to be in excess of $500,000.

Just as with all schools, upkeep and maintenance are essential to the long-term success of the district.  One only needs to look to some of the situations some our neighboring districts have been forced into because of the lack of commitment to maintain school facilitates on a regular basis.  Canby School Boards, past and present, have been committed to preserving the integrity of the district’s facilities.  In doing so they are ensuring the strength of our schools into the future.