How much does the district spend on supplies and where does the money come from? Why is this expenditure important? Who creates the supply list?
The district spends approximately $25,000 annually on K-5 student school supplies from a list that was prepared by a committee of teachers. This money comes from the Title Compensatory Funds and does not utilize funds from the General Fund nor the teacher classroom funds made available by the Legislature. Providing free supplies helps us meet the constitutional requirement of providing a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) as well as meeting the needs of Caldwell children.
What options do teachers have for the money allocated by the Legislature that is dedicated to classrooms?
The following link addresses all questions about the classroom supply monies. This dedicated funding is subject to annual changes by the Legislature. http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/classroom_enhancement/supplies.htm
How much do we spend on new text books?
The state gives the district a specific amount that we can spend on textbooks. Most of the money goes to consumables for the Open Court Reading Program. Most textbook purchases are in classroom sets. Teachers are becoming experts at supplementing the lack of textbooks with excellent instructional and assessment practices, which is in line with the goals and objectives of our professional development plan.
What are the advantages and disadvantages to a four-day school week?
The advantages of a four-day work week are found primarily in minimal utility cost savings and transportation savings. Disadvantages outweigh advantages:
- There are still athletics and activities on five to six days per week
- Parents are forced to find day care or babysitting
- Students have three days to miss and forget
- Teachers would still need to be at work for part of the fifth day to fulfill contracts
- Classified office help would have to be at work on the fifth days to receive mail, freight and other shipments along with answering phones.
Districts that have gone to a four-day work week have reported little cost savings.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of half days?
Students must be in attendance for a minimum of 3.5 hours a day to claim the full average daily attendance (ADA). The advantage of half days for students is that the district can offer professional development for either afternoons or mornings and can still collect the ADA. There are no real cost differences between full and half days because the district still will transport and feed students on half days. Utilities will still be consumed at the average daily rate because the buildings will be occupied.
Are there places to cut contract days or hours without changing student-teacher time?
The only days in a school year that could be cut are work days or professional development days. Cutting any other days would result in reduced teacher pay.
Does the Caldwell School District have too many administrators?
No. The Caldwell School District is three administrators under the state appropriated funding for administration and that cost savings is distributed through the General Fund, primarily to salaries and benefits of classified and certified personnel.
What is the value of having middle school vice principals?
Syringa and Jefferson have approximately 750 students in each school. Middle school students begin to transition independently with limited teacher supervision and this results in an increase in discipline incidents. Not all transitions occur at the same time and it is difficult to ask all teachers to be in the halls at all times. It is unrealistic to have one administrator handling all of these issues. Secondly, each staff has approximately 40 teachers who need to be supervised and evaluated. It is ineffective for a single administrator to supervise and evaluate this size of staff.
What is the value of a full-time public information officer?
Public education, as a whole, has not been good at communicating internally or externally. We spend most of our time dealing with "things that are going wrong" as opposed to "helping things to go right." We are constantly being criticized for what we are not doing, rather than sharing all of the positive things happening in schools today — in most situations, being reactive rather than proactive. This approach forces us to defend our actions instead of standing strong with confidence that we are doing what is right and best for children. An exemplary full-time public information officer can create the environment of people asking for more good news, equating to seeing more of what's going right. A prime example is our school district web site. It's current with relevant information and filled with success stories from teachers and students alike. Thousands of people access our website every day. The primary reason for people staying with employers is because they like who they are working with and for. Poor communication leads to isolation, lack of confidence, frustration, victimization and ultimately, to poor employee performance and low employee retention. In the last two years, Caldwell has moved from a low-performing district to the most rapidly improving district in the state. Teacher retention is at an all-time high, along with student performance. Local stakeholders and state and national leaders are recognizing our dramatic improvements. The full-time public information officer has played a significant role in making this possible.
What are the responsibilities of the three superintendents?
The superintendent is responsible for all aspects of the school district, including instructional leadership, managerial leadership and political leadership. The superintendent reports to five elected trustees. The director of secondary education is responsible for operating two middle schools, the juvenile detention center and two high schools, housing approximately 3,500 students and 200 teachers. This person reports to the superintendent. The director of elementary education is responsible for operating six elementary school, housing approximately 3,000 students and 175 teachers and reporters to the superintendent.
What is the value of having a teaching coach at every school?
The success of the Reading First schools with the Open Court Reading Program made it evident that we could utilize these best practices to help all of our schools be as successful. Part of that program was the instructional coach that helped to build the capacity of each teacher in the school so they could become the effective teacher that was needed to insure success of our children. As of this date, five of our six elementary schools have met the Adequate Yearly Progress goal and all of our schools have made substantial gains in part due to our instructional coaches. Salaries for coaches are paid for with restricted federal funds dedicated for school improvement and cannot be used for salaries for teachers.
How many counselors are necessary?
The diversified student body in our district requires us to make many different approaches to help the children be successful in their academic pursuits, and in the other domains as well. Counselors have taken a major role in helping the schools meet those needs, and the academic results have been the measuring stick as to the district's success. The recommended ratio is to have one counselor for 400 students, however, most of our counselors deal with a minimum of 500 or more students.
Can extended days be cut for some professions, such as special education teachers, counselors and speech therapists?
The total number of extra days were reduced this past year for special education, counselors, and others. In some cases, positions were completely eliminated.
Can the district combine custodial and maintenance staffs?
Can the community or staff members pick up some of this work to save money? We have drastically reduced the number of custodial and grounds positions. Others have taken on additional responsibilities to pick up the slack where positions were not filled. Also, we are hoping teachers will encourage students to take out trash at the end of the day, especially in the elementary schools. We also are using Canyon County Sheriff inmate details to work the grounds. Once the growing season ends, we have three people coming off the grounds crew to rotate through all 10 schools to help with the cleaning regiment.
What is the district’s policy on class sizes?
The elementary class size recommendations are outlined in the negotiated master agreement. There is no district policy on secondary class size recommendations.
What is the cost and benefit of the Caldwell Academy of Leadership (CAL)?
The cost of the Caldwell Academy of Leadership is approximately $3,000 per participant per year. There are 40 participants in CAL I and 20 participants in CAL II. The CAL project is fully funded out of restricted federal dollars. This sum includes all trainings, instructional reviews, staff professional development and continuing education credits for participants. These funds are dedicated for professional development and school improvement and cannot be used for salaries. The CAL participants are trained in instructional leadership best practices, utilizing current research and expected to deliver what they learn to the rest of the Caldwell School District staff. This model is often referred to as a "train the trainers" model. We believe that this approach keeps the focus on us, as professional learners, as opposed to "drive-by" professional development opportunities that have little to no impact on classroom instruction.
What is the effectiveness of AIMS, ALP or REACH? What do these programs cost the district?
AIMSWeb lets us understand at a quick glance how our students are progressing through their progress monitoring. The program graphs their information as to where they are currently performing, where the student should be performing, how the student is performing against his/her peers, and their AIM line in order to reach their goal. AIMSWeb is a tool that is available through the Idaho Department of Education, which we can utilize for all K-3 students for their IRI scores, as well as their progress monitoring. For students that are in grades 4-5 we are allowed to utilize AIMSWeb for those students that are considered "at risk" for their academics. "At Risk" is defined as being in Step 2 of the RTI process. The Idaho SDE also pays for the students in AIMSWeb that are considered "at risk."
The ALP (Advanced Learning Program) is supported by the ADA (average daily attendance) and a small professional development allotment from the state so the district provides very little in the way of additional support for this program. This has been an extremely successful program in helping our advanced students be all they can be and meeting their needs just as we would for all students. ALP aims to teach our students that are in TIER 3 of the RTI tiers. Tier 3 students are considered students that are performing two years above or below their peers. The ALP program serves our students that are performing two years above their peers. This program offers these students the opportunities to move forward at a faster rate than the other grade level classrooms. These students work together as collaborative teams and take their learning to the next level. The ALP program does not cost the district any additional funds because these students are counted in our ADA, there is not additional funding that is needed.
The REACH program is an intervention that is in place at the secondary level (beginning with the middle schools) to assist those students that are still not reading or performing at grade level. REACH intervenes with these students to insure their success with reading. The REACH program has proven successful with students with the result that less sections of REACH are required throughout the school day. REACH adds not additional cost to the district—since these students would be enrolled in another reading program to insure their growth. In addition, the REACH courses are going to help insure that our middle school students are able to progress to the next grade.
Can the district survive without a copy center? What do copies cost the district?
During the 2008-2009 school year, the schools made 9,211,798 copies through the central copy center. The cost for the year was 1.125 cents per copy or $103,640. Depending on the machine, copies made on school copiers cost between 1.9 cents to 3.6 cents per copy. (Worst case, the same 9 million copies at 3.6 cents each would cost $331,625.) Schools can save money by sending their copies to the copy center. The most important savings the central copy service provides is that the district hires an employee to monitor and producing the 9 million copies. If the central copy service was not available, school employees and teachers would be spending a lot more of their time in front of a copier, not a very efficient use of their time.
Has the district considered requiring students to pay to play sports or other extra curricular activities? What would that save? Can some programs be cut, such as freshmen or sophomore teams?
Yes, we have considered multiple options in this area. Pay to play does not work with our student demographics because our families have minimal to limited resources. The costs to the general fund are coaching salaries and transportation. Coaching salaries are negotiated through the master agreement. The rest of the costs are supported by gate receipts and fundraisers by parents and boosters. This is a very delicate issue as much of our community places more importance on athletics and activities than they do on daily academic requirements. We are constantly talking as a district, as a conference and as a state to come up with ideas that will reduce costs. Some examples include, having sports teams move furniture from school to school to save money and raise funds for their programs. We also are soliciting businesses for sponsorships to support all programs.
How important are in-service or training days vs. the cost of hiring substitutes?
More than 90% of our sub costs are due to sick and personal leave. Ending substitutes for in-service days would not create a substantial cost savings.
Can experienced staff members train others in the district instead of paying to have experts come here or send staff members to expensive training seminars?
Yes, see CAL question and response.
The Caldwell School District is leading the state in energy efficiency. The district renovated eight schools with energy efficient features and built to new elementary schools that are high performing and energy efficient. Idaho Power congratulated the Caldwell School District for being one of its Top 10 energy efficient customers in 2009. Micron was named the No. 1 energy-efficient program and Caldwell was ranked No. 8. No other school district made the Top 10. Caldwell received cash incentives of more than $300,000 for making lighting, cooling and other energy efficiency improvements to its buildings. Plus, heating and cooling costs have been reduced by more than $300,000 in one school year. Caldwell's Silver LEED certified elementary schools will reduce future energy costs by 30 percent, saving thousands in taxpayer dollars.
We charge facility use fees for all groups that rent any Caldwell School District facility. These revenues offset the custodial and utility costs for rental. The district will entertain any fund-raising ideas that are appropriate and supportive of the educational environment.
Can Lincoln Elementary be closed?
No. Our enrollment at the elementary level has stayed steady and increased slightly. All six elementary schools are needed as there is little to no additional space in other schools.
Can Canyon Springs be moved to Lincoln instead of paying to remodel Van Buren?
No. We passed a bond with our local patrons and a portion of the bond is dedicated to the remodel of Van Buren and the expanded Canyon Springs High School to be housed in the remodeled facility.
Can Lincoln house an alternative middle school instead of paying to remodel Washington?
No. The demolition at Washington and minor upgrades will be more suitable for 8th and 9th grade at-risk students. Lincoln is needed for our current elementary students.
Have efficiencies been considered in the food service department?
The Caldwell School Food Service is a non-profit organization operating within its own budgetary outline. In addition to federal reimbursement, the food program receives revenue from fundraising, catering and adult sales. There are several areas in the 2009-10 budget that will be trimmed, including labor and food costs. The labor force has been decreased by 7.5 percent. The Caldwell School Food Service has introduced new nutrition standards, making way for healthier meals for our students. These new standards exclude pre-purchased, pre-packed meals and more home-style meals, which will reduce overall food costs. The food service program is working on reducing equipment costs by applying for grants and reducing uniform costs with fundraising.
What is being done to cut busing costs? Can off-campus travel (sports, music) be reduced? Can busing be limited to students living more than one mile away? What is the cost of busing ALP students?
Each year we look at every bus route and modify them so that they give us the best transportation for our children for the least cost. Our district does a great deal of safety busing, which means that the children cannot cross a major arterial such as 10th or Linden, they cannot cross canals or waterways that could prove hazardous, nor can they walk down roads that have narrow shoulders and no sidewalks. The bottom line is that we are required to bus the majority of our children to their schools. The cost of busing the ALP students is minimal when you consider what the cost would be if we had to hire three ALP teachers (3rd grade, 4th grade, fifth grade) for each school. We feel that the ALP program is an important part of educating ALL of our children and in meeting the needs of ALL children. Off campus transportation for extra-curricular programs can be limited and is considered when looking at these programs. Again, it comes down to what our community expects from the schools in the way of sports, music, drama, debate, etc., which we try to provide within our budget.
Should the district charge for field trips?
The district has asked that all field trips be directly correlated to the curriculum and have a direct impact on the academic achievement of the children. We are fortunate to have an active community and supportive parents with many of our Parent/Teacher organizations stepping up and helping with the financing of field trips. In some cases, we have asked the children to help in defraying the costs of field trips. Field trips offered as rewards, or those not directly related to the curriculum, are discouraged and not approved.