2008 Year in Review

MCUD #6 School Board Meeting

High School Principal Janet Ward leads a presentation from the School Improvement Committee.

Bill Simpson

Julie Mickley

Eric Carlson

by Ben Wolf, The Morrison Post

Morrison school board met last Tuesday for their regular meeting. Several citizens were on hand to give their opinions about the district’s consideration of changing their grading system. The board gives each person who wishes to speak no more than three minutes and they generally do not answer questions or respond to statements.

Dr. Bill Simpson stood to give his opinion. “There are better ways to motivate students than a grading system. We should not have a grading system that encourages students to take easier classes in order to better their grade point. We need to make it easier for students to succeed after high school.”

Julie Mickley also spoke and had a different motivation, “I am advocating for students who struggle. Raising the grading scale may be detrimental to them and lessen their opportunity to succeed.” Mickley went on to say that she had been on-line to check her daughter’s grades, and found that three of the class averages were in the mid 60% range. “I was surprised to see that,” said Mickley.

Eric Carlson was the final citizen to speak. “A grading scale should use logic and simplicity. Grading is subjective and essentially arbitrary. There is no net gain or loss for better grades. More schools have been going back to the standard grading systems than are going to the higher grading levels. Grades are not the right way to motivate. Students need internal motivations from their parents and teachers.”

Dr. Jody Ware followed the public forum saying, “The board is reading and researching grading systems. ACT and SAT scores are what colleges look at first, and rigor of courses the students take is next. Next comes class rank and GPA. Our goal is to create a common grading scale, but no decisions have been made yet. Parents have also showed their concerns about the district not having a common makeup homework procedure. This is the second goal of the committee.”

The school improvement committees from the high school and Northside schools gave presentations about their efforts. Principle Janet Ward, and the rest of the High School team talked about an important improvement goal of improving ACT test scores. They also talked about NOVEL, which is a program offering online courses for truants or potential dropouts. The Regional Office of Education offers this program. They also talked about the role of technology at Morrison High School. Gradebooks can be accessed online. Quizdom is used in the classrooms to improve class participation, and the WIN program is an online service offered by Sauk Valley Community College, which is an effort to improve PSAE scores.

The Northside team discussion was led by Principal Amy Heusinkveld, who said that their goal is to build a strong foundation for the rest of their students’ education.

The district announced that the 8th grade graduation date has been set for Wednesday, May 28 at 7:00 p.m.

Dr. Ware reported on the HVAC/Health-Life Safety project, saying that it has been decided that some areas of the building like the shop and weight room would not be air-conditioned by the new geo-thermal system. “The geo-thermal system does not work well when there are swings in the air temperature, which can happen when a door is left open, which is common in the weight room for instance.” Ware also said that the district is planning on the air-conditioning system of the gymnasium to be an alternative bid.

Dr. Ware then broached the possibility of using a local sales tax option in order to raise funds for the schools and perhaps lessen the burden on homeowners from bonding. “It shifts some tax burden from property owners onto consumers and businesses. Ware had estimated that it could bring $160,000 to Morrison schools yearly. Ware also said that Morrison, being the second largest district in the county, would have significant influence as to whether this tax would happen in this county or not.

Ware then talked about the recent assessment appeal that she attended at the Whiteside County courthouse. The appeal was for Morrison Elderly, which is a Section 25-Low Income Housing Unit. The appeal resulted in the district EAV falling from $85,729,538 to $85,072,098, which is a difference of $657,440. EAV is one of the determining factors that affect the funds that schools receive from tax revenue.

Sauk Valley Community College announced recently that they would not be offering Duel Enrollment at the Whiteside Area Career Center, which it had been offering for the past three years. This program has enabled senior high school students to take the district bus to WACC to take community college courses and receive college credit from SVCC. Due to some local districts now offering this duel enrollment on-site at their districts, enrollment at WACC for Duel Enrollment has fallen. Dr. Ware is working with the college to continue the program, perhaps with the guarantee from the district that they would have at least ten students enrolled. The courses could possibly be offered by video as an alternative.

The board reviewed the proposed 2008-2009 transportation contract with RC Smith/Scenic Stage Transportation, Inc. Ware said that Smith has served the district well for years at a competitive price. This contract would reflect a 4% increase, which leaves the cost competitive. There was no action taken regarding the transportation contract.

The board went on to discuss projected enrollment for the district. Enrollment projections are important to the health of the district since it affects state funding levels and class sizes. Next school year’s enrollment is projected to drop by 37 students, due to a graduation class of 96 and projected kindergarten enrollment of 59. Ware used two different sources to project the enrollment in upcoming years. One source was the study done by the firm that assessed the possibility of consolidation. That report showed enrollment dropping by nearly 100 students per year. That would take Morrison from around 1100 students currently to around 650 at the 2012-2013 school year. Those numbers were based on 2006 figures. Ware ran calculations using 2007 figures that show a more modest loss to 1022 students by 2012-2013.

An update was given on the pool project. The pool will close on April 7, with demolition starting immediately afterwards. A completion date of July 28th is what the goal is, and the start of Girls’ swimming is August 10th.

Some initial quotes have been looked at for replacing the football and gymnasium scoreboards due to the current scoreboard becoming unreliable. Many different options are being considered, and the total cost varies greatly, but could be in the mid $30,000 range depending on options. The board talked about collaborating with the City of Morrison who will also be buying scoreboards for the Athletic Complex, in order to control shipping costs.

The board heard of several personnel recommendations including the resignation of part time US History Instructor, Jim Blakemore, and Varsity Girls’ Basketball Coach Todd Veltrop. Dr. Ware also recommended a reduction in force resolution to not renew the contract of Angela Sensor, who has been providing supplemental academic support to fifth grade students in reading and math. Ware said that after meeting with administrators in the district, they felt it necessary not to renew her contract at this time.

The board was told that Bi-County Special Education is again interested in renting office and classroom space at Northside and Southside schools. This is a continuing relationship with Bi-County, which will bring the district revenue of $18,125.

The board then adopted a resolution to partially abate the working cash bonds as a permanent transfer of $114,308.50 to the Building Fund. The money from this bond has to be expended by May 2008, as well as any interest earned. This money has been and will be used for capital projects in the school district.

The board intended to discuss approving some teachers for probationary status and some for tenure status. This item did not make it onto all of the versions of the agenda, so it will be addressed at the next meeting.

by  Editor, theCity1.com
March 26, 2008