School Changes

[frawin]

I, too, attended a one-room school.  One year, I remember we had 28 students and all 8 grades.  Juanita Anderson was the teacher.  What a great teacher she was too.  I attended school under her instruction from 5th through 8th.  My sisters had her all 8 grades and my brother had her through 7th grade.  She was a wonderful person as well. 
Myrna

[Joanna]

Burnout huh?  Guess the teachers of my day were somewhat tougher ....

You're so funny!  I'm pretty sure EVERY profession was a lot tougher years ago.  Farmers had to use real HORSE power and fertilizing the field meant mucking out the barn first ; homemakers had to heat up laundry wash water in a boiler outdoors & prepare food from butchering to washing dishes from scratch; clerks had to write everything by hand and neatly too ~ before manual typewriters (even they are dinosaurs today.)  People here in our lifetime are all so very spoiled ~ not complaining though!  I love being spoiled.

I also don't have children at this age in school, but as Indygal said, we all have an investment in this community.  I know the school board would have made the best choice they could with the resources available.  It will be a problem for many people, but I don't see a better answer and it does seem like a reasonable compromise.  I know the people in Moline won't want to see their kids get bussed to Severy and vice-versa, but will it be any easier for them to take their kids to another district?  Maybe a few with out of town jobs could manage, but I don't think most people could afford that twice daily trip either.

I agree that a centrally located grade school for the entire district would be the best, but even that would take years.  First you'd have all the discussions and voting for it (and against it! ), then start again for the financing, then preparation and building.  I hope it happens, and soon; but it isn't going to happen before August.

[Mom70x7]

One of the reasons we're having trouble HIRING teachers is our low base pay. We're in the bottom 1/3 of all the schools in Kansas for base pay.

We had both an English teacher and a Math teacher for the high school almost hired. They liked the schools, the people, the classrooms, the community - everything except the pay.  My understanding, from an earlier school board meeting, is they went to Garden City, which has a base pay of $50,000, considerably more than ours.

It's hard to raise the base pay here; to do so the board would have to raise taxes - which is hard to do in a primarily fixed income community.

It is NOT a good time to be a school board member. Whatever decision they make will be second-gussed by half the community. I've attended most of the meetings for the last several years. While I din't agree with their decisions, I do applaud the members for making them. The more meetings I attend, the more I know I would NOT want their job! 

[Lookatmeknow!!]

Ok, I started this topic and I have been gone and just read your remarks.  First, they can't attract teachers because of the pay is totally right.  You can go to Sedan and make almost 3,000 more than here.  I also think that a first year teacher might not come here either because of pay and with the rising fuel cost it makes it very hard.  Second, class sizes and amount of students in the district are really small.  This is the problem at hand.  You guys it isn't going to get better!!  I love this community!!  I don't want my children to go anywhere else to school.  We have a wonderful school system, but the problem is that we just don't have the money to support 3 schools.  Severy lost 4 Great Teachers this year.  They were committed to their jobs, I think the reason that 3 of them left wasn't because they couldn't handle it, it was that they were driving from Eureka and Douglass and the price of gas was getting way to high for them.  And also, they can make more money other places.  I don't blame them!!

Ok, I know this is going to upset some but here goes.  We are not fixing the problem right the first time.  We are just masking the problem for now.  I want to tell you, if I had a first grader that lived close to Climax that was attending Severy but will be now asked to go to Moline, I would send them to Eureka first.  Why, because it is much closer for the child.  How long do you think that this child will be on a bus every day???  This year my 2 kids will be at the same school.  But if this happens again next year I will have one in Moline and one in Severy.  I don't want that.  The reason being is that sometimes the girls have dentist appointments and doctor appointments and that would make it very hard for me to get them to and from.  I would have to leave earlier to go get the one at Moline and then go and get the other at Severy before we head off to Wichita for their Dentist.  I have one parent this year who will, if she keeps them here, have a 3 year old at Severy and her 3rd grader at Moline.  I know many of you think that 3 is to young for school, but this little kiddo needs it.  The parent was going to put both of them on the bus in the morning together and they would go to school together.  Now, she just doesn't know what to do.  The 3 year old will have to ride to Severy by themselve.  She was really upset over this decision.

My husband is usually pretty low key when it comes to the school, but is truly upset!!  He's thinking is that they are not solving the problem at hand!! My husband is looking into homeschooling our children.  I have an elementary degree, so I would be the one to do it.  But if the schools stay this same way next year we will have 2 in Severy and 1 in Moline.  We are busy parents and not that we don't value are childrens education that they are receiving, it just wont work for us to have our kids split up.  I am sure that we could do the homeschooling with no problem, but I actually like our school system.  We have wonderful teachers that go the extra mile for our students. 
The school district is  just trying to get by.  We really need to fix the problem.  The fix would be to build one building for Elementary in Howard!  I know that many will be mad at this decision, but will declining enrollment and economy, we need to really do something!!

Ok, I wrote a book, but that is my thoughts on this subject.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I forgot I was going to comment on the teachers teaching 2 grades.  I have seen this work in largers schools.  My nephew goes to Leon and they do this at the Kindergarten and 1st grade level.  I don't know how well it would work here.  The objective of this is that the higher students can bring the lower students up.  But not really sure if it would work here or not.  But to me, I think that we have great teachers and they could handle it.  I think the burn out issue might be a problem, but most of the Elementary teachers that we have love what they are doing and would accommadate just fine. 

[Tobina+1]

It looks to me like either solution that was suggested would just be masking the problem of the declining population, not enough money, and too many expenses.  I agree that I would not want to be on the school board and have to be making these decisions.  It's a fine line between making something work for NOW, and making changes to make it work for the FUTURE.  All I understand is that "something" had to be done.  And from the posts on this subject so far... it doesn't sound like anyone else has too many solutions, either!
Question on the bus situation:  I thought that grade school and high school kids ride the same bus to one grade school, and then one bus would take all the high schoolers to Howard?  So people with kids in different schools would ride the same bus at first, and then would be bussed on to the other school?  I also heard that maybe the state would be helping with the fuel costs (which doesn't help Frank's ideas of consuming less).
I also wonder if they'll do more of the activities that involves parents in one single location?  So that parents don't have to drive to 2 separate schools, but they will all go to the High School for activities (plays, concerts, PT conferences)?

I'm not arguing with anyone on this subject, but "back then" when there was a 1-room school house and the teacher taught students, they were also allowed to punish ill-acting students, too.  They probably had more control of a classroom because of this.  And they probably weren't under such pressure to make state achievement test scores, either.  I, for one, would much rather teach a classroom of 6-16 year olds "back then" rather than just 1 grade now!

[Devyn-Leann]

I think that teachers are tough. Some of the toughest women I've ever met were teachers. Kids are a lot different now then they were "back then". Many don't mind at all, and the back talk is terrible. I've seen it at school programs along with observations at the high school.

The ways some of the older students talk to teachers truly embarrasses me.

[flo]

Tough teachers and back then . . .        this brings to mind something that happened when I worked as school secretary in Severy.  This was during the unification "transition" and at that time were having Jr. Hi in the Severy High School Building.  We had a substitute teacher one day that had taught many many years and before the "you don't touch students" rule.  One boy was acting up and being a smart ass and disrupting the class and she had told him several times to quit.  He continued and she went back to his desk and he informed her she couldn't touch him.  Guess what? She told him "watch this" and slapped him up side the head with her hand, grabbed him by the collar and told him "now we'll march over to the principals office together and both tell him what I just done and why I done it".  Guess who got in trouble? and it wasn't the teacher.  I say GOOD FOR HER.  If the teacher doesn't have control of the room, she can't teach them anything.  Sorry, I'm from the "old" school also.

[flo]

in reply to the changes being made in the district attendence centers.  There are going to be a lot of unhappy parents and students both.  There were many upset parents and students when unification came into place.  There were bugs to work out and gradually everyone settled into the routine of their particular attendence centers assigned to them.  I am hoping that will be the case in this change.  I fully understand where a lot of parents are coming from, but hopefully all will work together to make this work, if at all possible. I'm sure the school board is doing what they think best at this time.  They have some tough decisions to make if we want to keep our schools.  My children are all out of school, but I have one granddaughter still in the school system and whether or not a person has children in school, it is "all ours" community and without schools, there won't be a community long.   

[momof 2boys]

Facts:  Moline Grade School will be West Elk Elementary
         It will have 1 preschool class, 1 kindergarden class, 2 first grades, 2 second grades, and 1 third grade.
         It will have one Title I teacher and one Resource Room teacher

         A teacher will need to be hired for one of the second grade positions and a teacher will need to be hired for the
         Resource Room position.  

         Total teachers at Moline 9.

          Severy Grade School will be West Elk Intermediate.
          It will also have 1 preschool class, 1 kindergarden class, 1 fourth grade, 2 fifth grades, and 1 sixth grade.
          It will have 1 Title I teacher and 1 Resource Room teacher.

          Total teachers at Severy 8.

          Total teacher for grade schools under new plan is 17.  Total teachers under old plan 20.  
          This eliminates three teaching positions.  Salary of about 90,000 to 110,000 for all three positions
          combined.  

          Offset the savings of the salaries with increased fuel costs to bus students farther and loss of enrollment from towns such  
          as Grenola, Elk Falls, Piedmont, and Fall River.  If there is a loss of only 15 students at state funding of
          about $5,000 per student, then absolutely no money will be saved.  

          The effect on students:  A six year old getting on a bus at 6:45 in the morning to be at school by 7:50 and not returning
           home until about 4:45 in the afternoon.  That is one long day for a small child.  Especially when they are expected
           to learn all day long.