Wawasee Discusses 'Race To The Top,' Signs Application
Posted
John DeGroff-
SYRACUSE - Wawasee School Board conducted its annual board reorganization meeting Tuesday.
The board elected officers, made several appointments and discussed the Race To The Top program application.
Elected to board offices for 2010 are Mike Wilson, president; George Gilbert, vice president; and Rebecca Linnemeier, secretary.Betty Blutemeier was appointed to the post of recording secretary; with David Cates appointed as board attorney. Jim Evans will continue to serve as treasurer, with Sandy Hollar serving as deputy treasurer.
Appointed as board of finance officers were Mary Louise Dixon, president, and Mike Wilson, secretary. Dallas Winchester will serve as the board representative to the Career/Technical Advisors Council.
In addition to Superintendent Dr. Tom Edington, other board representatives who can open sealed bids and receive quotes for school business for 2010 are Evans, Bob Lahrman and Joy Goshert.
The board will continue to meet on the second Tuesday of each month, except in April which will be on the third Tuesday. Meeting time has been moved to 5:30 p.m.
The board salary has been established at $2,000 plus $50 per meeting paid quarterly, capped at $4,000 total.
The Race To The Top program, called Fast Forward at the state level, is a federally funded grant program through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, in which congress has allocated $4.3 billion.
The overall goal of the program is to "achieve significant improvements in student outcomes" by initiating four key reforms. These reforms involve adopting "internationally benchmarked standards", recruiting teachers and principals, building data systems that measure student success, and turning around lowest performing schools.
All of this hinges on annual evaluations of teachers based on data, with incentive awards based on performance. However, specific guidelines have not been made official yet.
A tentative agreement has to be sent into the state by Tuesday. The state then sends the application on to the federal level, with notification of whether or not the application is accepted made in April. School districts would be allowed to make a final decision at that time regarding participation in the program.
Questions raised included how long does the program last and how much overall control will a school district have to relinquish on certain programs in order to receive funding.
What makes this crucial to districts involved is state funding will be cut 3 percent for two years. Under the federal program, 1.75 percent would come back to the schools. However, this payout would range from two to four years, with no firm decision on that time frame yet being made.
According to board attorney David Cates, the school corporation could make their signing of the agreement conditional upon seeing exact requirements from the state, since the document does allow for modifications.
"The purpose that the state has in wanting you to participate in this is because of the scoring rubric that determines which states will get the money," Cates said. "The more school districts that participate, the more points the state scores in trying to beat out other states for the money. That's why there's such a press to get school corporations to sign. What's happened nationwide is that school corporations are executing these (agreements) conditionally."
The board voted 4 to 1 in favor of signing the Race To The Top application, based on conditions.
In other business:
n The board approved the following hires: Jennifer Szynal, temporary third-grade teacher, Syracuse Elementary; and Megan Snobarger, temporary all-day kindergarten teacher, Syracuse Elementary.
n Matt Hoffert has transferred from a second-shift custodian to the 12:30-9 p.m. position at North Webster Elementary School.
Sandy Roberts has transferred from a four-hour per-day position to a seven-hour per-day food service worker position at North Webster Elementary.
n Christy May-Lawrence has resigned as a HQ Title 1 paraprofessional at North Webster Elementary. Helen Allen resigned as a special education paraprofessional at Syracuse Elementary.
Wawasee board members are Wilson, Gilbert, Linnemeier, Dixon and Winchester.
