Board of Education

The Career Development program at Rock Island High School gained solid footing after it introduced three new courses last fall. Assistant Principal Ed Veasey reviewed the most recent Career Development Cluster and Pathway chart, which outlined 6 career clusters and several corresponding pathways. Now that the Career Clusters are formed, the next step is to refine the curriculum and develop Capstone/internship opportunities for senior students. Program expansions are being planned for Agri-Science, Mod Lab and Welding areas as well. A major part of the programs success comes from the partnership with the Illinois Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. “Our ability to attract people and jobs to the Quad City area relies on our educational offerings. The Rock Island School District’s career development program is truly a cutting edge curriculum that will bring many benefits to our area,” said Rick Baker, President of the Illinois Quad City Chamber of Commerce.

In another measure, the board approved to add Anatomy & Physiology, Classic Literature and Contemporary Literature to the course selection at the High School. The courses are full-year offerings according to Associate Principal Georgia Kouris. With the addition of the new courses, other semester-long classes will be eliminated. Ms. Kouris didn’t identify specific courses to be eliminated but will provide the board with the information in a couple of weeks.At the semester’s end, the Freshman Academy saw solid improvements in academic areas and student attendance, however came up sort their discipline referrals goal, according to Kristen Allen, Freshman Academy Coordinator. The Academy started implementing a new attendance procedure last fall to get students to class on time, and the new procedure has caused referrals to increase. Ms. Allen has addressed the issue and feel that teachers and staff are on the right track. The end of the semester data show the Freshman Academy goal of promoting 85% of the freshman to 10th grade is close to being on track as well as the attendance rate goal of 95%. Both are improvements over last year. Current data also revealed that students who attended the Freshman Academy are performing better academically in 10th grade over those who did not go through the Academy. Ms. Allen will provide another update to the board in May.

Last fall, the board approved the sale of $10 million in bonds in General Obligation bonds, and now needs to sell the remaining $12 million. The General Obligation Series 2008 School Bonds, sold in October 2008, received an A2 rating from Moody’s. It is anticipated Moody’s will assign the same rating for the bonds to be sold in 2009. Mr. Phillips, Speer Financial, presented current projections for the 2009 bond sale. With the current interest rates in the market, he predicts that the sales can be completed and maintain the targeted bond and interest tax rate of $0.51. Based on Mr. Phillips estimates, the board approved the second round of bonds to be sold. The bonds will be sold in the marketplace on February 10th. At the Board Meeting that same evening the board will be asked to finalize the bond sales through a formal resolution.

The board heard several heartfelt testimonies from district paraprofessionals and librarians before passing the motion to continue to build the 2009-2010 budget with the recommended additions and Tier 1 cuts presented at the last board meeting. Barb Wignall, Paraprofessional at Earl Hanson, asked the board to take into consideration the value of paraprofessionals beyond salary margins. “Eliminating a paraprofessional out of each building will have a negative effect on children’s education,” said Ms. Wignall. After the 2009-10 budget is built, the board will prioritize the cuts, so that when additional revenue comes in from the federal/state level, items can be restored in a timely manner.

Other items:

• Ms. Dothard commended the students on their essays at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Service at the King Center. The Intermediate Academy Peace Choir “brought down the house.” MLK essay winners >>
• Dave Rockwell announced that Neighborhood Partners was selected to present at the Sustainable Schools Symposium on Feb. 27.
• Chess is booming at the elementary schools according to Earl Strupp. Earl Hanson has 2 classes now and one has just started at Thomas Jefferson Elementary.
• Superintendent Loy stated that 5 candidates are vying for 4 board positions: Dave Rockwell, Jim Veasey and Bill Cleaver are running for their spots. In addition, Dr. Jim Bishop and Clark Ramser (a former student board member) have submitted documentations to run for the Board. The election is April 7th.
• Bob Smith, President of the Rock Island Education Association announced that the RIEA supports option #1 of the three options provided to the Association for the 2009-2010 academic calendar . He also thanked the board for their efforts in maintaining as many teachers as possible while making potential difficult budget cuts.

Preceding the Board meeting, the Thoms Family awarded the Above and Beyond Scholarship to Rock Island High School senior Rachel Segal. Read more >>Building Excellence UpdateThe Building Excellence construction projects are progressing despite the weather. Longfellow’s east addition has steel beams in place and masonry work has started. The mechanical and electrical rough-ins will start soon. The Academy has foundations set on the northwest side of the existing building. A temporary parking lot was constructed for teachers and staff until construction is completed. Eugene Field’s cafeteria, media center and new classroom additions have masonry completed and are busy with mechanical installation. The New School has started on site utilities (sewer, water) and will complete grade work, weather permitting. Construction is slated to start in March.Ridgewood and Thomas Jefferson design plans are near completion and construction should start by mid-March. Frances Willard and Denkmann bids will go out in February with construction starting in late March. The remaining projects, Earl Hanson, Edison Jr. High and Washington Jr. High haven’t started the planning phase. Although preliminary designs were completed for the Rock Island High School Cafeteria improvements, work is tabled due to Building Excellence budget constrains.Budget Considerations for 2009-2010The Board reviewed the preliminary 2009-2010 budget that if left unchanged, will face a deficit of $4.5 million. The administration recommended that the budget be reduced by $2,385,880 with the largest adjustments made to Building Capital, Special Education, technology, textbooks, building operations and eliminating one Paraprofessional per building. The curriculum and instruction area is looking at $104,000 in cuts to development, assessment software and intervention programs.The budget cuts at the Tier 1 level can take place without increasing class sizes or eliminating teacher positions. “All of the administrators and principals have worked diligently over the last two months to make the budget reductions work,” said Superintendent Loy. “Their goal was to have as little impact as possible on student learning.” Mr. Oberhaus also noted that increasing average daily student attendance and reducing the drop out rate would have a positive effect on the district’s bottom line as well. The Board will continue discussion of the 2009-2010 budget at the February 24 meeting. A PDF copy of the budget presentation is on the RISD Web site at http://www.risd41.org/newsphotos/district/budget/presentation.pdf2009-2010 Projected EnrollmentLast year the Rock Island School District projected enrollment figures for the 2008-09 at 5961 students, a decline of 52 students from the previous year. Instead, current enrollment figures for this year are at 6024 students, and increase of 63 students over the projection. The actual increase over the 2007-08 year is 11 students, however there was a considerable decrease in the number of Special Ed students. The enrollment projection for next year is 5,977, a loss of 47 students.Naming of New SchoolBoard members felt no sense of urgency to decide on a name for the new school and delayed the motion until early spring.