Weekly Superintendent's Report

Here is a copy of the Weekly Superintendent's Report for May 17, 2013.

Weekly Superintendent's Report for March 1, 2013

Sequestration:  While I wouldn’t even want to try and explain this federal issue I just received word from Region IX (this is the organization that provides ancillary services for some of our students in the special education program) they were just notified to expect a 5% decrease in funding for their Head Start program.  That has no impact on Cloudcroft Municipal Schools, however, it might give us some idea of what we might expect in terms of decreased federal dollars.  We currently receive two forms of federal funds:  Title I and Title II.  Title I is earmarked for reading and math intervention and is only provided to schools who have minimum of 35% of the student population on free and reduced lunch.  Currently only our elementary meets this criteria.  This current fiscal year we received approximately $76,000 and 5% would be a decrease of approximately $3800 leaving an estimated $72,200.  We currently are paying two educational assistance out of Title I (salaries and benefits) and if this projection is correct we could remain to budget both of these positions.  Title II: we use for professional development, which is provided by Region IX.  This current year we received approximately $17,000 and 5% would be $850 so would plan on receiving approximately $16,150.  Really for us not an incredibly large amount that we could absorb.  Just in case someone asks you, right now it does mean a possible decrease but something we could withstand without making cuts in staffing.  The more and more news reports I hear that discuss the impact to education are really going to be felt at the university level and most likely in terms of research projects.

·        Drug Testing:  We had a round of drug testing for both drivers and students.  No issues to report!

·        K – 3 PLUS:  This is a grant program that PED has been rolling out over the last year.  The grant is designed to provide 25 additional days of instruction for students in K – 3 specifically targeted at reading and math skills.  The issue for me is that we currently have a program that includes students K – 6 and it lasts much longer that 25 days which is funded by United Way.  My concern is that if we apply and receive the state grant we would have to scale back or eliminate our current summer program without any guarantee that these state funds would continue.  The stance I am taking is that we already have a stable summer program in place and I do not feel comfortable taking a risk of state funds drying up and completely losing out summer program.  Let me know if you have any questions about this.

·        Declining Student Enrollment:  This is the area in which we should all be concern.  All public schools in New Mexico are funded based on student enrollment.  Then operational budget is based on the student enrollment from the previous school year and is calculated as the average between the number of student enrolled on the 80^th and 120 day count.  Each student is then multiplied by what is called the unit value.  Our operational budget last year was based on the overall student number of 389.  This upcoming budget will be based on 365.5 (average of 368 and 363) which is basically a loss of 23.5.  Since Sharlotte is beginning to work on next years budget she did some rough estimates in order to get some idea of where we can expect our budget next fiscal year.  According to these rough calculations, and assuming the unit value doesn’t change, we are preparing for a decrease of approximately $213,250.  Keep in mind these funds are directly out of the operational budget.  Keep in mind our total budget was $3,491,142.83 which does seem like a huge sum of money, however, when you consider that around 75 – 80% of this will go out to salaries and benefits there really isn’t much of the overall amount left.  You will be hearing a considerable amount of information in this in the coming weeks/ months.

Weekly Superintendent's Summary February 8, 2013

Here is the Weekly Superintendent's Summary for February 8, 2013

Weekly Summary from the Superintendent

Here is the Weekly Superintendent's Summary for February 1, 2013

And here is the Weekly Summary for January 25, 2013

Weekly Superintendent's Report December 7, 2012

The report for December 7, 2012.

Weekly Superintendent's Report November 12, 2012

Here is the report, and here is the supporting powerpoint.

Weekly Superintendent's Report for Week Ending November 2, 2012

Here is the latest superintendent's report. There was no report for the previous week.

Weekly Superintendent's Report for October 13, 2012

Here is the weekly report along with the application that it references.

Superintendent's Weekly Summary for October 5, 2012

Here is the Weekly Summary for October 5

Superintendent's Weekly Summary for September 28. 2012

There was no weekly summary for the week ending September 21 since that was the week of the school board meeting.

Here is the Superintendent's Weekly Summary for the week ending September 28, 2012.

Weekly Superintendent's Report for September 14, 2012

Here is the weekly Superintendent's report for last week.

Weekly Superintendent's Report, September 10, 2012

Here is the weekly Superintendent's report. Also included are copies of the presentation that the Superintendent gave at the community meetings that were held this past weekend.

Superintendent's Weekly Report: August 31, 2012

Here is the Superintendent's report from last week.

Superintendent's Weekly Report for August 24 2012

Here is the Superintendent's Weekly Report. Superintendent Dempsey also sent a copy of his forthcoming Superintendent's Corner that will appear in the Mountain Monthly, and a spec sheet for the activity bus that was at the last school board meeting.

Weekly Summary from Superintendent

As stated previously, I did formally request the Superintendent's weekly summary which he said he was going to start providing to the school board members each Friday. Below is his most recent summary, which I received today...

1.        History Position:  As you know we have had a resignation and been advertising for a history teacher.  Kelly Goss was interviewed, offered the position, and has accepted.  She comes to us from Quemado .  She has 15 years of teaching experience and is endorsed in history, Health, and PE.  She plans on being here beginning on Friday August 24 to start preparing her classroom and will more than likely begin instruction on Tuesday August 28.  Mrs. Morales and Mr. Renteria have been working on the impact this will have on the master schedule and they have a plan that I believe will ensure students needs are being addressed and the fewest overall changes will have to be made to student schedules.

2.       Staff Evaluation Training:  Robyn, Roman, and I will be headed to Ruidoso on Monday August 20 where Carol Helms will be training us on the most up-to-date methods of evaluating staff.  Carol is our school attorney and since we was already in Ruidoso with Region IX staff we are able to join in.

3.       Meet the Bears:  I know many of you we able to attend the event which raised over $1,000 for Sidelines.  With this money and a donation from Dr. Dan Jones and Dr. Suzanne Schmidt the Sideliners were able to reduce the “Participation Fee” from $50 per athlete to $25 per athlete.  Along these lines you all should have received an robo call concerning the reduction in the participation fee on the evening of Thursday August 16.  Earlier that day I was contacted by Margo Manford who confirmed that Sideliners were going to be able to make this possible in part due to the hamburger fundraiser and in part to the $1,000 donation.  She had included a message that she had drafted and wanted to be used for the call.  I did not see the attached message so Mr. Ward drafted the one that you did get.  Margo left me a message that she was upset of the message and was concerned that the individuals who had donated the funds would be offended since they were not recognized in the robo call.  You will be receiving a second message that does recognize these individuals.  I want each of you to be clear that this was an error on MY part and not Mr. Wards or Mrs. Dalton.  As far is next year we might need to have a discussion about the “participation fee” sometime before the next budget is passed, March and April, to see if this is something we want to continue or if it is something we can eliminate. 

4.       Activity Bus:  The tentative plan right now is that Zia Bus company will have an activity bus here on Tuesday August 21 in the afternoon and evening.  This will be an example of what is available since at the end of this school year we will be in the market for an activity bus since ours will be 20 years old and due to state law after 20 years will no longer be able to be used.

5.       Regular Board Meeting: Tuesday August 21: action items that are on the agenda

a.       Approval of IHBC-E (Principles of Restraint and Seclusion):  This basically a recommendation and an update from the New Mexico School Boards Association.  It is a state wide update and I will be recommending that we adapt this policy.  This is the second time we have visited it.

b.      Kindergarten Waiver:  State law requires schools  who have kindergarten classes that are over 20 students to apply for a waiver if they do not have the funds to hire a second Kindergarten teacher.  We had anticipated 16 students and currently have 22 with one teacher’s aide in the room to help.  We currently have a teacher’s aide position open which will be used in a manner that supports both the Kindergarten class as well as other larger classes.  Mr. Cook will include some of this information in her principal’s report.

c.       You will also see find that under the section “Superintendent’s Report” I added the section “Board Members Input”.  This would give each of you a opportunity to bring up ideas or concerns that you have or that have been brought to you.

6.        Update on SPED:  I have now had two meetings with the SPED staff and we are beginning to start the process of making some changes as to the options students with IEPs (Individual Educational Plans) have especially in terms of gifted education.  Right now we have several students who qualify for gifted and being served by a pull-out program. Historically, here in Cloudcroft this has been the model used, what we are going to start is allowing those students and parents with additional options for addressing these IEPs.  These options will include dual credit classes as well as Advanced Placement courses.  DonaKay has been asked to schedule a meeting with the parents of students who are gifted where I plan on offering those options to them. 

7.       Community Meetings:  I am planning on having the community meetings in Mayhill, Weed, Timberon, and Cloudcroft in Saturday August 25.  You can expect a couple of robo calls next week about these and you might see flyers.  The idea is for me to meet with people out in the surrounding communities share with them some school information such as testing data, student activities, and academic opportunities.  They then would have an opportunity to discuss with me concerns they have.