Sheldon R-8 board elects officers, gets to work

Nevada Daily Mail

After choosing its officers for the next year, the Sheldon R-8 school board discussed the upcoming ACT test for the junior class, heard how the district's budget should be at year's end, chose a recipient for the board scholarship, and heard a long list of items being squeezed into the remaining school days.

Since the two school board positions up for election on April 5 had only the incumbents running, no election was needed, however the board took the opportunity at its April meeting to choose new officers. Elected were Jerod Lamb, president; Joanne Dedrick, vice-president; Paul Sprenkle, treasurer and Gwen Coquillette as secretary, she is secretary to the district's superintendent.

While consent agenda items are usually items for board information and require no action, one item did raise a question and discussion.

"In preparation for all juniors taking the ACT test you gave us last year's results. Help me to understand two things, said board member Gene Leininger. "On the sheet you provided to the board, where are the math and science component results and why are our scores so low?"

American College Testing was taken by 1.84 million high school students in 2014 and has supplanted the Scholastic Aptitude Test as he preeminent college entrance exam.

Principal Jason Irwin explained, "The state provided report for last year was quite confusing and the person tasked with collating the data struggled to produce what you have. I'm sure it was just an oversight that the math and science component results were left off."

Superintendent, Tim Judd pointed out to Leininger that seniors who take the test are seeking entrance to college while every member of the junior class -- whether or not they are college bound -- has to take the test. This is a state funded mandate.

"This naturally lowers the scores," said Judd, "when you compare the test results of juniors and seniors."

The superintendent provided an overview on the current fund balances and projections for the end of the school year.

"Every fund is fine and I am pleased to say we are expecting some late funds to come in," said Judd. "Financially, we're going to finish the year strong so that come July 1, when Mr. Irwin moves from principal into my job, he will take over a school district that is financially sound."

Moving on to next year's budget, Judd reported on current bills and financial numbers being used in the state legislature.

"As an administrator, I'm sure I've done my share of complaining about financial favoritism to urban and large school districts," said Judd. "But the real problem is not the funding formula -- yeah, tweeking it towards smaller and rural districts would be nice -- but what we really need is for the state legislature to fully fund the basic formula. Doing that would change everything!"

In one sense, the state funding formula for school districts is rather simple, it has but four major components. However, three of the four sections have many subsections, making it a challenge to understand and compute.

The formula begins by determining what is known as the district's weighted average daily attendance and multiplying this figure by what is called the state adequacy target. The resulting number -- the product -- is multiplied by the so-called dollar value modifier. Finally, the amount of local taxes collected, which is called local effort, is subtracted from the previously obtained product. The remainder is what should be the state funding for the school district.

"For some years now, the state formula has been pro-rated to a level between 92-98 percent of full funding," explained Judd. We'll know more when the legislature recesses on May 13 and what if any plans the governor has for withholding funds."

Following a brief review of the Max Wisehart Memorial Fund the board approved two small changes to the 2016-2017 school calendar.

Board members also participated in an annual tradition of contributing money towards the award of a small scholarship to a deserving graduating senior.

Carolyn Compton, elementary principal and Jason Irwin, High School principal provided some highlights of the many end of the year activities.

"MAP testing will be April 18-29 for grades 3-8, mainly in the mornings," said Compton. "End of course testing will be May 2-5 in algebra 1, English 2, biology and government. The reading carnival will be April 29 from 5-7 p.m. with a Wizard of Oz theme. The K-3 field trip will be May 3 at Wildcat Glades with grades 4-6 on May 4 to Jefferson City. The spring concert and sock hop is May 5, pre-K and K graduation will be May 6 at 6:30 p.m, track and field day is May 9 and Lamar Elks have invited our students to a free movie day in Lamar."

"We have an FFA team that is going to state on April 21-22," said Irwin. "With their solos, Bryce and Logan Lamb qualified for state music competition on April 30. We will leave for senior trip on April 24 and return April 29. Prom is April 16 at 7 p.m. and the junior ACT will be April 19. We're coming to the end of a good year."