Hume preschool faces uncertain future

Saturday, June 11, 2016

By Gabe Franklin

Nevada Daily Mail

The Hume Board of Education decided during its June meeting that the benefits of keeping the preschool open for another year outweigh the cost of operating it, however there will be changes coming in the 2017-18 school year.

Superintendent David Quick said during the Wednesday night board meeting, "it is costing the district a pretty good chunk to run the preschool, it wouldn't cost as much if everybody would pay that should pay." "Its like pulling teeth to get people to pay," one board member said.

Preschool students are not on a fixed tuition amount. The tuition for students who qualify for free school lunches is $20 per week, students who qualify for reduced lunches pay $40 per week, and all other students pay $80 per week.

The district has recently made an increased effort to collect tuition from delinquent accounts. Despite this, after losing funding from a grant two years ago, the district has been paying the $48,000 to keep the preschool open. With Quick's recommended raise for the preschool teacher from approximately $16,000 per year to $20,000 per year, the cost of the preschool will increase accordingly to $52,000 per year.

Quick noted that if the state starts paying average daily attendance for the preschool, the state would only pay for 4-year-old students.

Another hurdle for the 2017-18 school year will be the requirement of having a certified teacher for the preschool. The current teacher has not finished state certification yet.

The board approved contracts for Stacy Heckadon for Title 1, and Annelise Dale for music for the 2016-17 school year.

"I think she'll do a great job," assistant principal Scott Morrison said. Quick said that when Morrison showed Dale the music room, "she talked to the instruments like pets." Dale has a master's degree and is skilled in instrument repair. Morrison said that at her previous school, she increased enrollment in the music program from 90 students to 150 students.

The board voted to accept proposed changes to the student handbook.

Among the changes were clarification of the attendance and eligibility policies to conform with the 90 percent rule rather than the older rule based on the number of days a student was absent. The policy does allow for students to make up time on a "minute for minute" basis according to Morrison.

Students will now be required to submit immunization records before being allowed to attend school.

A change in the dress code requires shorts to be at least "half way between the waist and the knee."

Disciplinary actions for sexual harassment have been increased to 1-3 days of out-of-school suspension for the first offence with subsequent offenses receiving longer OSS times.

Modifications to the detention plan were made. "Less kids in in-school-suspension the better off we are," said Morrison. Hour long detentions will be enforced and habitual detentions may result in ISS, or OSS.

A page was added to the handbook detailing the instances in which student's actions will be reported immediately to law enforcement. Quick gave the example that if a student attacks another student with the intent to harm, law enforcement must be contacted. Quick said the policy applies to all students from kindergarten to high school. He said the district would seek further guidance and information from the Bates County Sheriff's Office before next school year.

* The board approved increases in the buy back rates for employees that retire. Quick said this policy had not been updated in more than 10 years.

* The board voted to purchase a new school bus for $77,500 to be delivered in late September or October. The bus will not be financed, but paid for out of reserve cash. It will be used primarily for extracurricular trips, will have a 100-gallon fuel tank, under body luggage storage, and will seat up to 71 passengers. The largest bus currently operated by the district carries a maximum of 65 passengers with three elementary age students in each seat. The new bus will also benefit the district in that it will average 10 miles-per-gallon in fuel economy compared to the seven miles-per-gallon of the old busses.

* The board will meet at 8 p.m., on June 27, to amend the budget and pay the last of the bills for the 2015-16 fiscal year.

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Your priorities are very interesting. While you whine about the cost of pre-school services due to lack of payment plus an increase in pre-school teaching wages to a meager living wage now up from poverty guidelines; you have chosen to invest in a bus that will carry a whopping 71 passengers (up by 6 passengers) designated for extracurricular trips! Adequate justification is that you will gain 3 miles per gallon for your extracurricular trips. And, this is okay because it is paid from a cash reserve? Exactly how much is in that cash reserve? Why cannot it be used to fund quality pre-school education? Is it because you see it solely as free child care?

To understand the importance of a quality pre-school education perhaps you need to think of it in terms of how these youngsters will add to the economic development of Hume or our country in general.

The National Conference of State Legislatures references pre-school education as not only school readiness and a way to close the achievement gap but calls it an economic development strategy. You should be familiar with the Perry Pre-School Study which documents that for every dollar spent on pre-school education, the benefits reaped total at least $8.00. Although this gain will not immediately go into your cash reserve fund, over time your children will benefit the community by their success. Skills are accumulated over time and research indicates that it is more costly to remedy the lack of skills identified in K-12 than it is to address them in pre-school age children. It is at this age that youngsters learn the workforce skills of motivation, persistence, and self control that will help them successfully graduate and meet with success in higher education or the workforce...thus enhancing your economic development. But if a new bus for extra activities is what you want to spend on, your priorities are not oriented to investing in education.

Also, lacking in your description of school handbook revisions was any reference to addressing the recent law on use of restrooms that conform with a student's gender identity rather than their chromosomes. Does the board intend to address their intent to abide by the law for the upcoming school year? I hope that your board can see beyond any bias that they might hold and have general restroom use available to all students so as to be appropriately inclusive. After all, this is not a futuristic notion. I imagine your first restrooms were general in nature/not assigned to a specific gender aka out houses.

-- Posted by Harry Callahan on Sun, Jun 12, 2016, at 6:51 PM

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