The Winslow Unified School District Governing Board approved a revision of the 2017-18 budget last week. The revision reflects the decrease in funding the district will receive totaling $435,000, due primarily to a lower than anticipated student count.
According to Superintendent Cyndie Mattox, “We are on current year funding; this budget reflects a loss of funding due to the loss of students. We are down approximately 100 kids from the 15-16 school year, which are the numbers we could use in the 16-17 school year.”
As part of that revision, it was noted that the previously approved 1.06 percent salary increase for teachers would take effect Dec. 8.
Business Manager Shirley Lomeli reiterated that the raise in pay only affects teaching staff, not administrative services staff or non-classified classroom aids.
The board also discussed the district’s open enrollment policy and possibly changing the notification time frame when students are told they have been accepted into a school when they live outside of district boundaries. Board member Sharon Greenwood said, “On open enrollment, we were going to make sure that the parents knew on the first day of school whether they had been accepted into a certain school. My feeling as a parent is that I would like to have a cushion like maybe a week before school instead of the day of school.” Currently, the deadline for applying for open enrollment is July 15, with school starting the last Monday in July.
Mattox explained, “July 15 is the date that we in my office cut it off and it’s handed to the principals at that point. If (the student) is not special education, that’s their choice and they can accept them immediately. If the student is special education, then we would wait to make sure that we don’t have anyone coming into our district in case we don’t have room.”
General education classes usually have room, Mattox said, but the special education department has strenuous requirements for classroom sizes and student to teacher ratios. “We would need to wait until the first day of school to make sure that we have all of our local people in,” she explained.
Special Education faculty member Connie Gover added, “With special education, there is a formula that the district uses. It is based on how many service minutes each student requires based on their IEP (Individual Education Plan), how many teachers we have at the school and the specific learning disability.”
That formula is usually figured in April or May. “That pretty much tells us at that time if there will be capacity when school starts. We have a lot of kids in district that require a lot of minutes, and we want to make sure that we get our kids services that we need,” said Gover.
The discussion ended with an adoption of the policy with no changes, as it was made clear that there are extenuating circumstances in special education that do not allow much more notification.
During the superintendent’s report, Mattox presented information on the new student discipline procedures that will be used district-wide. She explained that the district uses a “progressive discipline chart” for each school. The reason for the presentation was just to show the board that the policy is uniform and has been in use.
Greenwood said, “I like that it is throughout all the district, because as a young person, you start understanding the rules and consequences.”
In other business, the board:
* Approved the district financial reports for the month of September presented by Lomeli, who noted that 25 percent of the school year has been completed, with 17 percent of expenditures to budget.
* Approved the routine procedure allowing the district to submit vouchers to the county school superintendent between board meetings.
* Approved the hiring of Jennifer Yazzie as Winslow High School junior varsity/freshman volleyball coach and Tom Breeze as seventh grade wrestling coach.
* Approved the termination of Randy Theesfeld as a substitute bus driver.
* Approved volunteer Kendal Ybarra for the WJHS wrestling program.
* Approved extra duty stipends for elementary music faculty Ginger Fischer and Sarah Shumway. Extra duty is paid to the music department for after school concerts and programs.
* Accepted donations including, $300 to Washington Elementary School from Flagstaff Buick GMC for the Walk-A-Thon; $6.30 to Winslow High School from the Red Robin Loyalty Program; $189 to Bonnie Brennan School from Southwest Karma for a Spin the Wheel fundraiser event; and $123.63 to Bonnie Brennan School from Southwest Karma for Sonic Night.
* Approved policy revisions recommended by the Arizona School Boards Association as presented.
The board will meet again at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 16, in the district board room, located at 800 Apache Ave.
