The Winslow Unified School District Governing Board met last week to discuss revising the adopted district-wide expenditure budget for the current school year.
As explained by Business Manager Shirley Lomeli, “Any time that there is a difference of over $100,000 from the time that the budget was adopted to Dec. 15, we are required by law to do a revised budget. What has happened here, because of the reduction in the number of students from the beginning of the year until now, it has caused our budget to be reduced quite a bit.”
Student count is estimated in the months before the school year actually begins, according to Lomeli. Upon the most recent count, it was discovered that the number of students attending Winslow schools is down approximately 50 students.
Lomeli continued, “If you multiply those 50 students by $4,200 which is what we receive in funding per student, that is over $200,000.”
However, according to Lomeli, her original student count estimate was lower than the actual amount, “And,” she said, “at the end of the school year 2019, we captured some students after our budget was accepted at the end of June. Because of those things, we have retained some of the budget that we are losing. At this point, we are looking at a reduction of $124,000. What I have done is taken that out of our capital funds and not the general budget limit.”
Lomeli assured the governing board that the district remains in good standing, despite the loss. “The student count number will continue to fluctuate continuously between now and the end of the school year. We have a considerable amount of money in our capital funds so we will be good there.”
Later in the meeting, in the absence of board member Al Leonard, the governing board voted to adopt the newly revised budget.
Further discussions were held concerning the process of hiring a superintendent for the district. The board will conduct interviews for the position in February but must form committees to assist the process beforehand.
The governing board approved the forming of an advisory committee for the Superintendent interview. The advisory committee will read the candidates’ answers to questions given and score them during the interview process. The process of filling vacancies on the advisory committee was also approved by the governing board. The plan, according to board discussions is to allow the leadership teams at each school site to select a limited number of representatives to sit on the 10 to 12-member committee.
Governing board president Sharon Greenwood said, “We want all different perspectives and points of view represented so that this can be a real community selection.” The advisory committee will consist of educators, staff members and community members according to the board.
Also discussed was school start times. Currently, all school sites in Winslow begin at separate times and are released at separate times. In addition, Wednesdays in the Winslow School District are early release for elementary schools and late start schedules for Winslow Junior High and Winslow High School. The late start and early release schedule allow teachers and faculty to attend professional development sessions.
No action was taken during this discussion, but Winslow Junior High Principal Deb Lopez said, “I think a good idea would be to have one Friday per month as a day off for students but a work day for teachers. This way, we can combine an entire month’s worth of professional development in to that one day instead of losing two hours of instructional time each week.”
An executive session was held during the meeting to discuss the approval of a proposed settlement of a personnel matter and obtain legal advice. Following the session, no discussion or action was taken.
In other business, the governing board:
* Recognized the staff and teachers at Bonnie Brennan for their efforts in obtaining an “A” rating according to AzMerit standardized testing.
* Adopted new language in Arizona School Board Association Policy Services Advisories dealing with clarifying background check requirements.
* Ratified vouchers in a routine procedure allowing the board to submit vouchers to the county school superintendent between board meetings.
* Approved the hiring of Steve Henling as a seventh grade basketball coach; Paulita Kewanwytewa, substitute teacher; Joseph Larsen, assistant wrestling coach; Megan Lymer, science teacher at Winslow High School; Darin Mitchell, eighth grade basketball coach; Anthony Reynoso, a seventh grade basketball coach; and Lynne Sawyer, eighth grade basketball coach.
* Approved Juana Brown as a volunteer eighth grade basketball coach.
* Approved the resignation of Krystal Edgmon, a substitute bus driver; Sandra Gabaldon, English Language Arts teacher; and Benjamin McDonald, assistant principal at WHS.
* Approved the rescinding of the resignation of Tierra Jishie, WHS science teacher.
The next meeting of the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board will be at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16, in the board room located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
