Sugarbeeter Shout Out
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As Chinook Public Schools winds down the 2017-18 school year and we start preparing our 2018-19 school year, there are several topics I would like to share with everyone. These topics are school bus purchase, school safety, school election levies, and staffing for the upcoming year.
Buses: The first area to discuss is our transportation committee and their hard work to update our activity bus fleet. Some of the first questions that come to the minds of our constituents are why do we need newer buses, and where does that money come from. These are excellent questions. The first question can be answered by the age of our buses: we own a 1992 yellow bus (we are required to own one by state law), two bluebird charters--a 2006 and a 2009, and two MCI charters--a 1989 and a 2003. These buses have served our district very well; however, the maintenance reports indicate that, due to normal wear and tear and service lives of the buses, we are at the point of needing to update our fleet. The transportation committee would like to develop a rotation of around seven years per bus to update and replace our buses to maintain a safe and low-cost fleet. We currently are looking to replace 1-3 buses this year, and looking to replace our other buses in several years.
The second part of the question is how do we fund the purchase of buses? In short, School Finance developed an account called bus depreciation that funds only the purchase and major maintenance of buses. The funds are generated by taking the purchase price of the bus, multiplying it by 150%, and then dividing that number by seven to 14 years to arrive at the value for a permissive levy.
School Safety: The second area that our school is continually working on is school safety. Due to bomb threats, school shootings, and other violent acts around the nation, schools are required to have a school safety committee. Our committee has designed, implemented, and practiced safety plans. Our staff and students have undergone initial training on how to respond in an active shooter situation, as well as conducting refresher practices on these drills. The committee is also working on adding cameras, fortifying our windows and doors, and adding safety measures, such as fire extinguishers, in each classroom. The research has also emphasized the need to promote a student-driven communication chain for school safety. The individuals that commit acts of violence in school often forewarn other students. Student proactive reporting has been a superior preventative measure to school violence.
Levies: Chinook Public Schools is running three levies this year in the May election. The first levy is the elementary technology levy. Currently, the elementary school is running a $49,000 perpetual levy. We propose an increase in that levy from $49,000 to a total of $60,000, which raises taxes approximately $3.18 for $100,000 home. We are also proposing an elementary levy of $12,029 which would raise taxes approximately $3.48 on a $100,000 home. At the high school level, we are proposing a levy of $35,773.35 that would raise taxes $6.06 for a $100,000 home. The total impact of all three requests is $12.72. In each of these areas, we are looking to increase our budgets to continue to offer a high quality education to our students. Along with our request for levies our staff is working hard to efficiently use our funds and write grants to help us meet our needs. In both building our staff has acquired grant funds to purchase Chromebooks (computers), curriculum materials, Virtual Equipment to provide virtual field trips, and kitchen grant to replace equipment. As our costs increase, we struggle to keep up with updating curriculum, building maintenance, and providing current technology for our students. Our staff eloquently shared some of their needs during our March School Board Meeting. Our staff, board, and administration are working very hard to build a budget and provide necessary staff to continue to meet the educational needs of our students.
Staffing: As far as staff for the upcoming year, the district has hired one new teacher at this time. Michael Jones will be the new history teacher starting in August of 2018. He has the very difficult job of replacing the esteemed Doug Hayes, who is retiring after 25 years of service to our school. Here is a short bio from Mr. Jones:
My name is Mike Jones and I graduated from Power. I then attended Montana State where I met my wife before we moved to Wyoming for her Vet Tech schooling. I finished up my teaching credentials at Chadron State College in Chadron, NE. From there I student taught at CMR and eventually found myself teaching social studies in Denton. While at Denton I also helped coach football and both boys and girls basketball and also was the A.D. My wife and I made a decision because of family to move to the Reno/Sparks, NV area. While in Reno I taught at a school of 2400 students and helped coach football, basketball and softball.
My wife and I have one child Harper who is two years old, with another child on the way (due in July). We also have two dogs Suh and Maverick. We love sports, outdoors activities like hiking, snowboarding, and golfing. We are excited to move back to north central Montana, which we consider home (my wife graduated from Stanford).
Although we will miss Mr. Hayes contributions to our school, we believe that Mr. Jones has some great qualities to offer to our staff. As far as our staff goes, I would like to share with everyone how proud I am of this group of folks. They continually work hard to improve their craft and be positive influences on the educational and social lives of the students in our schools. With the numerous changes of staff over the last several years, the school system has worked hard to continue the legacy of success that the Chinook Community has built over time, and we continue reach higher in the future.
In order to continue the legacy of success, improve the quality of our bus fleet, continue our school safety improvements, we ask the community to please vote for our levies. We also encourage our community to come see what their contributions do to improve the lives and educations of our students.
