Good People: The Strength and Heart of the Organization

The strength of any successful organization rests in its people, and the people create the heart of the organization. Our organization, Salida R-32-J School District, is keenly dependent upon its people for our success because we are in the "people-building" business. Recently our school system, like every other public school system in the state of Colorado has been struggling with declining financial support from the state level. Although much of Colorado weathered the earlier phases of the current recession, even our state- rich in resources and talented people as it may be- is impacted by the economic downturn.

As I discussed in an earlier blog, tough economic times provide opportunities to improve an organization by investing in its infrastructure. As a school system, our infrastructure is our people. Fortunately the voters in the Salida School District approved a mill levy increase this last November that will give our employers a much needed salary increase over the next three years. The timing could not have been better! With our state department of education calling for a rescission of state funds for the current school year and possibly beyond, not many educators in Colorado will be lucky enough to see any significant increase in salaries or benefits.

During the preparations leading up to the bond election, the administration and the Board laid out a goal of trying to reach a salary level for teachers that equalled the state average. Of course the joke (which was not funny then nor now) was that we (R-32-J) would never reach the average because the other districts would be increasing their salaries as well. As it turns out (at least for now), this might not be the case. We might actually gain ground relative to the average more than we had hoped. If so, our salaries for our teachers will still be lower than they should be for the work they do.

Along with increasing salaries, we said that we would increase the number of instructional days to also get closer to what we believed the state average was at that time. Since the state of Colorado does not set a required minimum number of days of instruction, it is difficult to get a good measure of the appropriate number. The state does, however, mandate the minimum number of hours of student instructional contact per school year. Since our district was near that minimum, we told our public that we would increase that time. Last month, our Board followed through on that promise by approving a calendar for the 2009-2010 school year that included two additional student contact days and increased the sanctioned number of minutes of instruction per school day at the high school. Although we are uncertain where this puts us in comparison to some state average, we do know that we increased what our Board defines as "instructional contact time" by the equivalence of about 6.5 days of instruction (based on a seven-hour school day). We believe that our students will benefit from this additional time of engagement in learning with our teachers.

In all this talk about minutes and hours of instruction, let us not lose sight of the many untold hours that good teachers put in preparing lessons, assessing student progress, and conferencing with students and parents. Some calucations I have seen would put the teachers' compensation per hour, when considering all of these factors, at less than what a high school student can make baby-sitting that teacher's child while the teacher is at a training workshop.

As the Superintendent of the Salida School District and as a former classroom teacher, I acknowledge and respect the work that teachers do as they provide the best possible learning experiences for our children. In addition to the teachers, I also respect the work that every staff member does on behalf of our students. From custodians to bus drivers and everyone else, thanks for what you do for Salida R-32-J's students and our community.

Always for Children,

John P. Rouse
Superintendent

Leading in Tough Times

As our school district (like many others in our state and the nation) face some tough economic times, we need to take stock in what we are about. What is the purpose of our organization, and is it a worthy purpose?

As I see it, our purpose is now (and shall remain) to be that of providing the best educational opportunities for the students of our community that we can possibly provide.

Is that a worthy purpose? I certainly believe that it is because if we fail to provide the best learning experiences for our children then we have fallen short of equipping them with the tools to face the challenges that will confront them.

With increasing demands of accountability and responsibility and decreasing resources, our challenges are intensified; however, with these challenges comes the opportunity to make our system more effective and efficient at what we do. Remembering that our core purpose is educating children, we begin to examine all that we are doing and re-focus our resources on that core mission. This is not to say that we should that we should narrow our attention to just reading, writing, and arithematics, but that we focus on providing all of the skills that our students need to allow them to be successful as citizens and to compete in an increasing tough economic environment. That translates into stressing the "21st Century Skills" that we often espouse as part of our mission.

For us locally in R-32-J, this means that we need to invest in our own infrastructure even in tough times, so we can continue our mission of preparing of students for their future. Therefore as we look for operational efficiencies in our system, we should allocate the resources to strenthen and expand our infrastructure, so we can go about our work with even greater efficiency. Investing dollars to create a technology backbone that will enable our teachers and students to utilize current and emerging technologies is a proactive rather than reactive strategy that will allow our students to benefit now. Now is important because "now" is our only opportunity to reach and teach this group of students. They are a resource for our community and nation that we cannot afford to waste or leave underutilized.

Salida R-32-J Seeks Bond and Mill Levies

Last night the Salida R-32-J School Board showed unanimous support for the district's initiative to place a $25 million bond issue and three separate mill levy options on the November ballot. In four separate 7-0 votes, the Board took a bold step towards moving the Salida school district into the 21st Century.

From this point forward, my comments regarding these issues will be limited to providing facts and responding to questions.

Today the school district administration and Board are hosting to two more public forums concerning our facilities master plan and possible bond issue and mill levy initiatives.

There will be sessions both held at Longfellow Elementary. The first one is at 11:00 am and the second will be at 7:00 pm.

Try to attend.

City Council Cooperation

At last night's meeting of the city council of the City of Salida, Colorado, council members and the mayor showed their full support for the efforts of the administration and Board of Directors for Salida R-32-J School District by carefully considering potential ballot measures for the November general election.

The school district has been working for nearly a year on determining the district's needs and preparing plans for addressing those needs. Part of that plan includes possible ballot measures which potentially could call for a bond referendum and up to three separate mill levy override options.

The city council listened to comments from the school district superintendent, John Rouse, and from Board member, Penny Wilken. After considering their comments and other feedback from citizens who were present, the council decided to place just two tax-related measures on the November ballot. Neither of these two measures in any way competes with those that the school board is likely to ask voters to consider. One is a hotel room occupancy tax and the other is a 1% sales tax that includes rescinding the city's portion of the property tax.

School officials and board members appreciate the support shown by the mayor and the council as evidenced by the council's actions.

Facility Planning and Bond Issue

For the past several months,the school administration and Board of Directors for Salida R-32-J have been assessing the short-term and long-term facility needs of our school district. Having gathering data from two different outside firms regarding the conditions of our current facilities and the energy issues related to our physical plant, the Board sought input as to how these issues might be addressed from the citizens of our community through a number of public forums and focus group meetings.

Most recently, the District sent out 3,000 opinion surveys to frequent voters and school district staff. We received responses from greater than 15% of the surveys. The district's financial advisor, George K. Baum, Inc., is compiling the data for detailed comparison and analysis. In-house preliminary data can be found on the school district's web site at www.salida.k12.co.us.

I welcome comments concerning that data. Comments received will be discussed during the public forum scheduled for this Thursday at 11:00 AM and again at 7:00 PM. For details, see our web site.

John

Opening Blog

I am opening a blog site for those who are interested blogging with the superintendent of Salida School District R-32-J in Salida, Colorado. The topics of the blog will be on issues impacting education in Salida, Colorado, and the country.

Sometimes the conversation will focus on specific issues such as the upcoming possible bond issue and mill levy.

Stay tuned!

John