Vintage

We spent some time during our opening staff workshops talking about the great responsibility we have as educators. Parents, you trust us with your kids, your most precious gift, for 8 or more hours a day, 172 days a year. Please know that we take that responsibility very seriously and are committed to making the most out of your child’s time with us.

We also talked about the great challenge facing us in education. As performance standards are raised every year, the job of meeting the needs of all students in all areas gets tougher and tougher. There is a saying that states: “If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.” In our case, we are being asked to chase many, many rabbits, with the expectation that we will catch them all. We are determined to do our best meeting that challenge and will do so by focusing our efforts, studying our practices, and continuously improving.

With that said, I have some good news to share. Each spring, students in grades three through eleven all over Minnesota take tests (MCAs) in reading and math as part of the Minnesota Department of Education’s accountability system and the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The Deer River district was competitive on the MCA exams again this year – scoring just above the state average in math and just below the state average in reading. The district performed well enough to meet our state-defined performance goals in all 43 areas and all subgroups (that’s a lot of rabbits!), meaning that for 2008 the Deer River School District made “Annual Yearly Progress” – a label given to districts who meet their performance goals, an achievement that is getting tougher and tougher every year.

Many students in Deer River also take the ACT – a national college entrance exam that has Math, English, Science, and Reading components. After setting a goal to improve our ACT scores last year, our average score in all four components of the ACT and the overall average composite score increased by between 8 and 11 percent. Our students were competitive with other students in the state of Minnesota, which is saying a lot, because Minnesota had the best ACT scores in the nation. I am proud of the work that was done to achieve this goal.

Our results underscore the fact that Deer River students are getting a good quality education, our students are competitive with students from all over the state and nation, and the Deer River community is getting a good value for its dollar. As a community, we can be proud of our students, our staff, and our schools!

I will be getting out to our communities to make a “State of the District” presentation in the upcoming months, detailing more about where we are as a district and getting feedback from our constituents. Please stay tuned for dates, times and locations.

Those of you who do not escrow your property taxes know that May 15^th is the deadline for paying your property taxes to the county. If you are like me, you pay attention to the number and types of factors that go into making your property taxes what they are – special assessments, county taxes, school district taxes, etc.

A portion of your property taxes does go to support education in your local school district. That amount varies depending on your property value and what school district you are in. Not unlike the rest of the state, school districts in the Northeast region of the state vary in the amount of general fund revenue that comes from local property taxes, from a high of $702 per pupil to a low of $19. In Deer River this amount is $55, the third lowest amount per pupil in the entire Northeast Region of the state. The regional average is $237 and our state average is $545 per pupil. Deer River ranks sixth-lowest when comparing the 30 districts in the region in average school district property tax per $100,000 of home value with a tax of $69, compared to a regional average of $178 and a state average of $311.

Property taxes provide funding for other things in school districts besides the general fund. Some districts, like Deer River, pay for facilities with money generated by property taxes, including those that require voter approval (like our building bond for the facilities upgrades in 2000) and those that do not, like the Alternative Facilities Bonding project completed in 2005, which enabled us to improve the air quality, lighting, and energy efficiency in two of our buildings (our third building will see some improvements this summer through a different funding mechanism).

Tax season can be a painful time for the pocketbook, but rest assured knowing that we are doing the best we can to maximize the dollars you invest in your schools in order to create the learning environments that our children need and deserve.

Much attention has been given lately to our state’s economy. It seems to me that at a basic level, it boils down to figuring out how to balance our identified needs with the ability to pay for them – needs like transportation infrastructure, health and human services, and public education. How do we ensure that Minnesota remains a leader in education, innovation, health care, and our ability to attract businesses? How do we create a system of government that is fair, provide necessary services for people, promote the general welfare, and guarantee a democratic citizenship without over-burdening our people at the same time?

It’s true that we are in difficult economic times. It’s true that people are feeling the sting of income taxes, property taxes, and fuel increases now more than they have in the recent past. But while the pain is there, I recently heard a key distinction from a long-time state economist: the difference between “spending” and “investing”.

After doing a little research myself, the word “spend” carries with it the idea of “paying out, expending, disposing of, using up,” in some cases, even wasting. The word “invest” carries with it the idea of “putting money to use, by purchase or expenditure, in something offering potential profitable returns” or “to make use of for future benefits or advantages”. The economist made a strong argument that when we talk about using our tax dollars for certain things, we are not “disposing of” (spending) the money, we are “making use of” (investing) the money. We have under-invested in our transportation system in Minnesota; one needs only to drive through Minneapolis and see the missing bridge to be reminded of that (or navigate some of the roads in our own county in need of repair). Using tax dollars for transportation in Minnesota is an investment; it isn’t spending. It is what enables commerce to happen, creates safe passageways for travel, and helps promote our state.

I would argue in the same vein that education is an investment. Are the futures of our children something we would characterize by words like “disposing” or “wasting” or are we making use of our money in an area that has great potential? I believe with all my heart that it is the latter. While public schools in our state and nation have a great deal of work to do, we still educate all children better than anywhere else in the world. While we still have many areas in which to improve, Minnesotans still can be proud of our state’s performance compared to others in the United States and the world.

I am not writing this article at a time when large sums of money are on the line for education. Any new revenue we would get from the state legislature this session would be less than what it would cost to hire one teacher. Our school district is not running a referendum in the fall. I merely wanted to let you in on a perspective that was brought to my attention lately and an important change in my vocabulary. I would encourage you to think about the future of the children in Deer River, in our county, in our state, in our nation, and ask yourself the same question I did: “Is their future an investment, or a liability?”

“A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting and when you are gone, attend to those things which you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out depends on him. He will assume control of your cities, states and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities and corporations. All your books are going to be judged or condemned by him. The fate of humanity is in his hands. So it may be well to pay him some attention.”

These are two concerns I have been hearing a lot about lately so I wanted to write a little bit about these two topics.

We have had what seems like an unusually cold winter, with many days and nights producing very cold temperatures. With these cold temps comes a great concern for our children and their safety while they are waiting for and riding school buses. The decision whether to cancel school, run school late, or hold school as scheduled is one of the toughest decisions we make for a number of reasons. First, our district is unique in that it spans almost 40 miles from northern to southern boundaries, which sometimes means a considerable difference in temperatures and wind conditions. Second, a decision must be made by roughly 5 a.m. in order for the buses to be held back and the media to get the word out. Those of you who are up that early know that conditions always change between 5 and 7 a.m., but exactly how much is tough to predict. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we are not so sure. Third, wind chill. Minnesotans know that while cold temperatures are a factor in winter-time conditions, wind chill is often what makes the conditions dangerous. Very cold temperatures with no wind might not be as dangerous as warmer temps with a frigid wind, so both temperature and wind are a factor in school closing decisions. Fourth, lining up care for children can be very difficult for parents, so we keep that in mind also.

In order to make the best decision we can, we usually check multiple weather forecasting sources, consult with other school districts to see what their forecasters are telling them, and often get out and drive roads in the district between 4 and 5 a.m. to check actual conditions. We also try to keep in close contact with those in charge of our busing to get an assessment of how our buses will perform to make sure that when the children are on the buses that they will be safe. Whenever possible, we will make decisions on school closings the night before so parents have time to plan for their children’s care the next day. Unfortunately, that is rarely possible due to the differences in forecasts from the previous day to actual conditions the following morning. To help communication, we will be implementing a calling system that will provide parents and guardians with a phone call to let them know about closings. 

The safety of our children is our first concern, whether waiting for a bus or in our schools. The opportunity we have with them every day to teach and help them learn is something we do not take lightly either, and in today’s environment of high stakes tests and accountability, time with the children is a precious commodity for us. Balancing these two concerns, safety and education, is at the crux of the decision of whether to hold school or not. 

As long as we are talking safety, many of you heard about the tons of beef that had been shipped to Minnesota schools by a California company and was being placed on hold by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Department of Education. The Minnesota Department of Education did a good job of helping schools track exactly who had gotten the “bad beef” and notified us as soon as there was some question as to the safety and quality of the products. When Deer River first received word regarding the beef in question, our food service director did a thorough investigation to determine whether we had taken shipment of any of the meat in question from our supplier. After checking and rechecking lot numbers, it was determined that Deer River schools did not receive meat from the producer in question.