Ashland District Talks Layoffs, Community Partners & Student Achievement
The Ashland School Board met Monday night to discuss layoff notices, progress toward making community partnerships, and improving student achievement.
During his report, Superintendent Keith Hilts stated that the district needed to prepare layoff notices by the end of the month, although he stressed that he hoped they wouldn't be needed. Although in the past, the district's deadline for such notices was in May, proposed legislation by Governor Scott Walker would push the deadline to Feb. 28 for preliminary notices, and mid-March for final notices. If the district did not give teachers notice of possible layoffs by then, they would be forced to continue their employment next school year no matter what budget is eventually passed by the legislature.
Preliminary reports indicate that the state will be lowering the district's revenue limits by about $500 per child. This contrasts significantly with an increase in the limit of about $100 to $200 per student, which is what the district is used to seeing each year. This could impact the Ashland School District by reducing their overall budget by approximately one million dollars.
There will be a special meeting of the school board to discuss the preliminary layoff notices this Thursday at 5:15 p.m.
In other business, to meet its goal of increasing community partnerships, Dave Aslyn reported progress toward the objective of each school having meetings with its stakeholders at least four times a year. Also, Dr. Fred Tidstrom reported that the National Guard is expected to confirm a partnership with the Oredocker Foundation to construct a new concession stand at the football stadium. The new building will be connected to the local sanitary sewer.
Barb O'Brien reported on the district's progress toward improving student achievement. Although the district is behind schedule in creating a data warehouse and using the information it contains, significant progress has been made toward other goals. The district's virtual option is now available through the Wisconsin Virtual School, and has already started enrolling students in both the full-time and part-time options. Some of these students were previously home-schooled kids, and the district had hoped that the online alternative would draw them back to Ashland. The deadline for open enrollment, including opting for the virtual option, is this Fri., Feb. 25.
The district has also compiled a preliminary list of Learner Outcomes that the teachers and administrators expect of the students. O'Brien praised the district's employees, noting, “the professionalism by the teachers getting this done is incredible.” The outcomes schedule includes information for every grade level and high school subject. Parents could use the information to see what is expected of their children academically in school. The finalized list is expected to be online by March 1.
The next Committee of the Whole meeting will be March 14 at the district's administration building. The next School Board meeting will be March 21 in Odanah.
