Schools are facing tough times with the changes in the state’s funding formula, including Eastern Pulaski Schools.
“From the funding we got in 2011, we are going to be cut the restoration grant of $618,000, a small school grant of $107,000, a primetime grant of $80,000, allowances to help with our special needs program $28,000, vocational allowance to help with that program $11,000, and we’re anticipating our Title One program to be cut about $8,000,” said Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman.
Emotions were running high at the Culver Community School Board meeting this week, as supporters of the Monterey Elementary school vehemently defended the school in the face of possible closure. This issue was discussed because of a need to reduce expenses in order to meet budget cuts from the state level in the amount of $855,928 over two years.
Culver Community School Board Members (from left to right) Jack Jones, Ryan Seiber, Ken Vandeputte, Brad Schuldt, Eugene Baker, Marilyn Swanson, and Ed Behnke.
The Culver Community School Corporation has a number of options to explore in order to meet this new budget. Some of the options mentioned included increasing revenue through a referenda, in which the school tax rate would be raised $0.11 per $100; the use of the Rainy Day Fund, which has a current balance of $980,000; and decreasing expenses through budget reductions, such as closing Monterey or cutting positions.
At their last meeting, the Eastern Pulaski School Board members discussed eliminating Driver’s Education from the curriculum. During last week’s meeting, Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, shared the results of a Driver’s Education survey he conducted with 26 participating schools.
“13 of the 26 offered it only in the summer and it is strictly a fee assessed to the students that take it. No Corporation money is involved at all,” Dr. Klitzman explained. “12 other schools don’t offer it at all. There’s a private contractor involved. There is only one lone school that offers it during the school year for absolutely no cost to the student and that happens to be Eastern Pulaski Schools. I’m not going to recommend we do anything for this coming school year, but for the following school year, I just don’t see how we can offer Driver’s Training during the year any longer. The way finances are and the trend, it’s just not a practical matter.”
One of the items the General Assembly is tackling in this session is the funding formula for schools. With the preliminary school funding formula out, schools are figuring that they are going to take quite a hit when it comes to next year’s budget and Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, says that it will affect them as well.
“With the uncertainty and not knowing how it’s going to shake out, I did talk with our Teacher’s Association President, Kyle Johnson, and asked him if we could do a memorandum of understanding whereby I don’t have to follow the strict guidelines in the contract in letting teachers know that they’re going to be without a job due to budgetary constraints,” said Dr. Robert Klitzman. “He did agree. With that, we moved back the date that I would have to inform teachers from April to June. Certainly all the business would be done in Indianapolis by then. I hope that people would take the time to email, call, or write our Representatives and tell them to really think about public schools and not keep dividing the money that is available, which is not enough to begin with, and to let public money flow with public schools.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board members discussed the possibility of eliminating Driver’s Training at their most recent meeting.
“Funding is being cut and in turn, we have to make some very hard decisions,” explained Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “Driver’s Training is an elective class and the maximum class size for that program is nine students. That’s a luxury that I’m not sure we can afford anymore. I have surveyed, so far, 22 of the area school corporations and at this point in time, Eastern Pulaski is the only school that offers Driver’s Training during the school year. Everyone else either offers it in the summer, or a private contractor offers it. At this point, all I’m doing is gathering data and information to bring back to the Board and discuss this and see where it’s going to go.”
The Winamac Community High School Robotics Team, the "Robo Warriors"
The Winamac Community High School Robotics team, coached by Brad Moore, will be competing in a National competition.
“This year, they will be going to Orlando, Florida for the competition,” said Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman. “They’re able to do this by getting Corporate sponsors so we appreciate our community in helping support this. The kids build robots and then go through competitions and maneuvers with the robots and get points for how they do their different techniques during the competition. The numbers on the team have doubled from a year ago. Mr. Moore had a very successful run with our Supermileage team and now he’s taken that same flair to the Robotics Team and they’re doing quite well.”
North Judson-San Pierre and Oregon-Davis schools will be taking a funding hit in the 2011-2012 school year. Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, was asked about the preliminary budget report from the state.
“They [the State] have released the first version of the funding formula and it is very, very unkind to the rural schools and it’s very unkind to those who may lose some student population,” explained Dr. Klitzman. “It has switched now where every single dollar follows the student so if I were to lose ten students, I will lose ten units of funding from the State. In fact, everybody knows that if I lose ten students in the Corporation, I can’t shut off lights, I can’t turn down the heat, I can’t do anything, but yet I’m going to lose all that funding. I really hope they can do some rethinking on that and come up with something that makes a lot more sense.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board approved the purchase of laptop computers from the Gifted and Talented fund for AP English students.
“The AP students have a very rigorous curriculum,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “It is the equivalent of the college level English class so we are going to provide them with laptops where they can do their research, do their word processing and check the internet. The computers are not their computers. We will have a little agreement that they’re going to use it properly and take care of it. At the end of the year, we’ll collect those and hopefully will be able to assign them to a new group of students for next year.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board accepted a generous donation for the Elementary School. Here is Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman:
“Our Star City Lions Club donated a sum of money to help with our Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program,” said Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “What we do, is we target second grade and with the money provided by the Star City Lions we buy three story books for each student in second grade. Kids are very, very proud to have their own book. They can put their name in it. So, at different intervals through the year, they will receive one of these three books and we thank the Star City Lions Club for helping us with that.”
At its recent meeting, the Eastern Pulaski School Board discussed a legislative bill that has been filed in this session.
“There has been a bill introduced already which would require schools to not start school until after Labor Day,” explained Superintendent Dr. Robert Klitzman. “With the kind of weather we’re having right now, there have been schools that have delayed, which doesn’t count against you, but if you call off, you make them up. Starting after Labor Day, there is not nearly as many days available to do makeups and things. That’s something that we’re really going to watch. We don’t favor it. We truly favor local control where right now, if our School Board decided they wanted to start after Labor Day, they can do that. We don’t need a law to tell us to do those things. The main push for this is coming out of the entertainment and tourism where they would like to have more people out and about, taking advantage of their attractions and spending money.”
What is your opinion? Let your State Representative or State Senator know your views so your voice can be heard before a vote is taken on the bill.
Eastern Pulaski Elementary Principal, Mrs. Jill Collins, reported a new plan to the Eastern Pulaski School Board that would help students bridge the gap between Preschool and Kindergarten.
“We’re setting up a series of meetings where we are going to invite Preschool teachers and students into our building during the day and evening at different times and we’ll put them in a classroom and we’ll bring some teachers in to talk with them about some of the things they’ll be doing in Kindergarten,” explained Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman. “The students will be able to see the teachers now with the comfort of their Preschool teacher and the other students right there and the next year it won’t be such a traumatic situation.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board recently discussed the AYP and Public Law 221 results in a public meeting.
“In terms of AYP, our Elementary School and Middle School made the AYP cutoff score, but our High School did not make it as they missed two categories by roughly one-tenth of a point,” explained Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman. “In terms of Public Law 221, once again our Elementary and Middle School scored Exemplary, which is the highest rating you can get, and our High School is on probationary status because they did not make AYP.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board held its budget hearing during its meeting Monday night.
“We’re one of just a few schools in the State of Indiana that operates on a fiscal year budget so our budget year is from July to June, whereas the vast majority of schools in Indiana have a budget year of January to December,” explained Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman. “In January, we will ask for action on our budget and after that, we send it to Indianapolis and the folks in Indianapolis do what they do to mess with it and ultimately we’ll get our budget order and we’ll go with that.”
The Eastern Pulaski School Board had a lengthy discussion with the building principals and administration about the new growth model for the State of Indiana. This new model will not only be for student assessment, it will also be for teacher, administrator and school assessments.
Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, told the Board of a great achievement by the students and teachers at the Corporation.
“I received an email from the [Department of Education] that our School Corporation was going to be recognized in Indianapolis at a press conference as on of the top 25 School Corporations in the whole state in terms of growth on the Language Arts-Reading portion of the I-STEP and Math,” said Dr. Klitzman. Continue reading →
The Eastern Pulaski School Transportation Department met with the Transportation Committee to discuss needs of the Department. Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, gives the details of the Committee’s recommendation that the Board approved.
“We would trade an one of our regular school buses for a new school bus and trade in two of our white utility buses. These are our 14 passenger buses that so many schools use for extra curricular activities.” said Dr. Klitzman. “We have two that We purchased in 2000 and the wear and tear and miles are to the point where we feel that we do need to replace them. We are going to advertise to replace two of our utility buses.”
