To Cancel School or Not?

Cancel School or Not?

Cancelling school is one of the more difficult decisions a Superintendent must make.  The decision to delay, dismissal early or close schools due to inclement weather has an enormous effect on all of our families.  The following information may help you understand the process I use when making this important decision.

When inclement weather impacts the District, I make the decision to dismiss, delay or close schools based upon a careful analysis of the following factors:

1.       Information on road conditions from: law enforcement, our transportation director, our local road commissioners

2.       Amount of accumulated snow and/or ice, or the density of the fog

3.       Whether or not the precipitation/fog is predicted to continue throughout the day

4.       Temperature and wind chill

5.       Impact on our transportation (buses)

6.       Weather predictions from satellite system, local radar and National Weather service

7.       Storm/fog timing

8.       Discussions with area Superintendents beginning the prior evening and continuing again around 5 a.m.

There may be times that you believe we should have been cancelled or school should have been in session.   Unfortunately, due to size of our District (over 250 square miles), it is very difficult to determine when it is safe for school to be in session.  For example, if you live in Limestone conditions may be fine, but in Reddick they may be terrible.  The final decision on whether to cancel school or not is based upon the overall condition of the District.

If you do not feel it is safe for your child to get to school, use your best judgment as to whether he/she should attend.  Please call your respective school office and let them know.

Who makes the decision on whether to delay, dismiss early or cancel school?  As the Superintendent of the Herscher Community Unit School District, I am tasked with this responsibility.

When is the decision made?  I will make every attempt to cancel school by 6 a.m., so we can initiate the CALL ONE program, notify local radio stations, initiate our internal phone trees and notify the TV stations.  If a school day is delayed or dismissed early, the same contacts will be notified.

Will we close schools if conditions worsen (early dismissal)?  If weather conditions worsen I will be very reluctant to dismiss early.  If I send students (especially younger students) back home, some will return to empty houses.  Once students arrive at school, I feel the safest plan is to keep them at school until the end of the day.  However, there may be time we will dismiss early, in order to get students home before a storm worsens.  However, I am hoping that this will be a rare occasion.  If this does happen, we will utilize the CALL ONE system immediately to notify parents.

I hope this explanation helps you understand the process a Superintendent goes through when considering whether or not to cancel school.

Superintendent Message -- October

Superintendent’s Message -- October

After just a short time in the District, I have been amazed at the quality of instruction I see in the classrooms throughout the District.  Just as impressive is the eagerness of our students to learn.  I try to take every opportunity I can to spend as much time watching teachers and students in the classroom.

Education is undergoing a change throughout our state and country and Herscher District #2 is no exception.  In order to meet the challenges of the recent changes in teacher evaluation and the curriculum, we are exploring new models of evaluation and instruction.  This will require significant professional development for our teachers and administration as they work to provide a rigorous instructional program.

We are also continuing to expand our understanding of how students learn through their individual learning styles, so that we can differentiate our instructional practices (co-teaching and planning).  We are looking closely at our curriculum and our priorities for the future so we can:

n  Teach the most important skills and competencies and spend the appropriate time on each skill.

n  Teach the skills in a logical and sequential order (Common Core standards).

n  Assess students in order to determine weaknesses and strengths of both students and teachers (MAP testing).

We are also making a concerted effort towards improving technology in the District.  We have several schools in the District where teachers are utilizing iPads for instruction.  We are hoping to add even more of these instruments next year.  We are also hoping to get all schools in the District to have access to wireless technology by the end of the next school year.  Finally, we recently held a Technology Fair to help familiarize our faculty of all the various technology that can be used in the schools.

I am truly excited about our educational future and our commitment to excellence in the Herscher schools.  We are hoping to provide an enriching and challenging program that will continue to meets the needs of all of our students.

SUPERINTENDENT’S BUDGET MESSAGE

One of the main jobs of a Superintendent is to figure out how to pay for all the aspects of running a school.  To help everyone understand how this is done, I want to briefly explain school funding.

Schools are funded by three main sources:  local property taxes, general state aid/state reimbursements and federal grants/reimbursements.  Specifically, local property taxes and other local revenue comprise approximately 72.77% of the total revenues in the tentative FY 12 budget at Herscher CUSD #2.   State reimbursements (General State Aid, etc…) comprises approximately 23.84% of the revenues in the FY 12 budget.  Federal reimbursements and grants comprise only 3.39% of the total revenues in the FY 12 budget.

Our tentative FY 12 budget projects deficit spending of over 1.7 million dollars (most of this deficit is in the education fund which pays the majority of the expenses – salaries for employees).  We currently, have about 11 million dollars in reserves with about 8.5 million in the education fund.

So, what should the school district do?  In the past few years, the District has begun making cuts in supplies, reducing staff and reducing administration.  However, with costs increasing and revenues not increasing (the inability of the State to fund the Schools what has been promised is also a huge reason the District is deficit spending), the District is steadily losing any revenue accrued over the last 20 years.

Potential Options:

1. Ask the taxpayers to pass a referendum for the Education fund.  No one wants to raise taxes and so I think everyone realizes that this will be a very unpopular option.

2. Levy Working Cash Bonds to help the District minimize the deficit spending with the idea that when the economy gets better this levy will be reduced/eliminated. 

3. Continue to deficit spend until all reserves have been exhausted.  The District could probably make it through three years of deficit spending before running out of money, if little to no “cuts” are made.

4. Make severe cuts (such as closing one or more buildings, cutting student programs and/or extra-curriculars, cutting bus routes, etc…).  This is definitely possible, but students and education will be directly affected.

5. Some combination of the above-mentioned options.  One solution might be, to make some cuts and issue a small Working Cash Bond on a yearly basis to help the District maintain a level budget every year.

Please feel free to contact me at 815-426-2162, if you have any questions and/or suggestions.  I believe we are providing our students with the best education possible. I would be very interested in hearing what the various opinions and thoughts are in our school communit

Welcome to Herscher District #2

SUPERINTENDENT’S MESSAGE #1

It is my pleasure to serve the communities of Herscher, Limestone, Bonfield, Reddick, Irwin, Union Hill, Campus, Goodrich and Buckingham as Superintendent of the Herscher Community Unit School District #2.  I look forward to continuing to improve the various aspects of Herscher .  Some of my main goals this year are to get to know the issues and challenges that are unique to our area.  In addition to this, I want to get Herscher CUSD #2 in the “black” financially.  This will be a very tough goal, in light of our current finances and the dire economic times.  However, we can not continue to spend more money than what we are receiving.  Finally, another main focus will be to work at continuing the positive “learning environments and great work” that is occurring in all our schools. 

Feel free to stop by and introduce yourself.  I look forward to meeting and working with the entire school community in the upcoming years.  Thanks and have a great year!