Our Rapid City Schools

District Underspends Budget By $4.6 Million

Cutting back on spending for supplies, fuel, extra manpower and a host of other things, the Rapid City Area Schools finished $4.6 million under budget for the 2008-2009 school year according to the District’s recently released annual report. These cuts to General Fund spending came on top of Board approved cuts that took place in the spring of 2008. With these savings, the District began the current 2009-2010 school year in a much more stable financial condition than had been predicted in the spring of 2008.

The Rapid City Area Schools grabbed headlines and packed nearly 1,000 people into the Central High School gymnasium in the spring of 2008 when the District announced that it would have to cut several million dollars from its budget. During public hearings and regular board sessions, the Board debated cuts to library staff, elementary band, custodial services and other programs. Additional cuts included the elimination of the Virtual High School program as well as several administrative positions. Although the Board approved cuts totaling nearly $2.2 million, the adopted budget was expected to reduce the District’s reserve or savings account to a level far below what auditors had recommended.

Without fanfare or public notice, however, over the course of the school year, administrators and staff cut an additional $4.6 million from the budget in an effort to stabilize the District’s financial position. The savings came from virtually every program covered by the District’s General Fund. In elementary instruction, for example, the District underspent its budget by $397,000 by eliminating extra duty for teachers, reducing the number of temporary teachers, noon duty supervisors and saving $84,000 on supplies. Middle school and senior high school administrators reduced spending by nearly $610,000 by adopting similar strategies.

Following the wishes of the Board and the suggestions of many members of the public, the Administration focused especially on cuts furthest from students. In Support Services, the District saved nearly $520,600 by reducing custodial services and building upkeep. Another $215,000 in expenses were avoided as prices fell and the District conserved on fuel, natural gas and electricity.

Across the District, employees cut back on supplies, with many departments spending only 50 to 60 percent of their usual budgets. Even the Board of Education pitched in. Underspending for Board travel, consulting, advertising and supplies resulted in a 10.6 percent savings compared to the original budget.

In fact, the overall effort to reduce spending was so pervasive that only a few programs failed to fall in line. Notably, high school athletics and activities came in over budget. Male athletics at Central and Stevens were over by 35 and 25 percent respectively. Female athletics at Central and Stevens overspent their budgets by 36.5 and 12.1 percents. Non-athletic extracurricular activities, for the most part, also ended the year over budget.

With the $4.6 million in additional savings, the District was able to end the fiscal year with $9.15 million in its reserve account or, in the language of school administrators, an 11.01 percent fund balance. At this level, the District is close to reaching its goal of having an auditor-recommended minimum fund balance of 12 percent to cover periods of time between tax collections when cash flows run low.

As the District begins the budget process for the 2010-2011 school year, the economic environment is not looking good. State tax collections have been hurt by the economy and legislators told school district officials this week that schools are unlikely to see much more than a 1 percent increase in state aid to education next year. Nevertheless, last year’s nearly heroic efforts by administrators and staff to hold the line on spending have averted a crisis for the moment and given some hope to students, parents and employees who feared another round of major budget cuts next year.

A copy of the District’s 2009 Annual Report is available here. (Warning: this file is 27 megabytes. Try right-clicking and saving the file if you have problems opening it.) The budget situation may also be affected by ongoing contract negotiations between teachers and the District. For an update on these negotiations, see Kayla Gahagan’s article in the Rapid City Journal.

Rising Enrollment Numbers on Board Agenda

As of September 30, 189 additional students were enrolled in the Rapid City Area Schools compared to September, 2008. This 1.4 percent increase is the largest in several years. Surprisingly, the increase was not fueled by the state’s new mandatory attendance law, which requires students to stay in school until they are 18 or graduate. Instead, increases at the elementary level pushed the numbers upward. Over the last four years, elementary school enrollment has risen more than 8 percent.

With the new enrollment figures the District is running well ahead of the projections provided by MGT of America in its June 2008 assessment of the District’s facilities needs. MGT estimated that elementary enrollment would not reach 6,222 until 2017. With 6,326 elementary students enrolled last month, the District has already exceeded that projection. According to Superintendent Peter Wharton, other districts around the state are also seeing increases in elementary enrollment. “Sioux Falls, for example, had a big increase in kindergarten this year.” This growth in enrollments makes efforts to deal with long-run facilities needs even more urgent for the Board and the Administration.

District Reaches Out

High school enrollments were up by 39 students in September compared to September 2008. Anticipating implementation of the state’s new mandatory attendance law, the District reached out this past summer to 16- and 17-year olds who had dropped out of high school. Under the auspices of Project U-Turn, district representatives knocked on the doors of nearly 300 families in Rapid City to  encourage students to come back to school voluntarily rather than be forced back into the classroom by the courts. “Many of the approximately 70 returning students are a product of those home visits,” says Katie Bray, assistant superintendent for student achievement.

The net increase of only 39 students at the high school level is far short of the 200-300 that some board members and administrators had predicted. The full impact of the mandatory attendance law, however, may not be felt for some time. According to Wharton, young people affected by the law are still filtering into the District. “Some walk in off the street. Some are referred by the courts. Others came from our recruiting efforts.” The District is working to ensure that all of these students who have come back to school get personal attention. “Each returning student,” says Bray, “is taken through a process and a personal learning plan is created.”

Board to Consider Joining Funding Fight

In addition to the presentation on enrollments, the Board will also vote on two options for joining the effort to seek a ruling from the courts that the Legislature is falling short of its constitutional mandate to provide sufficient funding for education. The first resolution proposes that the Rapid City Area Schools join the South Dakota Coalition of Schools, which represents 92 school districts in the state. The organization commissioned the 2005 “Adequacy Study” of school funding. This resolution proposes that the District make a $10,000 contribution to the Coalition to support its efforts “to ensure that the constitutional rights of the children within our district are being protected.”  The second resolution also proposes that the District join the Coalition and provides for paying annual dues of $600.

New Budget Format to be Presented

Business Manager Dave Janak will also be presenting the new template for the District’s budget. The new template was developed by consultant Jeff Partridge to make it easier for citizens and board members to understand the policy priorities implicit in the budget document. For more information on this plan, read Kayla Gahagan’s October 10, 2009 article in the Rapid City Journal.

The new enrollment figures and the Coalition resolutions will be discussed by the Board of Education at its regular meeting on Thursday, October 15. To accommodate the schedule for parent/teacher conferences, the meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. at the City/School Administration Center on Sixth Street. A copy of the full agenda is available on the District’s website. Enrollments at specific schools can be viewed here on the District’s enrollment report: Enrollment Report 9 29 09

Central High Renovations Approved by Board

By a 6-1 vote, the Board of Education approved the Administration’s recommendation to begin renovations at Central High School that will add 19 classrooms for a Ninth Grade Pod, 6 classrooms for a new Science Wing and upgrade existing athletic facilities to incorporate two new basketball courts, a weight room, a wrestling room and storage facilities. When the project goes out to bid, the District will include options to add additional classrooms. The Board agreed to revisit a possible “Phase Two” renovation program that could include funding for a new fine arts theater.

The vote represented broad agreement among board members and community representatives that work on Central, the top priority in the 2008 MGT Consulting report, needs to move forward. But it did not resolve the issue of how big Central should become in terms of physical space and student population. Board members Doug Kinniburgh and Sheryl Kirkeby expressed concern that the Phase One plan does not fully address the District’s need for space for high school students. “We are over capacity now at Stevens, as well as Central,” Kinniburgh told the Board.

Board member Suzan Nolan said she believes the solution to the District’s high school capacity problems is not to make Central larger. “To draw down the numbers at Central,” she said, ” we need to create a technical and career high school for students from Jefferson and Lincoln at Dakota.”

Leah Lutheran was the sole board member to vote against the proposal. “I still have heartburn with the idea of decreasing the size of the high school,” she said. Reflecting on the proposal to turn Dakota Middle School into an alternative third high school, she said: “I want us to go forward, but is Dakota a suitable facility?”

Dan Lewis and Steve Malone, long-time advocates of the renovation, were disappointed that the Administration’s recommendation did not include plans to build three, rather than two, new gyms. They had hoped to give Central a total of five practice gyms. Board President Wes Storm pointed out that no high school or college in South Dakota had more than four gyms. Malone and Lewis asked the Board to include the third new gym as an option in the bid documents so that the Board and the community could know what it would cost. “If we know the price,”  Malone said, “maybe we can get some people from the community to put some money in.”

Bruce Knowles, the orchestra teacher at Central, urged the Board to continue to look at plans to add performance, rehearsal and storage space for the fine arts at Central. “Even if you cap Central’s enrollment at 1800,” he said, “we would still have inadequate lighting for rehearsal and instruction. We would still need space for storage, and we would still have a security issue in the event of a lockdown.”

The Board has agreed to discuss the idea of building a new theater and adding rehearsal space and storage facilities at Central as part of a Phase Two renovation program. Estimates for this project range from $7-10 million dollars depending on the final specifications for the project.

The challenge for the Board, as Business Manager Dave Janak explained, is that the District’s budget for new facilities is limited to about $87 million over the next ten years.  ”If you want to build a $47 million high school at Central, you can,” he said, “but you will shortchange something else down the line.”

Board to Vote on Central Renovation Tonight

If you attend only one school board meeting a year, tonight may be the night to attend, especially if you are concerned about the future of Central High School and other building projects on the horizon. The Board’s Facilities Committee is recommending that the District move ahead with the construction of a Ninth Grade Pod with 19 classrooms, a new Science Wing with 8 classrooms and improvements to the PE and Athletic Areas that will give the school a total of 5 baskeball courts, new weight and wrestling rooms, and storage areas. The plan is based on the idea that the District will move more students into a phased third high school program at Dakota and seek to limit Central’s population to roughly 1800 students. If approved, construction could begin in 2010.

Tonight’s decision has been in the works for a number of years. Overcrowding issues and deficiencies in the original facilities at Central have prompted complaints from students, parents, teachers, athletic programs and advocates for the performing arts. In the spring of 2008, the consultants offered four options for alleviating the overcrowding at Central and meeting the long-term needs of high school students in Rapid City. They included:

1. Current enrollment boundaries model – add capacity to Central ($43.7m) so that it can handle 2400 students, address facilities issues at Stevens ($25.8m) but keep current attendance boundaries the same – total price: $69.5 million.
2. Balanced enrollment model – address facilities issues at Central ($28.8m) and Stevens ($37.0m) and redraw boundaries to alleviate overcrowding by sending more students to Stevens – total price: $65.8 million.
3. Third high school model – address facilities issues at Central ($27.0m) and Stevens ($25.8m) without increasing capacity at either school and begin the phased development of a third high school for 1,300 students ($35.3m) – total price: $88.1 million.
4. Tech High School Model – address facilities issues at Central ($27.0m) and Stevens ($25.8m) without increasing capacity at either school and build a new magnet technology high school with a capacity of 500 students ($15.0m) – total price: $67.7 million.

Over the last 15 months the Facilities Committee has focused primarily on Option 1 (2400 students at Central) and a hybrid of Option 4 (creating a phased third high school at Dakota). Preliminary concept drawings for Option 1 were presented to the public last spring. Bids for the work came in at nearly $42 milion. Some board members and their constituents expressed concerns regarding both the price tag and the plan to increase the student population at Central.  The $42 million price tag also became a concern when the Administration distributed its 10-year capital outlay projections showing that the District can only afford about $87 million for new construction over the next ten years given the current spending philosophy of the Board. Spending $42 million on Central would effectively delay all other new construction projects for five years.

The plan provided for the Board’s meeting tonight blends a number of aspects of the consultants’ recommendations. It would cap target enrollment at Central at 1,800 students. To meet this target student population, the District would redraw attendance boundaries to channel a limited number of students to Stevens (mostly Black Hawk students), move forward on planning for the construction of a new middle school in the Valley and transition Dakota from its current function as a middle school to become an alternative third high school for approximately 650 students.

Board to Consider Joining School Funding Lawsuit

Sioux Falls Attorney Scott Abdallah will provide the Board of Education with an update on the status of the school funding lawsuit at tonight’s meeting. Brought by students and parents from several districts, including Rapid City, the suit seeks a court ruling that the Legislature has failed its constitutional duty to provide sufficient for education in South Dakota. Following a trial last fall, Judge Lori Wilbur ruled against the plaintiffs, but the plaintiffs have appealed their case to the South Dakota Supreme Court.

The State sought to block school districts from providing financial support for the case. In July, however, the South Dakota Supreme Court overruled Judge Wilbur’s decision on this particular issue. Abdallah is expected to ask the Board of Education of the Rapid City Area Schools to join with the more than 90 other districts who are supporting the plaintiffs.

The Board meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at the City/School Administration Center at 300 Sixth Street. A copy of the agenda is here: Board Agenda 9309. Read Kayla Gahagan’s preview of the meeting in today’s Rapid City Journal.

Board Moves Closer to Decisions on Central High, Dakota’s Future and New Valley Middle School

Board President Wes Storm presided over a sometimes tense discussion of the future of Central High School.

At a board of education study session this morning administrators from the Rapid City Area Schools presented an $87 million ten-year facility plan that would reduce the cost of renovating Central High School, budget for the construction of a new middle school in Rapid Valley, allow for the consolidation of alternative high school programs at Dakota and provide for the erection of a new middle school and elementary school on the site of South Middle School. Board members agreed in principle to the administration’s plan, but they were deeply divided over the scope and scale of the Central High School renovation project. Despite these divisions, the board was unanimous in its desire to get started at Central and agreed to bring the proposal to a vote at its next regular meeting scheduled for September 3.

The $87 million plan reflects many of the priorities articulated in the facilities study commissioned by the board in 2007 and delivered in the spring of 2008. That report, prepared by MGT of America, identified $203 million in facilities needs and building improvements in the Rapid City Area Schools based on an analysis of the condition of current buildings, demographic trends and changes in teaching strategies. As consultant Dr. Ed Humble told the board today, “No district gets to fulfill its entire wish list.” The spending plan presented today reflects the administration’s best efforts to balance competing demands for capital dollars and with expected capital tax revenues. In addition, the district plans to spend roughly $50 million dollars during this ten year period on the maintenance and upkeep of existing facilities.

New Middle School in Rapid Valley, Alternative High School at Dakota

The board began the meeting by looking at middle schools. Mike Kenton, director of Support Services, presented an analysis of projected changes in enrollment at the district’s middle schools. He noted that if attendance boundaries are not changed and demographic patterns remain the same, enrollments will continue to grow at Dakota and North Middle Schools over the next six years while enrollments at South, Southwest, and West will decline. These imbalances would lead to inefficient staffing and diminish the quality of education in the overcrowded schools. The administration evaluated MGT’s proposal to consolidate the existing five middle schools into four, but found that the District would not save significant money with the closure of a middle school. Instead, the administration is recommending the construction of a new middle school at the site of Valley View Elementary and redrawing boundaries to diminish the need for busing.

With the construction of a new middle school in Rapid Valley, the administration wants to renovate Dakota and consolidate its various alternative high school programs on the historic downtown campus. With more space, the alternative high school program could accommodate an estimated 645 students at the Dakota campus. Many of these students are either currently enrolled in the academy programs or on the waiting list to enroll.

Central’s Future Divides the Board

The board was mostly deeply divided when it came to a discussion of the proposed renovation of Central High School. Plans presented this spring outlined a $42 million project that would add a new Ninth Grade wing, science classrooms for grades 10-12, new gyms, a weight room, new lockers, a new theater for performing arts and a new main entrance to the school. Advocates for various sports programs and the fine arts have been pushing for these improvements for years. New state requirements for science education make the science classrooms a necessity. Meanwhile, the addition of a new Ninth Grade wing is intended to address a serious problem at Central — the high rate of failure and drop-outs during the first year of high school.

Community reaction to the cost of the Central renovation and the plan to expand the school to accommodate up to 2,400 students has been mixed. The Parent Advisory Committee of Indian Education presented a letter at the board meeting today stating that it did “not believe that expanding Central High School would be in the best interest of our students.” The group noted the already high drop out rate from Central and suggested that a third high school with smaller class sizes and more teacher support would improve student achievement.

Several members of the board have also expressed concerns about the cost of the Central project. They point out that the $42 million price tag will consume nearly half of the roughly $87 million the district can afford to spend on new building projects over the next ten years and could jeopardize or postpone the construction of the middle school in the Valley, the renovation of Dakota or the construction of new facilities to replace the aging and inefficient buildings at South Middle School and Robbinsdale Elementary. They asked the district’s design team to present another option for Central that was more tightly focused on academic needs with a budget closer to $28 million. 

The $28 million option presented by the administration today reduces the size of the Ninth Grade wing from 23 classrooms to 18. It reduces the new Science Wing from ten classroom/labs to eight. The big savings, however, come from reducing the planned expenditures for sports and fine arts. A planned competition gym would be replaced by a practice gym. The size of the new weight room would be reduced by 23 percent. New lockers would be reduced from 1100 to 900. Most important in terms of the overall cost of the project, $6.6 million would be saved by remodeling the existing performing arts theater and adding rehearsal space rather than constructing a new theater.

As the end of the meeting approached, Board President Wes Storm tried to identify areas of agreement and find room for compromise. There seemed to be some consensus around the idea that compromise could be reached on the size of the Ninth Grade wing, the number of new science classrooms, and the number of new practice gyms. The board agreed that a final discussion on the plan to add a new theater could be postponed until later this fall. In the meantime, Storm asked the administration to provide a recommendation to the board based on the study session conversation for a vote at the board’s upcoming September 3 meeting. Administrators are hopeful that the vote will provide a greenlight for final design, construction bids and groundbreaking at Central later this fall.

For more details on the study session, read Kayla Gahagan’s story in the Rapid City Journal.

Will Board Study Session Move District Forward?

With major facilities issues on the front burner, the Rapid City Board of Education will meet Saturday morning, August 22 at General Beadle Elementary to talk about the future of Central High School, the possible construction of a new middle school in Rapid Valley and a plan to convert Dakota Middle School to a special use high school. The board will also talk about changing school attendance boundaries in an effort to get more efficient use of the district’s existing facilities.

The conversation tomorrow has been billed as a “Ten Year Comprehensive Facilities Plan Discussion.” More than a year after releasing a consultant’s report describing the condition and suitability of all of the district’s schools, the district has yet to release a timetable or a spending plan for the projects delineated in the report. According to board members and administrators, Business Manager Dave Janak will present an analysis of the district’s capital financing capability at the meeting tomorrow. With an overview of what the district can afford, the board can begin to establish some priorities.

In the meantime, despite the lack of a five- or ten-year budget, the district has moved forward with plans to renovate Central High School for an estimated $42 million. Many community members have expressed concerns about the price of the renovation, particularly if it leads to an even larger student population at Central. Advocates for a third high school would like to see a more modest plan for renovation coupled with a strategy for reducing the overall population at the district’s two main high schools. Some board members are likely to press for reducing the scope of the project at tomorrow’s meeting.

The board is also scheduled to discuss its goals and priorities for the 2009 – 2010 academic year. For the past several years, the board’s main goals have been tied to student achievement as measured by scores on the Dakota STEP test. Year after year, however, the district has failed to achieve the board’s goals, leaving some to wonder how meaningful the goal-setting process really is. In fact, it appears that the District’s goal setting has simply become a process for internalizing the State Department of Education’s expectations under No Child Left Behind. Many parents and community members may wonder whether there ought to be goals that reflect the concerns of the community as well.

The community is welcome to attend the board study session in the Multi-Purpose Room at General Beadle Elementary (10 Van Buren Street) from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The agenda is available here: 08-22-09 Special Meeting agenda.

Board Considers New Policies at Meeting Tonight

Members of the Board of Education for the Rapid City Area Schools will consider changes to District policies on attendance, nondiscrimination, dual enrollment and emergency evacuation plans for handicapped students tonight. The board switched is regular board meeting from Thursday to Tuesday this week to allow board members to attend the annual Associated School Boards of South Dakota convention in Sioux Falls.

The policy changes on attendance reflect the new state law that requires students to remain in school until they are 18 or graduate. The policy outlines the responsibilities of parents and school officials when it comes to enforcing the state’s mandatory attendance law.  New language also highlight’s the District’s ability to initiate truancy proceedings if students and parents fail to comply with the law.

Changes to the policy on nondiscrimination make it clear that students cannot be discriminated against because they are pregnant or married. Meanwhile, a new policy on emergency evacuation of handicapped students calls on the school officials to prepare an emergency evacuation plan at the beginning of each school year for handicapped students.

In addition to policy changes, the Administration will also present the schedule for the development of next year’s budget. Business manager Dave Janak has prepared budget assumptions for the board that call for a 12 percent fund balance. The plan also assumes that if any further budget cuts are needed they wil come first from support functions, rather than instruction. Within instruction, priority is given to programs that 1) support core graduation requirements; 2) provide the greatest impact on student achievement, and 3) align with the district’s mission and philosophy. The Administration also suggests that capital spending will revolve around the Master Facilities Plan developed last year by a nationally recognized consulting team.

The board meeting starts at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 4 in the Council Chambers in the City/School Administration Building at 300 Sixth Street. A copy of the agenda is available here: Board agenda 8409

Dakota STEP Scores Disappoint and Confuse

Rapid City teachers and administrators received disappointing news from the South Dakota Department of Education today. Results from this spring’s Dakota STEP tests did not meet the District’s goals. The District has fallen to Level 3 school improvement in reading and remains on Level 3 school improvement in math which means the District will be forced to take steps to improve instruction. Eleven schools failed to earn passing grades from the state. Despite the disappointments, however, there were some hints of good news in the District’s report card, especially with regard to math and reading scores for American Indian high school students.

At the District level, the scores for all students who took the tests were essentially flat in math, with 69 percent scoring proficient or better, including 13 percent who rated as “advanced.” In reading, the overall percentage of students who met the mark dropped from 81 percent last year to 72 percent. Although this meant that those who scored basic or below basic increased from 19 to 28 percent, the number of students rated advanced also increased from 18 to 22.

Looking more closely at the performance of students in particular age groups and schools, the test scores offer a mixed picture of student achievement in Rapid City. Elementary students in grades 3-5 exceeded the district’s goal in math, but the number of students who scored proficient or advanced fell from 73 percent last year to 72 percent in 2009. Again there was good news in the slight increase in the percentage of students in the advanced category, as this group rose from 13 to 15 percent of all students. Meanwhile, reading scores dropped dramatically as the District fell from 85 percent scoring proficient or better in 2008 to 74 percent in 2009. Here also, the percentage of students in the advanced category rose from 20 to 26 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

A Lot Riding on Test Scores Due This Week

Report cards will be released this week, but it isn’t students who are crossing their fingers. Across the state, school administrators and teachers are hoping their students made the grade on the Dakota STEP test.  

The annual August release of results from the spring administration of the Dakota STEP has become a pivotal event in the weeks leading to the start of school. Positive results allow school staff to launch the year with a swagger and a sense of self-assurance in the classroom. Negative results cast a pall over the faculty and leave the principal lying awake at night wondering how to turn things around. Either way, in the weeks before the start of school, teachers and administrators will spend hours poring over the data searching for patterns that highlight strengths and weaknesses in the way they teach reading, math and science.

Controversies Over the Test

Students in grades three through eight, as well as eleventh graders, take the Dakota STEP to fulfill the requirements of the federal government under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). But the test is controversial. Under NCLB, every state that receives federal aid is required to administer an annual exam to measure student progress, but each state is allowed to write its own exam.

Critics of the testing requirements of NCLB argue that there is so much variation between the tests administered by the states that the system fails to achieve the law’s goal of ensuring that students across the country are meeting high standards. (See, for example, the report from researchers at Fordham University: Proficiency Illusion report 2007 - PDF 2mb.) Compared to other states, South Dakota’s Dakota STEP has received low marks for its academic rigor. When the Dakota STEP and the tests of the other 49 states were compared to student performance on a national exam known as NAEP in 2006, the Dakota STEP received a grade of D+ and ranked below the exams administered by 31 other states. In other words, student achievement was probably not as good as the state’s educators were reporting. (See Education Next, Summer 2006.) 

Rapid City Has Cause for Concern

If the Dakota STEP tends to overstate student achievement, parents in South Dakota districts have cause for concern. Parents in districts like Rapid City and Sioux Falls, with large numbers of students who fail to score high enough on the exam to meet the state’s standards, may worry even more. In Rapid City, for example, for a number of years, some individual schools and the District as a whole have failed to hit the targets set by the South Dakota Department of Education.

The “District Improvement Plan” developed last fall and approved by the Board of Education in February outlined some of the District’s problems. Large numbers of economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities and American Indian students, for example, scored below proficient in reading and math. In addition, in 2007 and 2008, 22 percent of all middle school students failed to score proficient or better in reading. (RCAS District Improvement Plan 2009 - PDF)

As required by the state, the Board of Education adopted its District Improvement Plan to address these low scores. The plan’s goals for the spring 2009 test asked administrators and staff in the District to see that:

• 82 percent of all students in grades K-8 score proficient or above in reading;
• 72 percent of all students in grades K-8 score proficient or above in math;
• 72 percent of all 11th graders score proficient or above in reading;
• 63 percent all 11th graders score proficient or above in math;
• 45 percent of all American Indian students score proficient or better in math.

When the scores are released this week, District administrators and teachers will find out if students hit these targets.

High Stakes for the District

For the Rapid City Area Schools a lot is riding on this week’s results. Under NCLB, districts failing to make adequate yearly progress have five years to turn around student achievement. Rapid City is already on Level 2 (of 5) in reading and Level 3 in math. If the scores released this week in math are not high enough, the District could go to Level 4. According to the U.S. Department of Education, this means it will have to take “corrective actions” such as “replacing certain staff or fully implementing a new curriculum, while continuing to offer public school choice and supplemental educational services for low-income students.” If these changes don’t work, the District could be forced to restructure failing schools by reopening them as charter schools or “replacing all or most of the school staff or turning over school operations either to the state or to a private company with a demonstrated record of effectiveness.”

Rapid City is not alone in this struggle to meet the state’s standards and the goals of No Child Left Behind. Many urban districts face similar challenges. Still, some positive news would be welcomed by administrators and teachers as the 2009-2010 academic year begins.

Storm Elected President; Swanson, Nolan VPs

Wes Storm was elected president of the Board of Education of the Rapid City Area Schools tonight, defeating Sheryl Kirkeby by a 4 to 3 vote. Storm’s victory was followed by the elections of Brett Swanson and Suzan Nolan as first and second vice presidents by similarly split votes. 

The new slate of officers may signal a new era in the board’s approach to a wide variety of issues. Storm, Swanson and Nolan have all had extensive experience in education. Storm’s 40-year association with the District has included time spent as a teacher, coach, principal, and athletic director. In addition, he has previously served as school board president and was on the board the last time the district had to hire a new superintendent.

Swanson taught for a number of years in the District before moving on to teach at the university level. His wife, Jackie, a former districtwide teacher of the year, teaches at North Middle School. Dr. Suzan Nolan was a teacher and a counselor and over the course of a 33-year career in the District worked with students of all ages.

Storm, Swanson and Nolan were supported in their run for the officer positions by board member Daphne Richards Cook. Richards Cook attended the meeting by phone from California where her husband Robert is attending a meeting of the National Indian Education Association, an organization he serves as president.

The election of leadership with deep and intimate knowledge of the day-to-day operations of the District suggests that the administration will be challenged much more frequently than it has been in the past. This may prove to be a good thing, leading to better planning and decision-making overall. Board members with natural sympathies and a greater understanding of students and teachers may also help to raise the morale among the staff in  the District.

But there is also the danger that Board members with such deep knowledge will want to get into too much of the day-to-day decision-making that should properly be the responsibility of the administration. If they do, this could heighten tensions between the board and the administration and do no one any good in the long run.

The new alignment on the board also now casts the board members in new roles. The new majority will no longer have to struggle to influence the direction of the District — they have the votes. Instead, they will face the challenge of listening to and honoring the perspectives of the new minority even as they move forward with changes they feel are long overdue.

Similarly, long-time board members Sheryl Kirkeby, Doug Kinniburgh and Leah Lutheran, accustomed to being in the majority and in leadership will find themselves in a new position. Over the last several years they have been supportive of the status quo within the District and deferential to the administration. They now face the challenge that Storm, Swanson and Richards-Cook have faced over the last year — to continue to articulate their points of view at a time when the majority chooses to move in a different direction.

All of these tensions will be played out against the backdrop of the last year of Superintendent Peter Wharton’s service to the District. Knowing all of these board members, it’s clear that they will try to find ways to reach consensus, but there will also be times when they disagree. And it will get uncomfortable at times.

Superintendent Wharton has often remarked that the tragedy of many school districts is that attention becomes too focused on the concerns of the adults in the system and the children get lost in the equation. Lets hope that regardless of the realignment of perspectives on the board, the education of Rapid City’s children remains at the top of everyone’s agenda.