Interns, Selective Reporting & Choice Words

What does that get you?

Inconsistency.

I'll take it a bit further.  Using an intern to report on School Board meetings/school district issues seems to be doing you, the reader, a disservice.

Regarding two articles recently reported by NOW reporter "intern," Lauren Furlong -
 

Since I have seen links to these articles by several bloggers, I want to make some facts clear.  The element of the approved Franklin Public Schools budget draft regarding private school bussing will save you, the taxpayer, $90,000 in School Year 2009-10. 

This issue has nothing to do with fairness.  The Wisconsin Constitution at Article X, Section 3,  states that public schools "shall be free and without charge for tuition to all children between the ages of 4 and 20 years."

You may choose to send your child to private school, at your own expense.  That is your right.

Students who live more than two miles from school are granted transportation or contracts.  We have been offering transportation contracts to private school families for many other schools for several years.  This is not something new for our district.

Under Wisconsin school law, the following may be offered:

Contracts for Private School Pupils Only (s. 121.55(3), Wisconsin Statutes)

• May only be used for transportation of eligible private school pupils.

• A school board may offer this type of contract only if the school district is eligible as determined by the following conditions:
  • 1. The estimated cost to transport the private school pupil is more than 1.5 times the school district’s average cost per pupil for regular (to and from school) bus transportation in the previous school year, excluding transportation for kindergarten pupils during the noon hour and special transportation for pupils with disabilities; AND
  • 2. The school board notifies the parent/guardian of the pupil of its intention to offer a contract under this provision at least 30 days before the start of the public school district’s term. Notification must include the DPI worksheet used to calculate the school district’s average cost and the estimate of the cost to transport the pupil.
• The amount of compensation provided in the contract must be at least equal to the greater of the following:
  • $5.00 times the distance, in miles, between the pupil’s home and the private school; or
  • The school district’s average cost per pupil for regular (to and from school) bus transportation in the previous school year, excluding transportation for kindergarten pupils during the noon hour and special transportation for pupils with disabilities.
• The payment cannot exceed the actual cost of the transportation.
• State law requires contract payments to be made on an annual basis for each pupil to be transported, even if more than one pupil in a particular family is transported to the same private school.
• If the school board and the parent/guardian cannot agree on the amount of compensation, either party may ask the DPI to determine the amount.
• If a school board has met the requirements to offer this type of contract and the parent rejects the contract, the school board is not obligated to provide transportation for the pupil.

The following information was given to Board members from Jim Milzer, Business Director:

The statutes indicate that public schools must provide bus transportation for eligible private school students unless the cost of providing that transportation is 1.5 times greater than the district's average cost of transporting students in the previous year.

-If the cost to transport private school students is 1.5 times greater or more, then the district can stop providing bus transportation and offer the parents a parent contract to transport their own students.

-The Department of Public Instruction has set up a process based on the state statute for district's to calculate the cost of parent contracts.

-We currently estimate that the average cost to transport our students, which is also the parent contract amount for 2009-10, is about $343.

-The cost to provide bus transportation for the students from the three private schools ranges between $1,100 and $1,700 per student.  This is well above the 1.5 mark of $515.

-At the beginning of the 2008-09 school year we had 218 private school students, of which 118 were transported and 100 received parent contracts.

-For the 100 students with parent contracts in 2008-09 we will pay out approximately $32,500.

-In 2008-09 we estimate the cost of busing the 118 private school students to be about $165,000.

-Parent contracts for 2009-10 for these 118 students would be about $40,000.

-We are also prepared to pay up to $34,000 in additional costs for our buses due to the new schedule.

-This leaves a savings of $90,000.

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Now I ask you, Franklin School District taxpayers - You who are senior citizens with no children in the schools, or single taxpayers and households who do not have children in the public schools, and private school family taxpayers, and public school family taxpayers - you do the math - you tell me after viewing this information in black and white - do you think it is the best choice for the School District and all taxpayers to pay $90,000 extra to transport private school students to the school of their choice?

Fairness was mentioned in the article - but not all of the facts.  Also, it was said that "other cuts were considered."  No - other cuts were made including a part-time GT position, staff for libraries and office aides, and others, such as a full-time non-union Custodial Supervisor, and our Communications Specialist, who had her position cut to half time.


Regarding the article today about the "impromptu" School Board meeting.  "Impromptu?"  No - not impromptu.  The meeting was properly posted earlier in the week.  Personally, I was not in favor of a meeting on July 4th, and would have preferred a meeting of a quorum during the week.  A "one minute meeting?"  That's all it took.  There was no other business.  A question was presented, motions were made, a vote was taken....

Interns, selective reporting & choice words ...

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Note regarding commenting on this post:

Your comments are welcomed on topics presented in this post in order to generate citizen debate, but I ask that you do not direct comments to me for a personal response via the blog.

As a Board member, I encourage you to contact me any time via District email so there is a public record, by phone call, by mail, or in person before or after any meeting.  You may reach me or any other Board member through this link.

I look forward to hearing from you. 
 

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