Presentation to JFC Committe on April 10, 2013

Here is the text of the testimony provided at the JFC committee hearing on April 10 in Wisconsin Dells on behalf of the Hillsboro School District.

As representatives of the Hillsboro School District we stand before you today to express our grave concerns with the proposed 2013-15 Biennium budget. In the past budget cycle our district saw a decrease in our revenue limit of $517 per student which was followed by a modest $50 increase. We used every tool available to us with Act 10 to balance our budgets, but with the proposed $0 increase in per pupil spending our district will have to begin making decisions that will put our students at a significant disadvantage. 

While fuel costs, health care costs, and food service costs continue to increase, we are now being faced with additional costs in order to prepare for the state’s transition to Smarter Balanced assessments, implementation of Educator Effectiveness training, and developing our curriculum to align with the Common Core standards.  This is all to be accomplished with no increase in per pupil spending and as a result of state mandates.

With no increase in the revenue limit, we will be forced to consider cutting academic programs that are not the essential required courses for graduation such as tech ed, business, ag., and the fine arts also we will have to consider significantly increasing our class sizes which will negatively impact student learning. In our rural community these are essential courses for our students as they will need to compete with other students for jobs and admission to colleges.

The budget is calling for an increase in charter and voucher school options that will drain available funding from our school and community. We do not believe that the issues of expanding private school vouchers and the changes in charter school authority are appropriate items to be included in the budget given the lack of financial support that is being provided for Wisconsin’s public school students. As lawmakers how can it be justified to propose a $0 increase for public school students, but a $600 increase for K-8 private school students and a $1400 increase for 9-12 grade private school students?

As a voice for our public school, we say that we are being set up for failure even though the state is failing to provide an appropriate level of support for our schools and our students.

It is our opinion that this budget as proposed would put our district at risk of failing. And, if our school fails our community will likely follow. To the 1300 residents of Hillsboro and the 525 students of our school…this is a tragic scenario.

We ask that you do the right and just thing and for ALL students in Wisconsin and remove charter school and voucher expansion language from the budget and provide a $150 per pupil increase as Senators Luther Olsen and Mike Ellis have discussed. When Governor Walker presented this budget he said: “I ask the members of this state legislature to review, improve, and then pass this budget. Working together, we can continue to move Wisconsin forward.” Let’s work together and move Wisconsin forward for all our students, not just the few.

SSIS Selection

As the Superintendent of a school district that is currently using Infinite Campus, I am very pleased that it was chosen as the statewide student information system for Wisconsin. Due to the outcry surrounding this selection, this post is simply to share an email message we received from the Wis. Dept. of Public Instruction:

Dear District Administrators:

Over the past two weeks, we have received numerous inquiries on the recent developments regarding the statewide student information system (SSIS), which is required as part of 2011 Wisconsin Act 32, the 2011-13 biennial budget act.   I am writing to provide you background information on the SSIS as well as an update on the status of the project.

Why does DPI support a SSIS?

As the state moves to new assessment, evaluation, and accountability systems, the need for timely, accurate student data has never been greater.  That’s why the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has advocated for the creation of a SSIS, which will significantly improve student data quality and security, automate burdensome reporting requirements, and considerably reduce local technology costs.   Most importantly, the SSIS will provide access to information and analytical tools for parents, pupils, teachers, and administrators in every district to improve student performance and provide greater public accountability.

At its core, this initiative has been undertaken to reduce costs, improve efficiency, ensure equity across districts, improve data access and security, and extend student information system features beyond what many districts have today. 

How did the SSIS become law?

DPI and the Governor’s office worked with the legislature to create the SSIS as part of the 2011 Wisconsin Act 32, the biennial budget bill, which provided $15 million to cover state and district costs, including the cost of local data migration and staff training.   The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee further directed that the SSIS must be provided by a single vendor, a position that both DPI and the Governor supported.

While the SSIS will replace local student information systems over a five year transition period, districts will continue to select their own human resource, finance, and other local data systems. 

How did the state select a SSIS vendor?

To implement the legislative requirement for a SSIS, DPI worked with the Department of Administration (DOA) to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the new system.   State law requires DOA’s State Bureau of Procurement (SBOP) to administer the procurement process to ensure vendor selections are fair, unbiased, and free from political influence.  No elected officials or appointed unclassified staff can participate in this process.

Following state procurement rules and guidelines, a committee of experts, including school district staff, DPI technology staff, and DOA SBOP staff, developed the SSIS RFP, which outlined the technical specifications of the SSIS for potential vendors.  All SSIS vendor proposals subsequently underwent an exhaustive review and scoring process by a knowledgeable, experienced evaluation team.   The evaluation team unanimously recommended that the SSIS contract be awarded to the highest scoring proposer. 

On Feb. 1, 2013, DOA issued a letter of intent to award for the SSIS project to Infinite Campus, which received both the highest technical score and had the lowest cost bid, resulting in the highest score. Details can be found in DOA’s news release.  

DOA also retained an independent third-party reviewer to monitor the procurement, evaluation, and selection process.  The third party observer issued an extensive report, noting the SSIS procurement process was “open, fair, impartial, and objective,” that all procurement laws were followed, and that all vendors had an equal opportunity to compete.  In addition, the evaluator found that the evaluation committee was not subject to any outside influence in the selection process.   Essentially, all vendors had the same opportunity to compete for the SSIS project.

What happens now?

Vendors that were not selected have the opportunity to appeal the procurement decision, and at least one vendor, Skyward, has filed a notice of intent to appeal.   Any protest will be thoroughly reviewed to ensure strict compliance with procurement procedure.

The DPI sincerely understands the concern that a Wisconsin vendor was not selected through this process, but long established state procurement laws prohibit considering a company’s home state when selecting a vendor.   

For more information, the DPI has developed a more detailed timeline and history of the project, which can be found along with other background information about the SSIS on our SSIS website.  

We hope this information is helpful to you, and we will continue to keep you apprised as the process moves forward. 

Sincerely,

Mike Thompson, PhD

Deputy State Superintendent

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

Dec. 17, 2012

Dear Hillsboro School Community,

There are not enough ways to describe the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  My thoughts and prayers are with their entire school community as they cope with this unimaginable loss.

As parents and educators we have to try to explain events to our children that we never could have imagined. I know many parents are wondering how to support their children in times like these. Today’s 24-hour news and internet stories provide us with greater accessibility than ever. This means that undoubtedly our children are seeing and hearing what is happening but it also means that we have access to great resources to help us in times like these. The USA today had a Facebook posting of a chat with UCLA psychologist, Catherine Mogil, shortly after Friday’s tragedy. In reading through the chat there are several great comments. Among those were the comments by the Mayo Clinic which said that as parents we need to “limit exposure to distressing television reporting. We need to be informed but we don’t want to overload on the disturbing images. Those images can really trouble children. Also, the reporting is often unfiltered. Parents should be wary and set some parameters about how much news is in the home. A good second option is reading print stories and then explaining it to their children. This method is not quite as upsetting.” Additional resources that may be helpful are: The American Psychological Association, The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The National PTA and The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Each of these has websites with information that can be valuable.

As the superintendent of the Hillsboro Schools, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on our own practices. Each day we have staff available for students who need to talk. School counselors Kelli Sullivan and Lindsay Horvatin are great resources for students and families who would like to talk. We also have school psychologist, Eric Auel, and building principals, Greg Zimmerman and Cara Wood, available to answer any questions. It is likely that as parents you will also feel comfortable talking to the teachers your child may have. We will continue to work to establish warm and supportive relationships with your children and provide them an opportunity to speak to someone if they feel the need.

Thank you for trusting us with your children every day. Please know that keeping your children safe is the single most important piece of our work at school.  The building offices will continue to be the only point of entrance to school during the day, and we will continue the sign-in process for visitors.

As for district policies and procedures regarding safety, please know that we will continue to evaluate our safety plans and work with the Hillsboro Police Department to do the best we can to ensure your child’s safety.

Please do not hesitate to call the school to speak to any of the staff listed above as they are ready to provide help and support in any way that they can.

Respectfully,

Curt Bisarek

Superintendent

Annual Meeting Message

Superintendent’s Message

As the Superintendent of the School District of Hillsboro, I am proud to present this reflection on the 2011-12 school year. In the midst of unprecedented wholesale reform in education, I firmly believe our district is in a position to continue to succeed. Our district’s mission of “Learn, Achieve, Succeed” continues to be a reminder and a challenge to each of us as we move forward.

The most notable change our employees have seen is the transition from a collective bargaining agreement to an employee handbook. Beginning last fall, the administrative team created a beginning document which was then reviewed and discussed with an Employee Relations Team. Then, in June the Board of Education approved the initial Employee Handbook. From my perspective this handbook provides for a positive relationship between staff, the board of education and administration. While there are still areas that need to be addressed (mainly post-employment benefits and teacher compensation) the framework is in place. At the present time there are still many unknowns regarding the future of collective bargaining and the legal status of Act 10, but the positive relationship between administration, board and staff will allow for our district to handle whatever is decided by the government and/or courts.

A more challenging issue to the School District is the issue of funding. Our current estimates for state aid show that we will receive 20% less in aid for the 2012-13 school year than we did in the 2006-07 school year. Needless to say, this is a very difficult challenge that continues to face the district. As we move into the 2012-13 school year there are still challenges that we face. Of primary concern is the upcoming Biennium budget. After an unprecedented cut in public school funding in the last state budget we will be anxiously awaiting the next state budget proposal.

Changes are also taking place within the area of curriculum as we move toward full incorporation of the Common Core State Standards. The work of the staff, with leadership from Terri Fanta, has us at the very least on schedule to make the transition within the DPI timeline. Additional staff in-service and workshop time has been necessary and will continue to be so as the 2014-15 deadline approached. At that point our students will begin taking the SMARTER BALANCED assessments rather than the WKCE’s. These new assessments will be directly connected to the Common Core standards.

The state is moving forward with a new teacher and principal effectiveness system that will significantly change how evaluations of staff and principals take place. There will be additional training time needed to ensure that our principals and staff are prepared for this transition.

Aside from the challenges of change, there are several positive items to report on at this time. We finished the 2011-12 school year with funds available to make some improvements. We upgraded our fleet of vehicles, greatly improved the sound system in the high school gymnasium, transformed our weight room and implemented a high quality wireless system in the high school for internet access. As stewards of taxpayer dollars each of these improvements were carefully considered to get the greatest possible value while providing quality resources for our students. Additionally, the District moved forward with the elementary office project and was able to complete a project to update that area.

Finally, we pursued four different grant opportunities. First of all, we successfully applied for and received the 21^st Century Community Learning Center grant. This grant provides $100,000 per year for 5 years to provide after school programming for our students. We made it to the final three but we not awarded a Monsanto grant that would have provided funding for updates in our Middle School science lab, but we did receive a great amount of support from our agricultural community in this process. Still unknown are two grants. We developed these as collaborative efforts with neighboring districts (Elementary School Counseling grant with Wonewoc-Center and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant with Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton).

I will continue to work to find better and more effective ways to communicate with all the stakeholders of the Hillsboro School District. Please contact me if you would like to further discuss our school system.

Sincerely,

Curt Bisarek

Superintendent