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 21st 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
