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Pioneer Elementary
PTA
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June 8th Proposal to Shift $4M from Plant to Supplemental Levy Passes... Over 88% of those who voted, voted to transfer $4 million to the supplemental levy to reduce the impact of pay cuts and the need for pay-to-play... Meridian homeowners will not see an increase in the property taxes ... under a plan designed to keep cuts in teachers' salaries to 3.6 percent next year, district officials said Friday. Superintendent Linda Clark said the district's tax rate ... will remain the same, no matter how voters decide ... on a proposal to shift $4 million ... to next year's operations budget. Read more online at Idahostatesman.com... http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/05/22/1202312/meridian-school-district-tax-levy.html#ixzz0oiNhHHC3 BY JOE ESTRELLA - jestrella@idahostatesman.com Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman Published: 05/22/10
MERIDIAN -- The Meridian School District plans to cut salaries next school year to help absorb big losses in state funding. Just how much of a pay cut employees face depends on the voters. Read more online at ktvb.com... by Kim Fields KTVB.COM Posted on May 24, 2010 at 10:45 AM Updated Tuesday, May 25 at 8:20 AM
Click here to read the update and an email from Dr. Clark (3/10/10)
District Board Meeting Notes, April 13, 2010 Public Budget Hearing Notes, April 13, 2010 Public Budget Summary Report, April 13, 2010 Public Budget Hearing Article, April 14, 2010 District Board Meeting Notes, June 15, 2010
Super Saturday, January 30, 2010 Super Saturday, April 10, 2010
Letter to Parents, March 1, 2010 Lottery Update, March 10, 2010 Cost of Charter Schools, March 11, 2010
Q&A, October 14, 2009
How some Treasure Valley school districts compare on cuts Bus routes will be cut, workers furloughed and programs consolidated. http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/25/1167033/how-some-valley-school-districts.html#ixzz0m7q6OPXh
BY ANNA WEBB - awebb@idahostatesman.com Click here to view the chart for "How Four School Districts Compare". Click here for a printable version of the chart.
Boise students at nine elementary schools may get an extra half-hour of sleep next year, and all district students will enjoy a week's vacation at Thanksgiving - all in the interest of shaving pennies.
Much has been discussed with the potential budget cuts to education
that our schools may go to a 4-day week or other factors that could shorten
teacher-to-student time (Instructional time). Is there not an Idaho Law that
states public school children must attend a certain number of days a year or
hours a year during a school year?
Idaho PTA's understanding is public schools in Idaho must maintain these state law standards. Shorter weeks could be considered to reduce costs if the number of required instructional hours by grade level were maintained. Currently at Pioneer we have 5 hours and 30 minutes of scheduled instruction time a day. (That is based on our 9:05-3:45 schedule with 2 recesses totaling 30 minutes and 1 lunch break totaling 40 minutes taken out of the original 6 hr and 40 minute day) X 170 days (average number of our school days each year -- this year we have 172.5 days). 935 hours = 170 X 5 hrs & 30 minutes 1st-5th grades.
Since we are a K-5 school it would make sense for transportation reasons and others -- we would fall into the 4-8 grade level numbers for our 1-5 grades required of 900 hours a school year and do at this time.
Archive
Meridian School District proposes some big changes for kindergarten schedule Budget cuts could mean all-day kindergarten classes with a schedule that shifts each week. BY JOE ESTRELLA - jestrella@idahostatesman.com Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman Published: 05/11/10
Note: If you received an invitation to complete the online survey, the deadline is May 26th!
The state appropriation for busing next year was
decreased by 10%. In addition the state has stopped funding school field
trips, and each school district must also remain under the state average for
busing costs or face having a portion of its transportation funding
withheld. In short, the district needs to decrease its expenditures on
transportation next year by more than nearly $1.4 million.
As part of the need to reduce transportation costs, the district will no
longer provide mid-day bus service for kindergarten students. The result is
a change in the type or types of kindergarten schedules offered next year. Parents or guardians of an incoming kindergarten students, have been asked to participate in an important survey about how to implement a new kindergarten schedule next year. This change was made necessary by the decrease in transportation funding.
The district will [also] implement a number of other measures next year to reduce transportation costs, including consolidating shuttles, eliminating busing to various programs, and consolidating and reducing the number of regular bus stops.
Idaho lawmakers back school funding cuts
2010 Idaho Legislature March 3, 2010 
The budget set by the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning matches a blueprint developed by a group of lawmakers and education stakeholders over the past few weeks - with one exception. At the last minute, on a 12-7 vote, the committee tacked on an extra clause to declare a financial emergency for every Idaho school district next year, enabling them to reopen negotiated teacher contracts and change pay, benefits or contract length. Three Republicans - Cameron and Sens. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, and Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, joined with the committee’s four Democrats to oppose the motion, but it passed. Said Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, “It basically renders null and void contract salary provisions and the length of the contracts - in other words, teachers just won’t have contracts across our state any more. … We keep changing the rules of the game on them, and it’s not a game, it’s their life.” The surprise move left the Idaho Education Association’s president, Sherri Wood, in tears after the JFAC meeting. The move, she said, was “wrong.” State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna said he was surprised by the move, and didn’t know about it before this morning’s meeting. He was among the group of education stakeholders who earlier agreed to the budget plan, which didn’t include that clause. Luna said the budget will be “very, very difficult” for Idaho schools. “I don’t think any of us ever thought … that we would be dealing with this, that two years in a row we would be cutting education,” he said. “It’s a very difficult situation, but it’s all being driven by the economy. … I tell folks that there is a brighter day that’s not far off, and we will get through this.” Minority Democrats on the panel offered an alternative, to add an extra $37.2 million to the school budget. They called for capturing that extra money by delaying implementation of a grocery tax credit increase, putting off election consolidation, delaying an insurance premium tax reduction and tapping $3 million from the general fund for additional tax auditors who would bring in $20 million more in already-due taxes next year, for a net increase of $17 million from that move. “We’re offering ideas,” said Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow. Said Sen. Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello, “We are basically balancing our state budget on the backs of our kids, and that is wrong.” But the move failed on a party-line vote, with only the four Democrats on the joint committee supporting it. Hammond, a former longtime school principal, spoke emotionally about the proposal. “I’m not comfortable with this budget either. I don’t like it,” he said. “But I truly don’t see an alternative. As I return home each weekend and I talk to those businesses who have already laid off 30, 40 percent of their staff and are trying to stay alive, they beg me, ‘Don’t tax me any more, don’t raise my taxes.’ … So please don’t throw at me that we haven’t considered that alternative - we have.” The budget still needs approval from the full House and Senate and the governor’s signature to take effect, but budgets rarely are changed after they’re set by the joint committee. No school budget has been defeated in the House or Senate in at least the past 25 years.
The budget
calls for pay cuts for teachers and classified employees of school districts
next year of 4 percent, 6.5 percent pay cuts for administrators, and canceling
$10.13 million in what otherwise would have been raises earned by educators for
additional education or experience.
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