How About We Go All Day?

As I mentioned last week, if the legislature can quickly dispose of the Supplemental State Aid question at the onset of the legislative session, they can move on to other important issues. I might suggest a good place to start would be in changing the funding formula for the statewide voluntary preschool program. While Hudson is merely entering our third year participating in the statewide voluntary preschool program, we can already see huge benefits from having this programming right here on site. Designed as an inclusive program, our preschool serves special education students right alongside regular education students. This is indeed the epitome of serving students in their least restrictive environment! In the intervening [three] years we have tweaked our staffing of the program and just this year hired an additional instructor. But this was not easy and based on the current funding model will be an ongoing challenge. Because of the way funding is allocated it requires very careful staffing considerations [with per pupil ratios] that limit the amount of instructional time available for our students. 

One of the key elements required in program design is to ensure at least ten hours of instruction a week. If it doesn't sound like very much to you, I would agree. Maybe it would help if I told you our preschool program provided twelve hours of instruction! Does that make you feel a bit better? Perhaps not. To give you a comparison, our regular K-12 instructional program schedules 33.16 hours of instruction per week (when subtracting non-instructional time like lunch). In actuality, the instructional calendar is more a function of the funding model than what is best practice.

It's really quite simple. Preschool students are weighted at .5 the full equivalency rate. Our per pupil cost this year for preschool students is $3,522.50. This makes our ideal scenario of having an all day preschool program a very difficult hill to climb. Here's why an all day preschool program makes sense.

Scholarly research tells us schools can leverage the benefits in a way that pay dividends later in the child's academic development. Because of the fact a child's brain is 90% developed by the age of five (Iowa Department of Education Fact Sheet), it makes clear that early intervention makes tremendous difference. Prior to preschool programming, struggling students were typically identified in need of special education services and planned educational interventions toward the end of kindergarten. This was done only after following a rigorous process of problem solving, intervention, and finally implementation. Consider the impact of early identification and rigorous intervention! Furthermore, our own research here in Hudson suggests students who are identified early in their academic careers are more likely to be 'aged out' of special education programming. Quite simply stated, this means a student who is in a special education program during their primary years may very well not be in a special education program by the time they get to junior high. And keep in mind, the benefits of preschool programming aren't limited to just those students who may be eligible for special education. According to a 2017 study by the Brooking Institute and the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy, (Phillips, D. A., Lipsey, M. W., Dodge, K. A., Haskins, R., Bassok, D., Burchinal, M. R., Duncan, G. J., Dynarski, M., Magnuson, K. A., & Weiland, C.) for every dollar invested in early learning programs, there is a return on investment between $7-$10.

(All Day Preschool, August 10, 2018)

We would support and advocate for all day everyday preschool. While there is no doubt this would require a greater infusion of capital, the research is clear the investment is well worth the dividends it would pay. For certain this would be a heavy lift financially but it can be done. I can remember a time when starting my career we were having a similar conversation about kindergarten. We got that done, and we can do this too!

Supplemental State Aid: What is it and Why it's Important

We are getting to the time of year when the Board of Directors identifies priorities for the upcoming legislative session. While the legislative session isn't set to begin until January of 2020, now is the time when we will begin to advocate with our legislators prior to their arrival in Des Moines. In fact, the board is scheduled to meet with local legislators at our October 21st board meeting. If you can fit it into you schedule, we would love to see you there! Your school board has previously identified their priorities at their regular meeting held on July 15th. Topping the list was timely and adequate supplemental state aid with a formula driven method if it is not set within the statutory deadline.

Supplemental state aid is the percentage by which the state cost per pupil grows annually. The state cost per pupil increase for the year we are currently in was 2.06%, which equates to an increase of $139 (per pupil). That makes Hudson's district cost per pupil $7,045 for this current school year. In order to get to our base budget number, or what we refer to as the regular program district cost we simply multiply the cost per pupil by the number of pupils. It's a relatively straight forward calculation most elementary aged students could figure. Part of the challenge with this system though is the other variable in the equation: the number of students you have. In years when enrollment is up, a 2.06% increase can make a positive overall impact. On the other hand, if enrollment is down, the 2.06% can have a negative impact. In Hudson since we're up, that 2.06% made a positive impact and our regular program district cost grew by $188,647.

Now then, because the enrollment in a school district is so, well arbitrary, it makes it very difficult to determine what 'adequate' actually means. Indeed, adequate truly is in the eye of the beholder and can mean different things to different districts depending on where they are located in the state, what operational costs look like, and most importantly what the enrollment trajectory is. Perhaps that is why this has become such a political decision. Nevertheless, this political decision is where the whole system tends to become stuck. Every. Single. Year. Where the governor makes a recommendation on the supplemental state aid amount, the House and Senate both have the final say. What happened last year is what happens in most years: no one agrees and because of this the final decision is delayed. Granted last year was pretty fast, but they still didn't make the decision in the time frame outlined in Iowa law. The governor's original recommendation (by the way) was for 2.3%, and they ultimately ended up at 2.06%. It is somewhat telling, that all three branches of the state government are of the same political party; and they still had difficulty resolving this issue.

It is very important this decision is not delayed. Gone are the days when this was to be decided 18 months in advance! Now, the decision has to be made less than 6 months before the start of the new fiscal year. Actually it's a bit less than that because they have 30 days after the governor makes a recommendation. That puts the calendar at roughly 5 months before the beginning of a new fiscal year, if everything goes according to plan. 

Here's the thing though. It doesn't have to be like this. If we can't come to basic agreement on what adequate supplemental aid truly should be, which has been tested time and again with this annual back and forth debate that consumes the first half of the legislative session, then we should probably do something different. We would support an incentive to finish the job and finish it timely. How about if an agreement can't be reached a mechanism is established to do it automatically? It could be set at a level that encourages civil dialogue and the urgency to bring the issue to resolution. 

Then the legislature can start working on more important issues. How about we talk about some of them next week?

Open Enrollment

We are so excited to be one of the 'schools of choice' for families who are locating or relocating to the Cedar Valley! So far this year we have welcomed over 30 new Pirates to our galleon under resident student or open enrollment status since August 23rd. 

This is the natural time of year where we field a lot of questions regarding the enrollment of students: who is classified as a resident student, what non-resident students [are], and ultimately how open enrollment works. As a start, resident students are those who live within the boundaries of the Hudson Community School District and do so for the purpose of making a home. In other words, if you are living in the district for the sole purpose of attending school, or living in another district, you are not a resident student and subsequently cannot attend Hudson Schools. 

That is unless you file for open enrollment. Open enrollment is designed as a 'choice option' for students and families that wish to attend another public school outside their resident district. But as most of you know, open enrollment isn't necessarily a slam dunk. As a start, new open enrollment paperwork must be on file in both the receiving and resident district(s) by March 1st (or September 1st for kindergarten students). That means for the school year we are currently in, students who are attending under open enrollment filed that paperwork prior to this past March 1. If that happens, in most cases the receiving school district can unilaterally act to accept that open enrollment application. And by the way once you file and are approved, you don't have to reapply each year. Your open enrollment is valid until you as parent decide that you no longer want to attend that district and instead wish to return to the home (or resident) district. Plus, once you are established under open enrollment, siblings are also automatically granted open enrollment status once they are of school age, so as to not to have children attending in different school districts. 

However, there are a few distinctions where the resident district has to approve the application first. And in many cases these requests are denied.

The first and most common is if the resident district has a voluntary diversity plan. There are five school districts in Iowa with voluntary diversity plans: Davenport, Des Moines, Postville, Waterloo, and West Liberty. Because Hudson is contiguous with Waterloo, the voluntary diversity plan oftentimes comes into play. It is very typical for a family from Waterloo to file open enrollment paperwork from Waterloo to Hudson and then have it denied. Keep in mind, Hudson can only act on an open enrollment application from Waterloo if they first approve it. 

Second, a resident district also has authority to act first if the applicant alleges pervasive harassment. Sometimes a family will file for open enrollment under Iowa's bullying and harassment law, but prior to granting that request, it must be demonstrated that attempts to remedy the situation have been unsuccessful. For example, if the school district has been informed of the allegation, administered discipline to the offending party, and made other accommodations to protect the safety of the student, and the harassment continues; then the resident district can grant open enrollment. However, in cases where open enrollment is proposed as the first option, those applications are typically denied because the district has to first be given the opportunity to remedy the problem. 

Another reason where the resident district is required to act first is if there is a serious health need. Again, the onus on approval rests with the resident district and is usually only considered as a last option. If, after working with the school district a workable solution isn't possible then open enrollment may be granted. Yet like those applicants who want to open enroll due to pervasive harassment, when it is proposed as the first option it is almost always denied.

Open enrollment for pervasive bullying and harassment and a serious health need are both considered 'good cause open enrollment'. Outside those two reasons, school districts do have the authority to grant open enrollment outside the March 1 deadline with no good cause if both school districts agree. This is solely a local decision and incredibly rare, generally contemplated case by case when considering unusual circumstances.

Perhaps to the outside observe this all seems somewhat trivial because at the end of the day students are students, right? If only it were that simple. You see, the distinction is critically important and we are about to start a process of sorting and accounting for all our students: those who are residents attending Hudson, those who are non-residents attending Hudson; those who are residents attending another school district, and on and on. It is important because in Iowa, the amount of funding we have to operate our school is dependent on the number of students we serve in our classrooms. For those students who attend a school other than their resident school: that funding ends up in the other district. This is why we ask the questions we do, and require they paperwork needed for enrollment.

At the end of the day we are honored and humbled that Hudson is your school of choice. We want as many of your children here as we can get. We just need to ensure we do it in the right way. 

School is Now in Session

It takes a lot of people to get kindergarten through the lunch
line at the beginning of the school year!

Well, the first day of school is now in the rear view mirror and routines have, for the most part been established. Yesterday was the last 'first day' when our preschool students started class, so we now have everyone here and are off and running. All systems are basically, normal? Generally when people ask me how the first day of school went, my 'tongue in cheek' response is that I have only three main goals when it comes to the first day of school: get everyone here safely, make sure everyone has lunch, and get everyone home safely. While it may sound as if the bar is relatively low in terms of first day expectations, those three things are pretty big evolutions in a school day. One of the things I have learned from my many years in education is that on the first day of school the buses are never on time, it takes a long time to get kindergarten through the lunch line, and the end of the day can be likened to organized chaos while we make sure all the students get on the right bus. That said, our first day was a success and while it may only seem like yesterday, today marks day 8!

After we get the first day figured out, the expectations increase exponentially. Classroom routines are  practiced and have been established, specials are in full swing, high school schedules are set, and the first sets of assessments are just around the corner. Most importantly, high quality instruction is now underway! Our fall sports seasons have now entered competition with both the football and volleyball teams beginning last week and the first cross country meet of the year scheduled for tomorrow night. We are also super excited to see the return of the fall play this year, which as I understand it, the cast list was announced late last week. You'll want to mark your calendars now, the fall play is scheduled for November 8-9!

The success of our first week and a half of school can largely be attributed to the commitment and long hours put in by our staff. Our custodians had to work late into the evening, on weekends, and even had to put some vacation time on hold to make certain the buildings were ready to go. Our construction workers also had to keep their foot on the gas to ensure construction in the lower elementary was finished before the arrival of the staff. And of course the teachers! When we knew it was going to be close to the deadline for open house, I explained my expectation for that evening. We reassured these teachers the most important thing for students and parents was to meet their teachers, find their locker, and drop off supplies. It mattered not if they had bulletin boards up or rooms fully decorated. It may not have mattered to you or me, but it sure mattered to them. When I walked the halls shortly before 5:00 that evening the rooms looked amazing, by far surpassing expectations!

Enrollment continues to rise at Hudson Schools!

So on our first day of school we opened up with 754 students, an increase of six over the first day last year. At the same time, we had 30 brand new Pirates that started with us on August 23rd. While not an apples to apples comparison, you have to look all the way back to 2006-2007 to see a higher enrollment number. Indeed this is unofficial and will change between now and October 1st, which is the day we will officially lock in the number. It may surprise you to know that enrollment remains fluid. Since starting school we have had a few additions to our student body. This will certainly continue with both additions and subtractions as we make our way to Count Day on October 1st.

In any event, it is great to have our hallways filled with students again! Hope you all have a great year and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out!