The USD 457 Board of Education was treated to an evening of good news at Monday night’s meeting when it heard reports from the district’s transportation program, its annual financial audit, and the Communities in Schools program.
According to USD 457 Transportation Director Charles Stillian, changes made in the overall transportation plan at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year seem to have paid off nicely as the overall time students now spend on busses transporting them to and from school has decreased significantly. Having fewer bus routes and fewer students of mixed ages riding together on those busses also have been positive devlopments, he said.
According to Stillian, in 2016-17, 120 middle and high school students rode to school with 174 elementary school children and 68 middle and high school students rode home with 110 elementary school kids. In 2017, there are now no mixed age students on the same busses coming to school, and only 12 middle/high schools to 124 elementary students are riding home together.
“In 2016-17, we had 12 percent of the 2,403 students who rode the same bus to and from school,” Stillian said. “In 2017-18, 90 percent now ride the same bus back and forth to home from school. With shorter routes, we have gone from 54 percent of students being late for breakfast at school to a much improved 2 percent in elementary/intermediate centers and middle/high school/TEP.”
Stillian said that routing students on the correct bus, having the same bus driver to and from school and reducing the average time spent on the bus remain areas that still need to be tweaked.
During public comment, parent Tammy Hutcheson voiced her concerns about the impact the new school start times have on parents struggling to get children to as many as three different schools and be to work on time by 8 a.m. She challenged board members to ride a bus from the first pick-up to the last drop-off, to ride multiple routes, eat the breakfasts and lunches, drive through traffic from an elementary school to the high school and go back home to pick up another child to get them to school before their start time and be at their job by 8 a.m. She asked them to consider the research cited across the country about later start times, especially for high school students, and offered to discuss that research with them at any time.
Annual audit report
Theresa Dasenbrock and Lisa Axman from the certified public accounting firm Lewis, Hooper & Dick, presented the firm’s findings from the district’s annual financial audit. According to Dasenbrock, the district has done well in being good stewards of the local taxpayers’ dollars and that USD 457’s mill levy has been down or stayed the same, yet another indication that the district is holding the lines on expenses.
“Surveying 15 communities around the size of Garden City, we found that on a $100,000 home, Garden City pays around $515.15 in taxes,” Dasenbrock said. “Salina pays $594.54, Dodge City is at $610.19, Derby will spend $637.36 and DeSoto shells out $745.80. Our school district has done a tremendous job closing the gap between state and federal funding and its mill levy.”
Axman told the board that there were a few things it could still work on, such as providing supporting documentation for all of their encumbrances and to makes sure all grants the district receives are listed as a few were missing from the list.
Communities in Schools
Chris Ayers reported to the board on Communities in Schools (CIS), a program designed to surround students with a community of support that empowers them to stay in school and achieve in life.
Ayers said that 87 percent of CIS students show academic improvement, 100 percent of the seniors graduate from high school, 90 percent were promoted to the next grade and 99 percent stay in school. He also said that Garden City High School exceeds the state average for students continuing on to post secondary education opportunities.