http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/03/12/community/doc513ea4cdf28b0038121472.txt

YSD Could Feel Sting Of Sequester

By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net

The impact of the federal government sequestration on the Yankton School District (YSD) was discussed at the regularly scheduled YSD school board meeting on Monday night.

Because the federal government could not agree on a budget resolution by March 1, sweeping cuts were triggered in many areas of the budget, including education.

Although the South Dakota Department of Education is still awaiting a final interpretation of the cut’s impact on education, there have been some numbers given to the department that are providing a sense of direction.

“We don’t know enough yet to know how the cuts might impact Yankton School District,” said YSD superintendent Joe Gertsema. “However, there are projections that special education and Title I and Title II A will be cut by about 5 percent.”

The 5 percent cut would be based on census data, so schools with lower enrollments could face a higher percentage in cuts to their programs.

“Census information will dictate how the dollars are spent,” Gertsema said. “We will not know how we’ll be impacted until the feds tell the state and the state tells us.”

YSD business manager Jason Bietz said the district has nearly $382,000 invested with Title I funds, equivalent to about six teaching positions. If the government cuts Title I by 5 percent, YSD would face a cut of around $20,000 to the program.
In addition, YSD has more than $194,000 in the Title II A program, with three full-time equivalent positions invested, and a 5 percent cut would mean $9,700 taken from the program at YSD.

The IDEA (special education) program at YSD has 9.8 full-time equivalent teachers in it, and an investment of about $656,000. If YSD faces a 5 percent cut, it would mean a loss of around $33,000.

Early childhood programs would also be impacted by government cuts, and YSD’s program would face a loss of around $1,000.

All told, Bietz said, the cuts would mean a loss of around $63,000 from the YSD budget.

“The sequester with the federal programs is a bit of a curve that we weren’t anticipating would be fully enacted,” he said. “But it’s here and we have to deal with it and assume it will fully happen. The cuts we face, if put together, are about the equivalent of one certified position.”

Also at the meeting, board members approved changes to the Yankton High School (YHS) language arts curriculum.

“There is a seven-year cycle we go through where we review the curriculum and textbooks,” Gertsema said. “Sometimes changes come with changing education standards.”

Faculty members began working on the new curriculum more than a year ago, and compared the curriculum to be sure it would be aligned with the new Common Core standards.

“With addressing the new standards, we dropped one course which didn’t line up with the Common Core,” Kindle said. “We also combined some courses and re-named ninth grade grammar to English 9.”

He added that some of the course names were changed to bring the district up to date with the technology and other course resources available.

“We really haven’t reduced the number of courses in the department that much within the last 20 years,” said Jill Mikkelsen, who was on the curriculum review committee. “Some of the characteristics of the courses we had were overlapping, so we made changes.”

She added that faculty members began revising the curriculum last spring and the change over to the Common Core standards came at a perfect time for the department because they were already looking to amend the language arts curriculum.

“We’ve been looking to add more non-fiction to the classes we offer,” Mikkelsen said. “They’re not sweeping changes we made, but we feel really good about the curriculum changes.”

Also Monday, the board members heard a report from child nutrition supervisor Sandi Kramer on the summer food program and the proposed Department of Agriculture (USDA) school food guidelines.

The summer food program takes place at Webster School and feeds about 200 kids and a dozen adults each week.

“We like having adults eat with students and talk to them during lunch,” Kramer said. “The program is aided a lot by some staff members, volunteers and young adults that help out by volunteering.”

Some of the proposed food guidelines districts face include restricted juice sizes, calorie limits on snacks and entrees, and the limitation of vended items to fruit, vegetable, whole grain, protein or dairy products.

The regulations would also cover items sold during bake sales, and officials want bake sales to be monitored.

“The USDA is seeking comments on the proposal until April,” Kramer said. “This would impact a lot of the programs we have here, including the a la carte choices and the vending machine options we have for students.”

Additional agenda items  included:

• Authorizing a non-exclusive licensing agreement with LRG Prep LLC to track, verify and audit licensing royalties for use of YSD name, marks, seal and mascots;

• Approving a project development agency agreement with Johnson Controls, Inc., for a premises evaluation study and energy usage audit in accordance with design-build procedures;

• Approving an amendment to the YEA master contract by adding the following sentence: “However, at the end of the 2012-13 school term, a maximum of 10 teachers will be allowed to elect early retirement.”;

• Granting eight early retirement requests;

• Approving the resignation of Sandra Hoffner;

• Approving a lease agreement with Lewis and Clark Shriners Club for the use of Crane Youngsworth Field for a circus on July 9.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal