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Update - Take A look at the Franklin High School Band Performing in the July 4th Parade

By Janet Evans
Friday, Jun 27 2008, 06:36 PM



*****************************   
Update 2


It looks like pressure from the Bloggers, the Civic Celebration committee, the community and students have done the job.  School Board member David Works just told me that he spoke to Dr. Patz and he is working on releasing the instruments  to the Drum Major so any students who would like to participate in the parade will be allowed to do so.  Let's hope everything works out and that there are enough students around to have a good enough showing.

Also, Greg Kowalski informed me that Mr. Cady called Jeanine Olson from the Civic Celebrations Committee and told her the Band Director Scott Julius agreed to help coordinate the parade.  I also received an email from Mr. Cady verifying this,  I asked if Mr. Julius is being compensated for his leadership of the Band, and was told he was.  Mr. Cady also had this to say:

I do want to say that our school does really value our community and we do understand
and respect that our community has an expectation that the school gives
back.  The band has performed for community events on numerous occasions
such as performing at fund raisers for the cultural center, providing
entertainment for hundreds of our seniors each spring when we host a
dinner and first viewing of our musical and our students complete
hundreds of hours of community service every year.  It is important that
we do these things, we know that and will continue to strive to improve
our efforts in this area.


An interesting turn of events.

We'll remember this quote from Dave Szychlinski for next year:

“I spoke with Dr. Patz this morning and he
promised me that no matter happens this year, we will handle this
differently in the future so this never happens again.”



 


 
***************************** 


Update 1

This has nothing to do with a referendum.

I talked to the United Music Parent's President (UMPS), Rhonda Gross, this morning.

Last year the parade was run by the student Drum Major.   She said there may not even be enough students available right now.  This happened a month ago.  The volunteers were in charge in the past.

Contracts are still in negotiations for some of the teachers right now.  You can bet it will be discussed for a band teacher to participate in the parade.  The School District does care about the Community.  They've gotten off easy all these years because they have had a strong parent group like UMPS.  Also, being that it's late...kids make plans when it gets late.  They don't wait around.  There aren't 300 kids sitting home waiting to march knowing that they don't have a leader.  You would think the new Band Director could have stepped up, but no, he didn't have a contract.  Obviously he wanted to get paid.  He could be out of town too.  Who knows.  The UMPS President says he's good with the students. 

Not everything revolves around a referendum. 

It has been said to our faces at the meetings it will be a while before there is a referendum.  

Do we have a date yet?

No.

They need to get land first.

The band isn't playing because many people screwed up.

Period.





*****************************   
















?
 




Don’t see anything but an empty space?

That’s because as of this posting there will be no Franklin High School Marching Band in the parade.

And don’t hold your breath for one either.

Franklin blogger, Greg Kowalski brought up this issue last night on his Metro Milwaukee Today blog.

I looked into it a little further today to clarify the issue.

Tanya Ruder, District Communications Specialist reports that:

We have had some very generous parents and students who have dedicated
their time in the past to organize the band for the parade.  This has
never been a school or district organized event.  This year there was no
outside person or group that worked on organizing the band.  The Civic
Celebration Planning Committee was notified that the band would not be
participating approximately a month ago. 

While the district is well aware that the community supports the band
and would like to have them participating, the time frame for this year
is now too short to prepare them for the event.  We are going to work on
having the appropriate staff for the parade next year that can work with
available students to perform in the parade.  This not only ensures that
the band will be present, but they will also be well rehearsed.

We appreciate all of the support that our community shows for the
Franklin High School Band and we look forward to participating in the
parade next year.”

Dave Szychlinski, School Board President says:

“I spoke with Dr. Patz this morning and he
promised me that no matter happens this year, we will handle this
differently in the future so this never happens again.”




I find the Civic Celebration Planning Committee at fault also.  If they knew about this a month ago, as stated, they could have tried to find a band from another area to participate.  Hales Corners has their parade late in the afternoon.  Perhaps Whitnall's band might have played in our parade.  It’s just a thought…you never know.  It’s just that, a parade needs at least one band.

My main gripe is that, if this was made public perhaps a community volunteer with music experience, and I know there are some of you out there, might have stepped forward  and volunteered a few hours with these students to practice a couple songs for the parade and marched with them on July 4th….for free!  Does money always have to be an issue here?  Does a contract for a teacher have to come into play?  Can a teacher volunteer their services for a few hours in the summer? 

Go ahead....criticize me for bringing that up.  But I sit at School Board meetings for hours and I don’t have children in school.  I can battle anyone about volunteering if you want….I have many, many years of it behind me.
So, Franklin citizens…enjoy the parade…

Perhaps we will have to resort to this...




"Ingenuity at its best is seen with the creation of Willimantic’s Boom Box Parade. In 1986, no marching band could be found for Memorial Day. Five weeks later, the “Boom Box Parade” concept was born, where the local radio station, WILI, plays the marching band music on the air, and thousands of parade goers loudly play their radios (boom boxes). Anyone can march in this one-of-a-kind people’s parade. The only requirements are to wear some red, white and blue and bring a radio tuned to WILI (1400AM). American flags are optional but encouraged. There is no “official” theme for the parade. Past parade marchers have included the “Traveling Fish Head Club of Northeastern Connecticut”, which in 2003 had a “herring town” entry and in 2001 had a tribute to the Frog Bridge. Grand Marshal Wayne Norman, a WILI personality, always leads the parade."


The Boom Box Parade - July 4th Celebration




But we can call it the Boomgaard Box Parade...

That's the way things in Franklin are going lately....







Happy 4th of July



***************************** 



 

Franklin School Board-Something Wicked This Way Comes

By Janet Evans
Thursday, Jun 26 2008, 07:14 AM


Residents of Franklin, I don’t know where to begin…

Last night I attended the June 25th regular School Board meeting.  I only have three things to cover.  Two of them will be quick.

First, important…but it was breezed over.  The Budget Draft, in its current form, was approved.  Jeff Traylor, Finance Committee Chairperson, was not present, and there was no report.

Next, I’m jumping ahead to the July 4th parade….

The Board will be participating in the parade and handing out ice cream afterwords.  They will also be having an “Are you smarter than a 5th grader? contest on July 4th from 2-4 p.m. in a tent at the celebration. 

I applaud the Board for their effort in participating in the Civic Celebration.



Now this….

I have to say I was stunned…just stunned at what transpired at the Board meeting. 

First I’ll fill you in and then you can read my transcript (which will be missing a few words do to crosstalk).

Dr. Patz offered the Board information that he received a phone call from a “Developer.”  The name of the Developer is never stated.  Although, I believe it was mentioned once late in the conversation by one Board member, but it was during crosstalk, so it can’t be verified.

The Developer is assumed (by me as I attend Common Council meetings) to either be Greg Devorkin or David Hintzman.  Both have had their hands in the Sendik’s on Rawson.

More from me after you read the transcript:

 


 

Dr. Patz: 

I received a phone call about a week ago from a Developer in the area.  He’s got some affiliation, I believe at the current time with part of the development of the Sendik’s on Rawson, and his request was to have the School District write a letter to the City in terms of promoting and endorsing Economic Development.  He had apparently had some involvement with the City in his project and it went one direction, and another direction, and so on.  But I would seek the Boards direction to ask if you wanted to be involved.  It wouldn’t be on behalf of the Developer, per se.  It would be a general letter supporting Economic Development.
 

David Works:

 I think it’s a good idea.  I think we should do it.
  

Mary Karolewicz:

Well it would be located obviously in our District.  As you know the city’s 70/30 goal of Economic Development and in relation to Residential Development hasn’t been completed yet or reached.  It is a while before that will occur because obviously the city is still growing.  But it is within our School District’s boundaries; it would help to alleviate some of the tax burden on our residents by sharing it a little bit so I guess I would go along with what Dave said. 
 

Dr. Ward:

  It wasn’t clear, was this Business Development?

Dr. Patz:  Yes, yes.
  

Dave Szychlinski: 

So are you asking the Board to give the authority to write a letter, not in support of a specific project but in support of Economic Development?
 

Dr. Patz:

Right that was the request, from this Developer, not particularly on his behalf, but on behalf of Economic Development.
 

Dave Szychlinski:

I think it’s harmless to send such a letter, and I think the City Council and the Mayor certainly know that we support anything that can be done to even out the tax base but I would be resistant of trying to support any specific project because we don’t have any knowledge or the details of that project but if you feel it is important to send a letter accordingly, then I think you have the consensus of this group to go forward with that.

Dr. Ward: 

I guess my only comment would be to make sure the Developer talks about the development in our district because there’s a lot of development in Franklin that’s not in our district.  So we would certainly not want to support something that would […] our tax.

Dave Szychlinski:

But having said that. All development in Franklin is good.  Yes, we would prefer for it to be in Franklin’s School District […].
 

Dr. Patz: 

I believe it was his opinion that because he was denied some of the things he was putting forward that I believe he felt that he was getting the signal that weren’t concerned with Economic Development for School Projects […] His perception is that Franklin doesn’t want a certain amount of developments to occur in Franklin […]

Dave Szychlinski:

Very interesting question…I’m not sure how his project didn’t get approved. [...]
 



Mary Karolewicz:

I think a lot of development has gone on along the fringes of Franklin and there have been some consummated general I think overall the city is working at their master plan and the plan commission is looking very hard to generate the right type of development , but it stalls sometimes.

 Dave Szychlinski:

Well, having served for a year on the Plan Commission with Mr. Ritter, here’s my observation and the City welcomes development and the City doesn’t channel people into the School District or not into the District, people want to develop where they want to develop.  And if parcels of land are…they don’t pay much attention to where the School District boundaries are drawn.
 

Mary Karolewicz:

And I’m not saying that.

Linda Witkowski: 

Do we have meetings with the City?

Dave Szychlinski:

 Well, we have that, we have that.  I’ve talked to the Mayor about it.  I’ve met with him.  That’s why it’s an interesting request because the City’s aware of the fact that the School District would like to see more development.  […] So I’m not sure this letter is really going to help anything, but if you feel the need to want to do it. 

Dr. Patz: 

Not a need…I’m just bringing forth this gentleman’s request and certainly we can communicate it personally to the city in the same manner.  It’s just not going to be personal to any developer
 

Dr. Ward: 

I’m just not sure...I just don’t think we should talk about a specific project.  H
e would have the opportunity to say to City Official’s , “See the School District approved this Development why don’t you approve it.” 

Dr. Patz: 

You might want to have a conversation with the Mayor and see if he thinks legal council might be helpful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



 

Why the anonymity?  At a public meeting...speaking to the Board ...about a request from a Developer.  Why is it the name of the Developer could not be said aloud?  Why must a records request  be done in order to get the Developer's name...even though I know it is either Hintzman or Devorkin? 

What is going on with the Board?  First, they don't really have a clue as to what is going on in the City in regards to Hintzman and Devorkin; or with Dairy Queen, or with the Fountains of Franklin or with Mayor Taylor and the Plan Commission ....that was evident.  Only Mary Karolewicz comes to some of the Common Council meetings...and she got off topic regarding the request for the letter.


Dave Szychlinski told me at a past meeting he had no intention of having meetings jointly with the city unless there was something specific to discuss.  All of a sudden he's been having meetings?  What's up with that?  Is that the Mayor's doing?  Development meetings with the Board President all of a sudden.  Are they official meetings or just coffee meetings at 5-Star?  Because, if all of a sudden we are going to be having meetings...I am wondering why we can't have a public meeting...how about just one?  One public meeting between the Common Council and the School Board. 


A request from the "Developer?"  Not from the common Council or the Mayor?  If Developer [insert name here] is making this request rather than the Mayor or the Common Council, isn't that a red flag right there?  Doesn't that say that Developer [insert name here] has an agenda?  Doesn' t our School Board have more pressing issues at hand (a budget shortfall) than dealing with the City politics of Developer [insert name here]?

Dr. Jim Ward and Linda Witkowski at least had a panicked, quizzical look on their faces and at least attempted to question what the heck was going on. 

I tell you, if the School Board wants to show the City or the Community that the are pro-Economic Development....(which we already know they are anyway...the question does not even need to be asked) there is a simple solution....

Don't make Franklin a living Tax Hell!

Because of this incident...





and a couple coconuts ....







 

Franklin School Board Finance Committee Meeting 06/18/08

By Janet Evans
Wednesday, Jun 18 2008, 10:46 PM



I attended the Franklin Public School’s Finance Committee Meeting tonight at the Education and Community Center.  The committee consists of Chairperson, Jeff Traylor, and members Dave Szychlinski and Linda Witkowski.  All other Board members were present except for Jim Ward.

Linda Witkowski, with her finance background, had gone over the budget that was presented June 4th and had put together some questions for Mr. Milzer, Director of Business Services and Assistant Superintendent.   

I want to say that what newly elected Alderman Kristen Wilhelm is to the Common Council, newly elected Board member Linda Witkowski is to the School Board.  They are intelligent, refreshing, compassionate, question-asking to the point of being obviously annoying to their fellow members, but all the more making them deserving of holding the seat they were elected to by their constituents.  If either of these elected officials wants answers to questions before they make a decision that impacts an important issue in our city government…ask away, as far as I’m concerned.

Linda asked some tough financial questions tonight, and made some requests for reports that may need to be adapted to be functional as far as using district resources.  But she is asking for information in order to make financial and budget information available to us, the citizens of Franklin in an easy format and in a transparent way.  She has an idea as to how this might be accomplished…by comparing historical data.  We’ll see if she gets her request granted. 

The items covered were:

Making sure that the public understands FTE and staffing cuts regarding the budget.

Projected growth for the district:  currently we are not expected to have upward growth.

Mock Budget:  Linda made a request for a “mock budget” to be prepared to use to make comparisons.  It would be a historical budget.  Mr. Milzer said because it would be old data, it would not be accurate and would not be appropriate.  Linda said data could also be compared to other school districts.  Some of this data is available on the DPI website…but it is 2 yrs. old.  Some of this data would take much time to gather.  There was much discussion on this topic as to if it is necessary, with some disagreement between Dave Szychlinski and Linda Witkowski.  Linda just wants answers available to the public when they ask questions.  Dave said it isn’t of value in determining the budget at hand.

Funding from the state will change after 2011 regarding the business Park/TIF.  This is a huge concern.

Brief discussion regarding fees.  This should be brought up again at a Personnel and Policy meeting.  According to Board policy, fees should be reviewed each year.  The subject of Summer School fees was brought up by Mr. Milzer.  He said that DPI complained that we couldn’t charge more than $20, even when we were providing bussing.

Another discussion - this on class sizes, and comparing Board policies from other districts.  It was said the public could link to information on the web.  Linda said she doesn’t think citizens should have to link to info …it should be provided to them and should be clear and transparent.  People need to know what they are paying for.

Next, questions were raised about energy and buildings being energy efficient.  It was said many of our buildings are not energy efficient.  Linda said she wanted a rating ..on progress, are we making any progress in becoming efficient.  I asked if we had an energy manager.  I am aware of other districts that have them.  Franklin does not.  Our maintenance staff supposedly monitors this.  It was suggested by the Board that perhaps the district should see about getting evaluated by WE Energies.

The MAPS program (assessment program) was discussed and its proposed cost of $25,000.

Regarding the suggestions I had offered at the June 4th budget meeting:  I had been given responses from Mr. Milzer.  Linda was interested in the response regarding forms.  Mr. Milzer said there are currently 40 forms on the internal website.  Linda asked how many forms were there total?  Mr. Milzer said approximately 100.

I asked about the teacher incentive program for teacher absences in order to help curb overuse of substitute teachers.  I wanted to clarify it was not a monetary incentive.

I also wanted to clarify the Senior Citizen incentive in order to allow admittance to events and help gain more volunteers.  Dr. Patz said Tana Ruder is working on this.

Basically, this was a meeting about financial communication, in my opinion.  And a meeting where Linda Witkowski put her footprint on the Board.




 

Update: A Franklin Citizen Questions the School Board

By Janet Evans
Monday, Jun 16 2008, 04:15 PM



Today I received a response from Mr. Jim Milzer regarding the questions and concerns (below) from a Franklin citizen that were brought up after the Committee of the Whole Meeting on June 4th.  

I was not told who addressed specific questions/concerns.



The response is in .pdf format:

Response to Unidentified Citizen   ç here

06/17/08

Response from From Unidentified Citizen:

I'm satisfied with the answers.  I have no "axe to grind" with our district.  I appreciate the response, and the time taken to explain.

Unidentified Citizen





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I received an email from a Franklin citizen who was in attendance at the Committee of the Whole meeting of the Franklin School Board, on June 4th.  The individual does not feel comfortable contacting the Board members directly, for personal reasons, but would like answers to the following questions, and would also like to share these concerns.

I am posting the questions from the email, with permission, as I think they are interesting, along with forwarding them to the Board, Dr. Patz, Judy Mueller and Mr. Milzer.  Hopefully the questions will get answered.

Here is a link to my report on the meeting, which has a link to the 1st draft of the 08-09  budget:

Franklin School Board 06-04-08 Committee of the Whole Meeting


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Email Questions/Concerns from Citizen Regarding 08-09 Budget:


I was very pleased with the school board asking to see the FTE posted next
to the staffing projections. I too am interested in those numbers.

I am also interested in why I was told at the meeting that no teachers had
been laid off. Tacked onto that statement was a comment that some hours in
art and music had been cut. According to the numbers quoted that would have
been .1 FTE. 1/10th of a position.

When I talked to representatives in those departments - they told me that
two part time teachers had been laid off, and that the total of the two
would have been around 1 FTE not .1. So I am interested in this discrepancy.
I am more interested in accuracy of the presentation than the bad news. I
want finance representatives who aren't going to gloss over a situation.

I also would like to know what areas were considered for strategic
abandonment and what the general strategy or order was. Were staffing
positions considered first because they are the largest budget area? Or were
teachers considered last due to student impact? Exactly what were the
underlying principles used to come to decisions.

Were all budget areas considered? And by that I don't mean "yes, staffing was
considered". I would like to know if all areas of staffing were considered.

I have heard that our district is top-heavy. I've heard it from a lot of
different sources, and there are things I see volunteering that support the
concept of too many chiefs, too few Indians. However, I am not overly
familiar with the structure at a district level. So I started researching.

A quick perusal of our own staff directory on the website shows that 34 out
of 393 employees work at ECC. 1 in 10 didn't strike me as a good number, but
I don't know what those people do, so I started comparing our numbers to
other numbers on the DPI website.


We have 1 administrator for every 246 students.
Greenfield has 1/264
Greendale has 1/208
MPS has 1/178
Oak Creek - Franklin has 1/301

The numbers say that we aren't really top heavy. Or, more likely, if we are,
so is the rest of the system. It also shows that there are school districts
out there who are similar in size that have fewer administrative positions.
Have we researched what districts like Oak Creek Franklin and Glendale
-River Hills, and South Milwaukee are doing to maintain a better
administrative ratio?

It might be expedient for a corresponding cut in administrative FTE to
balance that out cuts in teacher’s hours. Certainly a decreasing staff and
student body means that there is a corresponding decrease in administrative
duties somewhere along the line. That means if we cut 5 positions from our
teaching staff we should be looking to eliminate a part time position at the
district level. If nothing else even a few hours trimmed from the
administrative budget might go a long way in paving the way for better
teacher relations. If we are willing to reposition our teachers and assign
them new duties, maybe we need to consider that at the top too.

I do believe good administration is worth keeping and paying. Good
administration will also have the respect of those who work under them.

My suggestions/comments on the budget meeting:

1. An impact report on proposed budgetary cuts would be helpful. This report
should have an emphasis on what this will mean to the student population.
For instance, we were able to cut three elementary positions due to a
decrease in student populations. Thankfully, we were told that no one was
laid off. Yet there are other costs to the student in reorganization. This
might mean some large classes. It might mean teachers who are teaching new
grade-levels and curriculum. I fully understand that you do the best that
you can, but I also realize that there is more than one way to arrange what
gets cut, that different people are going to have different ideas on what is
important.

2. There was no mention at the meeting that administrative or support
positions had been looked at alongside of teaching staff for budget cuts. I
certainly hope that these were considered, but I have no real assurances
that they were

3. I was very happy to see the budget posted to the website. It is good to
see that the school board is trying to improve its relationship with the
community. Something to consider. When I get an e-mail inviting me to a
meeting on the day of that meeting, I start to wonder what is being covered
that someone wants to push through with little comment. A week in advance
for those notices would be much more appropriate.

4.  I really would like a clear answer on how many teachers have been laid
off and what programs are affected. I am hoping to understand why I am
getting two different numbers from the teachers and from the district.

5.  Mr. Milzer mentioned that out-sourcing payroll wouldn’t be a good idea due to loss in corporate knowledge in that area.  I would love to see the same argument applied to moving our teachers around to fill different positions.


 

 

Updated - Franklin School Board 06/04/08 Committee of the Whole

By Janet Evans
Thursday, Jun 5 2008, 11:45 AM


 

Draft #1 of the 2008-2009 Franklin Public Schools Budget


 

Jim Milzer presented the Budget Draft in the simplest terms possible at the meeting, and every member of the audience was presented with a copy of the draft.  The floor was open for comments and questions during the entire presentation.  Once again, the Board is keeping their communication with the public moving forward.

The main concern coming from the audience seemed to be over elementary teaching positions and whether there were staff cuts.  There seems to be confusion over this.  It doesn't appear there were "cuts," except for a Special Education position.  This was more shifting of positions, retirements, etc.


Staffing Explanation

(from my Personnel & Policy Committee Meeting and the Finance Committee Meetings report 04/09/08)


Elementary level lost 3.6 FTE (Full time equivalent)
Forest Park lost 1.0 FTE (Special Education teacher)
High School lost 2.10 FTE (retirement, P.E./Health 1/4, efficiency in sectioning math,
                                                                             stacking computer class)

For a total Projected Loss of 6.7 FTE
and a Projected gain of +.5 FTE (ESL Program at High School)

= 6.2 FTE Staffing Reduction in Budget Draft

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




From what I understand, the Business Department put this draft together with no input from the Board.  I believe this is standard procedure.  Next, the Board Finance Committee with go over the Draft on June 18th where they will consider any questions and comments from the Committee of the Whole meeting, along with anything else that may come up in the next two weeks.   It's not too late...if you couldn't make it to the meeting, give a Board member a call if you have any suggestions or comments before the Finance meeting.

The number of students in the District isn't determined until September and the amount of State aid isn't determined until October, therefore, the Budget is not finalized until fall. 

Changes in the Draft will continue to be made along the way.



Estimated Tax Levy Rates:


    2007-08   2008-09   $ Diff   % Diff
                 
                 
Total Assessed Tax Levy Rate   10.89   11.18   0.29   2.7%




Estimated Property Tax Implications of Proposed 2008-09 Budget
Franklin Public Schools Community Service
Additional Per Year Additional Per Year
Assessed Value of $100,000 28.35 0.43
Assessed Value of $200,000 56.71 0.85





Citizens were asked to come with ideas about the Budget.  I happened to come with some suggestions....some small, some large.  Several of these may be possible, maybe some of these aren't possible for our district.  But I think they are worth looking into.  Every dollar counts and I put thought into the ideas:


15-Plus Suggestions to the Franklin Public Schools
for Saving Tax Dollars in the 2008-09 SY Budget and Beyond
1. Every form used by the district should be put on the staff intranet in a
shared directory.  All old copies of forms should be destroyed.
Forms should be printed on an as-needed basis and updated yearly.
If a District employee does not know how to access staff intranet, provide mandatory training.
2. Spend less money on the District newsletter mailed out.  
They are glossy, they are pretty…but we are not hanging them up.
I can guarantee that many people are not even reading them.  
3. Ask and you shall receive….
Make sure all newsletters are being mailed and/or emailed to all Franklin businesses.
Include an insert with a list of special equipment needed by the District or schools.
4. Salaries/compensation are the main expenditures for the District.
Teachers are needed here every day.  Subs are an added cost.
Review the sub call-in program.  Is it automatic or manual?
Manual is more efficient.
Make sure subs are utilized as best as possible and if they are called 
for a full day they are actually subbing…not doing other tasks like
copying, stapling, sorting, busywork, etc.
5. The District should offer an incentive program with an attendance 
bonus to discourage excessive absences, for teachers with
perfect attendance, at the end of each quarter.  This may save on substitute costs.
6. Teachers should schedule training or conferences on days
when students are not present, and substitutes are not necessary, whenever possible.
Have Staff Development providers come to the District to provide training instead of teachers going out for training, whenever possible, to save
on expenses.  Use Administrators and as mentors to provide training
for Staff Development.
7. Issue "Golden Tickets" to seniors or retirement-age taxpayers in the 
District, giving them free admittance to student sporting events and drama events.  Record their attendance and recruit those active citizens as
volunteers in schools.
8. Hire a retired teacher to do Grant writing.  Make sure all timelines are met for Grants.  Make sure no Grant funds go unused.
9. Sell any of the land the District owns that we are positive we will
not use for development.  We will bring in revenue, and put the property back on the tax rolls.
10. Is there a payroll processing service /vendor capable of doing payroll for 
the District as well or better for a lower cost? Investigate.
11. Insist upon everyone...the Board, the Superintendent...everyone 
else in the District, giving receipts for every reimbursement.
12. Make sure every child who is eligible for free and reduced lunch is signed up for the program.
13. Review special education  transportation to ensure that only students who
are specifically required to be on special education busses are
riding them.  Perhaps a child in speech therapy may be assigned
to a special education bus in error and may be able to ride a regular
school bus.  Or, perhaps an IEP may have transportation written
under related services in error when the child should be riding a regular bus.
14. More students in the District means more money.
Plus, don't we want all of our students being educated?