Genesee School District Superintendent

I appreciate our teachers and staff so much! Their...

2010-05-12T08:08:23.267-07:00

I appreciate our teachers and staff so much! Their love of children and dedication to the education of those children is evident in their day-to day kindness and concern, their knowledgeable guidance, and their willingness to do more and go farther than is strictly required of an employee. What's more, I trust this school with my children's well-being for most of their day! That is not something I take lightly! I appreciate that my kids (and others) are safely cared for and being prepared to be great citizens of our world.

We try not to go too far into June for several rea...

2010-05-02T18:21:34.215-07:00

We try not to go too far into June for several reasons. One is that summer school for the teachers often begins the second week of June and we do not want them to miss the opportunity. Also many parents whose children participate in community softball and baseball programs prefer that the calendar not go too far into June.

I certainly agree with you regarding the weather but that has not been a major factor in our discussions.

Mr. N., I am just curious why the calendar always ...

2010-05-01T08:18:06.604-07:00

Mr. N., I am just curious why the calendar always stops so early in June? Can we start a little later in year and go another week in June? The weather doesn't seem to cooperate in June, but is usually beautiful in Aug/early Sept. It seems that most local schools go later into the month. Why the early end? Thanks so much for all your efforts. Susan

I would suggest you attend the regular May board m...

2010-04-20T13:37:44.423-07:00

I would suggest you attend the regular May board meeting on May 10 at 7:00 PM. You can ask the trustees during the unscheduled visitor section of the agenda or you can contact me and I will place you on the agenda as a scheduled visitor.

Is there any way that the board would reconsider t...

2010-04-20T13:29:25.108-07:00

Is there any way that the board would reconsider the kindergarten bus route? My daughter really wants to attend school but without a way to get her to daycare safely she would not be able to attend. I am sure I am not the only parent with this problem, is there any suggestions out there?

hooray!

2010-04-14T11:06:04.372-07:00

hooray!

I am a wee saddened by the traditional modified ve...

2010-03-23T14:01:15.463-07:00

I am a wee saddened by the traditional modified version of the calendar. The others seemed so innovative and refreshing.

Please make spring break the last week of March. The first week of April makes no sense and all the fun and cheap community opportunities are over by the time our kids are on break.

Please make Christmas break start no later than Dec 20th. It is frustrating and burdensome to be so cramped for preholiday prep and travel. Many folks left on their vacations last time that happened and the attendance went way down anyway, it seems.

April could have a professional development day moved from another month, such as March's.

October should have the 2 development days together. Then teachers could also take advantage of some of the state wide training offerings that happen on the inservice day, especially if they needed to travel to get to them.

It's good that school would start Aug 30 instead of the 24th.

Sherie Wright

The secondary school will be moving to a seven per...

2010-03-23T13:36:38.812-07:00

The secondary school will be moving to a seven period day to accommodate increased graduation requirements. The additional time allows for more instructional time per period.

So how will that extra half hour a day affect the ...

2010-03-23T13:32:49.335-07:00

So how will that extra half hour a day affect the high school curriculum? It's not going to be enough to add a full period a day. Is it just going to add 5 minutes a day to each class? Is it going to add a new period each week and have alternating days for each class?

Sherie Wright

My oldest went to full-day headstart and full-day ...

2010-03-23T13:30:03.901-07:00

My oldest went to full-day headstart and full-day kindergarten, which were both 4 day a week plus every other Friday prgrams. The length of time wasn't an issue for anybody. It's just how the Bellingham School District did it 14 years ago.

Change is always awkward and uncomfortable. In 2 years no one new will even question how these changes went.

Sherie Wright

The revised calendar looks very reasonable -thanks...

2010-03-17T22:06:44.533-07:00

The revised calendar looks very reasonable -thanks for continuing to work on it. The professional development day on October 8 is a state inservice day. Could the 2nd professional development day in October be October 7th, instead of the 22nd? The students would be in school 3 five-day weeks in October then.

The school board has difficult decisions to make. The discussion about the levy has been sidetracked by the kindergarten/preschool discussion. The kindergarten issues and levy issues aren't related as full-day kindergarten and preschool are tuition-based concepts. I'm hoping full-day kindergarten will remain an option as it would give our children a great start educationally. Many schools in the area offer full-day kindergarten, even five days a week. As Mr. Neumann often indicates, more contact hours in school lead to better test scores. Kim Monk

The curriculum for the afternoon kindergarten opti...

2010-03-17T08:45:48.286-07:00

The curriculum for the afternoon kindergarten option would be enrichment based. In other words, students would be exposed to extensions of curriculum learned in the morning session, but not new material, so that morning-only students would not miss out. The afternoon session would be education-based and we would expect it to benefit the students attending.

Many schools already run full-day kindergarten for all students. The students do fine. Highland School runs full day kindergarten twice a week and every other Friday and their students achieve at the same level as our students.

Having these students eat lunch would actually help reduce costs for the program due to the increased participation without any increase in labor. The main factor that stifles our ability to break even in the lunch program is the percentage of participation.

We have taken into account the possibility that a student might not complete a full year of the extended kindergarten when figuring the tuition rates. We have sent out a questionnaire to gauge parent interest in the program and do not have all of the results back yet to determine if interest is sufficient.

The preschool is also operated to break even as closely as possible. Since both programs are designed to pay for themselves, there would be no fiscal impact to hiring another part-time teacher to handle the preschool or afternoon kindergarten, depending on how it is staffed. It may actually help the preschool program break even if the teacher hired was at a lower pay rate on the salary schedule.

I have several concerns about offering an addition...

2010-03-17T08:18:09.302-07:00

I have several concerns about offering an additional afternoon Kindergarten. My main concern is what exactly is going to be taught to the afternoon group? If not all of the Kindergarten class will be going in the afternoon, then how will you help the ones not attending to catch up with the rest of the class? There will be a huge disparity between the kids, which isn’t at all fair to those kids who do not attend the afternoon session.

Also, I feel that having an all day Kindergarten five days a week for a young child is way too much. Yet, you feel if you don’t send your child that he/she will be behind in their schooling. There is also the added expense of paying for the additional Kindergarten, as well as, extra expense for lunch if you use the lunch program since they will need to be at school all day.

Also, what if someone signs up for the afternoon Kindergarten and then decides to move or doesn’t want to continue sending their child for some reason. If this class is supposed to be paying for itself, then who will make up the money that is lost?

Were there really that many pre-school parents asking for this option? It sounds like some parent(s) just want someone to care for their child after school. The school should not be running a daycare.

Also, it sounds like if the afternoon Kindergarten is implemented that Ms.Weeks will be teaching Kindergarten all day, so then an additional teacher will be hired to teach pre-school. Where is the funding coming from to hire the additional teacher? Why not just continue as is, with Ms. Weeks teaching Kindergarten each morning and pre-school three afternoons a week? This current system seems to be working well and makes the most sense.

The calendar is approved by the Board on recommend...

2010-03-15T09:03:32.906-07:00

The calendar is approved by the Board on recommendation from the Superintendent. Past practice has been for the superintendent to put together a committee with patrons and staff to collaborate on a recommendation. That will happen this year after the levy election.

I do not know of any specific reason that our spring break does not coincide with the colleges breaks other than this has not been the case during the 18 years I have worked for the District. There has never been a push by the committee for a significant change though there is some pressure to return to the last week of March. The conversation in past committee meetings has been that mid-March is too early for spring break.

Since we are looking at changing the school calend...

2010-03-15T08:54:35.093-07:00

Since we are looking at changing the school calendar, I was hoping Genesee's spring break could be changed to coincide with UI,WSU,LCSC with it being in mid-March rather than first week of April.Is there a reason ours is not the same?

I don't mean to keep bringing this up but why ...

2010-03-12T11:01:15.634-08:00

I don't mean to keep bringing this up but why can't we run one bus and stay within the city limits? Those children that are bused out of town must have parents that are stay at home and could come to town and pick up their kids. I would not be able to send my child to kindergarten with out the bus route and knowing that she has a safe way to get to daycare because in my household we would not be able to afford both daycare and the additional kindergarten costs. I know others don't think that child care and education should be in the same sentence but it is a reality for most parents. How much money will the school loose for a drop in kindergarten enrollment?

The two do not necessarily have anything to do wit...

2010-03-12T10:40:19.206-08:00

The two do not necessarily have anything to do with one another.

The mid-day kindergarten bus has not always been provided and recently, because of the large geographic area, it has required two buses. With the state reducing funding from 85% to 50% reimbursement, the trustees made the decision to eliminate the mid-day busing for kindergarten.

Numerous cuts were made to reduce the amount of the levy so as not to over burden taxpayers. Mid-day busing was one of those cuts.

Afternoon kindergarten was a parental request.

Why are we not looking at increasing the levy to i...

2010-03-12T10:08:35.167-08:00

Why are we not looking at increasing the levy to include continuing the mid day bus route and forget about the afternoon kindergarten?

The Board has indicated that even if the levy pass...

2010-03-12T09:33:41.910-08:00

The Board has indicated that even if the levy passes the mid-day kindergarten busing would end.

The decision regarding offering an afternoon kindergarten session rests on the ability of the District to provide this service without losing money. Since we do not know how many parents might be interested in this option, the tuition rate needs to reflect a tiered approach based on the number of students participating. In addition, it has not yet been determined by the Board if the tuition must cover all of the additional cost or the difference between the additional cost and the savings from the elimination of the mid-day transportation.

If the levy passes, is the board still looking at ...

2010-03-12T09:25:04.282-08:00

If the levy passes, is the board still looking at cancelling the mid day kindergarten bus route? Also I received the survey for the afternoon kindergarten and was shocked to see the amount that they are looking to charge each month! When it was mentioned before the highest was $250 and I think that is still high but I was really shocked to see up to $420!!

I struggle with the fact that none of the above po...

2010-03-12T08:09:18.267-08:00

I struggle with the fact that none of the above posts discuss anything related to the education of our children. School is not an alternative to day care, school is specifically to prepare our children to become participating adults. I have young children too, but I don't know that the school is the place to satisfy our needs for child rearing. The moms & dads of these young kids can band together and come up with their own creative solutions for the care of their children, not look to the education system. I realize it is a challenge to work and take care of children, but I think the focus needs to be on those currently enrolled and their education.

The District is aware of the day care issue and we...

2010-03-12T07:52:04.381-08:00

The District is aware of the day care issue and we investigated the possibility of a school-based day care last spring. The Board chose not to proceed with a school-based day care because it was not economically feasible.

Even with a full day kindergarten, you still need ...

2010-03-11T17:17:43.312-08:00

Even with a full day kindergarten, you still need childcare. Where are people finding this daycare? I would pay more to pay for afternoon day care plus after school care than just leaving my child out of school for an additional year.

As parents of a current preschooler and first grad...

2010-03-10T09:58:21.895-08:00

As parents of a current preschooler and first grader (even ones that have childcare available in-town), we are definitely supportive of an all-day kindergarten. We appreciate the idea that both of our kids can go to school at the same time, both can participate in the lunch program if they choose, and both can come home together. We are more than happy to pay a monthly tuition to support this endeavor, much like we currently do for preschool.

A questionnaire is being mailed out today to paren...

2010-03-10T09:43:28.428-08:00

A questionnaire is being mailed out today to parents of preschool students and others in the community who we know will have children of kindergarten age. If you do not receive a questionnaire, please contact the district office. We need an accurate gauge of interest to determine if we will offer the afternoon kindergarten session.