As Board Members wrapped up the meeting on September 11th, several key points emerged from the regularly scheduled discussion. The meeting started with a particular budget Hearing. Justin Knopf began the hearing by asking for comments from the public, and there were none. The primary concern of the hearing was the 2023-24 budget taxes for the USD 306 district. They have required a higher tax for the tax revenue budget to support the USD 306 Budget. We must pay more taxes to help the USD 306 school district provide what we currently have. Kelsey Loader, clerk of the board, signed this off.
Next is our board of education meeting. The big start off by the FFA council, which includes our president, Lane Fritz, Schuyler, Treasure, Anna Karber, and secretary Brynna Baird is our reporter. The FFA National Convention is coming up from October 31st – Nov. 4th. Lane Fritz talks about what they do at the convention. The FFA National Convention is held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Board approval is necessary when going out of state. They also need financial assistance since the convention will be an expensive trip, with gas and hotel lodging. They don’t have that much fundraising money yet. 6-0 approval by the board to go to the FFA convention.
The next thing on the agenda was to talk about out-of-district students. They have narrowed it down from all the out-of-district students but still want more from what they have. Roger Stumpf proposed an idea about setting enrollment caps for different grade levels. They have not put them yet, and I don’t think they will tell us the caps. They will tell us how many spots are open for that class. If they do this, People can send in out-of-district applicants, but they are not guaranteed to be accepted. Depending on the count of Applications, this could go one to two ways. First come, first serve, or lottery ticket style. If they have only three or four applications, it will be first come, first serve. They will do a lottery ticket style if they have ten or more. They are picking it out of a cap to be accepted. This will mess up the system of staff, kids, and families. They would part from their families to go to a different school because they are out of the district. No one thinks that the Lottery ticket system should be continued. It’s not suitable for all of the kids. They believed that families should stick together. If we pass this, The student population will decrease for the upcoming and likely the next school year.
Another thing that they have to do is accept all of the non-mobile kids no matter what. That already sets off the system for taking out-of-district kids for accepting kids even though they are out of the district. I’m not saying they are wrong for accepting them and their abilities, but wouldn’t that break the system they are trying to put on us? Kids want to be admitted to this school for the education that they deserve. We have great teachers to teach excellent subjects and build a bond with them. Then they start talking about kids they want for academics and sports to make them at SES. Another conflict with this is the housing situation. Not many people want to live in Gypsum because of the houses and how far they have to go to get groceries and gas. So they tend to venture away from Gypsum to be closer to all these needs. So, wouldn’t we still want to count people out of the district to keep this school running? Funding is always a big thing for our school. We would have fewer students if we cut off out-of-district kids. Roger says, “They are creating chaos and tension.” Roger starts talking about how suburban schools don’t take out-of-district students to keep the school at a smaller population and force a wedge between in and out-of-district kids. The board thinks there will be a backlash for pushing boundaries. They were talking to one of their representatives and were unhappy with the wedge. They thought it was pretty belligerent.
Next month, we will have data from the beginning of the school district to put together a presentation about the out-of-district and in-district populations. In and out-of-district conversations will be in the board meetings throughout the year. New board members will be talked about and present. Next month is going to be a heck of a lot to tell us about the upcoming year.
