Lyons Elementary District 103

Board Meeting Report

7/19/10

Below is a synopsis of Lyons Elementary District 103’s most recent board meeting.  These are not official minutes, but an overview of the work the board of education completed.

Discussion Topics

1. Student and Staff Survey Results – Dr. Warner presented a copy of the student and staff surveys broken down by building, given this past May, to the board members for review.  He pointed out that each question on the survey has school results and district results.  Dr. Warner will be meeting with each principal individually to review their school’s results and to discuss areas in which the student or staff responses were significantly different than the district results.  Dr. Warner will also go over the open-ended responses with the principals.  Dr. Warner also said that he expects the principals to share the survey results with their staff and discuss some of the items with them. As a result of these conversations, Dr. Warner expects that the principals will create an action plan to address some of the issues as part of their yearly goals. 
2. End of Year Financial Review – Mr. Schiffer reviewed the district’s finances as of the end of June, 2010.  Expenditures were $138,000 under budget for the year.  This was primarily attributed to over-budgeting in the IMRF fund and the Supplies and Materials fund.  Revenues were approximately $1 million over-budget.  The district was very conservative in estimating the percent of property tax revenues it expected to receive – 90%.  By the end of the year, the district collected 94% of the levied property taxes – this represented $800,000 more revenue than budgeted.  The state made an unanticipated payment for mandated categoricals (i.e. transportation and special education) which should have been paid in FY09 but was actually received during FY10, which also increased revenues more than budgeted.  Mr. Schiffer said that he was working on the FY11 budget and expected the budget to have a deficit of $375,000, or more.

Action Item

The board approved its 2010-11 goals, as shown below:

The board of education for the Lyons Elementary School District 103 is committed to helping students reach for the stars by helping each one achieve at his/her highest possible academic level.  In order to accomplish this, we will focus on the following goals during the 2010-11 school year:

1)  We will support curricular, instructional, and extra-curricular programs that are designed to help students achieve at their highest possible academic level.

·The curriculum will be evaluated to ensure that it challenges all of our students to achieve at their highest possible academic level and is being implemented consistently in every classroom.

·Decisions regarding the instructional program will be made after carefully analyzing pertinent data.

·The Core Reading Program will be implemented in every classroom of every school, K-8.

·A common set of supplemental programs designed support our curriculum and instruction will be identified and implemented at every school.

·A common set of extra-curricular programs will be identified and offered in every school.

·A plan to address the expected enrollment increase at GWMS will be developed during 2010-11 and implemented the following school year.

2) We will ensure the fiscal stability of the district.

·We will develop a plan that by the 2012-13 school year, expenditures will not exceed revenues in the Operating Funds.

3) We will create a climate of respect between all members of the District 103 community.

·Bullying in any form (verbal, written, electronic) is not respectful and will not be tolerated.  All members of the school community are expected to use board-approved tools such as the Second Step program to reduce incidents of bullying, including bullying that occurs through the use of technology..

·Students who misbehave are not showing respect to other students and/or staff members: we will implement a Positive Behavior System in each school to reduce the number of student misbehaviors.

·Staff members should show respect for each other, students, and parents.

4)  We will improve our communications between all members of the District 103 community.

·We will celebrate the successes and achievements of our students and staff members.

·We will develop systems to provide staff, parents and community members with timely information about the status of our schools and the students within them.

·We will use our communications systems to tell others about the strengths of our schools and school district.

·We will support the formation of an educational foundation to benefit students, staff, and anyone in our educational community.

The next regular board meeting will be on Monday, August 30^th at the Admin Building at 7:00 PM.

The next Committee of the Whole meeting will be on Monday, August 9th at the Admin Building at 7:00 PM.