It will be more expensive to be a letterman at Kuna starting next school year.
In order to offset budget cuts from the state, the Kuna school district has instituted a $100 “pay-to-play” fee per sport at the high school and a $30 fee at the middle school.
That means that a student participating in three sports, such as football, basketball and baseball, or volleyball, basketball and softball, will have to pay $300 for the school year.
The move is expected to generate about $125,000 per year, which ostensibly would go toward transportation costs. The revenue still would cover only about a quarter of the costs of providing athletic programs.
Showing posts with label Kuna schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kuna schools. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Next year, Kuna school board should go over budget line by line
Right after Kuna school board members voted unanimously last month to accept a series of cuts and revenue-generating measures for next year’s budget, a couple of audience members let out an enthusiastic, “whoooo!” putting a positive exclamation point on a difficult subject.
In many ways, it was fitting, as it seemed we all let out a sigh of relief at the apparent end of a difficult process of dealing with a shortfall of revenue from the state. The clouds did seem to part and it felt like a pall had been lifted from a painful weeks- long process.
The results seem fair. Everyone, it seems, bears a burden in the cost-cutting. Teachers will take a 4 percent pay cut in furlough days, some students will have to pay a very small fee to park at the high school, those participating in sports will have to come up with money to pay for travel to away games, a couple more administrators were cut and the superintendent and assistant superintendent took pay cuts in furlough days.
The pain seems to be spread around equitably and fairly.
With all that said, though, I would like to see the Kuna school board take a different approach to the budget next year. After all, I feel, it should be the school board members, not a budget reduction team, that sets and passes the yearly budget. And the school board members should have all of the information in front of them, not just a condensed version presented to them by the district administration.
You can read the rest of this opinion in this week's Editor's Notebook in the Kuna Melba News.
In many ways, it was fitting, as it seemed we all let out a sigh of relief at the apparent end of a difficult process of dealing with a shortfall of revenue from the state. The clouds did seem to part and it felt like a pall had been lifted from a painful weeks- long process.
The results seem fair. Everyone, it seems, bears a burden in the cost-cutting. Teachers will take a 4 percent pay cut in furlough days, some students will have to pay a very small fee to park at the high school, those participating in sports will have to come up with money to pay for travel to away games, a couple more administrators were cut and the superintendent and assistant superintendent took pay cuts in furlough days.
The pain seems to be spread around equitably and fairly.
With all that said, though, I would like to see the Kuna school board take a different approach to the budget next year. After all, I feel, it should be the school board members, not a budget reduction team, that sets and passes the yearly budget. And the school board members should have all of the information in front of them, not just a condensed version presented to them by the district administration.
You can read the rest of this opinion in this week's Editor's Notebook in the Kuna Melba News.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Kuna coaches are doing right by our student-athletes
In the opening game of the District 3 baseball tournament earlier this month, Kuna found itself down 6-4 to Emmett in the middle of the sixth inning. The boys made a short rally and scored a run to make it 6-5, but a grounder ended the inning for Kuna.
I was standing next to the Kuna dugout snapping photos. Chase Hernandez, Kuna’s left fielder, sprinted onto the field for the top of the seventh. I heard him say something to the effect, “All right, it’s going to be the seventh inning,” as if he had every confidence in what was about to happen.
What happened was Kuna came back, sure enough, in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the game. They did it again in the next game, with another walkoff game-winning run to make it to the district championship game and secure a spot in the state tournament for the first time in six years.
Coach Dale Rippy has clearly done an outstanding job with such a young team of mostly juniors and sophomores. Not just in performance, but in character, work ethic and attitude. The boys were victims of bad calls, demoralizing rallies and devastating losses. But they continued to battle back, they kept their heads up, they didn’t whine or complain or throw temper tantrums.
And they learned from their mistakes. Perhaps most telling is the number of times Kuna lost the first game of a series then turned around and won the next game against the same team, including one of the biggest wins, a 13-12 victory over Bishop Kelly, BK’s only loss of the season.
Read the rest of this opinion piece in this week's Kuna Melba News.
I was standing next to the Kuna dugout snapping photos. Chase Hernandez, Kuna’s left fielder, sprinted onto the field for the top of the seventh. I heard him say something to the effect, “All right, it’s going to be the seventh inning,” as if he had every confidence in what was about to happen.
What happened was Kuna came back, sure enough, in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the game. They did it again in the next game, with another walkoff game-winning run to make it to the district championship game and secure a spot in the state tournament for the first time in six years.
Coach Dale Rippy has clearly done an outstanding job with such a young team of mostly juniors and sophomores. Not just in performance, but in character, work ethic and attitude. The boys were victims of bad calls, demoralizing rallies and devastating losses. But they continued to battle back, they kept their heads up, they didn’t whine or complain or throw temper tantrums.
And they learned from their mistakes. Perhaps most telling is the number of times Kuna lost the first game of a series then turned around and won the next game against the same team, including one of the biggest wins, a 13-12 victory over Bishop Kelly, BK’s only loss of the season.
Read the rest of this opinion piece in this week's Kuna Melba News.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The state is passing the buck on public education
The argument has been made that raising taxes is a sure way to kill an already suffering economy. Our voters can’t afford to pay more taxes. We can’t simply pass along costs to our voters. So that’s why we’ve decided to cut public education funding by 7.5 percent.
What’s the effect? In Kuna, anyway, we have higher taxes in the form of a supplemental levy. Students will have to pay to park at the high school. Students will have to pay more money to take advanced placement and concurrent credit courses. Students will have to pay to travel to away sports games and other extracurricular competitions and events. Field trips will be cut drastically. We may send our students to school fewer days.
We haven’t found out yet, but teachers’ pay likely will get cut. Bus drivers already have had their pay cut and it likely will get cut more. We’ve cut administrative positions and are cutting hours next year.
In Melba, they’ve killed the music program.
Here’s the point: The costs are getting passed down, whether the state Legislature says so or not. The taxpayers are paying for this one way or the other. Cutting employee pay and taking money out of students’ families’ pockets to pay for basics, in the end, hurts the economy, whether state legislators say so or not.
You can read more of this opinion in my Editor's Notebook in this week's Kuna Melba News.
What’s the effect? In Kuna, anyway, we have higher taxes in the form of a supplemental levy. Students will have to pay to park at the high school. Students will have to pay more money to take advanced placement and concurrent credit courses. Students will have to pay to travel to away sports games and other extracurricular competitions and events. Field trips will be cut drastically. We may send our students to school fewer days.
We haven’t found out yet, but teachers’ pay likely will get cut. Bus drivers already have had their pay cut and it likely will get cut more. We’ve cut administrative positions and are cutting hours next year.
In Melba, they’ve killed the music program.
Here’s the point: The costs are getting passed down, whether the state Legislature says so or not. The taxpayers are paying for this one way or the other. Cutting employee pay and taking money out of students’ families’ pockets to pay for basics, in the end, hurts the economy, whether state legislators say so or not.
You can read more of this opinion in my Editor's Notebook in this week's Kuna Melba News.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Calling on the Kuna school board to hold open budget hearings
With the Kuna school district administration predicting $3.8 million in cuts in next year’s budget, a 14 percent reduction in revenue is a daunting task that will need everyone’s expertise and input.
I know that a budget reduction team is working on possible cuts and will be reporting back to the school board, who will then make the final decision.
My biggest concern, though, is that school board members aren’t involved enough in the process.
I would like to point out just a couple of minor items from last year’s budget as a case in point.
During last year’s budget talks, school board members voted to eliminate midday bus transportation by changing the kindergarten schedule for many Kuna kindergartners from all-day-half-day to full-day-alternate-day. The estimated savings came to about $100,000.
But now we’ve come to find out that during teacher contract negotiations last year, the district agreed to give raises to 41 teachers based on achievement of higher education. The cost of the raises was about $76,000. On top of that, as reported in the Kuna Melba News on April 14, the district also agreed to partially pay those same teachers part of their expenses to take those classes, to the tune of $140 per credit for a total expenditure of about $52,000.
If you combined those two expenses, the district spent about $128,000, more than enough to avoid changing the kindergarten schedule.
Eliminating these raises and education payments was never an option presented to the public. Changing kindergarten was a line item with an estimated saving, but there were no line items that said, “Eliminate education raises for teachers, savings: $76,000,” “Eliminate paying for teacher education, savings: $52,000.”
I don’t know whether school board members knew about the raises and the payments for the education credits, but they certainly did not come up during any budget discussions.
To the contrary, I was under the (false) impression that the school district had eliminated all raises for the 2009-10 fiscal year. Raises for experience were indeed eliminated, but apparently raises for college courses was still approved.
Changing the kindergarten schedule may have still been the right thing to do. Giving teachers raises and paying for part of their education may very well still have been the right thing to do. But these things were never discussed openly during last year’s budget process.
You can read more of this opinion in this week's Kuna Melba News.
I know that a budget reduction team is working on possible cuts and will be reporting back to the school board, who will then make the final decision.
My biggest concern, though, is that school board members aren’t involved enough in the process.
I would like to point out just a couple of minor items from last year’s budget as a case in point.
During last year’s budget talks, school board members voted to eliminate midday bus transportation by changing the kindergarten schedule for many Kuna kindergartners from all-day-half-day to full-day-alternate-day. The estimated savings came to about $100,000.
But now we’ve come to find out that during teacher contract negotiations last year, the district agreed to give raises to 41 teachers based on achievement of higher education. The cost of the raises was about $76,000. On top of that, as reported in the Kuna Melba News on April 14, the district also agreed to partially pay those same teachers part of their expenses to take those classes, to the tune of $140 per credit for a total expenditure of about $52,000.
If you combined those two expenses, the district spent about $128,000, more than enough to avoid changing the kindergarten schedule.
Eliminating these raises and education payments was never an option presented to the public. Changing kindergarten was a line item with an estimated saving, but there were no line items that said, “Eliminate education raises for teachers, savings: $76,000,” “Eliminate paying for teacher education, savings: $52,000.”
I don’t know whether school board members knew about the raises and the payments for the education credits, but they certainly did not come up during any budget discussions.
To the contrary, I was under the (false) impression that the school district had eliminated all raises for the 2009-10 fiscal year. Raises for experience were indeed eliminated, but apparently raises for college courses was still approved.
Changing the kindergarten schedule may have still been the right thing to do. Giving teachers raises and paying for part of their education may very well still have been the right thing to do. But these things were never discussed openly during last year’s budget process.
You can read more of this opinion in this week's Kuna Melba News.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Kuna school district defends $130,000 in pay raises
The Kuna school district is defending about $130,000 in raises that were given to 41 teachers and six administrators this school year.
But a Kuna Melba News analysis of the data shows that many of the numbers are deeply flawed and misleading.
As the state Legislature hammers out a public education budget for next year, several state legislators asked the state Department of Education for data related to increases in base salaries statewide. The data showed increases in salaries totaling over $21 million combined in all school districts across the state.
This comes at a time when many school districts are cutting services and asking the state to mitigate funding cuts in next year’s budget.
The Kuna school district, for example, eliminated midday transportation for kindergartners, saving an estimated $107,000 this year.
The Kuna school district also eliminated three administrative positions this year: the Kuna Middle School dean and two elementary school building administrators.
“After reducing three administrative positions as a part of cost-savings for this year,” according to a letter from Kuna superintendent Jay Hummel sent to school district employees last week, “I gave six administrators modest increases to compensate them for changes in their job title they assumed because of loss of administrative personnel.”
You can read the rest of this story, including how the numbers are misleading, on Page 12 of this week's Kuna Melba News.
But a Kuna Melba News analysis of the data shows that many of the numbers are deeply flawed and misleading.
As the state Legislature hammers out a public education budget for next year, several state legislators asked the state Department of Education for data related to increases in base salaries statewide. The data showed increases in salaries totaling over $21 million combined in all school districts across the state.
This comes at a time when many school districts are cutting services and asking the state to mitigate funding cuts in next year’s budget.
The Kuna school district, for example, eliminated midday transportation for kindergartners, saving an estimated $107,000 this year.
The Kuna school district also eliminated three administrative positions this year: the Kuna Middle School dean and two elementary school building administrators.
“After reducing three administrative positions as a part of cost-savings for this year,” according to a letter from Kuna superintendent Jay Hummel sent to school district employees last week, “I gave six administrators modest increases to compensate them for changes in their job title they assumed because of loss of administrative personnel.”
You can read the rest of this story, including how the numbers are misleading, on Page 12 of this week's Kuna Melba News.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Kuna production of 'Oklahoma!' in new auditorium was a rousing success
When Kuna High School music teacher and choir director Brandi Cook took the stage on opening night last Thursday to introduce the inaugural production in the new Kuna Performing Arts Auditorium, she was overcome with emotion.
Cook became choked up as she remembered starting her job at Kuna High with 30 students in the choir program and not being able to fill the high school commons for a concert.
As she stood before the packed house of 800-plus attendees for opening night of “Oklahoma,” she tearfully recalled early discussions about a performing arts auditorium and being told she had to make sure she had a program good enough for such a facility.
Cook and the rest of the team in the Kuna school district can rest assured that the program is beyond good enough.
Thursday’s opening night was a rousing success all the way down the line.
This week's Kuna Melba News has lots of photos, letters to the editor and story/review.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
We shouldn't cheap out on the Kuna performing arts auditorium
Let’s not cheap out on our new performing arts auditorium at Kuna High School.
Kuna school board members are currently considering how much to charge groups for the use of the facility, which will have its first open house to the public on Feb. 22 and its first performance on Feb. 25 and 26.
A committee of volunteers and district employees has been discussing the details of the facility, including how much to charge people to use the facility. One of the questions yet to be answered includes whether to encourage a lot of use by making the fees inexpensive or discourage use by making the fees expensive. I hope the district sets the fee toward the top of the scale, not necessarily to discourage use but to make sure we aren’t overburdening the facility and to make sure we, the taxpayers, don’t end up subsidizing its use.
Kuna school board members are currently considering how much to charge groups for the use of the facility, which will have its first open house to the public on Feb. 22 and its first performance on Feb. 25 and 26.
A committee of volunteers and district employees has been discussing the details of the facility, including how much to charge people to use the facility. One of the questions yet to be answered includes whether to encourage a lot of use by making the fees inexpensive or discourage use by making the fees expensive. I hope the district sets the fee toward the top of the scale, not necessarily to discourage use but to make sure we aren’t overburdening the facility and to make sure we, the taxpayers, don’t end up subsidizing its use.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The world would be a better place if everyone just read their local newspaper
The world would be a better place if everyone read their local newspaper. I firmly believe this. I suppose I’d be in the wrong business if I didn’t believe in it passionately. There are so many things in your local newspaper that you need to know. Someone called us up last month, asking if there had been an election in the city of Kuna. We informed him that there was a Kuna school district election on a two-year, $1.1 million per year supplemental levy to make up for a projected shortfall in funding from the state. The gentleman who called said he thought the district was trying to keep the election a secret so that no one would know about it. We had to point out that it had been in the Kuna Melba News nearly a dozen times and was on the front page as the lead story four times before the election. To the gentleman’s great credit, he signed up for a subscription so he could be more informed.
What I ask of you, our loyal readers, is to help us spread the word. Tell your neighbors about the Kuna Melba News, tell your friends. Let them know all of the important stories that they need to read in the newspaper. When they say they knew nothing about the supplemental levy or the upcoming City Council election, tell them they should subscribe to the Kuna Melba News.
You’ll be helping to make the world a better place.
What I ask of you, our loyal readers, is to help us spread the word. Tell your neighbors about the Kuna Melba News, tell your friends. Let them know all of the important stories that they need to read in the newspaper. When they say they knew nothing about the supplemental levy or the upcoming City Council election, tell them they should subscribe to the Kuna Melba News.
You’ll be helping to make the world a better place.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Best line of the night at Tuesday's Kuna school board meeting
Kuna schools superintendent Jay Hummel perhaps is not best known for his sense of humor, but he sure had the best line of the night at Tuesday's school board meeting. The school district is trying to come up with a name for the new alternative school, scheduled to open this fall. One of the front-runners is Two Roads Academy, or something to that effect, referencing the famous Robert Frost poem. A concern was raised, however, that another school was named Two Roads already. Hummel reported to the school board, though, that that school had closed. "They took the third road, I guess."
Friday, August 29, 2008
Kuna school board passes emergency levy
As the Kuna Melba News reported this week, school enrollment is up in the Kuna school district once again. Officials were still tallying the numbers when we went to press on Tuesday, and supertintendent Jay Hummel wasn't comfortable releasing definite numbers for this week's paper. Somewhat understandable. Jay got back to me yesterday and let me know that enrollment is indeed up by 203 students, from 4,508 to 4,711 students. Because of the increased enrollment, the Kuna school board early this morning passed an emergency levy of $807,364, which is the maximum amount allowed, or 0.0006 for every $1,000 of assessed property value in the district. The estimated September 2008 market value of all property in the school district is a whopping $1.346 billion. Yes, that's billion with a "b."
Friday, August 22, 2008
First day of school exciting and sad
What is it about first grade? We sent Luke off on his first day in first grade today. It seems almost more poignant than kindergarten for some reason. We were sitting around the breakfast table this morning, and it struck me, "We are parents of a first-grader."
Things seemed to be going well at Crimson Point, where Luke goes to school. They tell me they took in about 100 more students than expected, and that enrollment was looking like 644 students. Crimson Point's capacity is 640. I'll be checking with the district on enrollment figures at all of the schools to see how we did. But based on Crimson Point's numbers, it looks like the school board will be passing another emergency levy, based on higher-than-expected enrollment. I'll keep you posted. Check back here and in next week's issue for the details.
Things seemed to be going well at Crimson Point, where Luke goes to school. They tell me they took in about 100 more students than expected, and that enrollment was looking like 644 students. Crimson Point's capacity is 640. I'll be checking with the district on enrollment figures at all of the schools to see how we did. But based on Crimson Point's numbers, it looks like the school board will be passing another emergency levy, based on higher-than-expected enrollment. I'll keep you posted. Check back here and in next week's issue for the details.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Don't give away the store to developers
The time for being polite and begging developers to come to Kuna is over. Kuna needs to look out for Kuna, and all of the taxing bodies — the school district, the library district, the city, the fire district, etc. — all need to look out for its existing taxpayers.
Future development is going to have a huge impact on what taxes we pay. Our taxing bodies should be making sure that growth is paying for itself and that we, the current taxpayers, are not paying for new amenities created by future growth.
Let’s take, for example, the Vista planned community.
I remember first writing about Vista way back in 2006. It was around the holidays, and I needed something to fill a hole on a page during a slow news week. I put the Vista proposal story on something like Page 16, thinking that it was so far out of Kuna that it was of little consequence. How wrong I was.
Vista is a proposed 1,048-acre subdivision consisting of 3,110 residential lots, 257 common lots, a 42-acre town center lot, two, 2.5-acre neighborhood commercial lots, its own water treatment facility and its own wastewater treatment facility. The development is about one mile south of Kuna Mora Road and immediately west of South Cole Road — 10.6 miles from Kuna High. In addition, Vista is planning for 512,000 square feet of retail and mixed-use space.
The development is being proposed under the auspices of Ada County — not the city of Kuna. Ada County planning staff recommended approval as did the Ada County Planning and Zoning Commission.
However, after Kuna city officials and a Kuna library board member testified against the proposal at the Aug. 13 county commission meeting, the County Commissioners voted to table the proposal until Sept. 10, admonishing the developers to work with the city and the library board on resolutions.
One of the things that’s a growing trend is large-scale development. Instead of smaller, 80-acre developments here and there, developers are talking about massive 600- to 1,400-acre development with thousands — not hundreds — of homes.
That will make it even more important for the school district — and the school board — to be tough negotiators with developers. I, for one, will support the school district in telling developers no to insufficient compensation for the privilege of being in the Kuna school district.
Future development is going to have a huge impact on what taxes we pay. Our taxing bodies should be making sure that growth is paying for itself and that we, the current taxpayers, are not paying for new amenities created by future growth.
Let’s take, for example, the Vista planned community.
I remember first writing about Vista way back in 2006. It was around the holidays, and I needed something to fill a hole on a page during a slow news week. I put the Vista proposal story on something like Page 16, thinking that it was so far out of Kuna that it was of little consequence. How wrong I was.
Vista is a proposed 1,048-acre subdivision consisting of 3,110 residential lots, 257 common lots, a 42-acre town center lot, two, 2.5-acre neighborhood commercial lots, its own water treatment facility and its own wastewater treatment facility. The development is about one mile south of Kuna Mora Road and immediately west of South Cole Road — 10.6 miles from Kuna High. In addition, Vista is planning for 512,000 square feet of retail and mixed-use space.
The development is being proposed under the auspices of Ada County — not the city of Kuna. Ada County planning staff recommended approval as did the Ada County Planning and Zoning Commission.
However, after Kuna city officials and a Kuna library board member testified against the proposal at the Aug. 13 county commission meeting, the County Commissioners voted to table the proposal until Sept. 10, admonishing the developers to work with the city and the library board on resolutions.
One of the things that’s a growing trend is large-scale development. Instead of smaller, 80-acre developments here and there, developers are talking about massive 600- to 1,400-acre development with thousands — not hundreds — of homes.
That will make it even more important for the school district — and the school board — to be tough negotiators with developers. I, for one, will support the school district in telling developers no to insufficient compensation for the privilege of being in the Kuna school district.
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