Dettra updates Lions on School Funding
“School funding. It’s still a mess,” said Dennis Dettra, Superintendent of Cambridge City Schools. Dettra was speaking to the Cambridge Lions Club. “We have an over-reliance on the property tax. That’s part of why Ohio’s school funding was declared unconstitutional in the DeRolf case.”
“Governor Strickland tried a new approach to developing the education budget,” Dettra said. “He tried to set a price on what it actually costs to educate a child for one year. He tried a different approach instead of using the same way it’s always been done.”
“One thing they looked at was the educational level of the parents. Their children often come to school better prepared. It takes more funding to educate those who are not as well prepared.”
“The (Ohio) House and Senate are now working on next year’s budget,” Dettra said. “The House passed their version before finding out that state income tax revenues are down because of all the layoffs.”
“The House and Senate are at odds over funding. The House is controlled by the Democrats and the Senate is controlled by the Republicans. The conference committee that will have to resolve differences between the two will have three members of each party.”
“I don’t expect a budget to be done until late summer or early fall,” Dettra said. It leaves us not knowing where we will be. It makes planning difficult.”
“Cambridge is in good shape. We took a hit five years ago and had to cut programs. Susan Tucker did an excellent job. Our new treasurer believes that we will be in the black for the next five years, but we do have to watch every penny.”
“We won’t need a renewal levy until 2012,” Dettra said. “A few years ago we had several administrators at the central office. We are now down to just the treasurer and me. Our first responsibility when we can rehire people is to get more teachers to help the kids.”
“One of the governor’s proposals was to have all-day kindergarten for all kids. We already have that, but some districts still have half-day classes. He also proposed that kindergarten and first grade have a student to teacher ratio of fifteen to one. He later reduced that to nineteen to one, but our classrooms were designed for a ration of twenty-five to one.”
“We would need more classroom space. Our buildings were designed to follow state standards when they were built. Part of the levy also included a mandatory amount be set aside for maintenance. Our buildings are in good shape.”
“We also expect that we will have to make up calamity days. The governor wanted to extend the school year, but this would require that employees be paid for the extra days. Most of the rest of the world has a two hundred day school year. We have one hundred eighty days.”
“Economic stimulus money will be earmarked for title one reading and special education services,” Dettra said. “We can’t use it to rehire teachers or for programs that were cut. That money is only for two years. Then we will have to find additional money.”
“We would also like to use some federal grant money to have a resource officer from the sheriff’s department on site at the high school. We would like the deputy to be able to establish rapport with the students.”
“Governor Strickland tried a new approach to developing the education budget,” Dettra said. “He tried to set a price on what it actually costs to educate a child for one year. He tried a different approach instead of using the same way it’s always been done.”
“One thing they looked at was the educational level of the parents. Their children often come to school better prepared. It takes more funding to educate those who are not as well prepared.”
“The (Ohio) House and Senate are now working on next year’s budget,” Dettra said. “The House passed their version before finding out that state income tax revenues are down because of all the layoffs.”
“The House and Senate are at odds over funding. The House is controlled by the Democrats and the Senate is controlled by the Republicans. The conference committee that will have to resolve differences between the two will have three members of each party.”
“I don’t expect a budget to be done until late summer or early fall,” Dettra said. It leaves us not knowing where we will be. It makes planning difficult.”
“Cambridge is in good shape. We took a hit five years ago and had to cut programs. Susan Tucker did an excellent job. Our new treasurer believes that we will be in the black for the next five years, but we do have to watch every penny.”
“We won’t need a renewal levy until 2012,” Dettra said. “A few years ago we had several administrators at the central office. We are now down to just the treasurer and me. Our first responsibility when we can rehire people is to get more teachers to help the kids.”
“One of the governor’s proposals was to have all-day kindergarten for all kids. We already have that, but some districts still have half-day classes. He also proposed that kindergarten and first grade have a student to teacher ratio of fifteen to one. He later reduced that to nineteen to one, but our classrooms were designed for a ration of twenty-five to one.”
“We would need more classroom space. Our buildings were designed to follow state standards when they were built. Part of the levy also included a mandatory amount be set aside for maintenance. Our buildings are in good shape.”
“We also expect that we will have to make up calamity days. The governor wanted to extend the school year, but this would require that employees be paid for the extra days. Most of the rest of the world has a two hundred day school year. We have one hundred eighty days.”
“Economic stimulus money will be earmarked for title one reading and special education services,” Dettra said. “We can’t use it to rehire teachers or for programs that were cut. That money is only for two years. Then we will have to find additional money.”
“We would also like to use some federal grant money to have a resource officer from the sheriff’s department on site at the high school. We would like the deputy to be able to establish rapport with the students.”
posted by Mane Lion at
11:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home