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Rumor Has It
Rumors!
Riley County Schools is committed to open and honest communication with patrons, parents, students and staff. Truthful, reliable information is the foundation of this commitment.
We take rumors seriously. They can be damaging, they can make people nervous, they can create feelings of fear and dread. At best they waste time and make us less productive; at worst, they damage morale and chip away at the level confidence that community members have in their public schools.
Have you heard something that sounds too good to be true? Or does the word on the street make your blood boil? Send us what you've heard at ... we'll track down the truth — good or bad — and post it on this page. (Keep in mind, at the district's discretion submissions will be screened and/or edited prior to posting.)
Updated 4/15/10
RCMS Physical Education
What's the reason RCMS students are being bused to the high school for PE, when we have 2 gyms at the grade school?
That's a legitimate question. Yes, middle school Physical Education is being held at RCHS. Their instructor, David Taphorn, will be driving them. This allows the middle school students to take advantage of opportunities in the RCHS south gym-weight room, allows the 1.5 K-6 grade classes-which are the larger than the middle school PE classes- to be in the RCGS larger north gym- keeping students safe, provides the RCGS cafeteria to remain what it was intended for-a cafeteria during the school hours and now our custodial staff don’t have to move the tables (which takes a larger toll on the tables-wearing them out sooner) plus they can adequately clean-sanitize the cafeteria without having to worry about students being in that area. The cost to transport students to RCHS for Physical Education (minus the driver who is already under contract) is .505 cents a mile for the bus @ 5 miles a day=$2.53 a day x twice a week=$5.05 times 36 weeks=$181.80 for the year.
Coach Prichard
I know its likely to early to have this organized, but I've heard that the family would much prefer people send money to RCHS on behalf of a memorial fund than send flowers to the service. How would someone interested in this send the money?
The family has requested that memorials be sent for the RCGS Athletic Department to the Riley County Educational Foundation at the Riley State Bank, Riley, KS.
Budget-Block Scheduling
With the district making all of these budget cuts, why hasn't the high school considered changing its schedule? Drop Block scheduling and implement a traditional six or seven school day.
Teachers would have a plan period and/or a study hall.
Wouldn't this save some money?
That's an interesting point and I will work through an answer, so please be patient. The district has voluntarily requested to have an efficiency audit conducted by the Legislative Post Audit Division which will take place this spring. According to the districts that have participated, the LPA has suggested going back to a traditional 7 hour school day as a savings option.
Some background, the district's philosophy of having instituted a high school block schedule hinges on several premises: 1. it allows the students to take 4 additional courses over their high school careers.....2. a block schedule is very beneficial for lab courses-sciences-vocational-physical education-due to having 80 mins of uninterrupted time compared to 60 mins....3. block schedules mean less hall passing periods-less time for "things" to happen in the halls or students to be late, etc......4.block schedules allow the time for students to work directly with teachers on assignments, due to the extended time, rather than have 60 mins and then a study hall set up that usually is manned by a non-subject area teacher....this has been especially helpful with math courses....5. block schedules encourage more involvement in extracurricular activities due to students not having to come home and each night know they may have up to 7 assignments due the next day, with a every other day concept the most they'll have is 4 subjects/assignments to prepare
What does our research show? Since the block schedule was incepted at RCHS our state and national tests scores have risen considerably! There are negatives to block schedules-ask music and foreign language teachers-they need every day-repetitive practice. But for RCHS the positives as listed far outweigh the negatives.
Preschool/Daycare
I was told tonight that USD 378 is considering only accepting children for the preschool who are in need of daycare for the other half day. I can understand this for budgeting purposes, but if it is true, please let us know as soon as possible. I am a stay-at-home mom, so don’t need the childcare portion, but we definitely want to have our daughter in preschool. Is this rumor true?
The childcare center will be a full time KSDE/KDHE preschool from 8 AM-3:30 PM with extended daycare times from 7-8 AM and 3:30-6 PM. We will be licensed for 24 students and looking to fill those positions with full time students or if someone chooses to only go 1/2 time paying for full time. However, if we have less than 24 students we will look to open those positions up to 1/2 time students. Cost will be $400 per month for the preschool per child for 11 months and a flat $50 monthly fee for any extended time. At this time snacks, milk and lunch will be included within the fees.
State Funding
I've heard that the state is withholding money from our school. I've also heard that this is because we aren't combining our district with Blue Valley. Do we have state funding at this point? What is going on?
You are partially correct. The state, due to less tax revenue, has been late for the last 5 months in getting school districts their money. They've always paid up, but it has been a couple of weeks late.
That's the importance of having a district "savings" or Contingency Reserve account. Kansas is a cash basis law state, so if you don't have the cash you don't have to pay. In other words the district has one month of payroll, approximately $220,000, in contingency reserve. So if the state is late in paying us, or doesn't have the money to pay us we would be able to operate for approximately one month by using our contingency reserve. If we didn't have it or didn't have enough cash in our yearly budgets the district couldn't pay its bills or pay employees their wages.
The concern that the state is "trying" to force consolidation due to less state funding isn't really substantiated by any "facts/data". However, school districts that are losing enrollment and then losing state aid are getting hit twice and having to consider consolidation as a money saving option-by closing schools, cutting jobs, cutting programs, and other cost saving measures.
What you may have heard about consolidations and Blue Valley was a Legislative Post Audit conducted by the state. Here's the link: http://www.kslegislature.org/postaudit/audits_perform/10pa07a.pdf
Under one plan it stated that Rock Creek, Randolph-Blue Valley and Riley County would need to consolidate. However, this discussion has never taken place with any of the three school districts.
Possible Budget Cuts
Rumor has it that due to budget cuts we may be loosing one teacher per grade level, which would make class size 20-30 students. Is there any truth to this?
At the March 8th regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting, the BOE will take action on a budget plan for the 2010-11 School Year. Within this plan are options for budget cuts. With having to cut approximately $600,000 from next year's budget and upwards of another $800,000 to $900,000 out of the 11-12 SY budget, there will be personnel cuts.
At this time the budget plan does not include cutting all K-8 grade levels to two sections. But, it does include some grade levels being cut to two sections. So you are correct class sizes will increase, but not to the 30 student range.
Hays City Shoot Out
With all the budget cuts why do our high school basketball teams go to Hays for a pre-season tournament? Isn't that an unnecessary expense?
There are several data driven reasons we support going to Hays:
1. Financially-we're spending the same amount per game to play at Hays as we would for traveling to Silver Lake. To offset expenses Hays pays us to participate. This reimbursement is twice as much as any other school attending ($2,350).
2. Preparation-we have gone to state basketball the last 9 years in a row (14 teams have qualified in the past 14 years), in the 35 years prior to that, Riley County went to state a total of 2 times. During the time we have been involved in the Hays tournament we've had 2 undefeated state championship teams and 1 state runner-up.
Back to back games against quality opponents we don't usually see and spending the night helps prepare our teams for state.
3. Hosting-we've tried to develop a "home" tournament and have not been able to secure enough teams to host a boys and girls preseason tournament.
Student Admission
I've heard that students who aren't involved in an athletic event will be charged $1 per event, is that true?
Yes, that is correct, as a portion of the Board approved fees structure all Riley County students will pay a $1 admission charge or may purchase a yearly athletic admission pass for $25 to attend all middle and high school athletic events where admission is taken. This fee does not cover any post season KSHSAA athletic events.
Fees
Is it true that next year all students will be required to pay fees for books, sports and activities?
At the May 18th Board of Education Meeting the Board approved a registration fee for all K-12 students of $40. The Board also approved an activity fee of $40 for all RCHS students. If a student does not participate in any KSHSAA approved or sanctioned activity, at the end of the year they may ask for a reimbursement of the $40.
Payment of these assessed fees will occur during enrollment. These fees help offset recent state funding cuts and can be equated to the district keeping 1 teacher, 2-3 paraprofessional/teacher aides or 2 full time classified staff. From a property tax mill levy prospective it saves local tax payers a little over 1 mill.
First Day of School for the 2010-2011 SY
When is the first day of school?
Included within the recently ratified teacher contract between USD 378 BOE and the Riley County Educators (teachers) is the provision of moving the first day of school for all students from the published Thursday, August 12th date to Friday, August 20th.
Consequently, the beginning of school 2010-11 calendar is as follows:
Monday, August 16th-first day for all new teaching staff-First day of practice for all Fall KSHSAA sports (RCMS and RCHS)
Tuesday, August 17th-USD 378 teacher workday-RCGS Back to School Night
Wednesday, August 18th-USD 378 district in-service day (all staff)
Thursday, August 19th-USD 378 respective building in-service day
Friday, August 20th-First day of school for all students and staff
All previously published vacations, school start times and last day of school May 25th will remain the same. However, each building's end of school time will be pushed back 4 minutes (making up 2 days) to 3:26 RCGS and 3:34 RCHS.
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| Today is September 9, 2010
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