#KSD Ready & Resilient
Update from Kuna Superintendent Wendy Johnson
9.25.2020
- Really, don't send your children to school if they or anyone in your household is sick
- Kuna School District property tax rate drops again
- Reminder next week is a short week!
- Time to pre-order remote meals for Oct. 12-16 to picked up Friday, Oct. 9
Governor announces grant to help families with distance learning education expenses
COVID Cases Update
I'm sharing this "Good Job" video because I am so proud of our teachers, staff and our students. They've been working incredibly hard to provide instruction in three different ways, face-to-face, remote, and "in-person" electronic lessons for our Fridays.
This hard work to open and stay open is put in jeopardy when we don't follow our strategies to reduce the spread of COVID.
We need your help!
Please keep your child home when:
- He/she is sick
- Anyone in the household is sick
- Anyone in the household is tested for COVID or is COVID positive
This week, a sick individual came to school. Now four of our teachers are home on quarantine for at least 14 days.
Our goal is to stay healthy and open for learning!
We'll be watching our numbers of positive students and staff to determine if we are able to follow our plan open elementary schools for every day learning in October.
Please #doyourpart to keep us safe, healthy & learning.
Kuna School District property tax rate drops again
In last week's newsletter, I shared that our Kuna School District property tax rate would drop. If you take a look at the chart, you'll see our rate will drop more than 16% from $4.88 per $1,000 in taxable value to $4.09. We also will collect less taxes in overall taxes -- about $261,900 less.
You may remember in 2017 our Board of Trustees working with the community crafted a 10-year financial plan to provide new spaces for new students and upgrade existing spaces (bonds for buildings) and support for learning (annual levy for learning.)
The goal of the plan was to ask our community to support schools while we committed to keeping the tax rate predictable at no more than $5 per $1,000 while our community developed and that growth could help pay for growth.
Our Board also has done a terrific job managing our debt from bonds for buildings. This summer, the Board approved paying off some of the 2017 bonds early through a process called defeasance. This saves nearly $1.6 million.
Our annual levy for learning expires at the end of the school year and we will be talking about about the next steps in the coming months.
Reminder next week is a short week due to state teacher meetings
Time to pre-order remote meals for Oct. 12-16 to picked up Friday, Oct. 9
We hope you are enjoying the free meals the Kuna School District is providing for children on remote learning days and for those in our community.
The next opportunity to pre-order meals is now through 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29. This is for meals that will be picked up Friday, Oct. 9 for the following week.
Please use this link to pre-order meals: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KSDMeals10121016
Governor announces grant to help families with distance learning education expenses
Governor Little announced a new grant "Strong Families, Strong Students" Initiative to provide financial support for families with some unexpected education expenses because of COVID and the need of districts to offer services remotely or in a hybrid model.
The application has not been published, but allowable uses will include:
(a) computer hardware, software, and other devices, including adaptive learning technology;
(b) internet connectivity;
(c) instructional materials;
(d) fees for courses;
(e) tutoring services;
(f) education services and therapies.
The intent is to prioritize applications based on family income. We'll share information on this as it becomes available.
COVID-19 update
Superintendent Wendy Johnson
Email: ksdcommunications@kunaschools.org
Website: www.kunaschools.org
Location: 711 East Porter Street, Kuna, ID, USA
Phone: 208-922-1000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kuna-Jt-School-District-No-3
Twitter: @Supt_Wendy_J