#KSD Reimagine
Update from Kuna Superintendent Wendy Johnson
8.27.2021
In this update:
It's great to see kids back!
How are class sizes shaping up?
Would you like to serve on the Superintendent's Advisory Council?
Update on devices for students & opportunity for families to reduce costs of damages
COVID Student and Staff Data Dashboards
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It's great to see kids back!
Each year I set a goal to visit every classroom in our school district the first two days of school. I'm happy to report that I reached that goal today.
I was happy to see so many smiling eyes and faces as students interacted with their teachers and their friends. Students told me that they were happy to be at school, and I could feel their excitement when I visited every classroom.
Here's to a great 2021-22 school year!
How are class sizes shaping up?
In these first two days of school, it appears that we will have more students to serve this year than last year.
Parents may be reviewing their child's class lists and wondering about class sizes.
Traditionally by the end of the second week of school our enrollment stabilizes. That means we know which students aren't coming back and how many "new" students we have on our rolls.
We also can review class sizes against our goals and begin to address areas of overcrowding. This may mean teacher changes for some students as class loads are balanced or new teachers hired.
Teacher hiring
We often hear the question: "Why can't we hire more teachers to begin with?" Or in some cases, "Why can't you hire more teachers rather than shift students?"
For folks new to our state, the Idaho legislature provides most of the money to operate schools. The formula it uses does not distribute money to hire teachers to reach specific class sizes or teacher-to-student ratios are met. (In fact, the formula assumes economies of scale so the larger a district, the less money it receives per student.)
We are limited on the number of teachers the state will provide funds to support so we are careful in estimating what we might need. Last spring's supplemental levy provides for 15 additional teachers which does help lower class sizes.
Estimating enrollments & teachers
Each spring, we start planning for the next school year. We look at our current students and project forward (removing our graduating class.) We want to ensure equity across our schools.
The challenge is projecting how many "new" students will arrive. How many kindergartners and how many "new to Kuna" students we expect.
Conservative Process to Projecting Enrollment
Starting in April, we roll our student enrollment data forward and begin conversations around whether or not we need to hire more teachers, transfer teachers from a school that has lower enrollment to another school with higher enrollment or to not replace positions.
We review the data again before administrators leave for summer break in June, again when administrators return the first week of August, and conduct a final review on the fifth day of school.
If we make any major changes to your child’s schedule, your child’s principal will be notifying you.
Thank you for your patience as we spend the first weeks of school monitoring and adjusting our enrollment and class sizes.
Would you like to serve on an advisory council?
We value parent involvement in our schools. We appreciate those who can volunteer in classrooms, serve on boosters clubs, and provide feedback through surveys.
We also recruit parents to serve on committees to help shape decisions and policies in our schools and districts.
Parents should see information coming from their children's schools about opportunities to serve on school-based parent advisory councils this year.
We also have a district Superintendent Advisory Council of parents from every school and students from our secondary schools.
The committee is usually four to five evening meetings of about two hours throughout the school year. Thanks to what we've learned the past two years, we can hold these meeting meeting virtually.
It's purpose is to:
- Identify common needs and goals among all those invested in the district (parents, students, community, employees) in Kuna School District.
- Provide feedback and insight from both the parent’s perspective and the student’s perspective on school
process, policies and initiatives to ensure that the needs of parents, students and their families are included as decisions that are made in the district. - Address existing and emerging issues expressed by parents at the school they represent.
- Serve as an advisory body that makes recommendations, encourages brainstorming and provides opportunities for parent and student involvement in a variety of topics such as preparation for college, career and citizenship, needs of teachers and other system improvement ideas.
- Facilitate communication between and among the parents and parent organizations from all district schools.
- Serve as a forum for sharing innovations and best practices from around the district.
- Assist the School Board in enacting its mission and vision
If you are interested in being considered or want to nominate your older child, please email me by Friday, Sept. 10.
Help us recognize the great people in our school district
On Tuesday, we held our annual opening meeting for our district staff to kick off the new school year.
Among the activities of the day, I announced the 2021-22 School Year's first Kuna Way Award recipient - Daniel Hoehne from Silver Trail Elementary.
Dan's principal shared that he was concerned because some decorative bark for the schools grounds had been delivered but a few days before the start of school it had not yet been used.
Like nearly every employer in the valley, we are "hiring" and have been short of the staff who help prepare our buildings to welcome students.
Dan rolled up his sleeves and spent hours moving bark to where it was needed so school was ready for the first day.
He exemplifies one of our "Kuna Way" values to lead from where you are.
We invite you to help nominate individuals for the Kuna Way Award who exemplify the values that shape our service to children.
Those values include:
- putting kids first and doing whatever it takes to help students succeed
- collaborating to solve problems, to make decisions, to reach win-win decisions and to continuously improve to make our system better for kids
- leading from where you are
- working hard and having fun together
- taking care of each other and ourselves
- preserving our professional capital and promoting professionalism
Our first round of Kuna Way Award nominations are due Friday, Sept. 30. Please submit nominations using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KWA202122
Update on devices for students & opportunity for families to reduce costs of damages
We provide all our students a device to support their learning at school and at home if necessary. Based on our experience and parent feedback last spring, we made some adjust in our device program.
At the secondary level, students are issued their device to take to every class and use at home to complete school work.
Elementary students won't be expected to take their device home every day. They will use it in their classrooms. They can take a device home if they need to quarantine or they are recovering from an illness.
What hasn't change is sometime accidents happen and devices are damaged.
We offer families the opportunity to pay a device deposit to help offset the cost of damages. The deposit is $25 (with a scale for large families.)
Families will receive a notice with instructions on how to make a deposit or decline the opportunity. This opportunity will close Oct. 1.
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