2018 Winter Five Star Journal

SUPERINTENDENT MESSAGE
By Chris Gdowski, Superintendent
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Thank you! Because of the support of Five
Star District voters in November’s election,
we have started implementing some of the
investments outlined for Ballot Issue 5C. The
ballot issue, which provides $27 million dollars
annually in additional revenue for the district,
passed with a 56.30 percent voter approval.
With this support, we are now able to jumpstart
the priorities outlined in our strategic
plan ELEVATE that parents, students, staff
and community members worked together
to create.
This additional funding will allow us to
elevate student success through six focus
areas as identified through ELEVATE.
• 21st Century Learners
• Diverse Learning
• Outside-the-Classroom Learning
• Safe Schools
• Social-Emotional Learning
• World-Class Staff
Immediate Investments
Community Invests
in Students
District starts implementing investments as a result of community
support for ballot issue 5C
One of the most immediate investments that
we’ve implemented since election day is the
elimination of our district-level textbook
and instructional materials fee at all grade
levels, and our technology fee at the middle
and high school levels. This investment item
provides more than $1 million in fee relief for
our families. These fees have been eliminated
effective the current school year, and anyone
who has paid the fees for this year has already
been provided a refund check.
We’ve also implemented a 1 percent Cost-of-
Living Adjustment (COLA) for all staff. As you
know, remaining competitive in our ability
to attract and retain the best teachers and
support staff has been a challenge for many
school districts, including ours. This is just
part of our work to be more competitive in
the marketplace.
Ballot Issue 5C also makes it possible for us
to increase salaries for teachers who are early
on in their career, boost compensation across
all experience levels to help us keep our high
quality staff members, and provide more
opportunities for teachers to take on
leadership roles within their schools.
Our Interest-Based Strategies team – made
up of school board members, members of the
teacher’s association, school principals and
district administrators – has already started
meeting to begin discussing the details of
implementing these investments. Their work
will continue through Spring 2019.
Upcoming Investments
Our staff has already begun the planning
work to implement several of the other
critical investments outlined in Ballot Issue
5C. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school
year, we will invest more than $4 million
in reducing class sizes and increasing high
school course options. School leaders will
begin hiring additional staff in the spring for
the following school year.
Another significant investment from 5C is
in social-emotional learning. The district
will adopt a social-emotional learning curriculum,
and our Learning Services team
has started the process of evaluating the
different social-emotional resources that
currently exist. We will also begin hiring
additional counselors and social workers this
spring for all of our schools.
Unmet Needs Due to Defeat of
Amendment 73
As many of you know, in addition to our
local Ballot Issue 5C, there was the statewide
measure, Amendment 73, that would have
provided $60 million in additional funding
to the Five Star District. Amendment 73 did
not pass.
It’s important to note that the investments
we outlined to fund had Amendment 73
passed are now dependent on year-by-year
funding increases from the state Legislature.
While there is no guarantee we will receive
that funding, we have a roadmap for how to
invest any new dollars.
Several of the investments that Amendment
73 would have funded include: additional
resources to support our special populations
(Emerging Bilinguals, Special Education and
Gifted and Talented), increasing transportation
to have later high school start times and
reduce the walk distance, and expanding
alternative education opportunities.
Implementing a new middle school sports
program was also under our Amendment
73 plan. Despite 73’s defeat, we’re currently
exploring how we might start with one sport
and potentially build out a program over time
should additional revenue become available.
Progress Reports
As we move into 2019, we will provide a
dditional updates on our spending plan
to jump-start ELEVATE. Additionally, as we
implement our new strategic plan, we will
share with you not only how we are investing
these additional dollars, but what tangible
impact they are having on our performance
and meeting our goals.
Thank you again for your ongoing support of
the Five Star District. I wish you all a wonderful
winter break! •
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