USD 250 makes progress during study session

Too many students, after-school programs and new screening for job applicants were the three future issues that took up the bulk of the Pittsburg USD 250 study session Monday night.

USD 250 Superintendent Gary Price said that the district's growing enrollment was a fairly new problem, and not a bad one to have. Heading into 2001, the district had nine consecutive years of declining enrollment. But in 2001, USD 250 passed a bond issue, and Price said the enrollment has grown each of the four years since, especially at the elementary school level.

Unfortunately, that growth has put a strain on the facilities for the elementary schools. All four USD 250 elementary school principals attended the meeting and discussed potential problems with space if the enrollment continues to grow.

"You throw in all day kindergarten, and we're in trouble," said Andrew Gottlob, George Nettels Elementary School principal.

A number of ideas were thrown around, ranging from renovating storage areas for classroom use to moving kindergarten to a separate facility, or relocating fifth grade to the middle school.

Price said that while the district would possibly face a problem in the fall, a more comprehensive solution would be needed afterward.

The elementary school principals also discussed after-school child-care programs with board members. All four schools have the program, but only two, Meadowlark and Lakeside, make money. In addition, the principals cited possible problems with legal issues and whether the schools were properly equipped to handle a child-care program.

They also broached the issue of whether the program should be more academic-based.

"The issue is, do we want to be in the child-care business," asked Phillis Scorse, Meadowlark principal.

The possibility of outsourcing the program, either to the YMCA or the Family Resource Center was another topic of conversation. But USD 250 board member Dawn McNay said the transportation aspects would make it inconvenient.

"For me, I don't think I'm quite at the point where outsourcing is the best option," McNay said.

Matthew Wendt, USD 250 assistant superintendent, said there were plenty of options.

"There are a lot of things we can do," Wendt said. "We just have to decide what USD 250 wants from its after-school program."

Price said that they would likely send out questionnaires to the programs to talk about the possibility for outsourcing, as a preliminary action.

"It's a reasonable thing and it's a comfortable thing for the students to stay at their school longer," Price said. "It seems like the only issue we are talking about it who should operate it."

Board members also had a first reading of a new policy which would add a mandatory physical, complete with drug and alcohol test, for district applicants.

"Drug and alcohol testing - that's very important," said USD 250 board member Ann Elliott. "I mean, they are working with kids."

The testing would be paid for by the district. If an applicant were to have a positive test and thought that it was a false positive, they may retake the test, but at their own request. Otherwise, the interview process is cut off at a positive test.

Scott Howard, USD 250 board member, said that he was in favor of adding random drug tests for employees. District bus drivers already undergo random drug testing.

"Do we want to apply the same standard to all employees that we do with bus drivers," Howard said. "Also, problems don't always begin before employment."

The policy was passed into second reading, with Howard's possible change set aside until more information was gathered.

One of the reasons the district wants to change is to knock down its worker's compensation "mod" rate, thereby saving the district money. The estimated cost per year for physicals and drug screening is $6,600.

The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) February 28, 2006