District Safety

• Provide for the security and safety of all students and staff

• Evaluate safety procedures

• Make recommended improvements

• Ensure plans are considered within the context of reconfiguration and renovation

District Reconfiguration

• School Board will work towards reconfiguration, using the current RFI/RFP process

• School Board will work towards providing reconfiguration analysis and an implementation plan

Support Administration Academic Goals

• Provide appropriate support for the administration’s ambitious goals of improved math and ELA test scores K-1

• Provide appropriate support for the administration’s goals for social-emotional learning, with an emphasis on “The First Eight Weeks” curriculum and a focus on 8-12 resources for teachers and administrators

Support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access to all opportunities for students in the District

ConVal Community.

We had a great turnout at the individual town meetings and response to the Survey with a significant number of diverse opinions and input as to the multitude of areas we should be looking at as we proceed in our multi-faceted analysis that will provide for the development and implementation of the best possible physical model allowing for the efficient use of our educational resources. This analysis will result in an educationally sound, safe, socially responsive, community sensitive, financially responsible, organizational model while providing enhanced diversity and cultural understanding, and possible transportation savings. All to support the ConVal community and students. 

The attendance at the 9 community meetings exceeded 472, not counting Prismatic folks, ConVal School Board Members etc. Responses to the On-line Survey exceeded 1,555. These are great figures and will be detailed in a further correspondence.

ConVal supports 11 physically separate schools. 8 Elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 1 high school. Our school population has been on a steadily decreasing track with ConVal now having approx. 1993 students with a capacity of 3,530 students as of Nov. 2022. Our school capacity far exceeds our current enrollment and enrollment is not expected to significantly increase in the foreseeable future. The latest demographic projections suggest a very small growth in enrollments over the next decade.

The key to this process has been and continues to be community engagement and being open and transparent in our activities. 

With the analysis taking place on the opinions and input received from the individual town meetings and on-line survey we felt it better to continue with this analysis and schedule the on-line forum and follow up On-line Survey for October 23 through October 27 inclusive. Details of both and upcoming activities are below:

• On-line forum

Prismatic will launch an asynchronous, online, moderated forum for ConVal residents that will be available for a week. There will be 3 options within the forum:

• Participants can ask questions of the consulting team. Prismatic will respond to questions within 48 hours.
• Participants will be provided with an overview of select district costs and asked to provide their thoughts.
• Participants will be provided with an overview of recent student performance data and asked to provide their thoughts.

Participants will be able to view the comments of other participants and may choose to respond to them. Participants may choose to give their names, but it is not required. Inappropriate comments will be deleted. 

The forum will be hosted in IdeaFlip and will look similar to post-it response activities of the Town Meetings

The link for this on-line forum will be sent next week.

The on-line forum will be available for use 24 hours a day for the 5 days noted (October 23 thru October 27 inclusive).

• Follow-up survey.

Prismatic will launch a short, online, confidential follow-up survey that will provide participants with an overview of select district costs and recent student performance data, then ask for input. As both input opportunities will be focused on similar topics, community members may choose to only participate in one or they could choose to participate in both.

The link for this follow-up survey will be sent next week

The follow-up Survey will be available for use 24 hours a day for the 5 days noted (October 23 thru October 27 inclusive).   

• On-going analysis of input received from the individual town meetings, on-line survey, on-line forum and follow-up survey.

This input analysis shows that there are many thoughts on the community’s collective minds on how to address this issue, as expected. We are in the process of summarizing this input into a cohesive form to present to you and the community. With over 1,500 on-line survey responses and over 472 community members attending the individual town meetings it will take a while to complete. We expect that this part of the input analysis will be completed by the end of October. By that time the results of the scheduled On-line forum and follow-up survey will be in process with a scheduled completion date of community input being November 15. On November 15 we (Prismatic, ConVal School Board, ConVal administration, staff etc.) will be holding a data analysis meeting (Data party) to make sure all are on the same page as relates to understanding the input received and its completeness. We will also be providing input on areas that we feel need clarification and detail figures.

The end of the data collection (input) phase is scheduled for a few days after November 15. Subsequent to the completion of this phase we will be diligently working on formulating our recommended approach to this complex and far-reaching issue. 

We expect to have this project completed by the middle of December, in time for the community to review and for placing a warrant article on the school ballot, if needed.

We will keep all informed as to the results of the data gathering and analysis phase.    

Alan Edelkind ConVal School Board Representative – Dublin ConVal School Board Vice-chair Strategic Organization Committee-chair.                                                                                                                  

by Jim Fredrickson

Chairman, Budget & Property Committee

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FY24 ConVal School Budget Schedule

Included below are the key dates and events associated with this budget cycle.  Several of these have already been completed:

• June 30, 2022 – last day of FY22
• “Preliminary” Property tax bills issued
• July 1, 2022 – 1st day of FY23
• Audit of FY22 financials (ongoing)
• Aug/Sept 2022 – Board developed and approved “FY24 Budget Guidance” to be used by the Superintendent and staff to develop the proposed School Budget for FY24
• November 5, 2022 – Annual School Board Budget Meeting
• November/December – Towns issue 2023 Property Tax bills
• January 2023 – Board finalizes and “approves” proposed FY23 Budget
• Public hearing on proposed Budget – January 10, 2023
• January 2023 – 2nd Board sponsored Community Forum (date TBD)
• February 7, 2022 – Deliberative Session
• March 7, 2022 – Voting day (FY24 Budget)
• July 1, 2023 – 1st day of FY24

The two most significant changes this budget cycle include:

• the “return” to taxpayers of unused funds from FY22.  The exact amount will be determined when the ongoing audit of FY22 is completed, but we already know that the amount will be significantly lower than the unprecedented amount “returned” from FY21.  This will be covered in detail in the next article.
• Inflation is going to be the “wild card” for FY24.

Budget “Guidance”

We’ve all felt the impact of rising costs and we’ve all pulled up to the pump recently and “enjoyed” the lower gas prices now compared to a few months ago.  When we develop our budget, we need to acknowledge that costs are going to be higher, but just how high?  The fact that the FY24 School year will run from July ’23 through June ’24 makes it more difficult.

Salaries and benefits for District staff account for more than 70% of our costs.  District voters approved a three-year contract for teachers, paraprofessionals, and specialized service professionals this past March.  FY24 will be the second year of the contract – which establishes the FY24 salary increase for the majority of the District’s employees.  This reduces some of the uncertainty associated with estimating the effect of inflation to include in the proposed budget.  Several other multi-year contracts in place also help.

The Board recently provided the Superintendent with “guidance” to be used to develop the initial FY24 budget:  maintain the status quo.  In other words, do not include any significant new programs but do include planned upgrades to technology, curriculum, etc.

Annual School Board Budget Meeting

The annual School Board Budget meeting will be held on Saturday November 5th at the District offices.  The Superintendent and staff presented will present the initial proposed budget.  This will be an informative meeting – decisions on specific aspects of the budget will be discussed and voted on at regularly scheduled Board meetings. You will have several opportunities to review, discuss, and eventually approve it.  We encourage and welcome your participation.

Stay tuned for our next article in this series – it will discuss how the FY23 school budget affects your property tax bill.

by Jim Fredrickson

Chairman, Budget & Property Committee

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Budget “Guidance”

We’ve all felt the impact of rising costs and we’ve all pulled up to the pump recently and “enjoyed” the lower gas prices now compared to a few months ago.  When we develop our budget, we need to acknowledge that costs are going to be higher, but just how high?  The fact that the FY24 School year will run from July ’23 through June ’24 makes it more difficult.

Salaries and benefits for District staff account for more than 70% of our costs.  District voters approved a three-year contract for teachers, paraprofessionals, and specialized service professionals this past March.  FY24 will be the second year of the contract – which establishes the FY24 salary increase for the majority of the District’s employees.  This reduces some of the uncertainty associated with estimating the effect of inflation to include in the proposed budget.  Several other multi-year contracts in place also help.

The Board recently provided the Superintendent with “guidance” to be used to develop the initial FY24 budget:  maintain the status quo.  In other words, do not include any significant new programs but do include planned upgrades to technology, curriculum, etc.

Annual School Board Budget Meeting

The annual School Board Budget meeting will be held on Saturday, November 5th at the District offices.  The Superintendent and staff presented will present the initial proposed budget.  This will be an informative meeting – decisions on specific aspects of the budget will be discussed and voted on at regularly scheduled Board meetings. You will have several opportunities to review, discuss, and eventually approve it.  We encourage and welcome your participation.

Stay tuned for our next article in this series – it will discuss how the FY23 school budget affects your property tax bill.