NORMAL – For 10 Wednesdays in the 2010-11 School Year, students in Normal’s Unit 5 School District will be starting their day an hour later than normal so that their teachers can attend professional development sessions.
On the days teachers will be receiving the professional development, they will be meeting for 90 minutes. District Superintendent Gary Niehaus said starting one school day a month an hour later than usual will save Unit 5 close to $1 million which is currently spent on teachers when they travel to professional development sessions and on hiring substitute teachers.
“Late Start Wednesdays” will take place on Sept. 15 & 29; Oct. 13 & 27; Nov. 10; Jan. 12; Feb. 9; March 9; April 6; and May 11. On those days, Unit 5’s high schools will begin their day at 8:15a.m., junior highs will begin their day at 8:45a.m.; and elementary schools will begin their day at 9:30a.m. The schools will be dismissed at their regular times. Buses to school will run one hour later on those Wednesdays, and a flier concerning the late start times advises students to be at their designated bus stop one hour later than the scheduled pickup time on those days. The flier advises all schools will be dismissed at their normal dismissal times on late start days.
The program was proposed to Unit 5 School Board members in March by the principals of Unit 5’s two high schools – Dr. Jeanette Nuckolls of Normal Community High School, and Tom Eder of Normal Community West High School. Board members approved the program in April.
“Parents are accepting the idea that we have to have cost reductions in place for next year,” Niehaus said. “This is one of those reductions. We have done enough research to know that this is the best practice. This is something that is happening in the state and across the nation for professional learning communities.
“From a research base, we think we will do better in the classroom,” Niehaus added. “And we’ll do better with student achievement because we’re better prepared and organized as a faculty and staff through these late starts.”
Niehaus said doing these professional development sessions at the schools means the district is not paying for out-of-town travel – a cost often associated with teachers attending professional development sessions. As another cost-saving measure, Niehaus said Unit 5 is limiting the number of conferences that teachers and staff are attending, as well.
When the idea was first floated, and then discussed, Niehaus said he knew he had resistance from Unit 5 staff members who had never done professional development in that way before, and from those who were unsure of the idea.
“We had Board members who were questioning the inconvenience to parents,” Niehaus said. He added that Unit Five Education Association (UFEA), the union that represents Unit 5’s teachers, reacted positively enough to the idea that UFEA offered the district an additional 30 minutes of flex time for those days with late starts, giving the district 90 minutes to work with. The district had originally wanted to use just 60 minutes for this program. UFEA’s gesture of the extra half-hour bumped the time to be used to 90 minutes.
Unit 5 set up a booth at the Sugar Creek Arts Festival and distributed fliers indicating how the program would work, including the days the delayed starts would take place.
State Provides Late Payment: The State of Illinois still owes Unit 5 $5 million in reimbursements for transportation and special education, Board members learned from the district’s new Chief Financial Officer, Erik Bush. Bush formally sat with Board members at his first meeting since being named CFO in April.
Bush said $1.6 million of the $5 million owed would go toward transportation costs, with $3.4 million going to reimburse the district for special education.
Bush said the State has traditionally made four payments to Unit 5 for reimbursement of transportation costs. Unit 5 received $800,000 from the State in January – a payment, Bush explained, should have been in the district’s hands last September. The State’s latest reimbursement to the district was literally very late – given to Unit 5 in late June – totaling $600,000. That means Unit 5 still has two more payments for school year 2009-2010 to yet arrive from Springfield. Illinois also typically provides reimbursement for special education costs, but has yet to send money for special ed to Unit 5, as of Wednesday’s meeting, Bush said.
Niehaus told Board members the delivery of transportation payments by the State has been such that, in the last couple of years, at least one of the four payment due Unit 5 has come in late.
Bush told Board members Unit 5 has managed to reduce staff to cut costs, as well. As school year 2009-2010 began last July, the district had 1,860 employees on the payroll. As school year 2010-2011 opens, there are 1,673 employees.
Bush told Board members the downturn in staffing numbers “isn’t necessarily decreasing the level of services provided by the district.”
Construction Update: Board members were provided with an update on the construction of two elementary schools and one junior high school to be added to the district. Cedar Ridge Elementary School and Benjamin Elementary School will open this coming school year. George L. Evans Junior High was slated to open this fall, as well, but due to lengthy weather related construction delays, will not open until the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year.
Richard Ach, senior project manager for Chicago-based Turner Construction, reported that movers have begun loading furniture into the second floor of Cedar Ridge Elementary, after Unit 5’s having taken possession of the building from construction crews on July 1.
At the site of Benjamin Elementary, Ach reported the school’s first floor classroom wing, including the commons area, have been turned over to the district. The second floor classroom wing is scheduled to be put in district control by July 26. Ach said lighting has been installed in the gymnasium wing of the building.
At the site of George L. Evans Junior High, interior and exterior metal stud framing continues in the building’s north classroom wing, as does glazing in the school’s library, now that curtain wall framing has been completed; window installation is underway in the building’s south classroom wing; and face brick installation will begin on the building outside its kitchen/cafetorium area.
Ach said crews have experienced a total of 165 delay days trying to work on this site. Of those 165, crews have been able to make up for just 19 of them.
No 2nd Meeting In July: As is customary, there will be no second Board meeting in July. The Board’s next meeting will be Wednesday, Aug. 11 at District Headquarters, 1809 W. Hovey Ave., starting at 7p.m.