KidsTLC is a place of last resort for young people from across the state with severe psychiatric and behavior issues. The residential treatment facility is within our boundaries and Olathe District Schools is responsible for providing an education to the students who live there. At this month’s board meeting we heard an excellent presentation about the programs and the caring staff we have in place to meet those unique needs. I strongly encourage you to take a few moments to watch the first segment of the meeting to learn about the work being done for our most fragile students.In other business, we reviewed the capital projects lined up for this spring and summer. I want to thank the community for supporting an increase to this year’s capital outlay mill levy which is providing us with the funds to start tackling the long list of deferred projects that has accumulated over the past five or so years. We also gave approval for staff to begin contract negotiations on a new financial management software package. Our current system is twenty years old and severely limited in its functionality and ability to integrate with the dozens of other software systems we utilize. Does anyone remember green screens? Rick Schier made an excellent point; can any of us imagine working at home on a twenty year old computer and operating system?

Board members talked at length about individual concerns surrounding the governor’s proposed changes to state education funding. Next month we will finalize our legislative priorities and share them with legislators so that our concerns in the Olathe school district might be addressed when crafting and considering school finance bills. I will share more after that meeting, but concerns center around making sure any new formula ties state funding to actual costs, and that the local portion of funding is structured in a way that is fair and attainable for all districts.

For more details you can read a comprehensive summary at the district  website or  watch the meetings online.

Thank you to all of you who read this update every month. Now, more than ever, we need you to know what is going on and speak up in support of our schools. When your own children are doing well it’s easy to forget about the big picture. Our current funding formula has been with us for twenty years and it’s highly likely that the new formula will be with us just as long. It is crucial that Topeka gets this right and they will need our input if that is going to happen. If you have a few minutes, go to the 1:32 mark in the meeting video to hear a detailed conversation about some specific concerns for Olathe.

Here’s to a prosperous 2012,

Amy

Amy Martin
12281 South Rene | Olathe, KS 66062
913-782-3239

This newsletter is provided to you by Board of Education member Amy Martin,
it is not a product of the Olathe School District.