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EEF Winners for January, 2012
FROM: Michael E. Sharrow, Superintendent
DATE: February 6, 2012
BUDGETS, BUSINESS, MEAP AND MORE
School districts in the state of Michigan are required by law to have an adopted budget in place by June 30 of each year. When our district adopted our 2011-2012 budget last June, we anticipated our expenditures at $1 million dollars more than our revenue. The additional dollars needed to balance the budget would need to come from our Fund Balance (savings). Our school board directed administration to look for additional savings that would not affect student learning. The administration made a number of reductions to the proposed budget. The ACS Board of Education adopted the reductions at their June, 2011 board meeting. One of those reductions was to operate the school district in the 2011-2012 school year without an Operations Manager, which resulted in the Operations Manager being laid off. The school year is now over half way through, and the district has been able to successfully operate without the Operations Manager position. This reduction saved the district approximately $115,000. This reduction has worked well due to the hard work of our employees. Thank you, employees!
The district was notified late last fall that the employee who previously held the Operations Manager position had filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Algonac Community Schools. The lawsuit is based on the belief that the employee had a verbal promise from the superintendent to work in the position for at least 10 years. There was no agreement. Only school boards can enter into an agreement or a contract with employees. The lawsuit has been filed but has not proceeded forward at this time. It is the stance of the district that there is no legal basis for this lawsuit. We will keep you updated on this issue. Please keep in mind that the legal process moves slowly.
School boards are also required by law to evaluate their superintendent each year. Generally school boards also vote to extend, not extend, or renew the present contract of their superintendent at the same meeting. Algonac’s school board is required by contract to hold the superintendent’s annual evaluation prior to March 1. Because not all of our board members will be able to attend the regular meeting of the board on February 27th, it was necessary to schedule a special board meeting earlier in February for that purpose. This was discussed at the January board meeting where a date was agreed upon, and the special meeting was posted the next day.
Student achievement is our primary focus, and a subject that is important to parents as well. It has always been our goal to have our students score above the state and county averages. Our students have achieved this goal in nearly every category and nearly every year. We are continually seeking newer and better methods for increasing student achievement. Also, I believe most of you are aware that standardized testing is only one measurement of student achievement. I recently wrote to you about our state adopting new cut scores for the MEAP that will require students to answer nearly twice as many answers correctly in order to be labeled proficient. These new cut scores are based on a college and career readiness standard for children. Algonac Community Schools embraces the idea of having all students college and career ready when they leave high school. Our teachers and administrators are busy analyzing data, adjusting instruction, curriculum and interventions to meet these new rigorous standards. Our state has predicted that initially as many as 70% of our state’s students may not reach this level, but in a short period of time the instructional staff and students will make the changes needed in order to meet this worthy goal. I have included a 5-year comparison of Algonac’s MEAP and ACT scores for your information. Click here to view the 5-year comparison.
High schools throughout our country have been offering “credit recovery” opportunities for students. But only recently has a new delivery method of credit recovery been made available through online learning. Algonac High School is no exception. Credit recovery is a worthy cause to re-teach concepts where students have not yet met proficiency. There are national and state studies that indicate online credit recovery is more successful than traditional credit recovery methods. Online learning is evolving every day. ACS will closely follow this trend and offer our students every opportunity to be successful and graduate from high school, college or career ready as is our state’s goal. Our school district offers a wide variety of educational options for students. We recently added programming such as new math curriculums at the elementary and high school level, instructional tools such as Journeys and Study Island, and advanced coursework in Honors and IB courses. We are currently aligning our curriculum to the new “common core” standards adopted by our state. In addition, we will be studying our elementary science curriculum and looking at offering summer school in a different fashion.
I hope this letter provides you with helpful information. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me, our building administrators, teachers, and/or school board members.
If you have questions or concerns, contact:
Algonac Community Schools
1216 St. Clair Blvd.
Algonac, MI 48001
(810) 794-9364
www.algonac.k12.mi.us
District Links
- Directory of Buildings
- Annual Report
- District State Reports
- School Closing
- 2011-2012 Calendar
- Employment
- Request for Proposal
- Teacher/Administrator Evaluation System
