The Churchill County School District used an interactive, online polling tool to gather thoughts from the community this past week as part of the budgeting process. Called a “Thought Exchange,” the online poll allows community members to submit ideas and comments, rate the comments and ideas made by other members, and view results all in real-time. The process is anonymous and was “open” and available from April 29 to May 5 at 10 a.m.
The District budget policy requires that the budget be allocated to meet the strategic planning themes and goals. In requesting public participation, the district information release read, “policy requires that the budget be allocated to the strategic planning themes as well as the goals of the building performance plans which include improved achievement and development of the whole child.”
Preliminary results viewed on Thursday, May 5 before the survey closed included a listing of words that were used most often in the comments. Overwhelmingly, participants said that staff should be paid better, retained, given higher pay, and given raises. Thoughts echoed comments made at the last board of trustees meeting by Keith Lund who spoke regarding a lack of teachers at the high school and the school not being able to offer the personal finance class. In 2020, the board made personal finance a requirement for graduation.
Lund, who has taught personal finance at the high school for the past 15 years, said there is currently a need for 41 sections of classes at the high school, but only enough teachers to cover 35 sections. “We hired one teacher instead of two, and the solution for that is to eliminate personal finance and fold it into the Econ class.” Additionally, after a lengthy textbook adoption processes, the class will now be taught using a “canned” class that was developed by the state.
Under the topic of “Hiring More Teachers” one comment read, “Class sizes are too big, and students are missing out on certain classes because of lack of sections offered.”
Also addressed was the topic of “Classes” with 24 comments, one reading, “Replace Edgenuity. Hire teachers to teach students. Increase the rigor and the expectations. Why is our bar so low these days? Ask any high schooler what they've learned in an Edgenuity class. The answer is nothing. Ask them if they cheat their way through. The answer is yes.”
Under hiring there were 19 comments, including, “PLEASE hire someone to manage the Scholarship application process. This year has been very frustrating for all concerned.
Thousands of dollars are being offered via scholarships by many local organizations. Communication with our organization was very poor.”
Six comments addressed specifically the trades, one said, “There is a TON of trade skills and certification that can be locally applicable and we need to familiarize students with them and make it available The more involved kids are in these trades as they grow the more prepared they will be and we as a state will have a more skilled young workforce.” And another said, “A focus on STEM, we have a large growing tech industry right next door in sparks/reno and can reasonably expect to students to be drawn to the Industry. These fields require extensive education and training. The ability to pursue specific education in these fields would be a massive help to students.”
Several comments addressed student behavior, “the dress code needs to be enforced - students need to be disciplined for cursing/foul language and bullying/ harassing others.”
There were 47 comments that addressed “learning” including, “Get kids up to grade appropriate learning levels. My 5th grader brought home a video assignment that started off with ‘good morning 3rd graders.’ He was pretty insulted by it and hasn't been the same in school since. These things matter to them whether they express it openly or not.”
Additionally, 28 comments discussed “support” including, “We need inclusive education about LGBTQ+ people, women, and people of color. Simply not being racist, misogynistic, or queerphobic is not enough. We need to be educated about these people and advocate for equality. Received 51 ratings with strongly disagree receiving the highest rating.
In addition, there were many comments about social-emotional learning, more counselors, support for career development, scholarships and academic development. “These are all very important topics to us, and we are absolutely taking them into account as we plan for the coming years,” stated the release.
The results of the survey will be shared with the Budget Advisory Committee as well as the Board of Trustees. The formal hearing on the 2022-23 budget will be held at the Board meeting on May 25, at 5:30 p.m.
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