State of the School District

Posted: January 19, 2010

Academic Achievement Highlights

The district launched a focus on instructional intensity as a part of the Board of Trustees’ participation in the Lighthouse project.  The mission of the Minidoka County Joint School District is to increase INSTRUCTIONAL INTENSITY to significantly improve the academic achievement for all students.

  • We pay a great deal of attention to education and as a result provide many cutting edge opportunities to our students such as Reading First, Middle and High Schools That Work, dual credit and advance placement classes, as well as a wide variety of professional-technical programs. While we celebrate our many accomplishments, we recognize that continuous improvement is an integral part of all great programs.
  • For the first time since 2004, four of our schools met AYP goals (Acequia, Paul, Minico and Mt. Harrison). This is a 50% increase from last year.  Minico High school met AYP for the first time and received a commendation from the State Department of education for significant increase in Reading proficiency for LEP students.
  • A professional development calendar has been created to inform staff of the professional development plan and has been more focused on improving instruction and student learning and achievement.  We have focused on the SIOP training district-wide, as well as, Reading First.
  • Our goal is to provide a place for students to learn without distractions and concerns for safety. We closely monitor activities on our campuses and offer programs to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and substance abuse. As required by state and federal laws and rules, we collect, monitor, and report on crimes and substance abuse incidents on our campuses and at school activities.
  • We are committed to ensuring that our students are taught by a highly trained and qualified staff of instructors. Parents are welcome to request information about the qualifications of their child’s teachers. In addition, if the need arises for your child to be taught by a teacher without complete qualifications for more than four weeks, we will notify you.
  • About our teachers:
    • 98.76% Of our teachers were highly qualified teachers
    • 1.81% Of our teachers were teaching with emergency/provisional certificates
    • 1.24% Of our core classes are not taught by highly qualified teachers
  • About our students:
    • District Enrollment: 3998 (approx 12% decline over past 10 years)
    • 12.9% Participate in programs to learn English
    • 62.6% Qualify for free or reduced-price lunches
    • 2.5% Participated in gifted and talented programs
  • About our graduation rate:
    • Our state goal is for at least 90 percent of students to graduate from high school.
    • The most current graduation rate information is for the Class of 2009:
      • 79.11% for our District
      • 89.7% for the State of Idaho
    • We have set goals to improve and are working hard our graduation rate.  We can’t afford to let any students slip through the cracks”.
  • ACT- Most of Idaho’s college-bound students take this exam.
    Class of 2009 – average score (Minico & Mt. Harrison)

      District State National
    English 19.6 20.5 20.6
    Math 19.3 21.3 21.0
    Reading 20.9 22.3 21.4
    Science 19.6 21.4 0.8
    Composite 19.9 21.6 21.1
  • Report cards on each of our schools are available at www.minidokaschools.org.  Detailed achievement data for the district, schools, and state can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of the report card screen.
  • The District again offered summer school and extended school year for students with at-risk or special needs.
  • The District continues to offer College Night, Parents make the Difference Night, and focuses on scholarship opportunities for students.  We launched an expanded Parent Advisory Team to help us focus on all areas of school improvement and parental involvement at each building, as well as, district-wide.
  • The District continues to authorize the ARTEC Charter School (a regional professional-technical charter school) to enhance the funding of high end programs and assure best practices in vocational education.
  • The following “6 A’s were also introduced as a way to improve academic achievement.
    • Attitude- We need the benefit of positive attitudes in our classrooms, school buildings, homes, businesses, and entire community.  Minidoka County is a great place to live.  I have been so impressed with the quality of your children and the dedicated staff of this district.  We need to remember and reconnect with our Minidoka Pride…our Spartan Pride!  We encourage attitudes that foster cooperation, respect, trust, sportsmanship, and unity.  These positive attitudes will instill our community with enthusiasm and hope for the future.  Positive attitudes motivate us to work together on behalf of our children.  We need to eliminate gossip, rumor spreading, backbiting, or anything which is potentially negative.  When we dwell on the negative, it inevitably affects our students in adverse ways.  Let’s work together to improve our attitude…attitude determines our altitude!
    • Attendance- Student achievement is directly tied to attendance.  When children are in classrooms receiving daily instruction, encouragement, and assessment from the teacher, success is within the reach of every child.  An absence is a missed opportunity for learning.  Idaho schools receive state money based on the reported average daily attendance of our students.  Every absence translates into lost revenue for our district.  Lost revenue means fewer resources to educate our children.  We need to improve our attendance and try to limit classroom interruptions and unnecessary appointments during the instructional day.  If we could raise our student attendance just 3 percentage points (i.e. from 95 % to 98 %), our state aid payments over the school year could increase by more than $500,000 or approximately seven teachers and classroom unit funding.  Staff is also focusing on improving attendance.  We need our teachers in class with our students as much as possible. 
    • Achievement-   Our main job is to improve student achievement.  Everyone in the community has an interest in seeing that Minidoka County students are well educated.  High student achievement is the hallmark of a quality education and requires the full commitment of students, teachers, and parents.  Our staff is responsible for setting learning targets, teaching to the targets, and monitoring each student’s growth.  Students must be actively engaged in the process of learning and should be encouraged to grow and succeed.  Our district believes in “Excellence in Education.”  This means every one, every thing, every time, and every where!  We need to focus on continuous school improvement and helping every child to learn and grow.
    • Activities- Educational research says that participation in extra-curricular activities is strongly correlated with student academic success.  We need to develop, maintain, and promote good and wholesome extra-curricular activities and programs.  We have an excellent Booster Club and Parent-Teacher organizations that help us promote positive social experiences and activities at all levels.  We need to attract and retain top quality coaches and advisors for these programs.  We continue to work on to providing adequate and appropriate funding levels for our programs that benefit students.  We also want to model and encourage excellent sportsmanship.
    • Accountability- As a district, we must remember that parents are sending us their greatest possessions…their children…to nurture and educate.  We should never try to take the “Public” out of public schools.  We have a responsibility to our patrons to provide the best possible education system and must communicate openly about our accomplishments and challenges.  We have school improvement teams in every building and encourage parents to become directly involved in helping us to continuously improve.  We pledge to provide excellent learning opportunities to all students regardless of achievement level, ethnicity, language, or economic status.  We will continue to provide accurate and timely reporting via newsletters, web site, board meetings, and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) school report cards as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).    We are committed to assuring that our staff is “Highly Qualified” and teaching the approved Idaho Achievement Standards.  We need to help all students grow and succeed on all district testing/assessment measures.
    • Atmosphere- Student safety and well-being is one of our chief goals.  We need to promote and monitor safety and security in order to provide drug free schools, positive discipline, and a desirable environment free from all forms of harassment, violence, and bullying.   Character education programs will be continued in all buildings to encourage the development of students into healthy, happy, and productive citizens of our community and the world.  We need to respect and celebrate diversity and differences.  Additionally, we are concerned about wellness and nutrition for all of our students and staff.  As a district we also need to operate attractive, well-maintained, and clean physical facilities, buildings, and playgrounds.  The physical and social climate we set will directly impact our students, so it is critical that the atmosphere be positive.

Extracurricular Highlights

  • As a District we were able to keep all our extracurricular activities in tact despite the budget reductions.  We also placed a greater emphasis on quality of programs, personnel, and sportsmanship in all of our activities.
  • A new “events calendar” was created to have a single calendar with activities listed for all buildings and departments.
  • The past few years have seen many improvements in our activities programs.  Students at Minico and Mt. Harrison have been very competitive and have won many titles and awards.
  • A new committee was created to address “school climate” in our secondary schools.  We have focused efforts on improving dress code, sportsmanship, student discipline, language, PDA’s, etc.

Financial Highlights

The District’s annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, includes a series of basic financial statements that show information for the District as a whole, its funds, and its fiduciary responsibilities.  The fund financial statements provide information about all of the District’s funds.  Information about these funds, such as the District’s General Fund, is important in its own right, but will also give insight into the District’s overall financial soundness as reported in the Statement of Net Assets and the Statement of Activities.

  • The district was recognized with an award of “Meritorious Budget 2008-2009” from the Association for School Business Officials International for budgeting excellence.
  • The District saw a decrease in funding and reimbursements from the State from $23,634,857 in fiscal year 2008 to $23,500,947 in fiscal year 2009, or a decrease of 0.7% in all funds.  The difference stemmed from a decrease in units due to loss in attendance and a reduction in tuition equivalency.  The decrease in revenue was offset slightly by the increase in Medicaid grant reimbursements.
  • Local revenue in turn decreased from $3,880,007 in fiscal year 2008 to $3,222,077 in fiscal year 2009, a decrease of 17% due to less money invested for capital projects and declining State Pool investment and bank interest revenue.
  • Total General Fund revenues accounted for $23,798,929 in revenue or 77 % of all revenues.  Non General Fund revenues in the form of charges for services, operating grants and contributions, and capital grants and contributions accounted for $7,092,653 or 23 % of total revenues of $30,891,582. 
  • The District General Fund fund-balance decreased by $144,517 from $1,349,402 in fiscal year 2008 to $1,204,885 in fiscal year 2009.  The school district has only been able to maintain a contingency General Fund Operating Reserve equivalent to 2.4% of its General Fund revenue.  These funds will not be apportioned.  In July 2008, the District initially reserved $500,000 of its General Fund fund-balance to the contingency, and at year end the balance in the contingency reached $543,000.
  • The school district transferred $1,200,000 from the General Fund to the Permanent Improvement Capital Projects Fund.  Another $102,000 received from the State for bus depreciation was transferred into plant facilities for the purchase of two (2) new buses.  The school district also transferred $43,562 to the Food Service fund to match benefits.  $78,000 was transferred to the debt fund to pay for the interest payment on the energy audit loan.  Due to the new Classroom Enhancement package passed by the State, the District also transferred $80,000 to match revenue received for ISAT Remediation.
  • Beginning in 2006-2007, HB 743 provided that the school district allocate money for student occupied school building maintenance from the plant facility and general fund equal to at least two percent (2%) of the replacement value of school buildings.  The replacement value is determined by multiplying the number of square footage of building floor space by $80 per foot.  The amount of required maintenance allocation for the District was $1,014,067 for 2008-2009.   The district received $157,714 in school maintenance match revenue and $253,288 in lottery funds from the State to spend towards the requirement.  The district amount required to match was $603,065.  Of the match $121,300 matching was spent on student occupied buildings, leaving $481,765 to be carried forward to 09-10 to match in subsequent years. 
  • Also beginning in 2006-2007, Minidoka County School District in collaboration with several other Region IV school districts developed a charter district to bring better funding to high end Technical Programs.  Minidoka County Schools received over $228,000 in reimbursements for ARTEC charter district in 2008-2009 to cover 3.25 FTE teacher salaries and benefits, equipment, building rental and other discretionary uses.  Minidoka also received $73,000 to cover the Administrative staff that is paid from Minidoka County Schools to administer the ARTEC charter district and $5000 for fiscal agent fees.  The District also received $42,000 in additional equipment and $5000 in professional development opportunities paid directly by ARTEC.

Current Financial Issues and Concerns

  • The Minidoka County School District is financially stable in spite of the recent economic downturn and education funding issues in the State of Idaho.    The current economic outlook for the District and State of Idaho (and across the Nation) is one of caution and uncertainty.  The current recession may bring further budgetary holdbacks and financial cuts to the District. 
  • Despite these challenges, the District received the honor of “Meritorious Budget” for the 2008-2009 fiscal year from the Association of School Business Officials International. 
  • The community supports its public schools and the school district renewed its two year supplemental levy on April 8, 2008 for $1,200,000.  The Minidoka School District has experienced gradual declining student enrollment, however, current projections indicate more favorable estimates for future stabilization.  The financial performance of the district has been affected by a corresponding decrease in State foundation funds representing decreased revenues for staffing and other expenses due to the declining enrollment.  The District has reduced staff and ancillary expenditures as instructionally sound to offset the fiscal impact of declining enrollment and revenue reductions. 
  • In planning for fiscal year 2009-10, the Minidoka County Joint School District #331 Board of Trustees and teachers from the Minidoka County Education Association (MCEA) each ratified the negotiated contract.  The main points of the agreement reached included a 2.1% reduction in salaries for teachers and certificated staff via four “furlough” days unpaid, as well as, elimination of the “Friday Early Release” (which was used for instructional prep time) and the associated school bus routes.  Instructional preparation time was reconfigured during the school day in order to assure quality instruction and eliminating the extra Friday bus runs. The District opted to declare a “financial emergency” as a part of efforts to deal with budget decreases from the state.
  • In addition, the board effected a 3% salary reduction on the base for administrators (a net reduction of over 5% by including the a reduction in force of 2.25 administrators in the district), a 2.1% salary reduction for classified supervisors, a 2.1% decrease in classified salaries via four “furlough” days unpaid, a 2.1% reduction on activity stipends, and reductions in discretionary funds allocated to schools and departments.
  • This was a mutual effort to address declining enrollment in the district and the State of Idaho’s budget reductions in education.  
  • The Minidoka County School District must educate a minority student population that requires additional costs in program funding.  Limited English Proficiency students comprise 12.9% of the Minidoka student population and a Special Education population of 10.7%. 
  • The Minidoka District community includes many households that function at a poverty level as indicated by a 2008 Federal free and reduced lunch rate at 62.6%.  The Minidoka County School District is a poor district with a very limited tax base.  The Idaho school district average expenditures per student for 2008 was $8,913; which ranked 89 out of 144 districts and charters according to statistics provided by the Idaho State Department of Education.
  • The Minidoka County School District’s financial condition is sound despite declining enrollment, increased numbers of Special Education and Limited English Proficiency students, and the maintenance needs of aging buildings.  The Minidoka County School District Board of Trustees has prudently managed budgets.  The Board of Trustees has maintained positive fund balances and has reduced staff in accordance with student enrollment declines.  The Minidoka County School District plans to continue its practice of sound fiscal management.

Plant/Facilities Highlights

  • A great deal has been accomplished with regard to the district’s buildings.  Two new schools were opened in August of 2009.  Acequia Elementary School and Heyburn Elementary School were put into service for the 2009-2010 school year.  In addition, the new Multi-Purpose Center at Paul Elementary was opened for use in May of 2009.  These are beautiful new buildings that were constructed to last many years in the future.
  • The Klebe Memorial Building (old armory building) was remodeled for the Food Service Department.  It is in a far safer location for deliveries and includes dry and cold storage facilities for the entire district.
  • Completed Plant/Facility projects in 2008-2010 tied to the renewal supplemental levy for 2 years:
    • SECURITY DOOR LOCKS EAST/WEST
    • NEW DOORS EAST/WEST
    • MINICO WATER HEATER
    • SECURITY CAMERAS EAST
    • NETWORK CONTROLLERS FOR HVAC SYSTEMS
    • PAUL CLOCK SYSTEM
    • LOCKER REFURBISHMENT WEST
    • LOCKER REFURBISHMENT MINICO
    • TENNIS COURTS MINICO
    • SCOREBOARD ELECTRICAL
    • FOOD SERVICE LOT PAVING
    • RUPERT ELEMENTARY PARKING OVERLAY
    • EAST MINICO PARKING OVERLAY
    • POLE VAULT AREA UPGRADE
    • VISITOR BLEACHERS UPGRADES
    • MINICO PARKING OVERLAY
    • ACEQUIA PORTABLE STORAGE UNIT
    • MAINTENANCE BAYS UPGRADE
    • FOOD SERVICE REMODEL FINISH UP
    • BLADES AND PLOWS FOR NEW TRUCK
    • BUCKET TRUCK
    • NEW 2009 MAINTENANCE PICKUP
    • COMPUTER LAB UPGRADES AND SERVERS
    • 2 NEW BUSES
    • EAST MINICO KITCHEN REPAIR
    • EAST REROOFING
    • WEST REROOFING
    • PAUL PARKING ASPHALT
    • WEST PARKING ASPHALT
    • MINICO PARKING OVERLAY
    • PAUL SIDEWALKS
    • TRANSPORTATION NEW 2004 WORK PICKUP
    • COMPUTER UPGRADES
    • 2 NEW BUSES
  • Plant/Facilities projects that are scheduled or in progress include:
    • SELF CONTAINED HOME EC ROOM WEST
    • MINICO PUMP HOUSE
    • MINICO CNC ROOM REMODEL
    • EAST/WEST AWNINGS
    • MINICO ROOFING
    • MINICO TECHNOLOGY ROOFING
    • ROOFING TRANS/FOOD SERVICE
    • SECURITY
    • LIGHTING SYSTEM AUDITORIUM
    • EAST SOUND SYSTEM
    • HVAC
    • TRACTOR/DIXIE CHOPPER
    • MINICO FLOORING REFINISH
    • TRANSP REMODEL
    • BASEBALL BACKSTOPS EAST
    • MODULAR MOVE
    • REMODEL NEW MT HARRISON
    • REMODEL NEW SERVICE CENTER
  • Emphasis was placed on preventive maintenance alongside the 10-Year Plant/Facilities Plan required by the state.
  • Efforts will continue to be focused on improving the condition and functionality of the grounds and improving facility standards for students and staff.
  • A relocation plan has been introduced to move Mt. Harrison High school to the old Heyburn South campus in 2010.  The proposal also includes relocating the district office to the old memorial campus along with the other central service departments.  Additionally, the Transportation Department building is in need of remodeling once the Information Technology Department has moved to the proposed District Service Center.
  • We appreciate our patrons who continue to support our supplemental levy for plant/facilities every two years. 
  • The Pershing School campus was donated to the City of Rupert in 2009.  The old Heyburn North building was donated to the City of Heyburn.  The art collection was donated back to the Heyburn Alumni Association.  The district also sold two properties to help with the “right sizing” of our district due to declining enrollment; the old Heyburn bus compound and the Acequia welding shop.

Other Highlights

  • Special Programs that were conducted in the District this year included:
    • H1N1
    • Bullying
    • Sex Respect (No means Know)
    • Sex Abuse
    • Safety (Safe Schools) Training
    • Monthly Safety Team Committee
    • Gang Prevention
    • Attendance Court
    • Wellness
  • Many improvements were made in the area of information technology to keep the District current with the 21st century skills needed to help students succeed in today’s world.  Here are some of the changes/improvements:
    • Restructuring of the IT department with additional staff
    • Expanded District Website
    • Paperless board meetings
    • Online Attendance Report & Tracking
    • New Events Calendar
  • The Transportation Department converted to a digital format for bus routing and scheduling called “Transfinder”.  This will help us to manage our transportation needs in a more efficient manner.
  • The Maintenance Department now uses an online process for all work orders and project requests.  As a District, we continue to participate in our own Energy Conservation Program to help reduce expenses and conserve our resources.
  • Our School Board Trustees have spent many hours doing board service and training on behalf of the District, our students, and all of the kids of Idaho.  Brian Duncan, Board Chairman, was elected President of the Idaho School Boards’ Association.

Final Comments

Indeed, it has been said that “it takes a whole village to raise a child.”  Much appreciation is expressed to the “village” of highly skilled and dedicated teachers and staff of this District.  As a District, we are grateful for the many wonderful and supportive parents, patrons, and businesses in our various communities.  We are definitely moving in the right direction toward continuous improvement and excellence in this District.  We must continue to do what is “best for kids” and the families we serve.

By: Dr. Scott A. Rogers, Superintendent, Minidoka County Schools