The Board of Education is meeting on April 27. They start in a closed session from 5-6PM, then start the session open to the public at 6:00 PM. We’ve been told by the district that they are only discussing items pertaining specifically to the 26-27 budget at this meeting and the FAI and other specialized programming are currently being evaluated and decisions won’t be made until those evaluations are done. A copy of the meeting notice with agenda items can be viewed here.
That said, based on the responses from last week’s Performing Arts Parents meeting, members of the faculty and East High families intend to be in attendance at Monday’s meeting. If you’d like to speak at the meeting you can click here and fill out the form to be added to the public forum portion of the meeting. If you are unable to attend but would like to follow you can click here for the live feed of the meeting streamed on YouTube.
Here’s a list of other things you can be doing right now to help:
Contact Your Representatives
It was mentioned multiple times last night and is worth repeating: The root of the problem here is a lack of public education funding from the state. Here are just a few bullet points to back up that point:
- Public schools have not received a cost of living increase for 17 years
- Had GBAPS received a cost of living increase each year the District would have an additional $60M in revenue this school year.
- School districts have not received the 42% increase in special education funding that was promised in the state budget, to-date it has been 35%. This was an additional $3M shortfall in this school year’s budget.
- To-date, despite discussions between the Governor’s office and Republicans, no action has been taken to provide additional public school funding from the state’s significant budget surplus, which is between $4-$5 Billion
- There is currently a bill proposed that would provide 60% guaranteed special education funding for this year and next, and equalized aid which would reduce the burden on taxpayers for public schools.
We believe it would be helpful if you reached out to your state representatives and voiced your opinion on this issue. Here are a few tools to help you with that:
Click here for a list of State Senators and Representatives with email addresses and phone numbers
Click here for an interactive Wisconsin map to see who represents you
Click here for a sample letter
Stay Involved With the School Board
We strongly encourage you to stay involved at upcoming Green Bay School Board Meetings. The remaining regular board meetings this school year are scheduled for April 27, May 18, and June 22. The Board of Education Meeting Dates page is frequently updated with agendas, meeting notes, links to meeting streams, etc.
Understand the Program Review
Here’s an excerpt from an email sent to us by Associate Superintendent David Johns explaining more about the ROI study taking place and the criteria the district is using:
- Program Review – will take place for IB, AVID and the Fine Arts Academy (Webster/Wash./EHS). This will be done by an external partner. Formal program reviews are an important part of a continuous improvement process and often expose key gaps that can help a program become even better. We are starting with these three programs as they are particularly resource-intensive and it is appropriate to start here during a period of funding uncertainty. They all have unique staffing models and offer specialized courses that frequently fall far below our Board approved class size requirements for electives.
- ROI – The Board recently approved a 5-year strategic plan with measurable outcomes for student success. Our external partner will be comparing the data from students who participate in the programs listed above to all other students of similar grades/ages who don’t participate in these programs. The areas of comparison are listed on the link under Academic Excellence and Thriving Student Body. The questions to be answered during these reviews is “How are students who participate in these programs achieving success relative to their peers and what is the actual cost of delivering that for students?” The partner does not submit a recommendation to us as to whether to keep, expand or eliminate the program. That would be for the Board to decide based on the evidence provided to them through the review.
Thank you to Mr. Johns for his immediate, detailed response to our questions.
Catch Up With Previous Posts
Click here for our March 24 update
Click here for our March 11 update including a letter from FAI Coordinator Lucinda Roberts
Click here for our March 4 update including meeting notes and information shared at our FAI Meeting held on Monday, March 2
Click here for our original March 2 post with an overview of the potential budget cuts and what it means for the Fine Arts Institute
Stay Involved with East High Performing Arts Parents
Lastly, we also encourage you to stay involved in the Performing Arts Parents meetings for more information. Our next scheduled meeting is Monday, May 18, at 6:30 PM in the Band Room. We hope to see you there!
