Dr. Barrett Comes Back

Do you have concerns about school start and stop times, school calendar, the budget process and priorities, school safety, classroom sizes, testing, or anything else related to your child’s school experience? Here’s your chance to discuss these issues with the district’s top administrator.

Dr. Brad Barrett, Superintendent of the Kyrene School District will return to Paloma for an informal open forum with parents on Thursday, April 26^th. (Please note this is a change from the originally scheduled session of April 18^th.) Dr. Barrett will answer questions from 7:00-8:00 p.m. in the Paloma library. Please join us for a lively and informative session!

Attention 5^th Grade Parents

Did you know that the PTA equivalent at Pueblo is called the Bulldog Boosters? Would you like to find out what they do over there? Are you interested in getting involved in their activities?

If so, plan to attend their final meeting of this school year on Monday, May 14 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. in the Pueblo Library Classroom. They will recap the events held this year and start making plans for next year.

Outback Lunch Canceled

Due to the small number of ticket orders received by the April 13^th deadline, the PTA was forced to cancel the fundraising luncheon planned at Outback Steakhouse. Fewer than ½ of the required 250 tickets were sold. The event would have raised $2000 for PTA activities with very little volunteer time required. These funds could have been used for 4-6 new shade trees, or new tables and chairs in the teachers’ lounge, or ¼ of a shade structure over the picnic tables. The Executive Board is disappointed and puzzled by this limited response and we would appreciate hearing your comments via phone or email.

Weenie Roast/Silent Auction a Success

A cool spring evening, good food, great entertainment, and a chance to grab some bargains…it all added up to a terrific time at the First Annual PTA Weenie Roast and Silent Auction. About 300 members of the Paloma community enjoyed hotdog and brat dinners while listening to the smooth sounds of saxophonist Rick Smith (a Paloma Dad!). Magic by Christopher captivated the audience but didn’t slow down the silent auction bidding. We raised $1,300 from 40 baskets of donated items and services.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who worked hard to make the evening such a success, especially Martha Garner, Trisha Tejral, and Jennifer Aicard. Thanks also to Melanie Bahle, Amy Davis, Chloe Premeau, Jamie Pollack, and Julianne Hill, our face painters, and Hannah Augee and Tahlia Sill who made the wonderful balloon creations. Great job one and all!

Helping Your Child Learn

(courtesy of Arizona PTA)

Join the PTA

Keep good books, magazines and newspapers in your home

Limit your child’s TV viewing to 2 hours a day

Make sure your child goes to school every day

Notice when your child does something well and praise him/her

Organize other parents to address problems at your school

Pay attention to the progress your child is making at school

Question the learning standards at your child’s school

(to be continued)

Thanks Silent Auction/Weenie Roast Donors

March Meeting Notes

We were pleased to hear from the Nominating Committee that most chair positions for next year have already been filled! Members were nominated for three of the four open Executive Board positions, lacking only a nomination for Treasurer. Elections will be held at the April general meeting. Members were reminded about upcoming events, including the Weenie Roast/Silent Auction, Outback Steakhouse lunch, and parenting seminar. There was a brief discussion regarding the funds raised through the Basha’s receipts and Fry’s VIP card programs.

April 18^th PTA Agenda

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the library.

Agenda items include:

• Election of Executive Board for 2001-2002
• Committee Updates

No special program is scheduled after the meeting. Dr. Brad Barrett has rescheduled his visit to Thursday, April 26^th, from 7:00-8:00 p.m. in the library.

Parent Superintendent Council

At the April meeting, Dr. Barrett notified us that the Governing Board had approved a 3-year plan for school start and end times (details for all schools are posted on the district’s web site).

He informed us that Senate Bill 1160, which would allow school districts to use the profits they make from selling their services, passed easily in the state Senate but was stopped from being considered in the House by the Chair of the House Education Committee. It is possible another committee may hold a hearing on the legislation instead. The district is closely watching closely two additional pieces of legislation related to the funding of Proposition 301.

The committee was pleased to hear some of the data gathered from the recent community telephone survey. An independent research company surveyed 616 people who live in the Kyrene School District, using a random digit dialing process. The results discussed, show a very high level of satisfaction overall with the school district. Complete research results are available from Mary Padilla at the district office.

Dr. Barrett concluded the meeting with an overview of the budget discussed in a recent study session by the Governing Board.

Kyrene District Budget Proposals

After several months of meetings, the district’s new Budget Advisory Committee submitted its report to the Governing Board in March. The report consisted of both a priority list of items the committee felt should be funded, over and above existing commitments, and a list of suggestions the district could look at to increase revenues. Dr. Barrett and his staff used this report to prepare a preliminary recommended budget, which the Governing Board discussed at its April 10 study session.

Although actual revenue figures will not be known until the State Legislature completes its work in late May or early June, the Superintendent projects district revenues for the school year 2001-2002 of about $78.9 million. Existing program expenditures are estimated to total $77.2 million. New mandatory operational expenses (such as a 6.1 % increase in medical insurance rates for employees, implementing the new student information database required by Proposition 301, and paying employees for the additional day of school mandated by that same proposition) total $1.25 million.

Dr. Barrett has suggested that the Governing Board also consider funding the top 3 priorities proposed by the Budget Advisory Committee. These items are: 1) a 5% salary increase for support staff (they are not covered by Proposition 301 funds); 2) increasing the pay rate for long term substitute teachers (to bring them up to parity with surrounding school districts); and 3) a 3% salary increase for administrative staff (also not covered by Proposition 301 funding). The cost of these proposals is $888,400.

Should all these figures remain roughly the same, the district would be about $400,000 in the red. However, the Superintendent is confident that additional funding sources, specifically in the area of special education funding, can be found to help offset this amount.

The money allocated to the district from the Proposition 301 funds will be spent in 4 areas. The largest chunk will go to raising teachers’ base salaries (about $2.1 million). An additional $2 million will be distributed to teachers as performance pay; the formula for this program is being worked out by a special district committee. A little over $500,000 will be used to reduce class sizes at those schools where classes are larger than the district guidelines. The remaining $400,000 will be divided among all schools to be used at the principals’ discretion.

The Governing Board will continue to gather new budget information as it becomes available and will vote on the complete budget at its July 8^th meeting.

Helping Your Young Writer

Mrs. Halle Schliesmann, Paloma’s Reading Specialist, spoke to the PTA last month about how parents can help their children become better writers. Her handout stresses the importance of the reading-writing connection. It points out that children can develop two important elements of powerful writing--a sense of rhythm and a wide vocabulary--from reading.

Some of her suggestions for reading with your child include:

• Read aloud often and from many different kinds of texts, including poems, cook books, how-to manuals, newspaper articles, brochures, and letters.
• Take turns reading. Reading aloud builds comprehension skills, a sense of what a sentence is, fluency, and much more, so it is very important for your child to get practice reading aloud.
• Read what you enjoy so your love of reading will show in your voice.
• When you’re out and about, read road signs, billboards, package labels, road maps, directions, or even travel books.

To encourage your young writer, try some "small" writing projects, such as shopping and to-do lists, postcards, post-it reminders, journal or diary entries, poems, short stories, photo album or scrapbook entries, or invitations. These simple writing tasks offer many potential lessons on word choice, organization, and writing conventions. (How do you spell hamburger? Let’s list all the things we need to take to Grandma’s. How would you describe this picture?)

Be sure to read the "Writing Handbook for Families" sent home by the district last month. It describes the types of writing your child is learning and the Six-Trait Writing Model teachers use to teach writing skills. By becoming familiar with the terms used at school, you and your kids can have a common vocabulary when talking about writing.