Michael O’Phelan, co-owner of Cascade and Solbakken lodges, gave a presentation on research he had done into ISD 166 finances and led a discussion on the upcoming school referendum Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at the Senior Center in Grand Marais. In the audience were two school board members and two school board candidates. The group discussed issues they are contemplating in regard to the potential levy, opinions about the school and its leadership, and how the community could work together to address issues and provide positive educational opportunities for the county’s school children.
About two dozen people attended a presentation and discussion of the proposed ISD 166 levy sponsored by a group of citizens at the Senior Center in Grand Marais Tuesday, October 12, 2010. Michael O’Phelan, co-owner of Solbakken and Cascade lodges, gave a PowerPoint presentation and outlined some of his concerns about the levy.
“We’re all small businesses up here and we’re all affected,” O’Phelan said. He was not convinced that the approximately $377,600 a year the levy would generate over the course of five years would improve the quality of his children’s education. Of his four school-age children, one is spending her senior year in the Cities, two are at Cook County High School (CCHS), and one is at Great Expectations Charter School.
As an example, O’Phelan said he was not sure how much $60,000 to be spent on Early Childhood Family Education would prepare Cook County’s preschoolers for future educational success. Will it bring that many more preschoolers into ECFE? he wondered.
O’Phelan pointed out that the local charter schools are also receiving cuts in state funding but will not benefit from the levy. “Somehow they are living with these cuts,” he said. “Somehow the charter schools are making it.”
Citing the Minnesota Department of Education as the source of his information, O’Phelan said that ISD 166’s student count will have dropped by 119 between 2007 and 2011. He suggested that many of those students are at the charter schools or are being home schooled.
O’Phelan questioned how hard ISD 166 has worked to reduce its spending in light of funding cuts in recent years. In the 2007-08 school year, the district spent $10,931 per student with a studentteacher ratio of 15.29, and the next year, it spent $12,770 per student with a student-toteacher ratio of 14.35. From the audience, school board member Eric Kemp stated these numbers reflected an increase in federal funding for special education. (Audience member Kay Levitan pointed out that the overall studentto teacher ratio is skewed by a much lower ratio of special education students to teachers. In other words, the average non-special ed classroom has more than 14 or 15 students in it.)
In those two years, the school also increased the amount of money it had in its reserve account. Some at the meeting believe that the school should use all of the assets it has, including selling some unused land north of the school, before going to taxpayers with a referendum. The district has spoken with a realtor who has agreed to try to sell those lots.
O’Phelan compared what ISD 166 spent in different categories with other Minnesota districts during the last fiscal year. Sixty-two percent of Minnesota districts spent less on administration. ISD 166 spent more than most, O’Phelan said, on debt service, building construction/capital expenditures, and equipment, although the Department of Education did not outline what those expenditures were. The school installed a new heating and ventilation system and a more efficient boiler within the last couple of years.
Overall, O’Phelan said, ISD 166 spent more per pupil unit than 73% of Minnesota schools. If the referendum passes, that statistic would go up to 81%, he said.
A lot of the school’s money gets spent on regular instruction, O’Phelan said, adding that he would advocate spending even more on high-quality teachers.
Increasing quality and
performance
ISD 166 students score roughly in the 60th percentile on standardized science, reading, and math tests, O’Phelan said. “Can you really look at yourself in the mirror and call that excellence?” he asked. He compared that with the Mahtomedi school district, which he said spends about $1,000 less per student each year while its students score in the 80th-90th percentile.
“If we want to get better,” O’Phelan said, “we’re going to have to put more money into our classroom teachers and instructional supplies.”
O’Phelan called for school administrators to take responsibility for leading, for teachers to set higher expectations for their students, for parents to take responsibility for their children’s education, and for students to remember that education is both a right and a privilege.
O’Phelan said his two children who attend CCHS like it there. Great Expectations has turned out to be a much better place for his youngest child, however. His wife, Maureen, said, “He is surrounded by a community who really cares about his education and about him as a person.” She expressed disappointment in the response of ISD 166 to her son’s needs.
Working together as a
community
Community member Garry Gamble summed up a worthy goal by stating that people need to work together as a community to figure out what the needs of Cook County’s school kids really are. Community member John McClure concurred. Until we come together with a common understanding of what the problem is, he said, we won’t be able to agree on what the solution is.
Gamble cited a 2004 telephone survey of 1,309 adults that asked which of two statements better described their opinion about what was causing whatever problems might exist in the nation’s public schools: Statement A was, “The biggest problems facing education have to do with money – low teachers’ salaries, too few teachers, overcrowded classes, inadequate supplies and facilities, and other issues of inadequate funding.” Statement B was, “The biggest problems facing education are not about money, rather they have to do with a lack of parental involvement, a lack of discipline, ineffective teachers and administrators, and an inappropriate curriculum.” Thirty percent agreed with statement A – that problems were largely about funding – and 61% agreed with statement B – that problems were largely about things other than funding. Nineteen percent answered “depends/both/neither.”
Gamble believes that the ISD 166 administration may need to build more trust among community members before a referendum will pass. “People are less likely to support institutions whose leadership is too often called into question,” he said. “It is, therefore, imperative that leadership understand the vital importance of building and maintaining its integrity.”
Solutions other than
money
Just voting no on the referendum is not going to solve any problems, audience member Jeff Kern said. The school needs people to get involved, he said.
O’Phelan suggested that the school tap into the expertise of volunteers and look into educational experiences that could be provided at workplaces around the community. He would like to see a coordinator who could organize volunteers to lead extracurricular activities such as math competitions. Several years ago, the school was very slow to pick up on his offers to help students with math, he said.
Susie Warren, wife of school board candidate Andrew Warren, said we need to look at some of the negatives that won’t be solved by more money. A levy would be a “band aid” on a “gaping chest wound,” she said. With declining enrollment, the budget problem is going to keep getting worse. “We all have to live with what we’ve got,” she said. “At some point, we’re going to run out of cash.”
Maureen O’Phelan listed some of the problems she sees at ISD 166: name calling and swearing being allowed in the hallways, substitute teachers not being prepared, too much movie watching. “Money’s not going to make a difference,” she said. “I wonder if the best way to come together is for everybody to listen to everybody else’s side.”
A community with social capital, Gamble said, is one that engages in discourse in which everyone is heard.
At a time when numerous local levies are expected to increase, the school levy is the only one that Cook County citizens will be able to vote on directly, McClure said. Some of the community’s frustration over these increases may be reflected in some of the no votes in the November 2 referendum.
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