Batavia School Board Recap: Ed Program Review, Oct. 11 Listening Post

Here are some of the items the Batavia School Board discussed at its Tuesday night meeting:

Share Your Thoughts at the Oct. 11 Listening Post

The Batavia School Board will hold a listening post next month to hear the concerns of community members about issues in the district.

The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at , 305 N. Van Nortwick St.

“It’s really a time for us to listen to what the public would like us to do,” Batavia Superintendent Jack Barshinger said.

Community members are invited to voice opinions on four topics:

• What are the greatest challenges or issues has to address over the next five years in order to provide a quality education for all students?
• What are the most important skills, appreciations and abilities students need to know, or be able to do, to be prepared for college or a career?
• What could the school district do that would increase excellence in the educational system?
• What should the financial priorities be for our school district during the next five years?

“We don’t want to pigeonhole people by saying, ‘We’re just going to talk about this, this, this and this,” Barshinger said. “These questions are more broad and can cover everything.”

The listening post will last 90 minutes and time will be evenly divided between the four topics. There will be a second listening post, featuring the same questions, early next year.

The date and location for post #2 at this time is Jan. 10 at , 800 N. Prairie St.

Findings From School Program Review To Be Public

The board also discussed a program that looks broadly at all the district has to offer students.

It's called the Batavia Educational Program Review, or BEPR for short. It's an administrative tool used for explore the relationship between:

• the educational programs in the district
• the goals of those programs
• and the financial investment in each area

The review was used in the 2009-2010 school year, and it is set up to review the full spectrum of programs in a PK-12 school district like Batavia's. This year, there are 28 areas to evaluate, including 24 individual teams and four comprehensive teams.

The team members, all recruited from around the district, will meet throughout October and November to evaluate the budget and the programs. Each team will investigate three financial scenarios:

• stable funding
• a 10 percent budget reduction
• a 5 percent budget increase

“We’re excited to see what the teams start to talk about when they can discuss the possibilities of funding increases,” said Kris Monn, assistant superintendent for finance.

The reason why the groups will look at a funding increase scenario is that school leaders could consider taking a portion of one program's budget and giving it to another program, if they anticipate significant benefits to students. Recommendations for program changes, if any, would only come after the review is fully complete.

This year, as opposed to last year, at the end of the evaluation process, the teams will be looked at comprehensively with the other teams in their level, such as elementary or . This will look at the overall success of those levels, and will give the administration a more inclusive look at how their schools are doing.

“This will be a comprehensive look across,” Barshinger said. “The principals felt that they needed that.”

The board also decided that the process will be made public this year.

“I think now in our third year, I’m less skeptical (about the review),” Barshinger said. “We have our system down, and we should open it up to the public.”

The individual team reports are due in December, with presentations scheduled for Jan. 17 and Jan. 19. The comprehensive reports will be presented during the week of Jan. 30, and the administration’s recommendation will be presented to the board in Feb. 2012.

This process is similar to school districts in Carpentersville and Dundee, Barshinger said. Both those districts open the reports up to the public.

But there still needs to be some fine tuning, said Jack Hinterlong, board vice president.

“We’re getting better but we’re not there yet,” Hinterlong said at the meeting. “We need to really hone in on what the goals are and how successful they were. It’s still a little foggy.”