School board approves 2011-12 budget

The Somers school board meeting was held on August 10, and chief among the agenda items was approving the final budget, which was adopted without ado.

The general fund calls for $3,187,1992.78, transportation $418,000, tuition $77,210, retirement $412,500, technology $30,000, flexibility $18,000, and debt service $247, 395.

Taxpayers will be pleased to know that the mils to be levied for 2011-2012 will be less than in 2010-2011. The 2011-2012 mil levy stands at $77.14 while last year’s was $83.47. The mil levy supplements the school district’s State funds and is generated by taxpayer’s money.

While the mil levy went down, school lunch prices went up. The board approved a 25 cent raise for student lunch and breakfast prices, a move necessary to manage rising costs. Lunch at school will cost $2.25 and breakfast $1.75. These prices are still below the United States Department of Agriculture guidelines.

“We are still below the USDA guidelines for lunch and breakfast prices, but we don’t want to raise the prices drastically, so we are trying to make it more reasonable,” said district clerk Diane Fetterhoff.

Moving from budget concerns, superintendent Casey Love complimented the janitorial staff for having done an excellent job in completing several off-season maintenance and cleaning tasks. These included touching up the gym floor at Lakeside Elementary School and carpeting several classrooms and hallways in Somers Middle School. 

The meeting was attended by several teachers, including members of the math staff who thanked the board for sending them to the Singapore Math conference in Las Vegas last month. The conference was a professional development opportunity for math teachers around the country to learn more about how to improve math in the classroom using the Singapore method. The school district began using the Singapore method in 2008. After seeing many students from Singapore excel on international assessments, it has been introduced in numerous schools in the United States over the past several years.

“The conference was very beneficial and we wanted to thank the board for sending us,” said LES teacher Erika Cusick.

After hearing from the teachers who attended the conference, the board thought it might be interesting to bring presenters in to the school rather than sending teachers to the conference, in order to expose more local staff to the techniques being offered.

However, Cusick said she believed actually attending the conference provides the most benefit.

“There’s just more exposure to more ideas with so many of our peers there,” Cusick said. “We can bring back so much more to the school if we attend the conference.”

Other items approved by the board at last week’s meeting included offering 2011-2012 contracts for the following positions:

•21st Century Teaching Contract: Karin Camille Larsen

•LES special education teaching contract: Donna Marie Squires

•Cook’s assistant: Dawn Borth

•Girls volleyball coach: Bill Bosslet and Tara Trotter,

•SMS cross-country coach: Brittany Katzer

•SMS football coach: Mitch Brinkman

School starts in Lakeside and Somers Aug. 31 for students, Aug. 29 for teachers and other staff.