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Student numbers up at Ida
From dundeeonline.com ....
Ida Public Schools’ student population has increased over last year. While the official state student count date is not until Wednesday, Sept. 24, preliminary numbers indicate student enrollment is at 1,719. Last year’s enrollment was at 1,658.
“We prepared the budget with the anticipation of 1,675 students, so we are already 44 students above our projection,” said Superintendent of Schools Herb Gabehart.
This means that the district will receive more money from the state. The board has already decided to reinstate field trip budgets for all three buildings, which were previously cut due to budget concerns.
Permission was given to high school English teachers to take 11th graders on a field trip to Gettysburg, Penn. from Nov. 6-8. Cost per student is estimated at $289.
The board also heard a plan to take the fourth graders on the annual Howell nature study trip. The board hired Koa Crane as a fifth grade teacher, and Melissa Benware as a half-time mathematics teacher in the middle school.
Three parents addressed the board, concerned about class sizes and a teacher. A discussion was held with board members.
Mark Smith of the Band Boosters told the board about the Ida Band Festival scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20. There are 140 students in the Ida Marching Band this year.
The board discussed the legislature’s sunset provision banning all cell phone use by students. This ban expires June 30 and it will be up to individual districts to decide their own policies. The administrators talked to staff members, and they agreed they want to continue the policy as it is, banning cell phone use, and banning cell phones on the student’s person during the school day.
Reviewing the funding sources, Mr. Gabehart said that of the district’s 183 days of school, now only 7.10 days are paid for exclusively from local funds raised through property taxes; the rest of the year’s 175.90 days are funded by the state. This equals 96.12% of the district’s expenditures.
“What a reversal from years ago, before Proposal A,” said Mr. Gabehart. “It has changed for the better for the taxpayer.”
Board members discussed safety concerns by middle school teachers about the traffic situation at the school. The middle school is located between the entrance to the school district and the place where the high school students park their cars.
There is only one major street into the school property— Firestone Drive, with 250 cars, buses and parents dropping off students using this route. “We work at it every day,” said Mr. Gabehart. The district has had the Monroe County Sheriff’s Traffic Division out to help solve the problem, too.