This is the most important letter I have sent to you thus far
January 16, 2012
Dear Shirland Students, Parents, and Community members,
Illinois schools today are in the midst of a perfect economic storm. This perfect storm has been raging due to the state fiscal crisis in Illinois, decreased real estate tax revenues caused by tax appeals, soaring foreclosures, depressed property growth, and increased momentum in Washington for reduced federal spending. It's the most challenging financial time ever faced by school districts, and with the state of Illinois one of the top five states spiraling towards insolvency, low or negative revenue growth is expected to continue for the next five to seven years.
As Superintendent, it's my job to navigate the ship that is our school through these raging waters. While the waters are rough for every school district in Illinois right now, they are especially turbulent for Shirland School District. Before the storm even hit, Shirland School's ship had already sustained damage from several huge obstacles - plummeting enrollment and with it drastic reductions in General State Aid. Shirland School's enrollment decreased from 213 students in 1997 to just 135 students at the start of 2011, a decrease of 37% of our students. The decline in Shirland School's enrollment mirrors the lack of growth in the township: while 135 structures were built from l990 to l999, only four were recorded from 2000 to 2009. As a result, Shirland School's enrollment has decreased in eleven of the past fourteen years. In 2010-2011, Shirland had its best ISAT state test results ever in both Reading and Math. But we still lost eight students as of the critical October 1st count. Because of Shirland School's drastic decline in enrollment, the district received 76% less General State Aid in 2011 ($154,874) than it did in 2001 ($400,829).
If Shirland School District is going to survive the perfect storm it has found itself in, then it's going to be by hanging on to its reserves - the only thing that's now keeping us afloat. Our fund balances were $1,130,945 in 2011. Now you or I may think that's a pretty penny to find in our savings account. But, when we are in the midst of deficit spending, our savings does not last long. Recently, I invited one of the five Illinois State Board of Education financial consultants, Mark Anderson, to our district to run some projection data for us. We consulted with Thomas Kersten, author of Taking the Mystery Out of Illinois School Finance, in developing our revenue and expenditure assumptions. The projections that Mr. Anderson ran for us came as no surprise. With a staff to student ratio of 10.9, Shirland School District is on an unsustainable path. If Shirland maintained its current teaching staff at its current salary through 2015, our reserves would decrease from $993,026 expected in 2012 to $429,539 in 2015, a decrease of 57%. Our Financial Profile rating with the state would decline soon after leading to possible imposition of a state Financial Oversight Panel.
Simply put, Shirland School simply has too many teachers on our boat to stay afloat through the storm we are experiencing. This is the reality that we have avoided facing until now. If 10.9 was a sustainable staff to student ratio, every district would implement it. Instead, our neighboring districts have much more manageable staff to student ratios, as the most recent data from 2011 indicates: Rockton 17.5, Kinnikinnick 19.8, Prairie Hill 17.8, Rockton 19.3 (before the 2012 budget cuts increased the staff to student ratio even further), and Durand at 14.9. It would take a reduction of three teachers before
Shirland even approached Durand's staff to student ratio. The Education Fund itself makes up approximately 75% of our total budget.
In the next two months, our Board of Education will have a difficult decision to make to address the financial storm. As I see it, our Board can choose to do the following: 1) consider multi-grade classrooms, 2) a reduction in PE and Music, 3) consider a combination of multi-grade with a PE or Music reduction, 4) consider a school referendum to increase revenues. I will be making a presentation on multi-grade classrooms at the January Board of Education meeting. After completing extensive research on the topic, I strongly believe that multi-classrooms are our best option to continue the educational opportunities our students deserve.
Multi-grade classrooms are not a new idea: they were actually the norm in American education until the turn of the last century. Graded classrooms were a product of the Industrial Revolution. They represented an assembly line view of education. Many of our most prominent educators through our nation's history and in to the present age have argued that multi-grade, multi-age classrooms provide a better approach to education: John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Dr. Benjamin Spock, and Robert Marzano are all supporters of multi-age learning. Multi-grade classrooms are widespread throughout the world with 53% of schools in the Netherlands, 85% of schools in western Australia, 20% of students in Canada, and 80,000 students in Germany attending multi-grade classrooms.
Research strongly supports multi-grade classrooms in K-5 or K-6 settings. Student achievement and social development actually increase in multi-grade classrooms over single grade classrooms. Why? Multi-age students achieve a higher cognitive rate over students in classrooms of same age peers because higher rates of language exchange among mixed age children. Clearly put, younger children raise their language skills when associated with older students. Since vocabulary development is key to reading achievement, multiage settings have been found to increase student achievement. There are developmental benefits as well since students in multi-grade classrooms develop a broader pool of candidates to develop friendships. Positive behavior also increases since older students serve as positive role models in the classroom. Parents often report stronger connections with multi-age schools since they develop stronger ties with teachers after having their child with the same teacher for two years or more.
Multi-age, multi-grade classrooms are definitely a direction the Board of Education needs to consider to weather the current economic storm. We also clearly need to increase our student enrollment. Planned, sustainable student growth is essential to Shirland School's survival. While that is a long time solution, it won't happen over night, so it alone isn't enough to weather our current economic storm.
The public will have several opportunities to learn about the financial challenges facing the district and the multi-grade option in the near future. I will be presenting at the Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, January 25th at 6:30 pm. I will also present the same information to the Shirland Township on Monday, February 13th at 7 pm at the City Hall. There will be two public forums scheduled at Shirland School to present the information on the following dates: Thursday, February 9th and Tuesday, March 6th both at 6 pm.
Shirland School District is a very special place. I will not be the Superintendent/Principal to allow the lights to go out on our little school. We need to right size our ship. We need to withstand the storm.
Best,
J.Ulferts,
Superintendent/Principal
Shirland School is a special place filled with well mannered students eager to learn, and highly qualified, skilled educators passionate about teaching. Shirland students are supported at home by parents who care about their children's education and about their school. Because of its small size, Shirland School is really the heart of our little community.
Students who attend Shirland School are blessed with excellent student teacher ratios, teachers who care, a challenging curriculum, access to state of art technology, and a positive, disciplined school climate. Shirland is a welcoming place, where everyone knows every student's name. Students here feel supportive, and a sense of belonging. Because we are a K-8 building, our students grow up here. Brothers and sisters watch each other grow and nurture each other. Our Junior High students assume a maturity and responsibility beyond their years supporting the development of their elementary peers.
Shirland offers many unique opportunities for students. Our 8th grade students culminate their Shirland experience with a two night field trip to Springfield, our state's capitol and visit the historic President Lincoln sites. Past field trips have also included an overnight at Atwood Outdoor Environmental Center in New Milford, Illinois where students learn about the environment at the former site of Camp Grant, one of the largest military training bases in World Wars One and Two. Extra-curricular opportunities include Volleyball, Basketball, Student Council, Cheerleading, Pep Club, Young Rembrandt's, and the Discovery Language Spanish program.
This is a challenging time for America's schools with rising No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress targets and funding crises. However, Shirland continues to meet the challenges. During the 2010-11 school year, Shirland achieved its highest Reading and Math scores ever on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test with 89% proficient in Reading and 96% proficient in Math. In addition, the school district received Financial Recognition for its 2010 Financial Profile, the highest category obtainable for district finances.
Shirland is a jewel waiting to be discovered by you.
Shirland also provides assistance and support for homeless families. When a child loses permanent housing and becomes a homeless person as defined by law, or when a homeless child changes his or her temporary living arrangements, the parent or guardian of the homeless child has the option of either continuing the child's education in the school of origin for as long as the child remains homeless or until the end of the academic year if the child becomes permanently housed or enrolling the child in any school that non-homeless students who live in the attendance area in which the child or youth is actually living are eligible to attend. For further information please contact the homeless liaison for Shirland, Catherine Sweeney.
