Ready, set, build!
Ground breaking for new preschool
BROKEN BOW - For a school district that was in a budget panic a short three years ago, how is it that Broken Bow Public Schools is finishing up a $700,000 track, just broke ground on a $1.9-million-dollar preschool, teachers were given their first raise before the 2019 school year after a twoyear wage freeze and there was still money left over at the end of the fiscal year?
If you ask Superintendent Darren Tobey, who was hired in March of 2018, the answer is simple.
“You have to develop a plan,” Tobey said. “If you decide to do something, you better prove you have a plan and that you’re not just flying by the seat of your pants.”
He gives the credit for what’s happening at Broken Bow Public Schools (BBPS) to the six-member school board - President Tom Osmond, Vice-president Gerald Pirnie, Treasurer JB Atkins, Pam Holcomb, Mary Shaw, and Tim Chancellor. Tobey has worked with them to come up with one year, three year and five-year plans to cover everything from purchasing curriculum and buy
ing buses to maintaining buildings and upgrading computers.
Tobey emphasizes that no decisions are made, no changes are put into place, without the support of the school board. “The credit goes to them,” he said.
Part of making a plan is sharing it with the community. In the spring of 2019, Tobey and the board hosted community meetings to explain how the new preschool could be paid for by the same amount of money it would take to operate out of Custer School for the next ten years.
“For the taxpayers, you have to have a plan in place,” he said and you have to have transparency when it comes to spending tax dollars. “People have a right to know how the school intends on spending the tax dollars each year.”
Having a plan keeps a school board from having to make decisions on the spot. This year, when faced with a $120,000 purchase of a new math curriculum, it was not a surprise. “We spent $120,000 and no one was caught off guard,” he said.
The district finished the 2019-2020 fiscal year with an excess of $400,000. Per the plan, those funds will be dispersed into accounts for curriculum, transportation, building, etc. For the 2020-2021 school year, the board asked taxpayers for $8,614,099, the same amount, right down to the penny, that they asked for last year and the year before that. The philosophy of the current board and administration is to ask for what you expect to spend and not for anything more.
In addition to making plans and sticking to budgets, Tobey says staff efficiency is key. For example, if a staff member leaves, instead of automatically filling the position, the administration and the school board look at what is needed.
“We’ve sat down and evaluated what is needed. We’ve done a great job as a board and administration to re-evaluate positions. People have picked up extra roles.” Teachers now cross over from high school to middle school and vice-versa, and work with a wider group of students. “It has worked well,” Tobey said. “The main thing was to get the entire school battling for all kids and not just their kids they taught.”
Lest one think that Tobey is exempt, he himself took on new roles. When there were openings in the maintenance staff, he took on a supervisory role so he could learn more about what roles were needed and how they needed to be filled. He and other administrators have taken on duties of the Special Education Administrator so that they can evaluate the position. “The last thing we want to do is hire someone who doesn’t fit what we need or the position could be eliminated in the coming years,” he said.
So what does the future hold for BBPS?
“We’ll focus on pushing students academically,” Tobey said.
The groundwork for that has been laid with more rigor in the classroom, weighted grades (with more difficult classes counting more in a GPA) and new curriculum.
“We changed the science curriculum so it is more college-based than at your typical high school,” Tobey said. He feels Broken Bow has done a good job helping students who struggle with learning and also wants to make sure that students who find learning easier are challenged and are well prepared for higher education.
Holding to the budget hasn’t negatively affected academics, Tobey said. “I challenge anybody to ask what programs we’ve cut. We’ve simply looked at possibilities and combined duties. It hasn’t hurt us academically.” In fact, instead of cutting programs, options like HOSA for students considering careers in health care and CAPS class for Juniors and Seniors to prepare them for life after high school have been added. Tobey also sees a need to expand other programs throughout the district.
“We struggle with room in woods classes, welding, and FFA. We just don’t have the space,” he said. “The business classroom is not an ideal set up for business structured classes. The students lose valuable time sharing space or leaving classrooms to do everyday assignments in those classes. There are glaring needs in academic efficiency. Band and chorus could really use a central location to showcase their talents.” The future and efficiency of the school buildings, he says, is “a conversation that the board and community will need to have in the future. If one plan needs fine tuning, it will be the facility plan on what needs to take place in the future.”
Three short years have proven that big things can happen at Broken Bow. Tobey is looking forward to the future, saying, “I appreciate the support the board and I have had the past three years and we are very excited about the possibilities during the next three years.”