Students put Crane board to test
Students from Centennial Middle School put Crane School District board members to the test Tuesday evening at the board’s regular meeting.
Eighth-grade students from Karl Ingersoll’s Fab Lab (short for fabrication laboratory) demonstrated several projects they have been working on in the school’s explorer classes. The explorer classes allow students to do just that — explore science, technology, engineering and math topics.
“It’s an engineering class,” Ingersoll said of the Fab Lab.
“Kids get to design things, build things and then they destroy them,” he said, noting that the students learn many physics and other concepts through the process.
Students Dulce Perez, K’vari Brown, Kawaun Anderson and Sharaiah Gomez had board members test their projects, including having Jim Colby stand and balance on a paper iteration. Brenna Paulin had to balance a weight on a paper tower, and Sarah Claridge helped out with an electric motor using magnetic fields.
Audience members were also treated to a video showcasing the classes narrated by Quinn Martinez.
The board also recognized students who won top honors in the Yuma County Science and Engineering Expo and the Yuma County MathCounts competition. Isabella Olin, who was the top individual scorer in the contest, Zaren Askari, Alberto De La Torre, Richard Anaya and Florencio De La Torre will compete at the state competition, said Superintendent Bob Klee.
“You know, I’m going to be retiring here in just a few months as superintendent, and I’m going to miss awarding kids stuff, but I will not miss mispronouncing their names,” Klee reflected, as students and their parents were called to the front for pictures and a handshake. “I’ve been doing it for 40 years and it causes me a high stress every time I do it.”
The Crane board also approved on a 5-0 vote a three-year contract with Associate Superintendent Laurie Doering to be the new superintendent of the district. She would begin July 1, which is the start of the district’s fiscal year.
“I’m over the moon with elation over officially taking over the role of superintendent for this district that I so deeply care about beginning July 1st,” Doering said after the meeting in a statement emailed to the Sun. “My entire career, I have prepared for this specific role which offers the best opportunity to make a positive difference for our students. I am surrounded by exceptional people that are all passionate about the students, staff and community and I look forward to this opportunity to serve.”
Board members also heard a presentation from Executive Director of Management Services Dale Ponder on the findings of the Arizona Auditor General’s “Dollars in the Classroom” annual spending report.
Ponder started his presentation by showing a video from the Arizona School Boards Association, which called the auditor general’s method of measuring dollars spent in the classroom as flawed and outdated.
“The real issue should be student achievement, not how resources are allocated together,” the narrator in the video says.
“I really think that is indicative of what we try to do,” Ponder said of how the district looks at the effect of how its dollars are spent. “We don’t always look at where the dollars are being spent but how the dollars are being spent.”
Ponder noted that Crane has increased its instruction spending for fiscal year 2016 by 0.3 percent, from 50.9 percent to 51.2 percent. But if the district were to include all categories that affect students, including student support, instruction and instruction support, its percentage would be 64.4 percent (compared to 63.7 percent in fiscal year 2015).
Revenues have also increased, he said, including federal revenue of 9.1 percent (in Title I, Title II, Title III, Migrant, IDEA, etc.); state support at 9.5 percent over 2015; and an increase in local support of 6.6 percent over fiscal year 2015, which Ponder attributed to the district’s bond.
Ponder noted that the district also employs playground aids and crossing guards which are considered by the auditor general to be “administration” spending, but are essential to student safety.
“There are things that we could do as a state that could help support public education and drive more funds into the districts to help us achieve greater results. I think we‘re at a kind of at a bit of a double-edged sword… We perform very well as a state, academically, even as a district, so why would we want to continue to give you more dollars when you’re doing just fine with the money that you have. So I think that’s a battle that we’ll end up having.”
Ponder also noted that the district carried forward all of its Proposition 123 funds to use for raises, with classroom teachers getting a guaranteed minimum of 4.25 percent (with an average increase of 4.74 percent). All other employee groups are to get a guaranteed minimum of 2.50 percent (and the average increase is 4.12 percent).