Dist. 1 celebrates good times with AVID schools

Celebration was the theme of the Yuma Elementary District One’s monthly governing board meeting Monday evening.

Four of the district’s schools were presented with banners commemorating their being named Advancement Via Individual Determination Schoolwide Sites of Distinction. Those schools are Castle Dome Middle School, Gila Vista Junior High, Ron Watson Middle School and Woodard Junior High.

This is the 11th year District One has been involved in the AVID system, Superintendent Jamie Sheldahl said, and next year the program will expand to James B. Rolle and Palmcroft schools.

The program is funded through various grants and federal monies, Sheldahl said. The district’s grant writer, Theresa “Terry” Lowe, has been very instrumental in securing support for the program throughout the district.

The board also heard from students in the program and from a parent, who highly praised the system for preparing her daughter for higher education.

Denis Ponder, the district’s chief financial officer, also give an enrollment and third-quarter spending reports. Because schools are funded on their number of students, enrollment and spending are tied together.

Ponder said that the district sent out a communication before spring break asking for a pause on non-site school spending, as the district prepares for the implementation of current year funding and deals with other financial situations, such as the passage of Proposition 206.

Schools were held harmless for the 2016-2017 school year after the Legislature voted to delay the funding changeover, but it must be implemented in the 20172018 school year, which starts July 1. With current year funding, schools will get money based on how many students they might expect to have in that same year.

District One is down 12 students from the 100th day to the 140th day of school, Ponder said, but the average daily membership, on which state funding is based, is down 36 students year over year.

The district gets about $3,681 for each student in base level funding, but that figure doesn’t include transportation or district additional assistance dollars, he said.

The district would like to carry forward $2 million in its maintenance and operations budget, Ponder said, in anticipation of current year funding.

The district’s capital spending was up slightly in February due to the purchase of new copiers, Ponder said.

“The copiers were just under $100,000. We bought 13 copiers that we spread around the district. We are going to buy copiers for the schools that didn’t receive a brand new copier this year, they will receive one next fiscal year. The plan is to have those purchases in July so they can be implemented before school starts.”

Ponder reported that the district is also going to start its iPad refresh project, replacing the devices with new ones.

Board president Karen Griffin asked how many the district plans to replace at one time, to which Ponder replied that about 1,500 would be replaced in the first go-round. Ponder also pointed out that Apple’s iPad price has dropped as it seeks to compete with Google’s Chromebook and other less expensive options, and that would save the district about $200 per device.

Ponder also spoke about the impact of Senate Bill 1431, otherwise known as the school vouchers bill that the governor signed last week, and the Dollars in the Classroom report from the state auditor general’s office.

The auditor general’s report can be “misleading,” Ponder said, because for some monies, the district has no control over where they are spent.

In other action, the district heard a report on the Kids At Hope program, approved Matthew Kaste as the new principal at Pecan Grove, approved an addendum concerning performance pay to Sheldahl’s contract, and approved $11,961.60 in donations for the month of March, including 72 bags of composting soil for the gardens at Carver School.

The board’s next meeting is scheduled for May 9.