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| 12/23/2008 3:09:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | | RCS board adopts $4.1 million levy | The RCS board Dec. 16 adopted a $4.11 million property tax levy that includes an increase more than twice the size of the increase the district is likely to receive.
"Do we think we'll get $4.11 million?" Superintendent Bill Trankina asked. "Just the opposite. This is a fudge factor because the tax year isn't over."
The levy of 2008 property taxes, payable in 2009, totals $4.11 million. That is an increase of 11.5 percent over the $3.69 million that the district received last year.
Trankina said the increase is more likely to be 4 percent to 4.5 percent. Based on an equalized assessed value of $111.2 million, the tax rate would be $3.5736 per $100 of assessed value, up from $3.1847 last year.
Like many other school districts in Champaign County, RCS levies more than it expects to receive because it is bound by a 5 percent tax cap. The oversized levy ensures the district will receive every possible penny of revenue. It also takes into account unknown factors such as the value of new construction and the impact of assessment reduction requests awaiting the Board of Review.
There are currently four assessments pending appeal, a potential reduction totaling $4 million.
Noting that the levy process is frequently misunderstood by the public, Trankina showed the board a comparison of the increases requested and those actually received between 2003 and 2007.
Requests ranged from 8.9 percent to 11.69 percent. Actual increases ranged from 3.9 percent to 4.57 percent.
The tax cap allows the district to receive a maximum increase equal to 5 percent or the cost-of-living increase, whichever is less.
Trankina also responded to comments that the district should freeze the levy at last year's level, as the Rantoul Village Board has done.
"Given the financial circumstances everyone is experiencing, it is even less prudent to take action that would compound over time," he said.
The smaller the increase now, the less money the district will receive over time, eventually leading to program cuts, he added.
The district is also responding to the current weak economy by deferring as many renovation projects as possible.
"Given the financial times, we are not recommending any major renovation projects until we know what's happening in the economy, our country and our state," he said.
- Debra Rawlings
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Intervention program shifts focus at RCS
By Debra Rawlings
Rantoul Press reporter
A community-based intervention pilot program implemented in October at J.W. Eater Jr. High School has already been revamped to respond to student needs.
That was the message SOAR Program Director Regina Crider had for the RCS school board at its Dec. 16 meeting.
Volunteers meet with eight sixth-grade students for four hours per week during school and 1.5 hours per week after school. The students were chosen because they had been retained or were otherwise considered to be at risk.
The program had been intended to offer students enrichment opportunities. But Crider said she and Academic Coordinator Cheryl Blackburn soon realized students' needs were much more basic.
"We are so focused on getting homework turned in," Crider said. "A lot of the students don't have structured homework times at home."
A key component of the program is developing relationships with students' parents. Crider said she makes contact with parents at least once a week.
"Several of the parents have not finished high school or have a GED, so a lot of students are not getting the message about how important education is," Crider said. "I hope that message is starting to flow through these homes."
Parent Stacey Bennett said the program is providing her son with the "little bit of help" he needs. He was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder when he was 5 and has difficulty staying organized. This is the first year he has not taken medication for the disorder.
"At first he was failing four subjects. Now he's passing all but one," Bennett said. "I love the women who do this. They go beyond caring about the students. They care about the parents, about the teachers. I'm their biggest fan right now."
Teacher Maria McCarthy has been involved with the program from the start. She said she has seen significant changes in the students.
"I'm seeing enthusiasm for learning. They are taking an active role in their learning," McCarthy said. "Some single-parent families don't always know how to help their kids."
Crider said grades are inching up slowly, adding that she prefers to see grades rise slowly in all subjects rather than rising dramatically in just one.
Crider said the students are eager to spend time with their mentors, three of whom are students at the University of Illinois. One mentor made a costume for a student to wear as he made a class presentation.
The student, chosen for the program because he had been retained, performed so well that he earned 118 out of 120 points on his presentation.
"He didn't realize what he could do," Crider said.
McCarthy said the incident also showed that students are finding reason to be proud of themselves. The student was embarrassed at first and refused to wear the costume.
"But the day he did, he was strutting down the halls," McCarthy added.
The program is an unusual undertaking for RCS - and apparently would be for other districts, judging by reaction Trankina has received.
"Some of my peers said to me, "You're kidding me, Trankina," he said.
Also at the meeting, principals Jason Wallace, Eastlawn, and Mark McCusker, Broadmeadow, reported discipline referrals are trending downward.
McCusker said referrals at Broadmeadow were down 27 percent for the first quarter and 46 percent for the second, which hasn't quite ended.
At Eastlawn, Wallace said, referrals totaled 138 last year. Now, halfway through the new year, referrals total 54. The most significant drop is in referrals received by second-grade students.
Both principals attributed the change to the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports system now used districtwide.
The system emphasizes uniform expectations and language. Students are exhorted to be ready, respectful and responsible and rewarded when they demonstrate those behaviors.
Wallace said most discipline referrals come from students new to the school and new to the expectations and tend to decline as students learn what is expected of them.
"With our high mobility, sometimes that can be difficult," he said, "but we're getting better."
Another outcome of PBIS is a new approach by teachers and administrators to classroom discipline.
"It's taken the focus off 'punish' and put it on 'teach,' McCusker said. "We're out of the old model of drill sergeant (ordering) students to sit still and be quiet."
As a result, there is more communication between student, teacher and administrator before parents are called and better definition of undesirable behaviors, the principals said.
There is also more contact with parents - and more of it is positive.
"Parents say 'Wow, this is new. I've never had a call from a principal that was good news,'" McCusker said.
In other business, the board:
• directed the superintendent to finalize a job description for an instruction coach by the Jan. 13 meeting.
• awarded a six-month contract for cafeteria products to Fox River Foods of Montgomery.
• adopted a policy formalizing a longstanding practice that the superintendent would accept resignations and fill positions pending approval of the board with the exception of assistant principals and principals.
• approved the junior high and district school improvement plans.
• learned that the junior high had raised $1,325 for a family in need.
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