Rock Hill Teachers To Get IPADS

These are my notes from the Rock Hill School Board May Work Session held on Monday, May 14, 2012 at the school district office.  There was no action taken during the meeting.

• Sodexo Operations, the food service provider selected by the school district administration, made a presentation to the board and answered questions. The administration will be recommending the board approve a contract with Sodexo at the May Business meeting in two weeks. Click here to see the report in Tuesday's Rock Hill Herald.
• Dr. Moody made a presentation on the need to change the way we do things and she made a pitch to put an Apple IPAD in the hands of each student before, or during, the next school year. She is hoping to find businesses in the community to fund this initiative and stated that details were pretty much in flux at this time. She did state that she was going to try to get IPADS into the hands of each teacher before the end of the year so they could learn to use them over the summer.  The IPADS would be on a three year lease and the money would come out this years general fund. She doesn't believe she needs board approval and was uncertain on which accounts the money would come from. She will now begin speaking in the community trying to drum up interest.
• Mike Miller with ORED gave a presentation on the changes in our student population and the affect this has on our "out of capacity" charts. below are some of  those charts:

This is the current student population in the school district.

This shows how our student population has decreased. Primarily because of York Prep, but also due to the economy.

This picture shows where the the change in student population has occurred.

When projecting out future students, ORED looks at live birth rates. As you can see, they are in a slight decline.

When you add all those items together, you get an out of capacity chart which looks like this. This indicates it will be a few years before any major capital spending for growth will be required.  For example purposes, the chart below shows what the situation looked like just 6 years ago:

• The District Operations staff presented some of the areas they were looking at for capital needs over the next year. The charts below show some of this presentation:

This chart shows that after a major effort 10 years ago to build capacity, the board has worked hard to hold the tax rate constant.  However, not many bonds will be retiring this year, so any significant capital work done over the next year would have to come with a tax increase. The charts below show some of the items the administration is considering for board approval:

Projects List for 2012-13

Maintenance List for 2012-13

Five year technology Plan

• The administration presented a possible operating budget for next year. To do what the administration would like to do would require a maximum tax milage increase of 6 and a reduction in the fund balance of several million dollars. This would include a step increase for teachers and a cost of living increase for all employees. However, Rock Hill Teachers would still be the lowest paid in York County. The board will have to decide if they will approve a tax increase after two years of no increase and whether to dip into savings for recurring costs.
• The board heard a request to change the name of the Children's Attention Home Charter School and for the YMCA to use our facilities this summer.
• The superintendent reported she would report on the district's performance goals at the June Business meeting and that the district/board/superintendent evaluation would be done by the July Business meeting.