Kuna School District Update

January 16, 2019

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” - Frederick Douglass

Team,

Last night our school board unanimously voted to seek renewal of the district’s annual levy for two years which would raise $5 million to support student learning and improve safety. The election is March 12, 2019. The levy amount and tax rate -- $5 per $1,000 of taxable property value -- will remain unchanged from the levy approved by voters in 2017. (Link to my presentation to the school board here.)

In 2017, the board created a fiscal plan to prepare for growth as well as to make needed improvements in teaching materials, safety, and facilities. This plan includes renewing of the supplemental levy every two years until the school district catches up with items identified as needing improvement.

The 2019 levy includes items from the 2017 plan --adopting new teaching materials, improving safety features in schools and funding our School Resource Officers; however after reviewing the results from our staff and community survey in which all stakeholders identified class size as an issue as well as my own observations and concerns regarding large class sizes across the district, I suggested adding the focus on lowering class sizes to the levy renewal.

In a nutshell, the funds from the renewal of the supplemental levy will be focused in the following three categories:

Teachers = $1 million per year for two years for a total of $2 million
20 more teachers to
lower class sizes,
continue all day, every day kindergarten
add to our Career and Technical staff in the areas of agriculture, construction technology, diesel and auto

Educational Materials and Technology = $750,000 per year for two years for a total of $1.5 million
ELA, science & musical instruments
Chromebooks for classrooms

Safety = $750,000 per year for two years for a total of $1.5 million
4 School Resource Officers
Behavioral support for elementary and middle school students
Facility safety improvements

I know that our community trusts and supports our teachers and school staff so they will ask you questions. In order to equip you with answers to those questions, I will visit schools and departments to answer your questions and to share information. We will post factual information about the levy on our website, too.

If you would be interested in serving on a committee to help inform our public about the facts regarding this election, please just send me an email.

Thank you so much for all that you do and know that we are working hard to ensure that each of you has the resources you need to help each student become a lifelong learner and a contributing, responsible citizen. This levy won’t solve all of the needs we have in our district, but it will help us to move the district forward in providing more support to children.

In service,

 Rumor Mill
Have You Heard a Rumor and Want to Know the Answer? Post your question on our website!

It is easy for rumors to get started in light of all the questions and concerns employees and parents have regarding the Kuna School District. If you've heard a rumor that you'd like to get an "official" response on, we encourage you visit the "Rumors, Questions and Feedback" link on our website.

Q. When is the new high school going to get started?

A. Work on the new high school started shortly after voter approval of the March 2017 bond. The first steps involved finding a site to build the high school and once that was completed, the architect, construction manager and Jim Obert have been extremely busy with all of the planning and permitting processes required for developing bare ground. The good news is that much of the legal requirements, fees for review of permits, etc. are almost done, including the school’s conceptual design. We expect to go to bid in mid-late February for the construction of the facility with ground breaking in early March.