Plymouth School Board reviews budget before fall annual meeting

PLYMOUTH – He wanted to touch bases on one major item in the upcoming year’s budget, Plymouth School Board Vice President Tim St. Clair said just before the board voted to approve it for presentation at the annual meeting.

“People are going to ask us, so I have to ask … this 4.9 percent increase (in spending) over last year – it will seem significant to the community, but part of this is contractual and part of it is the increase in [health] insurance costs, right?”

“That’s the major driver right now, the health insurance,” replied Business Services Manager Jon Miller.

Employee health insurance premiums are slated to rise some 12 percent on this $3.1 million item, which in itself is 11 percent of the total $28 million budget.

Miller added that apart from health insurance, expenditures would be 1.4 percent lower in this budget than last year’s.

Coupled with what board President Mark Rhyan termed a “dramatic reduction in state aid,” the cost increase results in the proposed budget calling for expenditures of 29,346,205 and a levy of $11,545. This represents a 9.1 percent levy increase, which is down two percentage points from last year’s increase.

The budget will be presented to district voters at the annual meeting this fall. Refinements will be added as various figures become firm.

Not all of the meeting was occupied by ominous budget matters.

A mixed group of students visited Colombia last summer and came to the meeting to report on their trip. Faculty member Laura Koebel, who accompanied them along with faculty member Jane Groblewski, said the trip had been a success with no negative incidents of any kind.

“They made great connections in the visit,” Koebel said.

Students stayed with local families.

Asked what made the trip memorable, one student replied, “I really think the people … everyone was so welcoming. I felt like part of their family.”

“Being in a whole different culture, a whole different way of living, a totally different language,” said another.

For the most part the students had to do most of their communicating with their Colombian families in Spanish.

On a different note, “It helped me with deciding what I wanted to do in college,” said another. “I want something where I learn of other cultures.”

“I didn’t know many of our group real well at the beginning,” another said, “but at the end of the trip, we were one big family.”

Asked by St. Clair if they could offer any insights that might improve the district’s Spanish program, one student said the students needed to talk in Spanish more. “We’re OK on writing and reading, but the way we learn it and the way they say it are different.”

The following agenda item was related, and Superintendent Clark Reinke used the Colombia trip as a segue.

“One of the reasons we do trips like this and teach foreign languages and other cultures is that we know these are critical 21st century skills for our young people. And we are delighted we are going to be able to expand our language and cultural opportunities even more this year.”

Reinke said Plymouth had been chosen as one of 20 schools – out of a couple thousand applicants – to participate in the U.S. State Department’s Teachers of Critical Languages program. “We get to have a guest teacher on our faculty next year.”

The languages featured in the program, he said, were Chinese and the one that will be offered at PHIS in the upcoming year, Arabic.

It will be taught by Ez Eldin, a resident of the area near Cairo, Egypt. Eldin was introduced and spoke for several minutes about the program. He said he was enthusiastic about learning more of America and added he already realized most Egyptians know more about America – primarily through mass media – than Americans know about Egypt.

So far, it was reported, about 75 students have expressed an interest in Eldin’s Arabic classes, but only 35 have managed to fit it into their schedules.

With little discussion, the board approved the “Plymouth High Netbook Computer Rules and Procedures” for the One to One laptop computing project. The rules had been developed and refined over previous months.

They formally held the first reading of the new board policy on bullying. The policy substantially follows a model provided by the state.

The board also approved revisions to its Manual for Acceptable Communication, which applies to media as well as computers.
In other matters, the board approved:
• a 100 percent contract for physical education teacher Lucas Lechnir at PHS.
• an 80 percent contract for special education speech and language therapist Carrie Nickel.
• a 50 percent limited contract for special education teacher DeAnna Kaehler at Riverview this year.
• a 100 percent limited-term contract for science teacher Jenna Sturtz at PHS this year.
• a 100 percent limited-term contract for English teacher at PHS this year.
• a request from PHS alternative education teacher for a year’s leave of absence this year.