The information below will be published as a "guest column" in the York News-Times this week.
Professional Development Day on January 19th
Thanks to Beth Ericson and our talented and dedicated staff, we will once again host one of the state’s most dynamic professional development days on January 19th at York High School. We anticipate over 400 attendees to include YPS teachers, paras, and substitutes as well as staff members from Emmanuel Faith-Lutheran, St. Joseph’s Catholic School, Epworth Village, York College, York County Head Start, and numerous other school districts in the area.
The day will feature over 55 break-out sessions on a variety of topics to include special education, student engagement, math interventions, technology integration, early childhood programming, motivation, high ability learners, writing strategies, and much, much more.
We’re also excited about our two keynote speakers. Dan Waldschmidt is a leading innovator in the business strategist world. He is the author of “Edgy Conversations” and publishes a great blog that can be found at www.danwaldschmidt.com/blog. Dean Shareski is a leading educational consultant that is based out of Canada. He has many awesome ideas to share with us. Please visit his website, http://ideasandthoughts.org, to learn more.
Thanks again to Cornerstone Bank for providing a sandwich bar for our lunch on this important day of learning.
“The Main Thing is to keep the Main Thing the Main Thing”
Our “main thing” within York Public Schools is our students and providing as many opportunities as possible for them to be successful. We’ve started an Agronomy Academy with Seward and Centennial School Districts to expose juniors and seniors to potential agriculture careers that is paid for by Pioneer, Syngenta, Monsanto, and Mycogen.
We’re launching an on-line advanced placement environmental science course in January. We continue to expand our K-8 school day and school year. We’ve added “Math Counts” and “Invention Convention” at YES and YMS. These are exciting times for York Public Schools.
I continue to be so impressed with our students. They inspire me every day. Our future is in great hands as these young people continue to mature and chase their dreams in the upcoming years.
School Budget and Finance Update
With the upcoming legislative session that will include a new governor and 19 new senators, it’s going to be an interesting few months. YPS remains very diligent in our pursuit of property tax relief, other revenue streams to support our schools, and conservative spending. We remain part of a legislative advocacy group called STANCE that is made up of 13 mid-sized schools. STANCE has met with the Farm Bureau, Open Sky Institute, Lt. Governor Mike Foley, numerous state senators, and others to discuss school finance issues and concerns. We will continue to do so throughout the winter and spring.
Here are some interesting facts and figures from annual financial reports that all school districts must turn in each year to the Department of Education. This data relates to revenue and spending of public school districts in our state from 2002-03 to 2012-13, which is the most recent year we have audited annual financial report data.
Property Tax Revenue
• In 2002-03, the total amount of property taxes for all public schools in the state came in at $953,082,982
• Ten years later in 2012-13, the total amount of property taxes for all public schools in the state tallied $1,579,619,633
o Statewide total property tax revenue for K-12 public school districts increased 65.7%; or an annual average increase of 6.57%
• In 2002-03, York Public Schools received $5,266,584 in property taxes
• Ten years later, in 2012-13, YPS received $7,851,906
o This is an increase of $2,585,321; or 49%
o The property tax revenue of YPS had an annual average increase of 4.9% compared to the 6.57% annual average increase of the state as a whole
State Aid Revenue
• In 2002-03, total state aid paid to all Nebraska public school districts was $661,940,176
• Ten years later in 2012-13, total state aid across the state for all schools was $852,084,074
o This was a 28.7% overall increase in that 10-year span for an annual average increase of 2.87%
• In 2002-03, York Public Schools received $2,689,852 in state aid.
• In 2012-13, YPS received $2,004,816
o This is a decrease of $685,036 or loss of 25.5%; which is a far cry of the +28.7% increase that has been statewide
Total Spending
• In 2002-03, all public school districts in Nebraska combined to spend $2,150,922,022
• Ten years later in 2012-13, all public school districts in our state combined to spend $3,219,961,366
o This is an increase of 49.7% or an annual average increase of 4.97%
• In 2002-03, York Public Schools spent $10,442,549
• In 2012-13, YPS spent $13,749,972
o This is an increase of $3,307,423
o This is a percentage increase of 31.7% or an annual average increase of 3.17% for York Public Schools; which compares very favorably to the statewide annual average of 4.97%
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous and healthy 2015. This new year is going to be another awesome one for the York Dukes. We hope to see you at a concert, play, speech meet, extra-curricular activity, wrestling match, school lunch, or ball game soon! Thanks for your continued support.
No comments:
Post a Comment