Re: school district budget cuts

[Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

> Financially,
>how much more are we willing to pay is the question.
Perhaps not on the short run, but certainly on the long. gradual 
reduction of Federal and State income taxes and greater transfers of 
Fed'l $ into education (like the 100K teacher program) will lead to more 
revenue $ for schools and relief for districts like MSD if they can make 
the proper case for such subsidies, regardless of local ADA formulas. I'm 
not  privy to all the insides of school finance and state code 
requirements here, so suggestions may be unrealistic. One aspect that 
formal administration often neglects, however, is the reserve of 
volunteer talent in each community, and especially in university towns. 
While not every faculty member or professional person will be willing to 
give a few hours a month to mentoring-tutoring,  many would if approached 
or enticed in one way or another. Students too could help out. These 
"reserves" can do a lot to make up for increases in class size. There are 
other concepts, too, in regard to enlisting community and environmental 
resources to augment the classroom.

I won't be at tomorrow's board meeting to voice such ideas, but if any of 
you think they have some merit, would you so express them at the meeting? 
In the breach, we cannot always solve problems only through the $ 
channel, but need to look at other kinds of resources. Hoping this helps 
somewhat. In times like these we look for dynamnic ideas and also dynamic 
leadership.   Ken M.

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William K. Medlin
Dev-plan associates
930 Kenneth Street
Moscow ID 83843
208/892-0148
dev-plan@moscow.com