First, I would like to thank everyone that took the time to complete our annual survey.  Your answers and comments were very important to us.  I can tell you that your comments and thoughts were brought up many times during our meeting when budgeting for next year.

Here are some other action items that were a result of the survey results:

Last Friday we spent several hours developing a budget for the 2009/2010 school year.  Here are the details:

Budgeted revenue:

Auction revenue $125,000 
This is a $5,000 reduction from last year’s budget.  The actual number for this year was just over $145,000.

Escrip                            $  12,000
This number is consistent with this year’s actual

Corporate Matching     $  14,000 
Actual number for this year was just over $14,000

Fall Registration           $120,000
Actual numbers from this year was close to $110,000.  We will be increasing registration from $250 to $275

Interest Income           $    1,000  
This is a slight reduction from last year’s budgeted number, which we did not hit

Fund a need reserve    $    5,000
Normally fund a need at the auction is reserved for a specific expense for the next school year.  This past year the auction generated over $7,000 for “fund a need” (Art).  We are projecting $5,000 for the next auction.

Special fundraiser        $    8,000
This is an aggressive line item and is the first time we have had such a revenue projection.  We needed to add this number in order to fully fund the programs listed below.  We are planning that one of our revenue programs listed above show actual higher revenue.  If not, we will need to plan some type of additional fundraiser, preferably after next years’ auction.

TOTAL PROJECTED REVENUE          $285,045

CEF Overhead:

Auction expense           $  35,000
This is the same budgeted number as last year.  This expense includes facility rental, food cost and all other costs associated with putting on the auction. 

Operating expense      $   2,000
This is the same budgeted number as last year.  This expense covers our tax prep and return cost, bonding, insurance etc.

Fall registration           $   1,000
This is a new budgeted expense and will cover the credit card charges, printing mailing charges etc associated with fall registration.

Fund a need expense  $   5,000
This is the same revenue number that is dedicated to a specific fund a need program.

TOTAL OVERHEAD EXPENSE           $  43,000

Instructional programs:

Science 1-3                   $ 23,049
This will maintain our science for grades 1-3

Science 4-5                   $ 20,877
This will maintain a second science class for 4 and 5^th grade.  This second class will maintain our science for grades 4^th and 5^th.

PE Assistant                 $  8,200
This will continue toallow multiple classes to be at PE at the same time.  It is not safe, nor practical for one PE teacher to safely run larger PE classes.   Rather than fund a more expensive PE teacher, we are able to achieve both safety and quality by funding an assistant to work with the double class sizes.

Classroom Aides           $ 74,340
This new number reflects an approximate 25% reduction over this past year.  We will be working with teachers and staff to insure that the aides are maximizing their effectiveness in the class.  We understand that many parents were concerned about aides spending time on lower priority action items and have been assured by all that the few hours per week that each teacher will have an aide, will be used on higher yielding tasks.  Your teacher will be communicating with you throughout the year to inform you of the types of tasks your child’s classroom aide is involved.  In general, K-3 classes will have aides 3 hours per week and upper grade classes and combo classes will have aides 5 hours per week.

Reading Specialist       $ 41,754
This will maintain our current program.  This program will help students that need extra assistance in maintaining targeted reading levels.  While this program directly benefits these students, it also indirectly benefits all other students by allowing the primary teacher to continue moving forward with the difficulty of the content while the specialist works with the students to fill in the holes.  Without the Reading Specialist, the CEF board felt that the teacher would be spending a good deal of time working with those students that need additional assistance at the expense of the remaining students.  The program is for K – 3^rd grades.

Math Specialist             $ 10,000
This amount is less than what was budgeted last year; however the math specialist position was not filled.  We believe the Math Specialist is important (see Reading Specialist) but have reduced the amount budgeted.  Filling this position will be an increase in services offered next year.  This program will cover K-5^th grades.

Lunch coverage            $ 16,225
This description does not accurately explain the benefits of this funding.  It is actually 3 part-time positions.  First is a lunch time supervisor.  CEF has previously funded this position as it will allow teachers and staff important time to prepare and collaborate.  The second part time position will be an intramural person and the third position will be a part time rainbow person.  This person will insure that the practices of peace making/rainbow room are implemented on the blacktop during lunch.  The 3 part time positions collectively will insure that our lunch coverage is safe for all students while giving teachers and staff a better use of time.  This positively impacts all students.

Rainbow Para(s)           $  9,000
This maintains the current program.  The Rainbow room is ½ funded by a grant (which will expire after this next year) and CEF.  Without CEF funding the grant would not be able to be used.  As a Board, we felt that having a program for social intervention that may create less conflict in the classroom and playground would be a benefit for all students. 

Librarian                        $  6,000
This funding would maintain our current hours for library.  The school district will fund 12 hours per week and our funding will allow an additional 6 hours per week.  This will benefit all students.

Technology 3-5            $  7,000
This would maintain our current levels.

Technology 1-3            $10,000
This funding is a reduction of approximately 30% and will eliminate K classes.

Art                                  $  3,000 (plus an additional $7,900 from this year’s fund a need)
Together this $10,900 commitment will maintain our current art program.

Music                             $12,600
This represents a reduction of approximately 33%.  Together with district funding, 4^th and 5^th grades will be offered instrumental music taught by an instrumental music teacher.  Grade 3 will work with recorders for 30 minutes each week, taught in double classes.  This class will be taught by an instrumental music teacher with the class teacher present.  Grades K-2 will have general music 30 minutes every other week, taught in double classes.  The program will be taught by an instrumental music teacher with the class teacher present.

TOTAL INSTRUCTIONAL FUNDING $242,045

New CEF Board for 2009/2010:

Also during our last meeting we conducted our elections for the coming school year.  Here is the Board for next year.

President:                       Mark Thornton

Secretary:                      Open position.  Tamara Jones will continue in this position until we can fill the position

Treasurer:                       Linda Dalenberg

Assist. Treasurer:            Darci O’Grady

Corporate Matching:       Open position

Principal:                         Darlene Hale

Escrip:                            Jill Bruntz

Teacher’s rep                  TBD

SRVEF rep                       Steve Lincoln

PTA rep                           Jonathan Multhaup

Site Council rep               TBD

Registration                     Scott Johnson

Auction:                          Open position

Auditor                            Open position

Publicity/Communications Open position

Open positions:

We have 5 open positions.  Please see details on these important positions.

Secretary: This position’s primary responsibility is to take good notes during our meetings so that accurate minutes can be produced.  This position also sends out the board packet prior to a board meeting.  The packet normally includes an agenda, minutes from the last meeting, and any other information provided by committees for the Board’s consideration.  Tamara Jones has done a fabulous job as our Secretary and Tamara is willing to help with the transition.

Corporate Matching: This position is in charge of running our corporate matching program.  This program generates over $14,000 for our fund.  Working closely with fall registration, this position collects information from parents that work for companies that offer corporate matching and insures that all paperwork is submitted timely.  Our Corporate Matching program has been increasing over the past couple of years.  Kathy Krull, who very successfully ran this program last year, is available to help with the transition.

Auction: This is a very important position.  Without an auction chair, or co-chairs, we may not be able to have an auction next year.  As you can see above, the auction brings in significant revenue that cannot be replaced.  This would mean large cuts in the following year.  The positive news on this position is that there is a wealth of knowledge from the last 3 auction chair(s) that is available to any incoming auction chair(s).  Baldwin has a very successful auction program and any new auction chair would not have to start from scratch.   You will have plenty of help in organizing and planning this event.  This can be done by one person or shared by a few co-chairs.

Auditor: This is a very easy position.  This position is in charge of independently auditing our financial records to comply with SRVEF.  The audit is to be completed 2 times per year and there are specific forms and procedures to make it easier. 

Publicity/Communications:  Jen Greenberg was in this position last year and did a great job.  This position will author our monthly CEF newsletter, oversee the website for up to date content, and help with general communication.

If you have any interest in filling any of these positions, please contact me as soon as possible.  Your volunteerism is what allows CEF to serve John Baldwinstudents.

Please look out for updates during the summer and have a great summer!

Mark Thornton

President