Food for Thought

"This technical skills vacuum creates an untenable situation for many companies and directly impacts our national economy, since we rely on innovators and innovation to generate the products, services and wealth that have made the United States the world's primary engine of economic growth and the most prosperous nation in the world for more than a century." -- Howard Elias, President and Chief Operating Officer, Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services, EMC

Do Americans Have 21st Century Job Skills?

Financial Update

As we enter the holiday season I wish to give thanks to all of the wonderful support that we have received from our parents and community members during the past year. Your support has been very beneficial and greatly appreciated.

While the country’s financial crisis significantly affects our schools, careful financial management, community support and recent initiatives, have allowed us to deliver a balanced budget. 

Entering this school year the district faced a potential deficit of $664,560 due to a $452,126 cut in state and federal aid and additional obligations related to post-employment benefits for recent retirees. We were able to balance the budget by making substantial changes to health care benefits saving the district $327,331 nearly 40% of the total cost; We also restructured our staffing through attrition and hired new staff that were lower on the pay scale than those retiring saving the district an additional $199,245; Perhaps the most significant area that we saved money in was the reduction of our open enrollment deficit $166,250.

We are starting the second year of our laptop for every student in grades 4-8. Our Elementary is expanding its efforts in using the Daily Five Reading model and they are beginning to integrate the use of Ipads at the 4k-3 level. The entire school is benefiting from new curriculum aligned with the common core standards. Our children in kindergarten through eighth grade are enjoying having access to learning world languages such as Chinese, French, German, and Spanish via Rosetta Stone.  The district has invested in staff development and cutting edge resources to help teachers use data to inform classroom instruction. All students grades K-8 are participating in a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education program through Engineering is Elementary grades K-5, and Gateway to Technology in grades 6-8.

Providing every Wheatland student with access to the best technology and instructional resources is essential for several reasons. First it fulfills the district’s philosophy,

“ The Board believes that the future will make great demands on the abilities of every person in our country. Meeting those demands will require a level of excellence greater than required in the past. …. every student will have the opportunity to realize his/her potential and to achieve the level of excellence necessary to the future.”

Second, providing access to top notch programming and resources makes financial sense.

In 1999 Wisconsin began open enrollment. Open enrollment allows parents to choose which school district they want to send their child to. By 2009-2010 Wheatland had 95 students open enrolled out. This equated to a $631,750 loss in annual revenue. Open enrollment was the key factor to the financial instability the district was feeling. In order to correct this we had to make significant changes to our school in order to keep our students and attract others, and we had to do it fast. I am pleased to report that after one year of these efforts we were able to reduce our open enrollment out numbers to 74 ($492,100) in 2011-2012 and we increased our open enrollment in. Our current open enrollment deficit now stands at a significantly reduced amount of approximately $325,850. I have been asked by several people, “How did the district afforded to pay for all of these initiatives?” The answer is two-fold, we have used grants to cover the short term loan costs, and the open enrollment deficit reduction will provide us with the needed monies to sustain the quality programming in the future. With open enrollment schools must operate more like a business in order to keep their students (customers), and sometimes you need to spend money in order to make money.

Our teachers and staff are dedicated to serving the children and families of the Wheatland community.  Come into our school.  You will see exciting classrooms and smiling and engaged children. I am proud to serve as the educational leader of Wheatland J1 School District.  

Jason Tadlock

District Administrator

Parents, Teachers, and School Board Members,


Please read the message below and be sure to look at page 11 of the linked report. http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/reports/11-openenrollment_ltr.pdf  If you have time, I would review the entire report. While we have made substantial progess in reducing our net loss in open enrollment, in 2010-2011 we still had the 6th highest percentage net loss in the entire state. This is very concerning as the state legislature is considering changing the aid levels. The attached report demonstrates the five options they are putting forward, two of which would be very costly for our district. It is for this reason, we must stay focused on our reform initiatives, work together to overcome any obstacles, and share with the public the many positives that are taking place. By doing this we can reverse this trend and get Place Wheatland at the top of area schools, where we belong!

 Wisconsin Act 32, the 2011-13 Biennial Budget Act, contained a requirement for the LAB to report to the legislature on:

--the history of the open enrollment transfer amount;

-- alternatives for increasing the transfer amount based on the costs to the receiving districts of educating transfer pupils and the amount of funding that sending districts retain for their fixed costs;

--alternatives for transferring sending districts’ revenue limit amounts or state aid to the receiving districts; and

--the effects of these alternatives on districts that either gain or lose a relatively large proportion of their pupils under the program.

The LAB’s report was released today, December 14, 2011.   From the LAB cover letter:

“To illustrate a range of options, our report identifies five transfer amount alternatives that the Legislature could consider. To describe the potential financial effects of the five alternatives, we determined the amount of open enrollment funding each district would have gained or lost if any one of the alternatives had been in effect for the 2010-11 school year and compared the results to the amounts each district actually received in that school year.”

STEM Integration

This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a state level committee meeting regarding Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) initiatives in the state and how can we improve/expand them. I was excited that they would look to us in Wheatland to provide a representative on the committee. I think it speaks well for the direction that we are headed and it indicates that we are being recognized as a school that is an emerging leader in STEM integration in the classroom.

The Gate Way to Technology curriculum and the Engineering is Elementary curriculum that we plan to introduce during the 2011-2012 school year, will bring our students cutting edge curriculum and STEM opportunities. By providing hands on multi-disciplinary approaches in their everyday science instruction, we will see academic achievement increases across all disciplines. Below is a video clip of Ionnis Miaoulis, President and Director of the Boston Museum of Science. In this short presentation he introduces the reason why STEM curriculum for the entire K-12 experience is necessary.

What stuck out to me after watching the video was the fact that 98% of our daily interactions with the world involve items that are man-made, yet in school we spend very little time studying man-made innovations and the science behind what makes them work. I agree with his assessment, and I firlmy believe that this needs to change. We must help our kids develop a greater understanding of innovation and creativity. This will benefit all of our students in all subject areas, as they will learn to apply what they are being taught in other disciplines to solve real life problems.This added relevance to what they are learning in class is a very powerful motivator and reinforce. Please take a moment to watch the video clip.

Use of Twitter As an Educator

We have accomplished so much in regards to the use of technology this year. We have a ways to go still (and we always will), but I am very proud of the efforts you have made in the integration of new technologies into your classroom.

We have some steps to take in opening up your access and speeding our system up, but I am glad to report to you that we are working hard to address those issues, and when you come back in the fall you should be welcomed to a speedy, responsive, open network.

If you haven't begun to explore blogging or twitter, please watch the link below. While I started my first blog over six years ago as a new principal, I was very skeptical of twitter and its practical use. I was absolutely wrong! The networking with people all over the country is very useful, inspiring, and it can help provide you with resources that will benefit you in your everyday teaching. If you haven't opened a twitter account, I encourage you to do so. It is so simple, that you'll be left wondering if you actually created the account.

In the link below, Justin does a great job of sharing why it would be valuable for you to use twitter as an educator. Please take a moment to watch the brief video. 

Raising Our Children to be "Nerds"

I strongly recommend that you read the following article available on CNN.com. In the article LZ Granderson speaks to the importance of celebrating academic success with the same level of passion and energy that we do with sports. I believe that he has hit the nail on the head, and I would encourage each of us as parents/guardians to consider how can we as individuals help reinforce academics as being "cool" with each of our students. As a school we are taking steps to provide offerings and opportunities for students that will enable them to be well prepared for a competitive world market. We will and are doing our best to make academic endeavors, desirable and exciting. However, there is no substitute for the positive reinforcement that a student receives from home. I thank you for your support and efforts in this area.