Austin Public Schools may have a new five-year strategic plan in place, but school board members want to see certain things done this year.

Overcrowding issues, Sumner Elementary School’s proposed 45/15 calendar switch, maintaining the district’s balanced budget and improving standardized test scores are all issues the school board hopes to tackle this year.

While each board member has differing opinions on how to solve important issues, all appear to unanimously support the district’s upcoming strategic roadmap, which they hope to see finalized by April.

“I think we’re moving forward extremely well,” said Aaron Keenan, the board chairman.

Over the past two years, the school board has been mired in controversy like the situation with former school board member Curt Rude and his subsequent removal last March.

Since then, issues such as increasing enrollment and standardized test score woes, previously in the shadow of the board’s public struggles, have come to the forefront of board and district concerns.

In the past year, district officials created a set of district guidelines, called the district’s strategic roadmap, for the next five years.

Overcrowding

One issue high on the list is increasing enrollments. According to a 2009 state demographer study, Austin will increase by 300-400 students over the next five years, putting already strained facilities over the breaking point. Currently, seven out of eight schools in Austin are over capacity.

“We have facility problems coming up,” said Dick Lees, the board vice-chairman. “We have more students in classrooms.”

The board formed a facilities task force in December, which is made up of community members charged with creating recommendations for the board to act on.

One concern is how to keep up with technology. According to Board Treasurer Jeff Kritzer, the task force has discussed how technology will affect classrooms. Part of the task force’s job is to look at how teachers can individualize lesson plans for students, which means students would learn at their own pace.

Sumner may go

year-round

To improve learning at Sumner, staff and district officials have proposed to switch the school to an alternative calendar called a 45/15 schedule.

Sumner staff hopes the calendar switch will improve student scores on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments given yearly under the federal No Child Left Behind law. While board members haven’t indicated if they would vote for the proposed change, they are all supportive of Sumner staff’s initiative.

“The 45/15 (schedule) is a tactic to help us make sure we really look to provide a strong education for students,” Keenan said.

A 45/15 schedule means students attend school for 45 school days, or about nine weeks, and then go on break for about 15 school days. Sumner would have the same amount of vacation days as other Austin students. The school would start classes earlier than other schools in order to end the year at the same time as other schools. This is to make sure moving students through the district goes smoothly, according to Sumner Principal Sheila Berger.

Budget

Maintaining the district’s coffers is another task the school board wants to oversee. District officials are bracing for possible cuts to K-12 education, especially after $1 billion in proposed cuts cleared the state House of Representatives.

“It’s not that money is absolutely everything as far as running a district,” Board Member David Ruzek said. “But it certainly makes it much more difficult to do innovative things when you don’t have the funding to do so.”

Yet board members hope to find ways to do more than just address impending issues. Kritzer hopes the board can connect more with Austin’s communities of color, as more students of color are entering the district. Currently, a little more than 40 percent of Woodson Kindergarten Center students are Hispanic, meaning the district’s diversity will become a more prevalent issue in coming years.

“We need to do a better job of reaching out to the parents,” Kritzer said.

Board Member Kathy Green hopes to address health and wellness policies. Green and other board members heard reports of new school lunch standards. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act signed in December may require districts to serve four times more fruits, twice as many vegetables and more whole grains. The change could affect the district’s food services budget.

One of the major school lunch changes includes limiting the daily lunch calories school districts can offer, from a minimum of 819 calories before to between 750-850 calories. This is because of increased awareness of childhood obesity, according to Mary Weikum, the district’s food and nutrition director. Green is concerned for student athletes, who may need a larger amount of calories in their meals than what the district can truly provide.

“It truly is one of these catch-22s,” Green said. “Because we do have kids that need a higher caloric intake. You’d be in violation if you approached a student with their need.”