Board Members:
It has been a very busy week! I just returned from two days in Ankeny for the School Executives of Iowa winter meeting. This might run a bit long today, so I'm going to jump right in with what you need to know.
First, you probably heard the governor delivered her Condition of the State address on Tuesday night. Among her proposals was a plan to fully fund a school voucher program for any and all students in grades K-12. This first year, she has budgeted $106 million. When fully ramped up, according to a release from the governor's office it will cost in excess of $900 million. To contextualize this a bit for you, consider the fact that tax cuts enacted a year ago will decrease state revenue by approximately $1.2 billion when fully implemented (in total, the state budget runs about $9 billion). In that same address, she proposed just an $83 million increase in state aid. There is no doubt if passed, this bill will do real harm to public schools in the state, and Hudson will not be immune. As it currently sits, we have roughly 15 students in any given year who enroll in nonpublic schools. I would anticipate this to be a lowball number that you can expect to rise in the future. My current estimates for Hudson suggest a loss in revenue of almost $114,000 per annum, or the rough equivalent of two teaching positions. The eligibility of homeschool is unclear, but I anticipate a discussion on expanded eligibility of those families to be part of the calculus going forward. Derek Wulf has agreed to meet with me on Monday morning, I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. I'll be spending some time on this issue in my blog next week, but if ever there was a time to visit with legislators now would be that time. I would encourage your neighbors as well.
Next week we have a board meeting scheduled, and we'll have a lot of ground to cover. As a start, the administrators will be present and we'll have a conversation regarding staffing positions that we anticipate will need to be added for the next school year. We'll also need to spend a bit of time talking through the high school project with particular emphasis on scheduling both the bidding process and the selling of the bonds. Finally, we'll be in an exempt session while we discuss our strategy for contract negotiations. There will be a few other items that we'll cover as well, but all stated none of this should be new information for you so we should be able to finish up in relatively short order.
All for now, but I guess that was a lot! Have a good weekend, and if you need any clarification or have questions in advance of the board meeting please let me know!
Dr. Voss
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