School Briefs

Another teacher heading for warmer climes
Betsy Kolodziej, a Gifted Education teacher at Crested Butte Community School, is heading to Quito, Ecuador for at least one year, possibly two, to improve her Spanish language skills and teach middle school science at the Academia Cotopaxi American International School.

The school board voted unanimously to approve Kolodziej’s request for a leave of absence next year on the recommendation of superintendent Doug Tredway, who himself has had opportunities to teach and work as a school administrator abroad and is often supportive of teachers trying to do the same.
 “This is such a great opportunity to have one of our teachers gain valuable experience and come back to the district with new knowledge,” Tredway said.

Board supports direction of budget
District business manager Stephanie Juneau got high marks from the school board for her presentation of the draft budget for the 2014-15 school year. Juneau gave an overview of the financial give and take between the school and its overseers at the state and federal government.
In her report, Juneau told the board she was still expecting the state to pay a little more per student next year, although the size of the increase hasn’t been finalized. She is, however, still expecting the state to apply its “negative factor” to the funding they do provide the district, which could cost the district about $2 million for the fourth year in a row.
But, with old austerity measures still in place, it’s looking like the district won’t have to take money out of its reserve fund to pay for anything in the coming year, actually closing out the year with almost $25,000 extra in a $15.1 million budget. That could change, however, before the final budget is adopted in May.

Mill levy exploratory committee not meeting until May
The committee exploring the feasibility of a successful initiative to increase the school district’s mill levy will hold its next meeting May 7, after the state’s legislative session ends. By that time, Tredway said, the committee members will have a better idea of how the legislators decided to use more than $1 billion in surplus revenue. At that time they’ll know if a mill levy override is necessary or not, he said.

Superintendent uses authority to add teacher at CBCS
Tredway told the school board he used his authority to perform an “involuntary transfer” to move teachers around in the district, ultimately moving one full-time equivalent (FTE) teacher to Crested Butte Community School in order to reduce class sizes at the high school. “One class has consistently 30 kids in it and that’s unacceptable,” he said.