Legislature

Question – School Marketing

February 2012

Question: I try to keep up with issues involving education and specifically public education. I am aware that the idea of traditional free public education is under great scrutiny, with charter schools, school voucher programs and any other list of ideas. There are organizations that lobby for the use of our public money and resources and who are successful in the current political climate. Many of these organization advertise their “achievements” and the “failures” of traditional education platforms. Has their been any consideration in Granite, as a large organization, of using some resources to remind the communities of the large amount of success that is produced in our organization. Our communities benefits from the work done in our organization and should be aware of it and how to protect the work we do.

Response: Great question! We have made an ongoing effort to educate the public and our legislators regarding our students successes. Our Communications Department regularly communicates with patrons and taxpayers using direct mail and email to highlight program successes. Additionally, they work closely with the media to get coverage for our schools. We also have great relationships with our legislators to ensure they receive regular and accurate updates on pertinent information. This has to be an ongoing and sustained process and every effort we make (collectively and as individual schools) can quickly be diminished by a single problem or issue. The Communications Department continually requests tips and information on your successes so they can be highlighted appropriately. Email that information here.

Question about retirement monies

September 2011

Question:

I am a 37 year veteran teacher, retired from Jordan District and teaching in Granite for the past 5 years. I have a M.Ed and many endorsements. When I was hired by Granite I was told that, because we cannot put another retirement into the system I would be getting that money put into a 401K. This happened (and was wonderful) for 3 years. Last year I was told that the Districts were given the option to either put this money in or not. Granite opted not to do this. My question is, where does this money go? It seems to me that I work the same amount of hours (sometimes more!) than my colleagues but I am not getting the same pay. Is this fair? Thanks for this open forum and your willingness to answer our questions.

Answer:

Prior to the 2010-11 school year, Granite was required by law to make retirement contributions for employees who were double dipping. These contributions were placed into the double-dipping employee’s 401K plan because, as a retired employee, they were already collecting their retirement and were no longer earning service credit in the retirement system. This was a very good deal for the retired, double-dipping employee. They were receiving retirement checks, a pay check from the district and a significant contribution to their 401K plan. This all worked very well until the economic crisis came. Not only were the state and school district budgets in trouble but the Utah Retirement System lost $6 billion on their investments in one year. The legislature started to look very closely at how to make changes to the Retirement System that would save money and get the system back into a better financial position. They made multiple changes to the system but they looked closely at the double-dippers. There was some fear that the legislature would prohibit double-dipping. They ultimately did not prohibit the practice but they made changes that now make it more difficult to become a double-dipper and they also made the 401K retirement contributions for the double-dippers optional for the district.

At the same time that these changes happened in the retirement system, Granite was faced with unprecedented budget cuts because of cuts in state funding for public education. Granite had to cut $28 million from the budget in 2009-10, $17 million in 2010-11 and $13 million in 2011-12. That’s a total of $58 million in cuts in 3 years. Granite’s Board of Education had to make many difficult decisions during the last 3 budget years in order to balance the budget. One of those difficult decisions was to stop contributing retirement funding into the 401K plans of our double-dipping employees. The 401K contributions are no longer required by law because of the changes made by the legislature.

The legislature stopped short of prohibiting double-dipping. Double dippers can still collect their retirement checks and a pay check from the district but they no longer have the additional advantage of the 401K contribution.

How do Charter School pay for their facilities?

September 2011

Question:

I would like to know where Charter Schools get their money to build their schools. Thank you

Answer:

Charter school facilities are paid for by the state monies appropriated to the charter school (largely the WPU and LRF). There are no special funds designated to charter schools to help them with facility costs. They have to prioritize their budget to include facility costs. For that reason, some charter schools have decided to rent or lease or partner with an existing school or institution (i.e. AMES Academy at Cottonwood High or Canyon Rim in Millcreek).

Charter schools are required to follow all state procurement policies. If they make the decision to lease a building, they are required to pay property tax.

One of the main obstacles for charter school facilities is access to capitol. Charter schools do not have the full faith and credit of the state and therefore pay much higher interest rates.

I hope that helps.

Question – What impact will S.B. 63 have on K-3 reading programs in the Granite District? Will funding be cut for reading specialists next year?

April 2011

Answer- Great Question. The legislature left the funding for K-3 reading programs unchanged for this year. The district does not expect any changes in our current service pattern.

Have a question for the Superintendent? Ask! Email him at SuperintendentsBlog@GraniteSchools.org. He will respond personally, post the question here or answer it as part of the superintendent snapshot. Keep the questions coming.

Budget Update

January 2010

As we move into the start of the Legislative session, I want to make sure you are aware of the messages in play regarding budget impacts on public education. Late last week, a poll was released showing that 57% of Utahns don’t want public education cuts. <http://utahpolicy.com/featured_article/utahns-don%E2%80%99t-want-public-education-cuts>. Use of Rainy Day Funds has held public education harmless in the current budget year. The media has been touting that public education will be held harmless in this next budget cycle.

Let us clarify the latter. You have heard that the Governor’s budget will “hold public education harmless.” While it is true that the Governor’s recommendation to the legislature is to maintain current levels of education funding, there will be no increase to offset anticipated enrollment growth of up to 11,000 new students throughout the state. With the increase in student population, the overall WPU will be cut 2-3% which will be felt by all school districts throughout the state, including Granite School District. This means will receive 2-3% less in state funding next year than we did for our current budget year.

While we feel confident that the Governor and the Legislature are trying to minimize the impact of budget reductions on public education to the greatest extent possible, we want to clarify for our employees what the state’s budget discussions might mean to Granite District. We anticipate additional communications with our employees as the details of these budget recommendations become available through the legislative session. Feel free to send questions or concerns via email to superintendentsblog@graniteschools.org , or post those comments here on my blog.

Sincerely,

Superintendent Ronnenkamp