With a budget crunch last year, superintendent Ray Lauk faced a daunting prospect: cutting programs or selling a big tax hike. His constituents weren't eager to raise their own taxes. But Lauk gave them a reason. He convened 50 community members and faculty to reassess priorities for the district of 2,200 students over the next 10 years. They came back with two proposals: A "reality plan" that left taxes alone but meant closing two schools and increasing class sizes, and a "possibility plan" that would restore art, music, and athletics and focus on math and reading. Lauk won a referendum last March -- with a 50% property tax increase. "We weren't asking them to raise taxes," he says. "We were asking them, 'Which vision of schooling do you want for your kids?' Seeing the choices made the difference."
Superintendent
Lyons Elementary School District 103
Lyons, Illinois
Read Raymond's original entry:
Facing a financial meltdown, my school district knew that schooling would look very different this year. We also knew that cutting programs has too many unintended consequences. Therefore, we created a community-based School Design Team to redesign our public school district. Two plans were created: one with existing, albeit very limited funds, and a second that would be possible with a successful tax rate referendum. Our voters approved the School Design Team's "Possibility Plan," and raised their taxes by 50% to support our educational blueprint. The community approved the referendum with a 60% majority (which followed two previous failed efforts)!
I told my community that simply cutting programs to balance a budget has too many unforeseen and unintended consequences. I used the Aron Ralston analogy--the Colorado mountain climber that cut his arm off to save his life. He is forever changed in every conceivable manner. Likewise, when schools cut off programs like music, art, and athletics, we change the nature of our educational program in deep, lasting, and oftentimes unintended and devastating ways. We created a community-wide School Design Team to study research and best practices, and then to identify a logical, coordinated, and integrated educational program that would be available under two funding scenarios. Essentially, we designed the school district from the ground up and challenged every assumption we made about teaching and learning. Rather than simply asking voters for more money, we presented two options. One option was a very limited, scaled back educational program (the "Reality Plan") that was affordable if the referendum failed. The other option, the "Possibility Plan," offered a reasonable, yet educationally enriching program for children. This plan emphasized reasonable class sizes, small neighborhood schools, restoring art, music, and athletic programs, focusing on math and reading, addressing second language learners and special needs students, ongoing curriculum development and staff training and development. Through an aggressive and savvy referendum campaign, we communicated our vision for our children’s education and the opportunities that our children deserved. We had broad support and involvement from our parents, staff, senior citizens, political leaders, employee unions, and school board.
First, nobody likes to raise his or her taxes. Our district is composed of five hard working, middle class communities in the Chicago suburbs. Our taxpayers already make great sacrifices to fund local government services, including the schools. However, as the communities’ demographics change, the demands on educational services also increase. Nearly half of our students now come from homes where English is not the primary language spoken at home. Our low-income rate is nearly 40%, and our student mobility rate is 25%. We also must direct additional resources to our students who are not meeting learning standards under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation. Second, and more difficult, was the normal reluctance to change. Our educational programs had worked quite well in the past, but those days are over. Without a successful referendum, schooling would be dramatically different this year due to the constraints of the financial crisis. If the referendum passed, we would implement the plan for educational change identified by the community. Either way, people had to change their teaching, thinking, and view of the profession. Third, there was a history of failed referenda. Prior to my arrival, the district had lost two crucial referendum attempts.
The referendum passed with a 60% majority! We immediately hired nearly 50 new teachers in order to bring back reasonable class sizes and to be able to better address students’ learning needs. We are instituting reading and math intervention programs for students in grades 1-5 who are below grade level—with nearly 100% participation. We are in the midst of a new staff development theme of differentiated instruction so that every teacher has the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of all learners in the regular classroom. The roles of special education and English as a Second Language teachers are changing and becoming more flexible to work closely with classroom teachers as they address student learning as a team. Later this year we will be creating Language Academies to support our students and families who are learning English and for our staff to learn Spanish. Elementary music, band, orchestra, and athletics are back in the curriculum, and elementary art will return next year. We are changing our focus from what we “teach,” to what students “learn!” We are implementing every other aspect of the “Possibility Plan” to provide rich, vibrant, and meaningful educational experiences for all of our students!
We must remain cognizant of our fiduciary duty to the community and ensure sound, responsible management of these new resources and of the faithful execution of the School Design Team’s plan. Change does not come easily, nor does it come overnight. We must continuously work with the staff to ensure that our focus remains on student learning and achievement (outputs) rather than on what we teach (inputs). One of our schools has not met the standards set by No Child Left Behind. We must refocus that school towards higher levels of student learning and ensure accountability for results district-wide.
Comments that readers have made about this submission:
This is entry is what leadership is all about and what is lacking in so many of our schools and school districts. How exciting to read about a clearly articulated vision on how to re-design public education. It was refreshing to read about this well thought out "Possibility Plan" that involved all constituencies and didn't take the easy route, of cutting programs. Too many leaders without vision have taken this thoughtless route, and generations of our children are still feeling the impact of their actions. My congratulations to Dr. Lauk for inspiring his district in this bold plan. Hopefully, other districts throughout the U.S.A. will learn from his leardership.
Ilma Lima - Rio de Janeiro, BrazilHere is a school district that is focusing on quality, which includes a degree of transparency for community stakeholders to see what is really going on in thier public schools. As noted, quality focuses on outputs "students learning," not inputs "what we teach." Who cares what has been taught if students aren't learning? I believe we have No Child Left Behind legislation, in part, because of schools inability to change to meet the changing learning needs of todays students. My hat is off to Dr. Lauk and the Lyons School District 103 for taking a big step toward needed change. With a start like this, success seems just around the corner!
George Stanhope - Champaign, IL, United StatesI did my dissertation on the topic of variables affecting the successful outcome of school referenda and one of the top variables I found was involvement of the community in the business of the school. You can't get citizens who no longer have children in school to agree to raise their taxes unless they are involved and understand how letting the quality of teaching and learning go down the tubes will ultimately affect the quality of their life in some manner. What Dr. Lauk did in his strategic plan was get everyone involved and let them choose their own destiny. This seems to have produced a significant majority of approving citizens. The public doesn't like to be ignored and they retaliate with a vengeance when they are ignored - so what Dr. Lauk has done here seems to me not only to support what my dissertation found, but should be a model for the vast majority of districts who don't have a clue on how to pass a referendum. Threatening to make cuts isn't the way to get the public's attention - getting them involved is the way. Bravo Dr. Lauk.
Dr. Dennis R. Clodi - Bourbonnais, IL. USASounds Great... but what does this have to do with business? I would love to give an A for effort. Sorry - F.
Mohaire Koats - Baltimore, MDWhat does public education have to do with business??? Everything! Even a small local school district is a multimillion dollar business--and is probably the largest business in the community. The school district is likely to be the largest employer in the community as well. Many school districts are even creating alternate (and innovative) revenue streams to increase the bottom line. Public schools now recognize that we are all operating in a competitive marketplace for students...competing with private schools, charter schools, private educational management firms and each other! The education sector is the second largest industrial sector in the U.S.! This is big business!
Ray Lauk - Lyons, IL, USASaying passing a referendum doesn't have to do with buiness is like saying providing training to the employees of a business isn't education. In Illinois, finding of public schools is a hot topic. School districts are taking on greater dept, seeing negative fund balances, and some facing school closings or consolidation. These are not academic issues, but issues of business practice. Tax caps have been passed in many counties that limit revinue growth making the successful passing of a referendum an extremely important issue that can make the difference between maintaining and improving educational services and providing diminised services or closing the doors to a school. Sounds like business to me.
George Stanhope - Champaign, IL, United States
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