Dallas County R 1 Schools Fall Report

DCR1 Receives $202,000 Federal Sidewalk GrantYour school district is always looking for ways to make

our campuses safer for our students, staff and the com-munity. One of the ongoing challenges in Buffalo is the lack of a complete sidewalk system around our schools. Last spring the DCR1 school district completed a federal Transportation Enhancement Project grant application and we are extremely excited to announce that we have received $202,949 in federal Department of Transpor-tation funds to build sidewalks along roadways on the Buffalo High School and Buffalo Prairie Middle School campuses. The total estimated cost for the project will be $253,688, of which approximately $51,000 will come from local school funds. Construction plans are cur-rently under development and it is hoped we can begin construction by this spring, with final completion by next summer. On the middle school campus sidewalks will be constructed along Truman Drive from Highway

65 to Locust Street. We will also be able to build side-walks from Truman Drive back to the middle school building. When com-pleted, the middle school campus will have a wonderful walking path that will allow students to safely walk to the new sidewalks being constructed by the City of Buffalo along Locust Street. It will also be a great, safe exercise area for the community. In total, the middle school project will build ap-proximately a half mile of additional sidewalks on the campus.

On the Buffalo High School campus, funding is provided to cover the deep drainage culvert along Main Street on

the north side of the campus with a new sidewalk. Not only will this make walking around the high school

campus safer, we feel it will make Main Street much safer for drivers where the road is rather

narrow along the high school campus. In addition, we’ll be able to complete the

sidewalks along the east side of the campus, along Locust Street, to connect with the new sidewalks constructed by the City of Buffalo. In total, approximately 1500 feet of new sidewalks will be built on the BHS campus. We’re excited by these new projects and are very appreciative of the federal funds

we have received to complete them.

Campus Safety Focus of Summer Projects

BUDGET ADOPTEDREVENUE Local Total 5,867,750 County Total 360,000 State Total 7,581,077 Federal Total 2,307,425 Vo Tech Tuition Total 200,000 TOTAL REVENUE 16,316,252 EXPENDITURES Mallory Elementary 1,957,630 Long Lane Elementary 327,843 BP Middle School 1,840,920 Buffalo High School 2,047,702 High School A+ 23,264 Summer School 127,558

Gifted Education 110,223 Special Education 1,413,975 Title I Culturally Different 452,080 ESOL 54,948 Dallas County Technical Ctr 1,144,125 Student Activities 313,800 Student Activities-Salaries 28,992 Athletics 320,436 Tuition Other Districts 371,807 Social Work Services 80,304 Guidance 359,916 Health 159,025 Title I Impr Instr Services 91,492 Grants 384,744 Professional Development 60,000 Library 236,264

Board of Education 137,185 Executive Administration 494,450 Principal Office 753,505 HS Graduation Expenses 3,000 Operation/Maintenance of Plant 1,580,334 Pupil Transportation 1,218,731 Transportation-Handicapped 57,967 Transportation ECSE 100,000 Food Service 692,985 Technology Support 506,282 Parents As Teachers 28,988 Title I Early Childhood 129,445 Title I Parent Involvement 7,239 Architect Fees 24,000 Short Term Loan Bldg Fees 20,000 TOTAL EXPENDITURES 17,661,159

DCR1 Budget for 2013-2014 School Year

Executive SummaryPreparation for this year’s budget document included an

analysis of budget trends in both revenues and expenditures. The Revenues for FY 2014 are stagnant at the local/county and state levels, while federal revenues are expected to de-crease by at least 5% due to sequestration. Local and Coun-ty Revenue is projected to stay at about the same amount as FY 2013 due to the fact that the District has reached it’s tax rate ceiling ($3.35) and assessed valuation is predicted to be similar to this year. State revenue projections are projected to be similar to last year’s allocations with estimates of the proration factor at 93%. The lack of full funding at the state level results in a loss of approximately half a million dollars. The under funding of the state formula and the fact that our district is experiencing declining enrollment means that a re-duction in state revenue over time is a given.

Stagnant revenue projections alongside rising expendi-tures will result in a deficit budget again this year. FY 2013 budget did result in a deficit of approximately $256,000. However, strong balances projected at $5.1 million will see us in good shape at the end of FY 2013. Pending a full trans-fer from Fund 1 into Fund 4 ($928,390) in order to fund next year’s capital projects, the District will end the year with ap-proximately 19% Contingency.

Estimated revenue for FY 2014 is $16,316,252. Basic expenditures, which include a 7% increase to health insurance benefits, a vertical step in-crease to all staff, horizontal step increases for educational hours completed above a Bachelor’s degree, and the local por-tion of Career Ladder are projected at $17,657,848, which results in a projected deficit of $1.3 million dollars. Contingency (fund balances) are projected to decrease to 16% or less if a transfer is needed for Fund 4.

There is no doubt that unless there are in-creases to revenue at the state and federal level, which do not appear to be forthcoming, that the District will either have to ask the folks to raise the levy for operational purposes if the District wishes to continue funding at the levels anticipated over the next few years. If no increase in local levies occurs, then substantial cuts will need to be made in order to

keep the district fiscally sound. Included in this budget for personnel in the fiscal year

2014 are the following:• Keeping Insurance Benefits 100% paid for all Certified, 11

and 12 month Classified Employees.• Keeping Insurance benefits 75% paid for 9 month Classi-

fied Employees.• Maintain retirement benefits for Certified (14.5%) and

Classified (6.86%) Employees.• Awarding horizontal movements of all Certified Staff

members documenting hours completed above their Bachelor’s Degree.

• Summer School Salaries for 2014• Salary opportunities funded through the 21st Century

Grant.The budget document, which is recommended for the

Board of Education’s review and acceptance, makes provi-sions for:• Funds to implement academic programs to meet the fifth

cycle MSIP and NCLB waiver requirements.• Continuation of an additional teacher at Mallory (grade 3)

due to large class size.• Addition of a kindergarten teacher at Mallory due to antici-

pated large class size.• Additional technology expenditures that

include the following: Replacement of Computer On Wheels at BPMS Moving Connection for Long Lane and

Louisburg to BPMS Upgrade of Preschool wireless radios

Capital Projects funds for the following Capital Improvements at each building:

Buffalo High School• Refinish Field House Gym Floor

• Replacement of Vo-Ag Roof• Upgrade Vo-Ag Electrical Service to Ac-commodate Welders• Ball field Concession Stand Grant Proj-

ect (District Match)Buffalo Prairie Middle School

• Addition interior doors to increase security

Mallory Elementary School• Elementary Awning Completion• Addition of interior doors to increase security• Installation of Basic Camera System

Long Lane Elementary School• Add additional door to front entrance in order to increase

security• Transportation Enhancement Grant /Sidewalks (District’s

matching portion)• Capital Projects funds for the purchase of four school

buses.• Continuation of the 21st Century After-School Program.• Maintenance of the District’s technology program with

plans for gradual upgrades and expansion as funding al-lows.

• Continued support for the A+ program.• Continuation of summer school.

The challenges faced by the Dallas Co R-1 School District include the following:• Increasing numbers of at risk students.• Increasing numbers of students with disabilities.• Changes in the family unit which require the District to

change the manner in which parents/guardians are in-volved in the educational process.

• High mobility rates of students.• Declining student enrollment.• Increased numbers of families dealing with job loss.• Constant analysis of student data in order to improve the

instructional activities so that all students may be suc-cessful.The challenges of funding for public schools continue to

be great. However, the rewards we reap as we work with our students are well worth meeting these challenges. I look for-ward to continuing to work together with the Board of Edu-cation, staff and community in order to meet and conquer these challenges in order to provide top quality educational programs for our students. It is only by working together toward a common vision that ordinary individuals can attain extraordinary results!

Sincerely,Robin RitchieSuperintendent

Over the summer months, almost all of your DCR1 campuses were busy with new construction projects. This year your school board focused on improvements in campus security and student/staff safety, although many other general improve-ments were made to all of the campuses.

The biggest changes in campus securi-ty took place on the D. A. Mallory Elemen-tary, Long Lane Elementary, and Buffalo Prairie Middle School campuses. All three o f these cam-

puses have had access

control doors installed that will greatly secure the campuses by making it much more difficult for intruders to have access to the portions of the buildings where stu-dents and staff work. Once you enter the main entrances on these campuses you go into a secure area that has had break and blast resistant glass installed. In or-der to have direct contact with students or staff, persons entering the buildings

must be “buzzed in” after they have been approved for entrance by office staff. While this entrance method will take visitors a little extra time to enter the buildings, we think all agree

this extra time is well worth it when you consider it keeps our students and staff safer while they are at school. The Mal-lory Elementary School campus has also had surveillance cameras installed so that office staff are better able to monitor the building during the school day and after school hours. Also over the summer a new lightening detection system was in-stalled on all campuses within the school district.

One of the new additions over the sum-

mer that has received some of the most enthusiastic support is the new covered walkway on the south side of Mallory El-ementary School. This new awning will protect students and staff from most of the weather during loading and unload-ing times and will also protect students as they walk to and from classes located in the annex building. This project was completed by a crew from Dallas County Technical Center over the summer months and we think they did a great job!

Celebrating Academic Our Academic SuccessEach year the Missouri Department of Elementary and

Secondary Education evaluate the performance of Missouri schools. This state evaluation is known as the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP). For the 2012-2013 school year, the state revised the evaluation of schools by making the evaluation more focused on academics and col-lege and career readiness. As part of the MSIP evaluation each school district is evaluated with an Annual Performance Report (AYP), commonly called the state grade card for schools.

The AYP report of Missouri schools is made up of five categories of evaluation: Academic Achievement (56 points), Subgroup Achievement (14 points), College and Career Readiness (30 points), Attendance (10 points), and Gradu-ation Rate (30 points). As you’ll notice, the AYP report is strongly based on the academic performance of students on the state mandated MAP test taken each spring.

We are extremely proud to report that on our 2013 AYP re-port, your Dallas County R-I School District received a score of 94.3%. That percentage in itself may not mean much to someone who doesn’t review AYP scores often, but, for

those of us who are educators it is a score worth celebrating. Your Dallas County R-I School district is a member of the

Central Ozarks Conference, one of the most highly respected athletic and academic conferences in the state. As you will

see in the data above, our scores on the state AYP report were in the top half of this highly respected conference and above many other highly respected schools in southwest Missouri.

1. Nixa 97.9%2. Bolivar 97.1%3. Ozark 96.1%3. Republic 96.1%5. Reed Springs 95.0%6. Dallas County R-I 94.3%7. Logan-Rogersville 93.2%

8. Willard 92.5%9. Branson 91.4%10. Marshfield 89.6%11. Neosho 89.3%12. Webb City 87.5%13. Hollister 86.1%14. Carthage 85.0%

Central Ozarks ConferenceMissouri Annual Performance Report of Schools

2013

DCR1 Area of Academic Strength: Mathematics To be candid, Mathematics performance

has been a challenge in Dallas County R-I Schools for several years. Each year when MAP test scores were reported, we were dis-appointed by our Math test scores compared to other schools. Well, times have changed in a big way and the lasted release of MAP test Math scores shows huge growth in our student performance in grades 3 through 8 Mathematics!

For example, back in 2010 when the graduating class of 2018 took the MAP Math test in 4th grade, only 26.5% of the students were Proficient or Advanced in Mathematics. When you look at that same group of stu-dents last school year when they were in 7th grade the percentage of students Proficient and Advanced on the MAP Math test had risen to a whopping 57%.

If you compare our Mathematics scores to other schools in the area, we’ve also seen great growth. For example, it the tough Cen-tral Ozarks Conference where we have some of the most highly respected schools in Mis-souri, on our 8th grade MAP Math testing we finished third out of 15 schools. The per-centage of our 8th grade students that were proficient or advanced in Mathematics was

10.8% above the Missouri state average (see chart).

Why have we seen such growth in Math-ematics performance over the past four years? Hard work! First of all, three years ago we began to visit other high performing schools in the area in order to see if we could replicate their successes. After careful con-sideration by our staff, the elementary staff decided to implement the “Everyday Math” curriculum, a research based Mathematics instructional model developed by the Uni-versity of Chicago. At first, Everyday Math was implemented in Kindergarten, First, and Second grades two years ago. Last school year we added grades three and four. In ad-dition, with funding from the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant we were able to implement the Accelerated Mathematics program which is a computer based program that evaluates the Mathemat-ics skill needs of each student and it creates an individualized instructional plan for each student.

A final effort we’ve made is the STAR Math test, which is a computer based test that is administered at the start of each school year and again at the end of each quarter. The

STAR Math test allows us to identify student needs and also identify classrooms that are having the most Mathematics skill growth in a school year. Once we identify those most successful classrooms, we can better focus on implementing the most successful in-structional strategies in all classrooms.

We still have areas of needed improvement in Mathematics performance, but, the results

of the latest MAP testing show that the trend is definitely upwards. We appreciate all the hard work made by our staff, students and families as there has been a lot of change in Mathematics instruction over the past few years. Change is never easy, but, the proof of our success can be seen in the results and our outstanding Math test scores.

DCR1 Area of Academic Strength: Social Studies

DCR1 Area of Academic Focus: English/Language Arts

DCR1 Area of Academic Strength: ScienceWhile the MAP test is given in

every grade level from grade three to grade eight in Mathematics and English/Communication Arts, the MAP test is only given in Science in grades five and eight and in high school at the completion of Biology

1. Our students excel in the grade 8 and Biology 1 examinations.

On the 8th grade Science MAP test given last spring, 59.8% of the students at Buffalo Prairie Middle School were Proficient or Ad-vanced, which is 9% higher than the

average for the state of Missouri. Our 8th grade students were also finished 6th out of the 14 schools in the Central Ozarks Conference. The Science MAP test standards are also aligned with national standards and we know that our student per-

formance is on the 68th percentile nationally on the 8th grade level.

On the high school level, the end of course examination in Biology 1 shows that 78.8% of our students were Proficient or Advanced, which is 4.1% higher than the state aver-

age. The Biology 1 examination is also an example of significant growth. Since 2010, Buffalo High School has seen a 32.9% increase in the number of students Profi-cient or Advanced on the Biology 1 examination.

Social Studies is often an area that doesn’t get much attention. Since the passage of “No Child Left Behind” in 2002, much of the national and state focus has been on Mathematics and Reading. The state MAP examination only test Social Studies areas

twice in a stu-

dent’s academic career, once at the end of their American History course in high school and once at the end of their high school Government course. From these Ameri-can History and Government tests, we can make some comparison about our stu-dent’s performance in Social Studies as compared to the state and local averages.

Our strongest area of per-formance in Social Studies is on the American History end of course exam. On the MAP

test taken last spring at Buf-falo High School, 61% of our students were Profi-cient or Advanced in Ameri-

can History, which is 14.1% above the Missouri state aver-age and above average in the Central Ozarks Conference.

We still have strong per-formance on the Government MAP exam, but we still fall just slightly below the state average. We can celebrate the great growth we’ve seen in this area over the past years. For example, this past year 49.6% of our students at Buffalo High School were Proficient or Advanced on the Government exam, but just in the last three years on the test we’ve seen a 24.3% increase in the number of students Proficient or Advanced!

Dallas County R 1 Schools Fall Report

www.BisonPride.org

Keep Informed About Your DCR1 Schools Dallas County R-I Schools Central Office 345-2222

Buffalo High School 345-2223Dallas County Technical Center 752-3491Buffalo Prairie Middle School 345-2335Dillard A. Mallory Elementary 345-2350

Long Lane Elementary 345-6897Bus Barn/Transportation 345-2899

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Comparison Of Expenditures VS RevenuesDeclining revenues and increasing ex-

penditures have reached the point in the last couple of years of resulting in deficit budgets. A deficit budget means that the District is spending more than the amount of revenue received for that year.

The deficit budget in 2012-13 was $300,000 ($16,316,252 in Revenue VS

$17,154,031 in Expenditures). The deficit budget projected for 2013-14 is $1,300,000. The larger projected deficit this year is a result of $500,000 less in revenue than received last year and $500,000 additional expenditures ($16,316,252 in Revenue VS $17,661,150 in Expenditures).

The good news is that the District has

worked hard to build reserves over the past four years in preparation for deficit budgets, so the funds are there to cover last year and this year’s deficit. However, the District can only deficit spend for a short time. Thus, plans for either increasing revenue or cuts to expenditures must be developed in order to balance future budgets.

The School Board is currently consider-ing an increased levy to the District in the near future. Options for an Operational Levy Increase and/or Bond Issue are currently under consideration. More information to come regarding the specifics of these in-creases to the local tax levy will be provided to the public soon.

While our performance in English/Language Arts is not bad, it’s not good either. To be candid, in most grade levels in English/Language Arts we’re slightly below state averages, but, we’re also above the national av-erages in all grade levels in English/Language Arts. For example on the 2013 4th grade MAP English/Language Arts test our stu-dents finished at the 65th percentile on the national average, but we were 4% below the state average of the percentage of students performing at the Proficient and Advanced level.

While we’ve seen signifi-cant growth in most content

areas over the past four years, our performance in English/Language Arts has been stagnant. For this rea-son, this school year we’re placing a special focus on English/Language Arts and how we can improve in-struction and performance in this area for the upcom-ing school year. As we’ve done in the past when we’ve s t r u g - gled, we’ll be

visiting high-

ly successful schools in the area to “steal” great ideas. After careful consideration, we’ll develop a plan by the end of the year that may in-volve changing the current program of study and the way we teach and monitor student abilities in English/Communication Arts. We hope that in future years we’ll be able to celebrate improved performance in this area. With the great team we have of students, families, teachers, adminis-trators, and school staff we know we can face this chal-lenge and improve student learning and skills in the future in English/Language Arts.