County superintendents discuss state challenges at forum

CAPTION: Women for Kansas co-leaders Betty Taylor (left) and Tomi Foust (holding microphone) asked questions of Reno County schools superintendents at a forum organized by the group at Hutchinson Community College Shears Technology Center on Monday, April 21. Superintendents (seated left to right) Dr. Dawn Johnson (USD308), Curtis Nightingale (USD309), Craig Idacavage (USD312), and Cindy Couchman (USD313).

By Kate Irelan

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At a public forum organized by Women for Kansas at Hutchinson Community College Shears Technology Center, four of the six Reno County school superintendents expressed their frustration with decisions made by Kansas State legislators, the negative impact on public schools and suggested ways to combat disinformation, advocate for public schools and hold legislators accountable. The superintendents at the forum were Dawn Johnson (USD 308), Curtis Nightingale (USD 309), Craig Ivacavage (USD 312) and Cindy Couchman (USD 313).

Question:

Betty Taylor, a co-leader with Women for Kansas, asked the panel to clarify the voucher program, special education accountability, and athletic program participation for students and parents of private schools or homeschooled children compared with public schools. 

Answers:

Nightingale said, “I would say this. If you’re a reader, there’s a book called ‘The Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door.’ I would encourage you to read that book, because it’s all about vouchers and the horrible failure in every state that has been implemented, the financial fraud and outright theft.”

“People have gone to prison over the amount of money they’ve stolen from the taxpayers in all these states, Arizona, Ohio, et cetera, et cetera,” said Nightingale. “And I would point this out. In the bill that was presented in Kansas this year, there was actually a part of the bill that directed the Department of Revenue that they were not to audit people.” He gave the example of a person claiming to have 10 children in a private school could get vouchers for all 10 children, but the Department of Revenue was restrained from auditing to determine whether any of those taxpayers were telling the truth. “That was part of the bill. Research it,” said Nightingale.

He said, “Now explain to me if they’re up front and this is honest and this is being done for the good of Kansas, why would you feel the need to put that part in that policy? Why would that be in there?”

Johnson said that there are other inequities. She said that they can take homeschool students to play in athletics, but if they have a student who transfers from USD 308 to 309, they have to be passing five classes in order to participate in sports. But if they’re in homeschool, they might not be keeping records, and they might not have five classes.

“So basically, a letter from mom is good enough to say, ‘yes, they’re passing, please allow them to play athletics,'” said Johnson. “So, again, I think we want to serve all students, right? Students are not the enemy. So if we have 10 kids who want to play football, I have to outfit them in that football uniform. There’s no money that comes with them to support.”

Couchman said that it was true that private schools don’t have to accept special education students, but if they do, public schools still send people over to service the Individualized Education Program (IEP) for the student. And, their federal funds title money goes to private schools.

“By law, we have to service Title I students enrolled in a private school, and they get Title II-A money, which is professional development,” said Couchman. “We actually do get some money for them, but it’s not a full-time student equivalency (FTE) funding for them. It’s just the weighted portion of the FTE.”

She said there is a lot of work they do with private schools, and yet they’re not meeting the same accountability. “That’s where it gets frustrating to me,” said Couchman. “I would have a lot less problem with all of this if the standards were the same and we were all playing on the same ball field. But it feels like they’re playing on artificial turf, and we have a non-seeded football field, because they’re getting to run a lot faster than us by not having to meet any of the qualifications. Their teachers don’t have to be certified. We have to be certified.”

She said that private school teachers don’t have to take Letters Training, which is a mandated phonics reading training program for public school teachers to get a license. “There’s so many things I could go on and on about, but they don’t have to meet that,” said Couchman.  

Question:
An audience member asked for clarification about public schools receiving funding for serving a special education student at a private school. 

Answers:
Couchman said a student who attends school full-time is considered one FTE and that the base aid per pupil next year is $5,611. “It keeps changing,” said Couchman. “It’s a moving target right now.” She said that currently a homeschool parent does not get that funding because the voucher bill was defeated this year. “But it will be back every single year, which is a dangerous game to play,” said Couchman. “They tell us that they have no money to spend on state education. Well, now they’re going to fund all of these kids that are enrolled in a private school or homeschooled out there. So think of how many thousands of kids right now that you’d have to now add to their budget. And so that’s why one of the reasons the vouchers fail in every state they’ve done it is because all of a sudden kids appear out of nowhere are getting funded, that they’ve not written into their budget.”

Nightingale said that he thinks the disconnect is that people think each district is funded for all the kids that live there, and public schools are only funded for the kids that show up at the school building. They do a student count on a specific day and if a child is absent, they don’t get to count the child and public schools are not funded for all of the homeschool or private school students. He said that these students are not on the state budget books anywhere.

Question:
A member of the audience asked the panel what those who want to reach out and advocate for public schools might be missing.

Answer:
Idacavage said that the schools in Reno County are producing a really good product and parents don’t see the people doing the hard work to keep things going in spite of budget cuts. He said that advocates need to get people educated enough to know that legislators aren’t holding their end of the bargain and what our representatives are doing and how their votes are negatively impacting their own kids. “When it comes to public education, as I said, they’re extremely disconnected and they will continue to vote down party lines and not talk to us,” said Idacavage. “And we as school systems do a really good job of protecting the kids.”

Couchman said she thinks they need to do a better job by running “to the roar” and meeting those groups that are not supportive of public education, and ask to talk with their group and actively listen, and also share the public schools’ stories. “We tend to stand in our echo box, because it’s easier to have these opinions in groups that agree with you,” said Couchman. “I’m opening to hearing feedback, but it needs to be a two-way conversation. And, that’s something maybe that we could do a better job of.”

Nightingale said that he would encourage people to know who their local representatives are and how they’re voting for and against public schools. He said that the State Board of Education almost eliminated Parents as Teachers at the state board meeting this month, and that would have made a real impact on what the local schools do on a daily basis. “That’s people who live in our community,” said Nightingale, “Take them to task on how they vote. If you see they voted no on something like that, if you reach out as their representative populace and you say, “Hey, what are you doing? Explain this to me.” Because if they can’t say more than what we were told to do that by the party, they better have a better answer than that. If they’re asked enough times, they’re going to have to start thinking about it when they vote because they know they’re coming back and they’re going to face you again.” 

Question:

Taylor asked about upcoming school board elections in November, how many positions are open and what they feel makes a good school board member. 

Answers:

Johnson said that 308 will have three at-large positions open, and they don’t run it by district boundaries. She said, “We have probably 10 different committees that the board can serve on. So it’s not just for an hour twice a month. There’s lots of opportunities that sometimes I think is more than probably they were thinking when they first ran. But I think it really informs and helps them understand the 365 days a year where we’re serving kids.”

Nightingale said that Nickerson is unique with five open positions this fall. He said that two board members retired, one had to resign and they had to have several appointees serve on the board, and by state law, an appointee then has to run in the next election cycle. He hopes that the appointees will run for their seats. 

Nightingale said that what he thinks makes a good board member is someone who is open-minded and has a willingness to learn. “Because I think a lot of people, I know before I got into education, I thought I knew. Because I’ve gone to school, I know what schools do. And then you get in and find out that’s not even close to what’s going on. But also, I think they have to have a passion for learning and a passion for education,” said Nightingale.

Idacavage said that Haven (312) is similar to Nickerson school district and they have four positions open, one had to step down and one is an appointee. He said, “I’m very fortunate to have the seven board members that will come and ask questions and make sure we have enough information for them and understand that we’ve got a lot of really good employees, that we’ve been hired to do jobs and allow us to do those things. And so for me, that’s been really positive is trust in the people that they’ve hired and then also open and be able to communicate, not just with us, but people within the district.” 

Couchman said that they have three open positions and they are losing long-time board members and a lot of experience. She said that no one has filed yet, and the deadline is early June. She encourages anyone interested in any of the positions to apply. Couchman said, “I think being involved at the board level, it is one of the few not-paid positions that you run for office for. It is nonpolitical, and we like to keep it that way.”

For information on how to file to be a potential candidate for your district school board, visit the Reno County Election website.

CAPTION: Women for Kansas co-leaders Betty Taylor (left) and Tomi Foust (holding microphone) asked questions of Reno County schools superintendents at a forum organized by the group at Hutchinson Community College Shears Technology Center on Monday, April 21. Superintendents (seated left to right) Dr.