Evanston Township High School District 202 school board members Monday night unanimously approved its $55.6 million 2000-01 budget, putting funds in place for the district’s fifth consecutive staff enlargement in response to higher enrollment.
The 6.3-percent increase from the 1999-2000 budget also reflects rising staff salaries and property values, said Jeff Taggart, the district’s business manager. The district’s three largest funds — education, operation and transportation — also increased. About 67 percent of the budget is earmarked for staff salaries and benefits.
The board’s swift decision followed several months of work and discussion, Taggart said. An earlier draft of the district’s balanced budget was unveiled in July.
Monday’s board meeting also fostered an hourlong debate on implementing goals toward improving student achievement.
After reading a memo from Superintendent Allan Alson outlining objectives for improving curriculum and instruction, board members discussed the district’s direction for the school year, including what the board could do to help students whose test scores pegged them as low-achievers move up to more difficult levels within subjects.
“It’s one thing to measure movement and another to decide what is a satisfactory destination,” Alson said.
Added board President Elizabeth Tisdahl: “Movement is very critical data. Does whatever you did in eighth grade absolutely freeze you in high school?”
Matthew Lewis, the board’s student representative and an ETHS senior, asked the board how standardized tests and assignments fit into its desire to maintain high departmental standards.
“We’re tested a lot already,” he said.
Asst. Superintendent Laura Cooper said the goal did not necessarily involve more tests, but rather finding a more effective means of testing.
But board member Mary Wilkerson said she was worried that students who don’t plan to attend college might receive less attention than those who are planning to attend.
Alson said the school integrated its career and college counseling offices last year to help avoid such a problem.
Alson also mentioned in his memo the need for timeliness in setting and achieving these goals. To better align the process with the start of the school year, he said he plans to collect goal proposals each spring for the following year.
The success of the district’s plan will be assessed through a variety of data such as ACT and Advanced Placement test scores, graduation rates, and college application and acceptance rates.
The board will vote to authorize the district’s objectives Oct. 10.
“Our goal is a focused, streamlined set of goals,” Alson said.
