District sharing agreements to be discussed at state convention

BY XIOMARA LEVSEN

Golden Triangle News Service

WASHINGTON ? Washington and WACO school districts? experiences with sharing a superintendent, maintenance director and transportation director will be discussed at the Iowa Association of School Boards convention in November.

A survey was sent last fall to superintendents and school board members across the state last year about what topics they were interested in, said superintendent Jeff Dicks. He wrote down operational sharing agreements and superintendent sharing because it?s becoming more common across the state. Larger school districts, such as Ballard, Nevada and Webster City, that are 3A like Washington, have gone to sharing a superintendent because of the financial incentives they receive.

Currently, each student enrolled in your district equals $6,500 of state funding, Dicks said. If your school district has an operational sharing agreement with another district the state will give you funding equaled to a student being enrolled. Districts can have funding up to 21 students for operational sharing agreements. For superintendents, it?s eight students, transportation and maintenance director it?s five; and so on.

This is one thing Dicks will discuss during his presentation.

?If you?re experiencing an enrollment decrease when there [is] low funding,? Dicks said, ?you either start trimming ? which none of them like to do because that is hard ? or you raise revenue, and this is a way to raise revenue.?

He will also discuss what a district should consider when looking at operational sharing agreements.

?Ours is a work in progress of how to make this a success. I think the superintendent one is kind of a key piece because if you?re doing others then they can help see the picture from both sides, which in the past we haven?t had,? Dicks said.

Washington School board president Eric Turner will also speak about his experiences personally from operational sharing agreements.

?We?ve had some type of [operational] sharing agreement since I?ve been on the board or shortly after,? Turner said. ?Financially it just makes sense.?

Sharing agreements also allow neighboring districts to share things with each other and provide the staff and resources that they may not otherwise have been able to because they have to make budget cuts from declining enrollment and declining state funding, he added.

WACO Board of Education president Tim Graber said his district has also had operational sharing agreements since he was elected 11 years ago. However, WACO hasn?t had a full-time superintendent for seven years.

?Our main goal is saving money financially,? Graber said. ?This is money we can give back to the teachers and is best for our kids and taxpayers.?

Graber has a couple of things he will tell districts who are considering having sharing agreements when he speaks in November.

?I will tell them not to be afraid of not having a superintendent in the office fulltime,? Graber said. ?You get along. You become more efficient and learn not everything has to come across his desk.?

He will also discuss how technology has helped with communication and shared personnel.

?Technology helps even more than it did five or six years ago,? Graber said. ?If we have a question we can text, email him or call him on his cellphone.?

The small distance between the two districts also helps.

?With Mr. Dicks being in close proximity, if there is something we need he can buzz down here,? Graber added.

Dicks can also attend meetings and represent Washington and WACO at the same time, which is more efficient, Graber said.