What will Happen with our Education Budget?

What happens with our budget in education will not have the results most of us want unless we ALL speak up. Please let our legislators and the Governor know your opinions about the proposed 10%, or any, budget cuts to education in South Dakota. I have contacted them and I am asking you to do the same.
I will not elaborate too much here except for the belief that we do not HAVE to make this budget deficit correction in our state by hurting all the people who live here. Who goes into debt over a period of time and fixes the problem in one day? I have been in debt and have WORKED my way out of that debt with a plan to do so over a period of time. I made cut backs I could live with. I continued to pay my ongoing bills, I ate, and I even enjoyed my life! Can't our legislators figure out how to make a similar plan? Don't our legislators who we elect have enough creative thinking and backbone to stand up to our governor's proposed cuts?
Come on, let's get realistic about what we can live with and make those changes without making devastating education cuts which we will suffer from for many years while losing great educators as well. In my opinion, we cannot afford to make any cuts to education if we want to be true to our children and their futures.
Please speak up and support education in South Dakota!
http://legis.state.sd.us/index.aspx

School Board Recognition Week

 

2011 Northwest Area School Board



School Board Recognition Week in South Dakota

South Dakota has designated January 10 – 14, 2011 as School Board Recognition Week. ESA 5 would like to publicly thank all of the members of Northwest Area Schools board and all members of the twenty-one school boards across our region for serving on our local Boards of Education. Thank-you for your dedication to our children and our communities.

More than 880 South Dakotans are members of a local school board. The community members who serve on our school boards are responsible for setting the vision and goals for our districts. The school boards also hire quality educators, adopt policies and evaluate progress while keeping the interest of our students first, creating schools where all children can learn and grow.

Serving on a local school board has always been more than what the public sees: meetings once or twice a month and occasional tough issues such as the school calendar, building needs, dress codes, discipline policies, technology use, teacher professional development priorities, and salary negotiations, to name a few.
But beyond that, our board members play a very real role in preparing the districts’ students for an ever-changing world. They help spread the word about the individual and collective successes of our
students and our professional staff. And this year they will face perhaps the greatest test of their leadership as we work to ensure that tight financial situations don't translate into a reduction in the quality of education we can offer.
Our communities are fortunate to have such dedicated individuals on our school boards.

South Dakota School Board Recognition Week provides a
 perfect opportunity to honor the contributions being made daily by our school board members. Please take a moment to thank our public servants who care about education by serving on our school boards.