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Showing posts from February, 2009

Money Spent On Special Education

At the recent candidate forum Patti Buie stated that the Lee's Summit School District spends $3 on every special education student for every $1 they spend on regular education students. I wanted to address that, but I didn't have my facts. Last year, when I ran for school board, they gave Micheal Mahoney some figures. It didn't add up. He did his math wrong on the first airing, but they corrected it on the second airing. Also, we are trying to get an audit of the district. It takes 5,000 signatures. http://www.truveo.com/Mom-Of-Autistic-Boy-Runs-Special-Campaign/id/2960772320 According to the district, there are 17,000 students enrolled. 1,900 are special needs students. Their budget is $200,000,000. They spend $15,000,000 on special needs. According to Texas Instruments, Their special needs students represent 11% of their enrollment. They spend 7.5% of their budget on special needs. And let's not forget that they get extra money from the federal governm

The REAL Facts and Figures

Sherri Tucker for School Board Spending Our tax levy is one of the highest in the metro area, yet we spend among the least on our students. Our children can learn in any building. During the last election one of the present school board members said that he would hold up our facilities to any of those in Johnson County. I didn ’t move to Lee’s Summit to compete with Johnson County. I moved here because the schools were supposed to be among the best that the metro had to offer. Here is an article from the Lee’s Summit R-VII newsletter: The Kansas City Business Journal recently featured a listing of the top 25 school districts based on enrollments. The information including budget and employee statistics appeared in an October 2008 issue of the publication. Lee’s Summit R-7 ranked seventh in the metropolitan area in terms of total enrollment among the 25 districts selected for the newspaper edition. The R-7 School District’s total enrollment for this school year is 17,137. The six distr

Local District's Cost Per Student Was Lowest Of Those Featured

Our tax levy is the highest in the metropolitan area and we spend among the least on our students. But, don't worry. We have a $12 million aquatic center and a state of the art Board Room. This was in the R-7 newsletter that was sent out to those in the district. They are proud of how little they spend on our kids. The Kansas City Business Journal recently featured a listing of the top 25 metropolitan-area school districts based on enrollments. The information including budget and and employee statistiecs, appeared in an October 2008 issue of the publication. Lee's Summit R-7 ranked seventh in the metropolitan area in terms of total enrollment among the 25 districts selected for the newspaper edition. The R-7 School District's total enrollment for this school year to 17,137. The six districts in the metro area with higher enrollments are Shawnee Mission, Kan.; Olathe, Kan.; Kansas City, MO; Blue Valley, Kan.; Kansas City, Kan.; and North Kansas City. The Business Jour

Senate Bill 175

SB 175 Requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to produce "The Parents' Bill of Rights" for parents of children with an individualized education program Sponsor: Schmitt LR Number: 0939S.02I Fiscal Note: 0939-02 Committee: Education Last Action: 2/11/2009 - Hearing Conducted S Education Committee Journal Page: Title: Calendar Position: Effective Date: August 28, 2009 Current Bill Summary SB 175 – This act requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to produce "The Parents' Bill of Rights," to inform parents of children with an individualized education program of their educational rights under federal and state law by January 1, 2010. The publication must contain ten points of information, which are described in the act. Each school district must provide a copy of "The Parents' Bill of Rights" at least ten days prior to the IEP meeting to the parent or parents of a child with an IEP. At the meeting, the pa