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Orion PTA invited area residents to come to a meeting on Wednesday, March 31, and brainstorm ideas for reducing expenses or bringing in more revenue.
“The meeting was a success, and we hope these ideas help others to brainstorm and create even more,” said co-president Natalie Farwell. “All we can do from here is give these to the administrators and the Board of Education and hope they can do some of these items.”
Below are the suggestions made at the meeting, with comments explaining or supporting the ideas. These came from small groups, and the comments were not attributed to individuals.
Additional suggestions for the district as a whole are in another story.
C.R. Hanna Elementary
1. Reduce papers in the Friday folder. Use e-mail to send information to parents. Give the papers to the youngest child in a family.
Comment: PTA could help with this. The school would save on paper costs and copy machine maintenance and supplies.
2. Increase registration fees by $25. With 500 students, that would produce $12,500.
Comment: Compared to the cost of pre-school classes or daymare programs, C.R. Hanna fees are inexpensive.
3. Charge tuition for the pre-kindergarten class.
Comment: Parents would be willing to pay tuition, even if the district had the funds for the program.
4. Cut assemblies, or have free assemblies with local people, or ask businesses to sponsor assemblies.
Comment: Lots of local artists, businesses and groups would put on assemblies at little or no cost.
5. Develop a list of volunteers who could fill in when aides are sick.
Comment: Aides are paid when they use a sick day, and subs are paid for covering their duties. Rather than paying double for one day, the district could call on volunteers the PTA would help recruit.
6. Have parents provide more of the supplies students need, or charge a fee for special supplies such as writing books for second graders.
Comment: Parents are more than willing to pay for extra things or to provide them.
7. Use the district’s reserve funds to pay the salaries of physical education teachers Chris Zentic and Reggie Larson for two years.
Comment: Two PE teachers will retire in 2012, allowing the district to put Zentic and Larson back on the payroll.
C.R. Hanna parents are concerned about losing the two young men, the only male teachers at the school. Parents say they are wonderful role models.
Orion Middle School
1. Use reserves to pay the band and choir directors for three-quarter positions.
Orion PTA invited area residents to come to a meeting on Wednesday, March 31, and brainstorm ideas for reducing expenses or bringing in more revenue.
“The meeting was a success, and we hope these ideas help others to brainstorm and create even more,” said co-president Natalie Farwell. “All we can do from here is give these to the administrators and the Board of Education and hope they can do some of these items.”
Below are the suggestions made at the meeting, with comments explaining or supporting the ideas. These came from small groups, and the comments were not attributed to individuals.
Additional suggestions for the district as a whole are in another story.
C.R. Hanna Elementary
1. Reduce papers in the Friday folder. Use e-mail to send information to parents. Give the papers to the youngest child in a family.
Comment: PTA could help with this. The school would save on paper costs and copy machine maintenance and supplies.
2. Increase registration fees by $25. With 500 students, that would produce $12,500.
Comment: Compared to the cost of pre-school classes or daymare programs, C.R. Hanna fees are inexpensive.
3. Charge tuition for the pre-kindergarten class.
Comment: Parents would be willing to pay tuition, even if the district had the funds for the program.
4. Cut assemblies, or have free assemblies with local people, or ask businesses to sponsor assemblies.
Comment: Lots of local artists, businesses and groups would put on assemblies at little or no cost.
5. Develop a list of volunteers who could fill in when aides are sick.
Comment: Aides are paid when they use a sick day, and subs are paid for covering their duties. Rather than paying double for one day, the district could call on volunteers the PTA would help recruit.
6. Have parents provide more of the supplies students need, or charge a fee for special supplies such as writing books for second graders.
Comment: Parents are more than willing to pay for extra things or to provide them.
7. Use the district’s reserve funds to pay the salaries of physical education teachers Chris Zentic and Reggie Larson for two years.
Comment: Two PE teachers will retire in 2012, allowing the district to put Zentic and Larson back on the payroll.
C.R. Hanna parents are concerned about losing the two young men, the only male teachers at the school. Parents say they are wonderful role models.
Orion Middle School
1. Use reserves to pay the band and choir directors for three-quarter positions.
Comment: Parents are concerned that band director Josh Youngs and choir director Andrea Kapusinski have been reduced to half-time.
They divide their time between OMS and Orion High School, and people were concerned the quality of music education at both schools would suffer.
2. If school-sponsored teams were too expensive, OMS could organize intramural teams, or boys and girls could participate in club programs.
Comment: Students would experience interscholastic sports in high school.
3. Hire a company to provide the food for lunches, and use volunteers or a few paid employees to serve them.
Comment: This would save cost of kitchen personnel.
4. Use silverware and plates that could be washed and used again.
Comment: Right now the school uses paper products that are thrown away. Only the trays are reusable.
5. Share an athletic director with OHS.
Comment: An athletic director would not be needed at all if OMS had an intramurals program.
Orion High School
1. Keep all freshman sports, but schedule freshman and junior varsity games on the same night.
Editor's note: This is already done.
2. Before eliminating sports, see if OHS can co-op with other schools.
3. Charge fees for driver’s ed and career-technical classes.
Comment: If OHS charges the same fee for driver’s ed as private programs charge, $300, the school would receive $27,000 from 90 students. A $100 fee for career and technical classes would bring in $5,000 from 50 students.
4. Revise the schedule to create larger class sizes. For example, stop offering core classes at the same time as elective classes. Stop offering required classes at the same time as other required classes.
Comment: When elective courses compete with core subjects needed for graduation, the result is small class sizes for electives.
A lot of required classes are offered at the same time, and because of
scheduling conflicts some classes may have only eight to 10 students.
OHS could generate more revenue by offering more classes for which it charges fees.
5. Find a way to have Cindy Willard available as a counselor all day.
Comment: People are concerned about reducing the time that she is available to students who are hurting.
6. Hire a company to provide lunch service, and use volunteers or a few paid employees to serve them.
Comment: This would save cost of kitchen personnel.
7. Use silverware and plates that could be washed and used again.
Comment: Right now the school uses paper products that are thrown away. Only the trays are reusable.
