Property Taxes

There has been some confusion about property taxes over the last 5 years.  The only changes to property taxes that the school board has had an impact on occurred when voters passed the bond to fund new schools and seismic improvements to existing schools.  We had 3000 additional students last year in the district.  That is enough for 100 additional classrooms.  How could the district handle this increase without the additional schools provided by the bond?

Rob Smith made the following statement in a personal email.

Page 70 of the budget document shows what has happened since 1983.  Tax rate in 1983 was .008550.  Tax rate in 2012 is .008842.  In the last 5 years, the tax rate has gone from .007057 to .008842, which is a 25% increase in tax rate.  

Why did this occur?  Three reasons: 
1) Assessed value dropped from $18,021,423,319 to $15,360,073,341 or 17% decrease in assessed value - this pushes up the rate through the certified tax setting process to yield the same dollars as prior year; 
2) Tax rate for debt service (Voter approved) increased from .002638 to .003350 or 26% (9% net when adjusted for the decrease in assessed value listed in #1 above); and 
3) The legislature increased the basic tax rate charged by all school districts from .001250 to .001665, or a 33% increase in rate.

Student Proficiency

I am really impressed with the improvement in student proficiency that has happened in the district during the last few years.  I think that the teachers are committed to continual improvement and the students are responding to their enthusiasm.  In summary, when comparing the number of students who scored proficient in 2004 as compared to 2012

9,044 more students reached proficiency in science

3,808 more students reached proficiency in math

4,692 more students reached proficiency in language arts

Zealotry threatens public schools

I was impressed by this article by state school board member Leslie B. Castle.  Public education is essential to our progress as a state and the Utah Core Standards are a well thought out approach to improving the opportunities our children will have available to them.

STEM Funding

I am not sure about the source of this funding, but I think it is important to recruit and retain great STEM teachers.

Alpine School District Student Achievement

I recently figured out how to find the raw achievement data for students in Alpine District.  It is impressive to see continual improvement in CRT and ACT scores since 2004.  You can find it by accessing the main ASD page at:
http://alpineschools.org/

Then Departments/Research & evaluation/assessment data
http://alpineschools.org/research-evaluation/crt-criterion-referenced-test/crt-junior-high-2004-2011-2


I am particularly impressed by the decrease in the number of students who get 1s and 2s on the CRT in Jr High in this graph.  The years are hard to read, but they go from 2004 to the present.

Early Math

This study concluded that success with division and fractions predicts future success in math.  I think that it is really important to learn efficient algorithms so students can be confident in these topics.

Class Size

I thought this article provided some good data on the relationship between class size and outcomes.  It is particularly important to keep class sizes small in k-3.  I find it interesting that the student ration nationally is around 16 students per teacher.  Some states legislate a cap near this point.