By Patrick Baron
PONTIAC – Pontiac School District 429 is crafting its budget for the next fiscal year while keeping teachers coordinated in the curriculum taught between grades.
A recent guest on the Community Forum, Superintendent Brian Dukes told WJEZ’s Todd Wineburner the district is making sure teachers know what their colleagues are teaching students in the grades immediately above and below their own. Dukes said staff members are able to look through curriculums so they can be on the same page as the students.
“We’ve been very open with all of our staff to have access to those documents, just so people can be aware of what’s going on,” said Dukes. “We can’t always be in the same room together so it at least gives us an opportunity to answer some questions when we are able to get face-to-face.”
Dukes noted having those documents makes it easier for the teachers to determine how classes will be taught throughout the year, since they know what coursework the students completed the year before.
Discussing the budget, Dukes said while the district has an estimate on how much state funding will be received for the next school year, it makes it more difficult to plan accordingly until the exact number is provided.
“We kind of have a baseline number of what we anticipate it to be, but again it’s frustrating when you don’t know what the exact number is as we’ve been planning over the couple of weeks, and obviously as we get into July we’ll have to make adjustments as we build our budget for this upcoming fiscal year,” Dukes explained.
Dukes also reminded parents there is still time to get their kids registered for classes in the upcoming school year. He said registration and payments can be completed online.
“We really need the parents to make sure to register their kids so we can get them on the class lists,” said Dukes. “We’re kind of on the end phase of that in making sure we have class lists for next school year. Obviously registration fees can be all paid online with no convenience charge, so we’re trying to make it as convenient as possible for our parents.”
Patrick Baron can be reached at patrick.baron@cumulus.com.
