On October 30, 2018 at 7:00PM the New Richmond Schools Administration and Board of Education held a community engagement session in the Middle School cafeteria, facilitated by Greg Otis, AIA of Elevar Design Group. The agenda for the evening included opening remarks by Superintendent Adam Bird, presentation from Mr. Otis regarding information that had been gathered through the first phase of the study, and interactive table discussion by those gathered.

Mr. Otis stated that members of the community asked in earlier sessions that the School District share financial information regarding school operations. Mr. Otis stated that the District Treasurer had developed and presented to the Board of Education a 5-year projection of revenue and spending at the October Board meeting. Mr. Bird stated that the 5-year projection report was available on the District’s website for anyone to review. The report indicates the District currently operates at a deficit and will exhaust cash reserves in 2 years.

Mr. Otis presented the results of earlier meetings with the District Administration and staff members from each of the District’s five schools. These results were blended with comments gathered during the three community information sessions held at each of the elementary schools. The results of these meetings showed positive alignment with the community’s observations regarding strengths of the District, as well as areas the community sees opportunities for improvement.

Following discussion, Mr. Otis asked the 60+ gathered to arrange themselves into tables of five or more and answer two questions as table work groups:

1. What is the problem the District needs to solve?
2. What way or ways are available to solve that problem?

Following intense conversation, each of eight workgroups were asked to document the results of their deliberation and present them back to the whole group. The following is a list of those answers presented:

1. What is the problem the District needs to solve:
a. The problem is financial due to lost or decreasing revenue.
b. The community needs to be educated to the fiscal realities facing the district.
c. There is an urgency to bringing the District into a balanced operating model before savings are exhausted to maintain excellence in education and strong athletic and extracurricular programs.

2. What ways are available to solve these problems:
a. The District must increase revenue through tax levy
b. Petition the state for funding support
c. Earn higher interest income on saving
d. Seek grants
e. Establish boosters
f. Grow the local economy attracting new businesses and families to increase the tax base.

Other ideas presented: 
a. To reduce expenses the District can consolidate operations into fewer facilities
b. Sell the Market Street Building and other unnecessary assets
c. Reduce staff
d. Reduce transportation
e. Reduce to 4-day weeks
f. Study spending for saving opportunities
g. Study whether open enrollment helps or hurts the District financially
h. Cut programs
i. Implement a “pay-to-play” funding program.

Generally, there was an expressed concern that the community does not understand the situation facing the District in order to make informed decisions. Suggestions include using a portion of these public sessions for information sharing, keeping up the newsletter and emails, forming a “Citizens of NR for Education” to share information in all corners of the District. Some information that was requested inquired about current class sizes, and spending per student as compared to others districts.

The next community meeting will be held November 14th in the Middle School cafeteria at 7PM. Those gathered will engage in an exercise designed to segregate short and long-term actions the District can take to balance the operations, as well as prioritize the revenue generating and saving opportunities. All are welcome.