The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

An increase in student enrollment, bringing back the baseball program and budget stabilization figures were all topics of Fleming’s Superintendent Steve McCracken’s report to members of the Frenchman Board of Education in a mid-October meeting.

According to McCracken, over the past 13 years, Fleming Schools has lost $3,483,369 due to budget stabilization. Those numbers, he said, were recently released from the Colorado School Finance Project.

“The State of Colorado has not fully funded education for the past 13 years. The Colorado Department of Education and State legislators have created a very complicated formula for funding schools,” McCracken said. “This formula includes a number of factors including but not limited to school size, free and reduced populations and geographic location.”

The State of Colorado, he explained, does not generate enough revenue to fund this formula and public education and so, law makers determine how much they fund education based on revenues generated and not the per student funding formula.

“Imagine what all schools in Colorado would be like if they fully funded education!,” McCracken added.

To kick off his report during the regular October monthly meeting, McCracken said Fleming’s official Oct. 1 count totaled 217 students. That number is an increase of 24 students from the previous year.

Each year all public school districts and facilities across the State participate in the student October count data submission to the Colorado Department of Education. According to the CDE, the purpose of this data collection is to obtain required student level data as provided for by State statute, including information regarding students’ funding eligibility as outlined in the Public School Finance Act.

The student October count is based on a one-day membership count in which districts are asked to report all students who are actively enrolled and attending classes through their district on that date, which typically is Oct. 1.

With the increase in student numbers also comes an increase in athletes interested in playing baseball this spring. For the past few years, the Fleming District has not had enough interest to field an entire team, therefore students who were interested in playing baseball did so with the Caliche Buffs.

This year, McCracken said 22 students are interested in playing baseball, including three from Lone Star, therefore Fleming will bring back it’s baseball team this spring for the first time in several years.

At the start of the meeting, several teachers gave their annual report to board members, including Brittany Peirce, who is in her first year at Fleming. Peirce is the new Title I teacher and is working to build a reading program that will lay a foundation for students to become better readers. Peirce thanked the Board for the opportunity to teach in Fleming this year.

Kindergarten teacher Cindy Johnson also spoke to board members. She said she has 18 students in her room this year and expressed her appreciation to the Board for hiring a classroom aide to assist student while they are learning.

Discussion with Johnson also centered around classroom size limits for elementary classes. Currently, classroom limit is 17 students. Johnson said she thinks 15 would be an appropriate limit.

In other business:

• Principal Kortney Firme said sixth graders will take the CogAT test in the near future. The results of the test, she said, will be used as one data point for determining if students qualify for Gifted and Talented;

• Board members approved Jessica Burt as a substitute;

• The Board approved overnight/out-of-state travel for the National FFA Convention, State volleyball, State football and for the football team to travel to Chadron, Neb.;

• The local BOE approved a 2021-22 school calendar change for a conference in February;

• Approved employment for Allison Johnson, who now works in the School kitchen.