Kenosha Unified is taking a hard look at a possible referendum question
Kenosha Unified is taking a hard look at a possible referendum question on the Feb. 18 ballot to help fund school security upgrades and increase teacher preparation time.
A district Committee of the Whole reviewed potential costs for both this past week ahead of the full KUSD School Board meeting set Tuesday
Security upgrades — including installing controlled entrances at district attendance centers which do not yet have them, updating cameras, replacing exterior doors, installing shatter-resistant window film, and adding more card readers — could total more than $13 million to implement.
KUSD Facilities Director Pat Finnemore said the cost of the controlled entrances alone is estimated at $12.5 million. Updating security hardware, such as cameras, is estimated to cost $100,000 and upgrading the security DVR, plus a potential software lease, is estimated to cost $350,000.
Controlled entrances prevent visitors from gaining access to the school without bypassing the attendance or main office. Visitors are granted access to the vestibule and a locked set of second doors prevents entry to the rest of the school. Visitors must check-in at the office and provide an ID, which is run through the Raptor system and checked to see if the individual is a sex offender.
Various funding sources have been used in the past to add controlled entrances at a number of KUSD schools, including referendums, school safety grants, and funds from district's major maintenance budget.
The work to create a controlled entrance would involve more than just adding another set of doors.
"With each of the projects, they're fairly involved," Finnemore said.
Major remodeling may be involved as main building offices in many schools are not by the front door, but rather are often in the middle of the schools, and, as Finnemore said during Tuesday's meeting, there could be some abatement work involved too.
Prep time
Chief Information Officer Kris Keckler said prep time is non-instructional time worked in around student contact time, in which a teacher is not providing direct instructional services. Student contact time includes periods that a school offers instructional services to all of its students, from start to end of each instructional day.
Adding teacher prep time equitably across all schools is estimated to cost $4,326,500.
For elementary teachers additional non-instructional time could be made available by offering a dedicated library special period during the week, which would boost their weekly non-instructional time from 586 minutes, or 9 hours 46 minutes, to 631 minutes, or 10 hours 31 minutes. That would cost the district an estimated $910,000 in additional time paid for its elementary teaching staff.
"It's not new for them to go to the library," Keckler said. "That still applies to their curriculum and their instruction, but this would grant a fourth dedicated specials (sessions focused on art, music, gym and library activities)."
Additional prep time for high school teachers could boost their weekly non-instructional time from 474 minutes, or seven hours and 54 minutes, to 719 minutes, or 11 hours 59 minutes. That would cost an estimated $3.4 million involving 31 full-time teachers and two full-time educational support professionals.
"This is our 'if we are going to do this right now (scenario),' this is what that assumption would be," Keckler said.
There are no proposed changes to middle school prep periods.
Committee members expressed concerns, asking if teachers would actually get to use any additional time for themselves, or if they would be expected to pick up additional tasks, such as substituting in other classes.
"Are you considering bringing back building subs or something like that to protect the prep time?" committee member Karen Kempinen asked. "Because if this prep time was (planned) on paper, but in reality educators were forced to sub, then it's really not going to have the impact that is intended or necessary."
Tuesday's School Board meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the John J. Hosmanek Educational Support Center, 3600 52nd St.
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