By Greg Denecker
Bluffton school superintendent

Note: This is a portion of the superintendent's report in the recent school newsletter. The entire newsletter is in an attachment at the bottom of this story.

The 2013-2014 Local State Report Card was officially released to the public last Friday by the Ohio Department of Education for every district in the state, and we are pleased to announce that we have scored the highest ever as a school district.  

Our district performance index rating is 108.6—the highest score we have ever achieved. This rating puts our district in the top 4.75% of all districts in the state (29th out of over 600 school districts).  

CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE STATE SCORES.

CLICK HERE FOR BLUFFTON'S REPORT CARD.

With this score, our district receives an “A” from the state as our performance index, and we are designated as an “A” district overall for value-added. In addition, our district achieved 100% of the state assessment indicators for the ninth consecutive year. 

These rankings could not be achieved without the combined efforts of parents, students, staff, and the community, so please know that your support is appreciated. To view the report card, go to our website at www.blufftonschools.org. 

While we are pleased with these ratings, we, the staff at Bluffton Exempted Village Schools, will continue to strive to improve. Our goals are to give our students the best education possible and to prepare our graduates for the next stages of their lives. 

The financial report shows our general fund carry-over balance of over $2.4 million for the 2014 fiscal year.  We finished our general fund in the black on June 30th by $114,954.  We have been able to achieve financial stability due to the cost-saving measures that have been put in place over the last several years. 

In fiscal year 2007, we spent $8,307 per student to educate each child. In fiscal year 2013 (the most recent date that statewide comparison expenditure statistics are available), we spent $8,220 per student to educate each student.  This is $2,205 less than the state average of $10,445 per student in fiscal year 2013. 

As noted above, our district performs within the highest level in the state for much less money on average.  We will continue to look for ways to be fiscally responsible to you, our community, while still providing our students with an excellent
education.

Our professional development this year with our staff will focus on Formative Instructional Practices or “FIP” for short.  This professional development continues to be important to our staff as we transition to new assessments and strive to meet the learning needs of each of our students.