Delavan-Darien admits errors in high school calendar
DELAVAN — The Delavan-Darien School District admits a mistake in the high school calendar this year and last year, but neither the superintendent nor the school board is pointing any fingers.
“We have an error, we revealed it and we’re correcting it,” said Steve Carlson, school board president.
After calling off school three days because of weather, district officials thought it prudent to check their calculations and make sure they were meeting state requirements for instructional time.
The high school came up short this year and last year, and the district added 41 minutes to each school day for to make up for the shortage this year.
Superintendent Wendy Overturf said she was not involved in the creation of either calendar—this year’s or last year’s—because she joined the district July 1. She said she doesn’t know how the mistake was made.
Overturf declined to say who is responsible for the error and whether there would be consequences for that person.
“I don’t know how it came about,” she said. “But I know it’s never going to happen again.”
Although state Department of Public Instruction records indicate Delavan-Darien High School had enough hours last year, Overturf said the DPI numbers are wrong.
She said she informed the DPI that the high school had a shortage of hours this year and last year.
Patrick Gasper, communications officer for the DPI, said if the error is egregious, the state could withhold funding.
“But that would probably require an intentional disregard (for the requirements),” he said.
Gasper said it’s not often that this happens.
Delavan-Darien’s school calendar is, in part, negotiated with the teachers union, and that sets the school days. But an administrator determines how the day is divided into instructional and non-instructional periods.
Carlson said the school board depends on the administration to create a school calendar that meets state requirements. He said it’s not the board’s responsibility to do that.
“I would not know how to calculate the minutes,” he said. “We rely on the people we hire to do their job.”
Overturf agreed.
“It’s up to the administration to have that pre-planned,” she said.
The school board will discuss the issue at its meeting Monday.
Mar 10, 2008 at 9:14 a.m.
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If it like most school districts..the calendar was likely yet another administrative job dumped into the lap of a busy secretary...
Mar 9, 2008 at 8:01 p.m.
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I retracted that statement,. What I meant to say was, that according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (2008), Delavan high school has a drop out rate that is double that of other districts such as Janesville, Milton, Edgerton, ect.
Mar 9, 2008 at 7:27 p.m.
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Who care's, it's Delavan and most of these kids won't graduate anyway.
Mar 7, 2008 at 4:25 p.m.
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There was a problem.
It is being fixed.
How will deciding who to point fingers at make any difference?
Life is not like the movie "Click" where we can rewind and try to change things in the past.
Clearly, the district is being honest and up front in admitting there was an error, fixing it NOW, and moving forward to be sure something like this doesn't happen again.
Simple.
Mar 6, 2008 at 9:43 a.m.
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Time to overhaul the schedule process and bring in some oversight. Does the DPI have to approve the schedule? I think that it would be prudent for them to have someone in the department check the schedule before it is approved. The problem here is that when you set minimum standards, people automatically try to get by with the bare minimum. We constantly preach about the need for more education. If people truly believed this, they would provide our children with a few extra days of school and districts would not have problems like this or the problems caused by snow days. What a poor example to set for children.
Mar 6, 2008 at 8:44 a.m.
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I am personally impressed with the new superintendent, Dr. Overturf. I don't see how anyone can blame her for a calendar mistake made before she became superintendent. I applaud her for not pointing fingers, but for getting down to the business of solving the problem.
Mar 5, 2008 at 10:17 p.m.
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The School Board president says it's not the board's fault. The Superintendent says it's not her fault. The DPI says they didn't figure it out. Everyone says the administration goofed... but no one really will say who that is... Whatever happened to responsibility? "The Buck stops here?" Seems everybody's so busy passing the buck that they've lost track of the hours missed for 2 1/2 years by the STUDENTS!! Hopefully this issue will be discussed at an OPEN meeting? This board has a bad habit of going to closed session for inappropriate agenda items. The initial discussion of this schedule mistake was done in closed session -- and should not have been!
Mar 5, 2008 at 10:16 p.m.
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Running away from their responsibilites? Dr. Overturf and Steve Carlson are not responsible. They just aren't naming names, which is an admirable quality. When Dr. Overturf took over, schedules were set, which she states. Mr. Carlson is not trained to schedule a school calendar. Don't blame them or the entire school board when you don't know what you are talking about. Once again, the Delavan-Darien School district has to work overtime to beat the bad rap people like yourself puts on them. They stepped up to the plate, took responsibility, fixed it, and I might add, did a wonderful job making everyone aware of the changes. Keep thinking Badger and Elkhorn are perfect, DDHS will just continue to rise above it all! Go Comets!!
Mar 5, 2008 at 10:17 a.m.
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Boy, so many board members and administration folks running away from their responsibility on this issue, makes me hope that the school board gets a closer look by the voters, the next time an election occurs. After the responses given by the people directly involved, is it any wonder that the other schools in this district,like Badger, Elkhorn and others, are doing so well and Delavan is struggling on so many levels? Does anyone really believe this "just" came to someone's attention?
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