LIVE from the Red Clay Board of Education Special Meeting on WEIC

(originally posted on delawareliberal.net)

Pinned: 7:08pm:  RCCSD Board Approves the District’s WEIC Plan/Draft/Outline 4-1 with 2 not present.  More details to come once I get home

Final Update:  Apologies for the complete discombobulation of a post, but here you go.  (Apparently I need to brush up on my live-blogging skills).

If you ask me, what I saw Red Clay’s board vote on tonight was accepting a plan with no source of funding that’s going to cost a lot of money, take 7 years minimum to implement, and affect thousands of children and hundreds of educators and support staff keeping them all in uncertainty until 2022.  Keep in mind the State is $130 million short already next year, and Dover has said any financial changes will be “revenue neutral”.  If that is true, ANY cost to get the WEIC plan moving must be offset by a reduction in spending somewhere else in the gov’t. Below are the paraphrased details that I could type up as the meeting went on.  They’re disorganized, but there’s some good information in there.

The Players: CT: Catherine Thompson, Board Member.

KR: Kenny Rivera, RCCSD Board President

TA: Ted Ammann, Assistant Superintendent RCCSD

Jill Floore – RCCSD Chief Financial Officer

How will we know what the funding for WEIC is going to look like?

– Governor’s budget comes out in Jan 2016, that will provide the first look at funding changes.

What about giving the Board of Ed power to adjust operating tax like they do Tuition Tax and Debt Service tax?

– RCCSD plan includes a provision to permit local school boards to adjust operating tax rate without referendum, until a rolling property reassessment takes over.

What’s the rolling property reassessment going to look like?

– 1/3 of the properties in the district’s tax base will be assessed at a time with an undetermined amount of time to complete each phase of the reassessment and this would be a statewide rolling reassessment process managed at the County level.

What about transportation for students who choice to schools outside their feeder patterns after the lines change? By law, students have the right to remain in the program/school they are in until graduation:
– Ted Ammann, Asst. Superintendent for Red Clay: “One of the early points we thought we’d get into an argument with Christina about but we didn’t” was over how to transport choice students.  If the program is in Christina, CSD will handle transport, if in RCCSD, Red Clay handles it.

But then Ted threw in the Sterck School:  “Not unlike how its done with the Sterck School, if a student attends there a Christina bus goes to their development to pick them up.”  While that is true, Sterck School for the Deaf is a statewide program, not a district program. Tuition tax paid in the student’s residential district pays for the student to attend the program.  So if a student who lives in Red Clay goes to Sterck (in Christina), a Christina bus does pick them up but Red Clay’s taxpayers are paying for that.  So no, Mr. Ammann it is not like how it’s done with the Delaware School for the Deaf.

Another point of confusion for me came up when Christina’s special programs in the city were mentioned:

CT: If a student likes the program they’re in, they’ll have the opportunity to stay in the program. So would we see overcrowded schools in RCCSD?

KR: That would be on Christina, example: if the student is in Glasgow, they’d choose to stay in Glasgow. Paid by Christina.  So we might see undercrowding in the first few years.

CT: What about Christina’s Special Ed programs: Pyle Academy, DAP, Douglass?

TA: If we get the buildings, we will only offer programs we decide we want to offer. If Douglass program building comes to RCC, CSD wouldn’t be able to host the program there. RCCSD is in no rush to take buildings, so they may permit CSD to use the building to phase out current students.

Delaware Autism Program (DAP), like the Delaware School for the Deaf is not a Christina program, it’s statewide, meaning that tuition taxes paid in the students resident district pay for attendance.  DAP also isn’t in the city.  Christina only pays for students who live in the Christina School District to attend these programs. Sarah Pyle Academy is also tuition funded. Whichever district the student lives in is the district paying for them to go there.

Ted Ammann also stated that Red Clay, rightly so, will need to do a full assessment of the Christina city buildings to figure out what needs to be done to them to get them up (or down) to Red Clay’s specifications at a cost of 8 cents per square foot. This would also be included in the “Transition Funds” requested by Red Clay to come from the State.

Red Clay also plans to have a 1:1 technology program fully implemented by 2022, when the WEIC transition will be completed.

The idea of creating a Wilmington City “sub-district” of the Red Clay Consolidated District was brought up along with what modifications to Board representation and governance would have to be made as the transition moves forward.

Board President Kenny Rivera believes that the WEIC plan will generate the additional resources needed to move education forward in Delaware.

As I said above, the Board approved a plan with very little detail to it and no clear picture of costs associated with it, on the premises that “the State will give us the money” and it’ll be figured out by July 2016.

Merv Daughtery, Red Clay’s Superintendent said if July 2016 gets here and there’s no funding, then there’s no plan.

——————————————

5:43pm – Support resources for Low-Income and ELL: Jill Floore, CFO – multiple models have been discussed but there are no final details.

ELL: One specific weight for weighted funding?  Or sliding scale depending on English proficiency?

Committee unanimously endorsed property reassessment. Long discussion on equalization funding formula, frozen since 2009.

In 2015 dollars, less per pupil state funding than in 2008.  Extra time programming, SROs, ELL ‘discretionary funds’ were the most frequently cut.

5:39pm

Revised WEIC Timeline:

Approval Phase – First half 2016
Planning Phase – July 2016-June2017
Transition Phase – July 2017 – 6/18
Implementation Phase – 7/18 – 6/22

—————————————–

Red Clay’s Board of Education has called a special session public meeting this evening.  The lone topic on the agenda is WEIC.

This will be my attempt at live blogging the meeting, start to finish. You can check out the agenda and related documents from Red Clay’s BoardDocs site: http://www.boarddocs.com/de/rccsd/Board.nsf/Public

Meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30pm.

Advertisement

Nobody Wins In A Zero Sum Game

Written for DelawareLiberal.net:

If you have been following anything related to funding public schools in Delaware, you probably know that the system is severely broken and there are major changes being talked about. The Wilmington Education Improvement Commission is talking about needs-based funding (or weighted-student funding) and reallocation of the existing money in the system. Others are talking about changes to the equalization funding formula that’s been frozen for about 20 years. Some are talking about property reassessment. So who’s right? The short answer is: everyone, partially.
Reallocating the money already generated for public schools is a zero-sum game. It isn’t a long term solution and I’m not really sure that it’s a viable short-term solution. Although it’s better than doing nothing I suppose.

Delaware has a hybridized general ed/needs-based funding system already embedded into the current unit count system. See the following chart:

The first 3 columns are the general ed categories. For every 12.8 pre-k students in a school, that school earns 1 teaching unit from the State which amounts to approximately 55-70% of the funding for a teacher’s salary and benefits. For every 16.2 K-3 students, you get a teaching unit. Same deal for every 20 grade 4-12 students. By the way, I’ve yet to figure out how you get two-tenths of a kindergarten student.

The 3 categories on the right: Basic, Intensive, and Complex are the needs-based system. If a student’s level of need is categorized as one of those three, there is significant portion of additional funding that goes to that student. 8.4 students with “basic” level of additional needs gets them 1 basic special ed teaching unit. There are different criteria to meet to categorize a student as one of the three levels of need, but it is a needs based system. By no means is this system adequate to meet the needs of Delaware’s schoolchildren, but it is a framework to expand upon.  

As the educational landscape of our schools has changed over the last few decades it’s become clear to many that at least two additional categories of needs-based funding are needed: one weighted on the level of poverty and one weighted on the prevalence of English language learners in the school. I can only speak for the Christina School District since I deal with their finances on a regular basis, but ELL is one of the fastest growing expenses in the district and Christina currently serves some of the poorest children in the state. Make no mistake, our teachers that work with our highest needs students go all out and give everything they have and more to give these children the absolute best education possible, but they need help. 
Adding more categories of need requires more money to fund them. If we’re talking reallocation, that means taking money from something else in the education system and putting it towards the new categories. I’m not sure how our kids and teachers come out winning in that scenario. If we’re talking bringing in additional revenue, then given the current financial situation in the State we have to be talking about adding tax brackets. It’s an election year, which politician is going to take one for the team and start talking about raising taxes?

Equalization funding. Once upon a time, the equalization funding formula was created to help the school districts with smaller tax bases (Sussex County) stay competitive with the wealthier districts (New Castle County) in the state by providing additional units of funding tied to the relative size of the tax base. Fast forward a few decades and when it became apparent that the tax base was growing in Kent and Sussex Counties the formula, designed to be fluid and dynamic, was modified, modified again, and then frozen. The result is a complete mess of funding that follows no discernible pattern. Some districts with large tax bases get significantly more funding than a district with a smaller tax base. Some districts earn equalization funding that has no apparent relationship to its tax base (Appoquinimink). Equalization funding is jacked up and it needs to be completely redone.
And then property reassessment, the political hand grenade. Want to scare the crap out of our State politicians running for election/re-election next year? Ask them what they think about statewide property reassessment. 

It is true that New Castle County has not had a property reassessment since 1983 and Sussex hasn’t had one since 1974. It’s also true that reassessment would be damned expensive to do but over time, would help out our school districts. The property taxes you pay now in New Castle County are based on what your land and dwelling would have been worth in 1983. In Sussex, imagine that $2.9 million ocean front property in Fenwick sitting there, its owners paying taxes on what it would have been worth in 1974. That needs to change. 

Even after everything I’ve just written, there’s still way, WAY more that needs to be changed when it comes to funding schools in Delaware (having Charter schools funded by a line item on your property taxes like VoTechs, creating new tax brackets on incomes over $60k/yr, and more). Those will be a topic for a future post though. I’m sure this riveting foray into the public school system funding world has you all on the edge of your seats wanting more. I don’t want to scare you all with the level of insanity that our school districts have to deal with when it comes to funding, though. At least not yet.

Christina School District SBAC vs PLI

I’m not even going to write anything, just a graph I modeled off one I found in a blog comment.  It merits some serious discussion and action at the highest levels of our State government, in our Districts and schools.

Christina School District Smarter Balanced proficiency scores compared to the percentage of low income students by school.  modeled on Red Clay’s data, found here: http://www.delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RedClayPovertyScores.png

Poverty. Affects. Education.

PLI = Percent Low Income, ELA = English Language Arts

Everyone Out of the (Tax) Pool!

And now for something completely not different:  The New Castle County Tax Pool.  Ahead of the WEIC town hall scheduled for this evening at Cab Calloway, here’s some information on the New Castle County Tax Pool, as it was brought up during the last WEIC town hall (and some errant information was given by WEIC regarding how each district contributes to the pool).

I’ve written and given presentations, blog posts, Facebook posts on public school financing for the last couple of years and I haven’t mentioned the tax pool hardly at all even though it does significantly affect the tax revenue (in a negative way) for both Red Clay and Christina.  So what is it?

Once upon a time, there was only the New Castle County Public School District, one district serving the entire county’s public school students (interesting concept..).  Then, the county was broken up into the 5 main public school districts we know today: Red Clay, Christina, Brandywine, Colonial and VoTech.  For the purposes of the tax pool in this post, VoTech is excluded.  For the 4 other districts, check this out:

At the time of the NCCSD dissolution, its current operating tax was $0.468 per $100 assessed value.  That tax rate still exists today, it is embedded in our current school taxes as part of the operating tax (also called current expense tax).  What does that mean?  Christina’s current operating tax is $1.42 / $100 AV.  That $1.42 is a sum of two tax rates: The NCC Tax Pool rate of $0.468 cents + Christina’s direct operating tax: $0.952 cents / $100 AV.   The operating tax revenue is actually collected in two portions.  For reference:

District	NCC Tax Pool Rate	District Operating Rate	Total Rate
Christina	$0.468	$0.952	$1.42
Red Clay (pre-referendum)	$0.468	$0.758	$1.226
Colonial	$0.468	$0.738	$1.206
Brandywine	$0.468	$0.818	$1.286

Rabbit hole alert!  The money collected with the tax pool rate gets put into a big pot.  DDOE uses wizardry to allocate the pool money out to the districts.  Ok, it isn’t really wizardry but the formula is all kinds of jacked up and outdated.    

If you’re feeling adventurous and would like to play along at home:  the “formula” is as follows and is performed for each of the 4 districts:

A) Total Div I Units – Special School Units = Net Div I Units
B) Net Div I Units / Total Net Div I units = Allocation Factor
C) Allocation Factor * Tax Pool Receipts = how much tax revenue is returned/lost for each district from the pool.

A couple of charts and graphs I threw together:

In this bar chart separated by School District, the red bars indicate the gross operating tax receipts collected by each district in millions $ (money collected via Operating Tax).  The green bars show the after-effects of the New Castle County Tax Pool. You can see that both Christina and Red Clay are net contributors to the pool (they pay in more than they get out).  Brandywine and Colonial are net beneficiaries (they receive more from the pool than they put in).  The purple bar shows the after effects of the payments each District makes to Charter and Choice schools, illustrating how much general operating revenue remains for running the Districts. Infer from these graphs what you will, but I feel it is beyond doubt that our public school funding mechanisms are woefully obsolete.  

In fiscal year 2015 (school year 2014-15) the four school districts made payments to charter schools totaling approximately $35,000,000.  50% of that was paid through Christina alone.

WEIC wants to have a conversation about public school funding.  We all need to be part of that conversation because the funding issue extends well beyond the City of Wilmington.

Mythbusters: School Tax Edition

Got this comment on CSDWeAllWin’s Facebook page today.

Today I had a friend say all the programs and cuts Christina school district was making is nuts. All because people wont sign a referendum. My answer was Christina School district asked for almost 100% raise in funding on their first attempt. This was highway robbery. They then asked for I believe a 15% increase and it was shot down… You know why??? Everyone I talked to who googled the referendum, saw the previous request. They thought their taxes were doubling. The district did this to its self… So lets do a little math and see if the money is spent correctly. 2014 budget 228 million dollars. 16255 students. That is $14,026.45 / student. I googled the “average private school tuition 19711″… the answer was $11970.00. If it can be funded privately for 2000 less per student and provide a better education… Something isn’t adding up. We cant continue to throw money at a mismanaged program. I really don’t want to hear go to a budget meeting. I want to hear my math is either incorrect or why we should pay $2000.00 more per student for your education. What is better? I’m beginning to think the whole system should be private. Talk me off this ledge please.

So let’s go.  Sorry they don’t want to hear “go to a budget meeting”.  But GO TO A BUDGET MEETING!  Public school finances are too damn complex to talk about on Facebook and really get a solid handle on them.  But why not try again?

Their math isn’t wrong but it is the wrong kind of math. Districts do not determine per student funding by adding up the budget and dividing by the number of kids enrolled, although that seems like a much better way to do it than the way it’s done now.

Christina, and all districts in Delaware, have little control over how much money is spent on each student. Nearly all the formulas used to figure that out come directly from the State of Delaware. However much money the State determines each student “deserves” *in total*, Christina foots approximately 35% of it through property taxes.

In previous years, the District was responsible for <30% of the cost. Over the last 8 years the State has continued to chip away at the amount of money spent on education. This year is no different. The State raised the amount each student must get by 0.52% and at the same time said they wouldn’t be funding that increase, which means local money from each District has to cover that increase.

Christina School District per student general ed funding

This is the breakdown of our non-special services, regular education per student funding for 2015-16 school year. This is the amount of money, collected through our property taxes, that Christina School District spends per student. We, in this District, do not pay $14,000 per student. We pay an average of $3,913 per student in grades K-12. So what the hell is that $13,000 cost per student number you find on the District profile on Delaware Dept of Ed’s website? That’s an average of ALL sources of funding for our students, that’s all money that comes from the State + all money that comes from the District + all money that comes via the Federal gov’t that rolls up to an AVERAGE cost per student in our District.  It is NOT what we pay from property taxes per student.

You can pay $12,000 to send your child to a private school in Newark. But you, the parent, are paying that entire $12,000 for your child. Send your child to a public school, and you’re paying a fraction of what it costs to deliver an education to your child.

My property tax bill for schools last year (on my $189,000 townhome assessed at $50,000 ) was around $1,120. I have two children in the District. I paid $560 in taxes for each of their educations last year. If I had both of them in private school, my school tax would still have been $1,120. Plus $24,000 for private tuition. I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell can’t afford $25,120 a year for school right now.

The current total *school tax* rate is $2.09/$100 assessed value of property. Of that $2.09, $1.42 of it is the *Operating Tax* rate. The Operating Tax rate is what was up for referendum twice. (I won’t get into the New Castle County Tax Pool dipping into that $1.42, that’s another discussion).

The first increase that the BOARD wanted (not the District) was, I believe, $0.65 phased in over 3 years. OMG THAT’S 46% INCREASE IN TAX……RATE. Increase in your tax RATE. That does NOT = a 46% increase in your taxes paid. Why?

Let’s say that $0.65 was approved, and it all went into effect right away. The rate went from $2.09 to $2.74. The tax RATE is now $2.74/$100 of assessed value. For my house @ $50,000, my NEW school tax bill this year would be: $50,000/$100 = 500. 500 x $2.74 = $1,370

$1,370 is not double of $1,120. So what % increase is that in my ACTUAL taxes paid? $1,370-$1,120= $250 $250/$1,120 = 0.223 x 100 = 22.3% increase. Not even close to doubling.

Well we know the first time failed hard. So what if the second time passed? The DISTRICT asked for and the Board approved a $0.37 increase phased in over 3 years. Let’s take the same scenario. It passed, and all $0.37 went in right away. Our new tax RATE is $2.46/$100.

My new tax bill is: $50,000/$100 = 500. 500 x $2.46 = $1,230. Well how much did it go up this time?! $1,230-$1,120= $110. $110/$1,120 = 0.098 x 100 = 9.8% tax increase. Again, not even close to doubling.

Again, total budget/# students isn’t wrong math but it doesn’t do jack to help figure out how we spend money per-student and whether or not the money is being spent “correctly”.

I said before, during, and now after the referendum, I’m available to talk to anyone about this. I’ll answer any question you throw at me. If you don’t want to come to a budget meeting (although you should), I’ll come to you. Public school finances in this State are not easy to understand. It’s way too damn complex, but I’m willing to help anyone get a better understanding of it. Google won’t do anything for you. Talk to someone who actually knows something about how it works (or doesn’t work).

Where Are The Kids?

Troubling enrollment projections for the 15-16 school year in Christina. Last night at the CBOC meeting we were shown that enrollment counts as of July 21 (an early indicator of what student counts will look like on the first day of school).  Historically July 21st counts are off by one or two hundred students in a few specific areas of the district, namely the Wilmington area schools and secondary schools.  This year is an outlier in a big way. Enrollment counts are off by about 900 students District-wide and not in the usual areas of low student counts.  The low numbers are at all grade levels in the city and in the suburbs.  900 students is a HUGE number and by far eclipses the usual couple hundred.  Such low enrollment right now translates in to 78 fewer teaching units.  Without students, the State sends no money and the District cannot carry those positions solely on local funding.  

So what’s the reason for such a drop in enrollments?  We’re not sure. The choice period is closed.  We know more students are migrating to charters but definitely not 900. 

As far as the budget?  The cliffs notes version: District has compiled $9.1 million in reductions which cuts the structural deficiency from $14 million next year to around $3 million.  There are major decisions that will need to be made in the next 3 months surrounding what the District needs to look like to get it out of the red.  Program elimination, realigning schools, any number of cost saving measures.   I’m going to go through the notes I took at last night’s CBOC meeting and try and translate it into some meaningful chunks of info.  Lots of vital information shared last night.  

By the way, if you have friends, neighbors or family members that have school age kids in the district, please give them a friendly reminder to make sure they are registered with the district!  Teaching jobs depend on registration and enrollment!

Markell and DDOE in Damage Control Mode

What happens when the teacher’s unions of the two largest school districts in Delaware get tired of being ignored by Governor Jack Markell, Mark Murphy and the Delaware Department of Education?  This:

Delaware teachers’ unions: no confidence in education leaders

And this:

Delaware education secretary gets ‘no confidence’ vote

Governor Markell is trying to downplay the frustration felt by parents and educators moving to opt their kids out of standardized tests.  He said opting kids out of testing is “unfair” to them.  Really?  My oldest is in 5th grade.  He is assessed twice a week for hours on end.  Every Wednesday and every Friday he has assessments.  He takes 2 assessments on Wednesdays and 4 on Fridays.  He hates all the tests.  I didn’t like tests in school either.  I didn’t hate them, though.  He finds school boring because it’s all testing.  That’s a problem in my eyes.  He’s very smart, he founded and helps run his own non-profit charity, he’s an outstanding young man…and he hates school because of all the tests.

If opting him out of some of those is me being unfair to him, well, sometimes parents just have to be unfair to their kids.

3 Months Later

Hey, where did those last 3 months go?  Let’s see, what’s transpired since my last post.  Red Clay and Christina went out for referendums in February.  Red Clay’s passed, Christina’s was mauled by a bear.  Red Clay did a FANTASTIC job of marketing, advertising and selling their referendum to their residents, students and staff.  Christina…did not.  Red Clay celebrated on Feb 24th.  Christina did not. Christina inked a deal with DDoE to retain control of their three “priority” schools through 2015-16 keeping all staff and leadership but adding assistant principals to each school who will *not* report to the principal they work under.  Instead they will report directly to DDoE.  Can’t see that causing any problems.  Plans to redistrict Christina out of Wilmington are moving forward but they still hinge on the General Assembly to rewrite the laws.  If that does happen, Red Clay gets 3 new inner-city schools from Christina.  Get your popcorn, I’m sure this is far from done.

Christina’s Board of Education passed a resolution submitted by Board Member Paige last night (5-2) protecting students from “retaliation” if their parents opt them out of State assessments.  Colonial’s Board followed suit, too.  From Exceptional Delaware:

“If this board can’t stand for parents, what the hell can it stand for?” -John Young

After fiery debate by board member George Evans, the Christina Board of Education passed a parent opt out resolution by a vote of 5-2.  The no votes came from President Fred Polaski and eternal board member George Evans.  The amended resolution was scaled back to focus on parental right to opt out of the standardized assessment, which in Delaware is the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Christina School District Board of Education Resolution on Parent Opt-Out of Standardized Testing

Be it resolved that the Christina School District Board of Education will support a parent’s decision to opt their child(ren) out of standardized state testing without any repercussions from the ChristinaSchool District; and, therefore,

Be it further resolved that the Christina School District Board of Education will support the Superintendent to provide direction to all affected schools to provide meaningful, educational activities to replace testing time for those students who will not be participating in standardized testing.

Christina’s Board of Ed also approved May 27th as the next try for an operating referendum and let me tell you the proverbial mud is already being slung on social media by residents of the district who appear to be less than informed about how a public school district operates and is financed.  During “Referendum: Part I” in February, I spent a LOT of time on social media trying to share information about this very subject.  Some welcomed that effort.  Others did…not.   I’m at it again though, with Part II.  I refuse to sit down and shut up because people don’t know what they’re talking about.  I’m not a teacher but I’m gonna play one for this referendum.

Other news about the referendum: CSD is asking for volunteers to be part of committees that will be formed to work on the referendum process.  If you are interested and want to volunteer some time, from CSD’s Facebook post:

Post by Christina School District.

 CHRISTINA SEEKS VOLUNTEERS TO SERVE ON REFERENDUM COMMITTEE AND SUBCOMMITTEES

The Christina School District seeks volunteers to serve on a Referendum Committee for the District’s Operating Referendum scheduled for Wednesday, May 27. The Operating Referendum seeks funding to support increased costs and to help the District address an anticipated $9 million budget deficit.

All are welcome to serve on the Referendum Committee, and there are no requirements for serving other than an interest in contributing to a successful campaign. Interested individuals are asked to send an email with name, address, phone number, and email address to: info@christina.k12.de.us, or to call 302-552-2610. Information may also be faxed to 302-429-5857 or mailed to Christina School District Referendum Committee, C/O Public Information Office, 600 North Lombard Street, Wilmington, DE 19801.

Please send information by March 23 in order to receive all future notifications. A Kick-Off meeting of the Referendum Committee is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, March 26 at 6:00 p.m. at the Eden Support Services Center in Bear.

I’m in.  Are you?

Next CBOC meeting is March 18.  6:30pm at Gauger-Cobbs Middle in the professional library.  I can say we’ll have some new attendees for this one.  It’ll be good to (finally) see some new faces!

Just One Question

What do you want your public schools to be?

We know public school student achievement isn’t what it should be or could be in Delaware.  We know about the rising influence of charter schools.  But what do we know about making changes to our public schools to improve student achievement?  What should we emphasize?  What should we keep, what should we remove, what should we start doing?  What do you want your public schools to be?

Tonight was the first public workshop for the Christina School District on the subject of an operating referendum (a special election held to approve tax increases to bring in more funding for the schools),  Expect to hear more about it at the upcoming Board of Education public meeting on November 18th.  There was great discussion from members of the District administration, Board of Education, and the Citizens Budget Oversight Committee.  In brief we know the following:

Timeline

• In order for our schools to see any increase in funding for the next school year (2015-2016), the special election must be held prior to July 1, 2015.  Doing so allows the county to adjust the tax rates to collect the funding.
• Holding the election early in the year (no later than March) allows for a “mulligan” if it does not pass.  90 days must pass between special elections.  If the election were held in February, and it failed, another election would be able to be held in May or June (prior to the July 1 deadline to see more funding for the 2015-2016 school year)
• February or March 2015 would be the best bet for when to hold the special election.

Wishlist

• Our schools need more money.  But what will be done with the money?  We were able to generate a “wishlist” of priorities for our children and their schools, not only to keep the students we have but to recruit new students to Christina.
  • Funding for arts and humanities classes (music, art, drama)
  • MAGNET Programs (programs for specialized skill development: fine arts, math, agricultural sciences, software and game programming/development, performing arts)
  • Technology upgrades
  • Expanding the Gifted and Talented programs
  • Special education and individual education plans
  • Funding for school supplies
  • Expanding the Cambridge Program

One thing that was missing from tonight’s meeting?  You.  Your voice.  Your thoughts.  As a taxpayer, your voice counts just as much as anyone else’s and tonight, your voice was missing.  Our public schools can’t be their best without support from the public.  We need your help and your input.  Attend the next Board of Education meeting on November 18th. Attend the next referendum workshop (date: TBD)!  Contact your Board of Education members, sharing your thoughts and ideas (remember: the Board of Education drives our schools and the district where we want them to go!). Talk with your school leaders and teachers, talk with other parents!  It starts with communication and engagement. So I’m asking:

What do you want your public schools to be?

#justonequestion #publiceducation

Day 1: Kindergarten, Day 2: 5th Grade

Today marks the first day of kindergarten for our youngest son, Finn.  I couldn’t tell you where the last 5 years have gone.  It’s funny, as the kids made their way upstairs to get ready for bed tonight, I told my wife that the last thing I see in the house before I walk out the door to go to work in the morning is a picture of me holding Finn when he was just hours old and I’m now realizing that the tiny bundle of humanity in my arms in that photo is now walking up the steps into a big yellow school bus and going to school.  I was told becoming a parent causes time accelerate exponentially, and that’s no lie.  5 years.  Today also marked the second day of 5th grade for our oldest son, Brae.  I cannot seem to figure out where that time went either, but what really boggles my mind is that in 3 short years, he’ll be ready to head off to high school.  Time.  Exponentially increasing.

Yesterday we had the 1 hour kindergarten orientation for him and being in that classroom with him, listening to his teacher, observing the classroom and the school overall makes me even more committed to doing what I can for the district to help it continue to operate and serve our kids.  Finn’s teacher almost immediately mentioned something about a $25 activity fee that parents are responsible for.  She was defensive at first, explaining that mentioning the fee almost always raises some eyebrows, but as she explained to me what that fee covered I came to understand the need for it.  It basically comes down to teachers and schools not having the funding they need to operate in top form.  We paid the fee before we left orientation but it left me thinking, $25 x 20 kids = $500.  That isn’t a whole lot of money for a classroom.  Imagine if the operating budget was increased to give teachers an extra $500 per year for their classroom expenses. How much good do you think that would do?  Hopefully over the next couple of years we’ll be able to find out what increasing the operating budget will do for our Christina School District Schools.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I’m proud of our boys.  On to another year of school.  I should get back to working on my time decelerator.