There have been several postings on school issues in the last few days. I'll pass on some info.
Budget... Jim Mork asked for information. Administration folks put together a small Excel spread sheet on the district budgets over the last 10 years. I'd be glad to send that spreadsheet as an attachment to anyone who e-mails me directly. Nothing startling. FY03 general operating budget was about $422 million and referendum about $43 million. In FY94 it was about $252 million in the general fund and $28 in the referendum. The budget does go up, but so does the cost of doing business and the needs the Minneapolis Public Schools address. Employee status... There was a question about a specific employee. The lists of layoffs are public documents. Mr. Belton is not identified as among those to be laid off. I take this to mean that his job is viewed as important to the district and Mr. Belton's performance meets or exceeds standards. Administration/fat in the budget... Chris Johnson raised questions about administrative cost reporting and "fat." Yes, there are difficulties in calculating administrative costs. Ask those familiar with Minnesota's UFARS system designed to track school costs. It's a mess. Same nationally. One accounting firm proposed a uniform reporting system, but schools are so different that it's never caught on. You could come up with percentages larger (or smaller), depending on how you count. I don't think any responsible board member would make a decision based upon a reported percentage, You look at what needs to be done. I think it is reasonable to question any district as it reports its administrative costs, but I know of no intent to deceive in Minneapolis� accounting practices. I think most folks who have looked at school funding conclude that it helps to get beyond sound bites of administration bad, dollars-to-classroom-teachers good. As just one example, we could have special education teachers spend dozens of hours per month at desks filling out paper work or hire clerical people to do that work so the teachers are with kids. Cut the clerical "administration?" Sounds good, but bad medicine. The district risks losing large sums of state and federal money if we do not have the administrative capacity to monitor and report activity. At the recommendation of our auditor, the board has instructed the superintendent to add some small amount of administrative staff time to make sure we manage well and maximize our revenue. Over-all, the district administrative budget will be down by about $6 million next year. That will affect teachers and classrooms, and our ability to reach out to the community. It is easy to assume that any organization has fat, but in these difficult times, I think that MPS parents, teachers and staff, people who have worked so hard to reach a lot of kids and now face a more difficult task, deserve specifics with those theoretical allegations. We have cut, cut and cut again. We are making layoffs that will diminish the experience for a lot of young people. It doesn't look like fat to me. Carol Johnson�s �raise.� ... It�s very old news, but she turned it down. Tracking... There is no policy of tracking Minneapolis Public School students. Finally... If list member have real questions, folks at MPS are consistently very good about answering them. There�s always plenty of room for criticism and political posturing regarding public education, but I�d appeal for some respect for the good work that our public school folks are doing and urge ever-vigilant list members also to divert some energy into helping kids develop in healthy ways. My compliments to those who already do so. Dennis Schapiro Linden Hills/Hawthorne Minneapolis Board of Education TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
