NEAT - info about SPPS budget: http://tinyurl.com/3gt66 _________________________________________
Okay yâall, Iâve taken the questions/input from both last Thursday and M-T, e-democracy conversation and threaded. This is a first effort, but bear with me. Am thinking we can get to capacity building. Discussion Strategy: My sort of overriding philosophy about things is âLearnâ & âTell.â The idea is to facilitate the conversation so we can articulate the fundamental questions in some kind of a coherent framework. Itâs not that weâll be able necessarily to find all the answers (i.e., factoids are easier to answer than philosophical/values-based questions), but at the very least by engaging in the conversation we should all be able to come away with a better understanding of the context and strategies to manage the current budget reductions, and any opinions weâd like to form about them. Process: I took the statements/questions people had and sorted them into â themesâ Organized themes and added an internal/external indicator to clarify whether or not this is something within the realm of district control. Marked this dimension âprocessâ when I think the issue could be addressed by effective communication; and âcommunityâ where I think this forum could begin to engage in the conversation about using the data to identify and address needs where the locus of the need is in the community. Readily admit to possible organizational errors. Putting on the table for discussion. Feel free to suggest changes. Added my remarks in italics, but then realized will be lost on âboard. â Donât really want to take the time to figure out another way. This is a BEGINNING document for the FAQ. Am thinking the next step is to â frameâ each issue with the central questions/concerns. Background, Why Public Education is Important (External) What public education bashers donÂt get is the role public education has and always will play in both the development of the nationÂs future workforce and in the stabilization, maintenance and increase in property values in every community. It does no good to bash the public schools, even if you send your own child to private schools. If you neglect the public part of a societyÂs education mandate, youÂre shooting yourself in the foot in more ways than one: 1. The values of your investment in your homestead and other properties will drop proportionately. 2. An ill-prepared workforce, not to mention that of your own kids, pushes our local, national and global competitiveness to rock bottom, creating overwhelming unemployment and, thus, significant increases in public assistance and other kinds of dependence and as a cause of a rising crime rate. Private education can only supplement, not supplant, public education both in space and funding, and, thus, in preparing the next generation to run their own families, let alone their communities. Why Do We Have A Deficit? (External) Enrollment decline fueled mainly by the decrease in the birthrate in Saint Paul and, to a lesser extent expanded school choice The Student Accounting Office has estimated that the school district will see a decline of 1,677 pupil units in fiscal year 2005. Enrollment question: How many people are satisfied with the education that is being provided? Have any surveys been conducted to determine the incidence of students fleeing St. Paul schools in the last few years? Flat General Education Revenue The per pupil funding allowance he district receives from the State of Minnesota is expected to remain at the level of $4,601 for the third year in a row. (This answers the question âWhat is the allocation of funds per student in 2003-04? What is the proposed allocation in 2004-05?â) Increased costs, in particular, the cost of utilities and health insurance The district is projecting a 7 percent to a 17 percent increase in utilities costs for 2004-05. The school district has made great strides to control the district's share of that increase through contract limits, but costs continue to escalate much faster than State funding. ON THE FLIP SIDE The public schools in Minnesota have never faced a cut in funding, in fact previously to last year funding has exceeded inflation by at least 6% for the past 9 years according to the Department of Education. In 2002, the district received more than $12,000.000 per student. The discrepancies here could be clarified by documentation. Please cite sources. Why Do We Have A Deficit?, Future Projections (External) Is the community going to be given a long-term picture in order to know if we will be expected to reduce expenditures by $12 million every few years in the future? This is a question that needs to be raised at the state level. In September, in January and again in February, NEAT raised questions about restoring stability to public education funding. Learn more about state education funding issues at http://www.stpaulneat.org/Education_Finance.html http://www.stpaulneat.org/Feb_19_2004_NEAT-SPPS_Budget_Forum.html? http://www.stpaulneat.org/Commentary.html Why Do We Have A Deficit? Find Meaning in the Data (Process) My problem with what I've seen of the SPSS budget, and there may be a more detailed version that I haven't see, is that these priorities have to be divined out of columns of numbers like reading tea leaves. My understanding is that the central thrust of the budget planning process was to ask in every case, âHow does this effort contribute to student achievement?â and to strategically align resources to support that overriding objective in all considerations. What I think is missing here is not that it didnât happen, but the connections arenât clearly being communicated. When the budget recommendations were presented we were told this was the connection, but we werenât shown the connection. (I miss the emphasis on âShow What you Knowâ in the Profiles of Learning.) Why Do We Have A Deficit? Find Meaning in the Data (Process) To me, the starting place has to be the state funding formulae, and the amounts of money that SPPS gets for various things like ESL, etc. And those need to be matched up with actual spending in those areas, along with local contributions. Additional categories can be added to reflect priorities not covered by the state. By showing in stark relief what the District has as its priorities, and what it gets from the state (reflecting the state's priorities) we would be able to see exactly what's in the crossfire. A one-page summary reflecting on the major discrepancies (and why the state funding is wrong) would illuminate it. I think here weâre talking about the âStrategic Alignment of Resources.â Iâ m wondering if we could ask the district to âshowâ us the correlation between what was kept/retained and student achievement so we could better understand how whatâs being cut is more distant from central effort to raise achievement. I also think we need to be careful to be aware of context. Some programs were affected more or less this year because of cuts made prior years. Accountability, Cost of (Process) What portion of the budget is discretionary v. mandated / allocated funds? Were the mandates of NCLB, the state standards for the new measures of accountability taken into account when making these plans? How? Which SPPS schools are not making AYP? What are the cost implications, NCLB accountability provisions? Has the district ever broken down how much of the budget is to pay for "unfunded or under funded mandates?" Also have we ever broken down how much of the budget is paid for support staff, who's job is to fill out the forms necessary to get Federal or State dollars? Staying on the train of thought have we ever tried to compute how much of a teacher's time is spent on those tasks? How much did the district spend on the recent purchase of social studies texts? Will these texts be usable under the new standards? Has the district put together $$$ projections of implementing the new standards (math, science, language arts & social studies)? Other districts are doing this and releasing the information. Why arenât we? Strategic Alignment of Resources (Process) Iâve made the argument at the state level that we need to USE THE DATA to strategically align resources to meet student needs (cf: Thank you letter to the Senate Education Committee at http://www.stpaulneat.org/Commentary.html) That seems to be the central thrust of the districtâs budget review process (See: http://www.stpaulneat.org/Budget_Planning_Process.html and http://www.spps.org/district_information/04-05_super_Budget_Rec.html Discussion about balancing the budget by decreasing expenses & viable methods for increasing revenues would also fit here (See http://www.stpaulneat.org/Feb_19_2004_NEAT-SPPS_Budget_Forum.html ) Iâve framed the questions about student programs and other specific efforts under this rubric to help us stay focused on the essential purpose of the budget discussion, âHow do we align resources to support student achievement?â (or alternatively, âDo the budget recommendations fully support maintaining the focus on student achievement?â) Strategic Alignment of Resources, Community-based barriers to learning, Economic Viability of Families & Violence (Community) I also think it's inappropriate to hold public education accountable for all of society's ills. The economic viability of families is the most significant predictor of a school failing to make AYP in the state of MN. Shouldn't we be talking about economic solutions, like jobs? (See www.schoolresults.org > MN > 2003 Snapshot) Shouldn't we be looking for community-based solutions? We talk about safe schools, what about safe homes? Where kids can count on things like food, clothing, shelter, transportation and medical care? In our neighborhood it feels like it's at our house. This is connected to the district's budget situation because the data shows the most significant contributing factors to schools not making AYP are community-based and the locus of the decision-making resides with the state. Took a poll a couple years ago and out of 20 kids that I knew well enough to know their family situation, only three or four had both parents available. An equal number had NO parental figures of any sort available - they were 15 to 19 and living on the streets or in a friend's house, couch surfing. We've had 4 or 5 garages burn down last year due to a single miscreant. That individual's younger brother has egged our house a couple times and vandalized our cars (we haven't been singled out - he's like that to a lot of people). It's only a matter of time until he's in the juvenile justice system and the neighborhood will be safer when he is. Theft out of garages is a big deal among a few kids around here. There's not a lot you can do when kids walk down the alley and brazenly poke their heads into every garage they can get into. Then they come back in the night for the ones that had saleable stuff in them. So, kids in this neighborhood aren't the sort I want my child socializing with. The problem is bigger than the kids. I can tell it originates from their family situations and their family situations arise from economic conditions. Someone's always got to be in the bottom percentile ranks. Bottom percentile in the US is better than bottom percentile elsewhere, but I still want my son fraternizing with kids in other areas. I'm heartened to hear that when you send a kid to a school out of your neighborhood that they don't tend to form close friendships with the neighbors. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Community-based Learning / Lifelong Learning (Community) Having attended both private and public school I can say from experience that you can get a great education at either- if you have supportive parents, the will to learn, and engage oneself in the culture of the institution (i.e. debate, drama, student council, band...). Kids who go home and flop in front of the TV learn an apathy which may poison them into adulthood. As budget cuts constrict after school programming, we all have the responsibility to create constructive evening activities for kids. I believe that many people have no clue that the school district is responsible for Adult Basic Education, or the economic impact programs such as ABE or ELL have for people's lives, or for businesses in the city. When we are talking about education in the city, almost exclusively we are concerning ourselves with the welfare of children. One of the key roles of ELL is allowing people to better their conditions, and to engage with the community as a whole. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Achievement Gap Community For the past 12 years I have worked at the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, Inc. where I am the Associate Director. I have worked hard on the issues of educational access and success for low-income students of color. I am appalled by the current gap in achievement for students of color and feel it is the most important issue our education system is facing. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Appropriate use of funds in advocacy arenas (Process) What are the benefits and drawbacks of a school district engaging in political partnerships and hiring political lobbyists? Who benefits? Who loses? Here I think we just need clarification on the guiding principles/district policies unless thereâs a question about the allocation of funds for advocacy in the 2004-05 budget. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Early Childhood, All day K (Process) How can we afford pre-Kindergarten at eight new schools this next year when there is no funding for the all day Kindergarten programs that already exists? Are our legislators considering funding all day K? My understanding of this is the district is pursuing additional funding alternatives for these programs. The legislature IS currently supporting all day K, but itâs been tabled to next year because itâs a funding issue. Am wondering if thereâs a timeframe projected, âWeâll know more byâ (date)â The Federal Reserve Bank â Minneapolis has done quite a bit of research to substantiate the impact of Early Childhood programs on student achievement and the economic implications. See http://minneapolisfed.org/research/studies/earlychild/2003conf/ Strategic Alignment of Resources, Classrooms (Internal) I think what teachers want most is the resources (time, energy and dollars) to their jobs and do them well. I think the first thing they'd do to carve out time is reduce paperwork, the second would be reduce class sizes. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Clarification of Process (Process) Please explain why there was no subcommittee on quality of education. It seems that the focus is only on budget, when it should be on students first. Why is there not a teacher on these boards to give their input on what is actually going on in the schools? They are there. They know what they need or donât need. How has SPPS used our input from last yearâs meetings? Are our comments/input really going to make a difference? How are you going to do this? The budget reduction recommendations were presented as central budget cuts. Can the district clarify this? How are central budget cuts defined? What are the broad budget areas so we have a better understanding of how all the pieces fit together? Why are there no obvious staff cuts at 360 Colborne, but the Family & Community Involvement Office? (If it is in there, where?) Put this here because am thinking related to first question. Strategic Alignment of Resources, ELL / FCI (Internal) My understanding of the cuts to ELL is that they're a reflection of where they're at in the process of shifting to an inclusion model of instruction. At the same time, after hearing how Arty's staff is a "lifeline" for some parents Thursday night, I do wonder about what the district's doing to address the essential barriers/disconnects for our immigrant/non-English speaking families. If, as the data shows, our problems are community-based, shouldn't we be intensifying community outreach efforts, not reducing them? I have to admit that feels like a better idea than a good PR campaign. Submitted at the forum by a member of the Latino Parents Group in Saint Paul. In our gatherings , we talk to the parents about how important it is to take leadership roles in their childrenâs schools, be connected to the schools, increase parents involvement of Latino parents at the schools, etc. So, how come I can tell the parents that the districts is cutting off money from ELL Department and Family & Community Involvement? Both departments are working with Latino families to support Latino childrenâs education. The district is sending the wrong message to the parents and the community â???â funding from people that is working closely with Latino families. (Note: â???â shows where I had trouble reading the handwriting) We know that children whose parents are involved in their education do better in school. Why are we cutting family involvement at he district level where the staff are multicultural? Each school doesnât have the same diversity. Strategic Alignment of Resources, ELL / LCD If you reduce the ELL/ESL/etc budget by $500,000, I hope it does not impact programs and reduce services. Instead, consolidate programs. This will impact the Latino Consent Decree program. This must be done right. If site councils will make decisions on ELL services, we must have to encourage parents that are affected by this recommendation to be involved on site-based meeting with support or teacher/EAâs (buddy system) that can work with them at the meetings. Strategic Alignment of Resources, ELL / Special Ed It seems that cuts in the student programs area are focused on students with greatest need â does not seem equitable because no cuts in programs to gifted/talented programs. I do support gifted & talented programs, but shouldnât cuts be equitable? How can we meet NCLB when we cut ELL & Special Ed? Strategic Alignment of Resources, FCI Why maintain the administration and contracted services and eliminate the staff? I would like to know the cost of contracted services vs. the staff. Please take into consideration that the staff has over 50 years experience and are known and tried in the community. Parent involvement is so critical to our schools and our learners. Why would the district consider cutting the Family Involvement staff and program, especially when the No Child Left Behind Act strictly addresses this area. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Leadership (Process) I do think that public education is a) worth the roughly half of all state and local tax receipts that we put into it, and b) hopelessly squandering the riches they have on bureacracy that actually hurts by taking power away from teachers. I don't blame the school district for this, as it's about the same everywhere, so I call the whole thing the "Educational Industrial Complex". It fits with the beef about bells and so on. My ideas for budget change? Cut busing (neighborhood schools RAH!); cut area superintendents (they create more red tape, and more red tape=more money spent); Cut the Superintendent's salary and car allowance (it is ludicrous that the position makes more than the governor); allow schools more control over things like catering, security, etc. (possibly saving the district more money by bypassing the middleman contractor). (NOTE: comments addressing more than one issue were duplicated and placed appropriate with the referencing sub-item in bold.) If we have fewer students and are laying off personnel at the lower levels, shouldnât we also be able to survive with fewer administrators? What is your rationale for approving pay and benefit increases for 34 highly paid administrators when we need to cut $12 million from other programs and schools? Remember others are suffering. SPPS gains in student achievement show leadership over the past several years has been extraordinary. The incredible progress that's being made is a testament to leadership. Even so, I do wonder about salary and vacation increases in the context of substantive cutback. Factoid District 625 spends approximately $3,000,000.00 per year for its 5 Area Superintendents, their support staff and overhead. Can someone confirm this? Given that each school has a Principal in charge of daily operations, what would be the impact on schools if the area Superintendant positions were eliminated? What do area Superintendants do? How would we be able to determine whether these positions are worthwhile if we do not work in the system? For Discussion It seems to me the central thrust is what is the cost of the leadership? Is the cost warranted? Iâm thinking itâs possible for the Superintendent or the Board of Education to explain their thinking in a way that would make sense to us. Strategic Alignment of Resources, Leadership, Cost to SPPS or other source of funds? (Process) Why would we send St. Paul district people to Thailand to evaluate refugee education needs? Is this a necessary expense for public school budget or should this be addressed by other state agencies? Why not wait until they arrive in this country? Strategic Alignment of Resources, Student Programs (Internal) In light of the fact that new science standards are soon to be adopted by the state legislature, and students will be tested on those standards starting in 2005, is it expedient to cut a science program like the planetarium at this time? A number of the science standards relate to astronomy. - Details on the Planetarium cuts? - What is the district doing to see alternative funding options for the planetarium? When we have a majority of students of color in the Saint Paul school district, why would you consider reducing Multicultural Education Partnership? District 625 spends approximately $300,000.00 per year to pay for on-site reproductive health services to Health Start. Oddly enough, this arrangement was concluded at a time when a SPPS board member also sat on the Health Start Board of Directors. District 625 spends more than $90,000.00 per year to fund the âOut for Equity â program mentioned by Mr. Skrbec. Out for Equity seeks to inculcate an appreciation for homosexuality among the districts K-12 students. This is an expenditure that past Chairman Al Oertwig has said is off the budgetary discussion table, period. You questioned the legitimacy of spending money on two health and social service programs. How do reproductive health and social services such as "Out for Equity" impact child and adolescent development? What will happen if they are eliminated? Is this an issue based on values, rather than on data? What do the health teachers say about the impact of these programs? How do reproductive health and social services such as "Out for Equity" impact child and adolescent development? What will happen if they are eliminated? Is this an issue based on values, rather than on data? What do the health teachers say about the impact of these programs? Strategic Alignment of Resources, Vulnerable Communities (Process) If sites are being cut $4 million and ELL/SP ED services are being cut, isnât that affecting the highest need students in a double-negative way? School Choice (Process) At what expense, in dollars, has school choice become so widespread in Saint Paul schools? It seems we are all under enrolled, with several buildings excessively so at the elementary level (e.g, Homecroft, Randolph Heights, East Consolidated). With the expense of a full-time principal being approximately $100k, along with the expenses of running a physical building (rising utilities/custodial office/cafeteria), ought we consider closing some schools (elementary)? How much money would be saved if we didnât bus to the extent we do for all of the magnet choices? (citywide busing). A friend of mine whose son attends a magnet on the opposite side of the city says her son rides the bus with five other students. How is the district going to treat neighborhood schools equally with magnet and charter schools in regards to busing? Lack of action will kill our dual language program â Hmong and Spanish for everyone. Neighborhood schools are getting the short end. What is the district going to do to address the inequities between neighborhood schools and magnet schools? Neighborhood schools like Groveland, Randolph Heights and Horace Mann are struggling not only to compete against Catholic schools in heavily catholic neighborhoods, but they must compete with magnets citywide busing without the same admissions issues. For example, neighborhood schools are not full at a grade level until weâre full as a building (unlike many magnets). If a child moves outside our attendance area, there is no busing option for them (within Saint Paul). Our enrollment challenges are a Catch-22. How can we attract families when weâre spread so thin that our SEM teacher (we have 30% NNAT kids) must now be a schoolwide prep teacher? We need to value neighborhood schools if we are going to have them in existence. My childrenâs elementary school (Groveland Park) has experienced serious disruption due to the instability created by unstable enrollment. Unlike the magnets, neighborhood schools cannot require families to commit to enrollment each year so as to protect school choice. To give neighborhood schools the same ability to predict their enrollment with confidence, could the district please require parents to choose a school, magnet or neighborhood or charter, by a date in the spring? All schools need to know as best they can how many students, and thus dollars they will have each year. I believe in public education (either charters or school district schools). I believe the key to the future of education will be how public schools embrace school choice as a fundamental dimension of reform. Not doing so will eventually lead to private vouchers, which I am personally opposed to. What options do kids in private schools have? We are a working class community and we want the best for our children. Weâre not going to allow our children to not have a right to a public education. Please consider eliminating the school choice fair. Families get much more useful information from visiting schools and looking at Web sites than they do at this fair. I found it was more overwhelming than helpful. It may be a nominal cost, but that money could be spent more directly on students. School Choice / Transportation My ideas for budget change? Cut busing (neighborhood schools RAH!); cut area superintendents (they create more red tape, and more red tape=more money spent); Cut the Superintendent's salary and car allowance(it is ludicrous that the position makes more than the governor); allow schools more control over things like catering, security, etc. (possibly saving the disrict more money by bypassing the middleman contractor). When we moved from a small city in Michigan to St. Paul 18 years ago, I was amazed by the number of school busses that passed in front of our house every day. I wondered then if there wasn't a better way. I'm still wondering. My understanding is the district is planning to look more closely at school choice sometime soon to see if there are ways we can better align resources to meet student/community needs and that that's why transportation wasn't on the docket so much this year; because the substantive changes to transportation need to be made in the context of what's best around school choice. (Watch for St. Paul Issues Forum discussions to come!) School Safety & Security, Emergency Preparedness (Internal/Process) For instance (TIC) as a result of the Cold Spring â Rocorri shooting last year, I think we need metal detectors at every possible school entrance. I think every student, teacher, staff and visitor should pass through the device when they these buildings regardless of the time. I think all bags, packages and backpacks that are brought into the building should be physically checked. I think each device should be staffed by two trained armed school district security staff. This will make our school building much safer. What would the cost be to do this at any one building?, district wide? Given the cost, does this make sense? To some people it may. To others its a waste of money. Who is right? Is this for real? What does (TIC) mean? Site impacts, Enrollment Declines (Process) Is the individual school budget determined on a building-by-building basis with a formula based on actual student enrollment? (Meaning that schools that do not have a declining enrollment will not suffer a loss of funding?) Can someone describe some ways the site councils have chosen to cut site budgets? I think this presentation glosses over the actual loss of jobs and cuts in staffing. Site Impacts, local control My ideas for budget change? Cut busing (neighborhood schools RAH!); cut area superintendents (they create more red tape, and more red tape=more money spent); Cut the Superintendent's salary and car allowance(it is ludicrous that the position makes more than the governor); allow schools more control over things like catering, security, etc. (possibly saving the disrict more money by bypassing the middleman contractor). Case in point: It is my understanding that the district has a full-time employee that all they do is set up seminars for site-councils and continuing education for staff. Is it really necesssary to have this person on board full-time, drawing a salary AND benefits to set up a few get-togethers a year? We could contract this out to companies that do this for a living on an as-needed basis, and save some money. If we are down to the nuts-and-bolts of saving money., like turning down the heat a degree (and save worth maybe a teacher's salary) , we need to think about cutting higher-ticket items. Iâve been given to understand that the SCIP plans have been disconnected from the budget, and that since the charter of the Site Councils is to approve the SCIP plans, the Site Councils no longer have formal, chartered input into the site budget. There are concerns about this disconnect since the essential effort needs to be to strategically align resources to accomplish the SCIP. Thereâs some concern the disconnect will ultimately undermine the Site Councils in their entirety. Realize this probably came about as the result of complexity, but does somehow need to be addressed. Transportation (Process) I took exactly 1 yellow bus to high school and promptly took advantage of their option of taking the city bus to school--it was much calmer and I relished the independence. I wish we could offer that to our high school students. Were there other transportation reductions discussed? Possibly using 35E as a boundary for busing? Workforce (Process) Many factors influence how well the budget dollars impact the classroom. For example, rising health care costs and an increase in the number of teachers high on the salary scale are factors that impact whether dollars make it into the classroom. What are the factors, and how can they be controlled? How much money is needed to facilitate a productive, engaged learning experience for students? Whether or not one supports unions is, of course, value-laden. Teacher's unions have an interesting historyâthey arose from, among other things, poor working conditions, low pay, and gender discrimination. What can our history tell us about the benefits and drawbacks of teacher's unions? Next Steps: Any suggestions to further refine the issues? --Jennifer Armstrong, President NEAT - the St. Paul Network of Education Action Teams 651/774-2957 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.stpaulneat.org NEAT engages, strengthens and empowers all St. Paul public school parents, parent organizations and community members working together to improve public education in St. Paul. _____________________________________________ SPPS Budget Reduction Forum - Feb. 23-27 Co-Sponsored By NEAT: http://www.stpaulneat.org/ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
