Phone:
207-626-2468 Fax: 207-626-2444
www.augustaschools.org
M E M O R A N D U M
DATE: March 5, 2010
TO: Board of Education
FROM: Cornelia
L. Brown, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools
RE: NEWSLETTER
BOARD BUDGET MEETING:
The Augusta Board of
Education will hold its next budget meeting March 1 beginning at 5:30. The meeting will be in the CATC cafeteria.
The business meeting will
follow. The first item on the agenda is a presentation by Gretchen Livingston
concerning her recent trip to
Approval of Minutes from the
business meeting of February 20 follow.
The following items are
letters to the Board concerning proposed program changes/eliminations for
school year 2010-2011.
Student Recognitions are
next. The Board will recognize the
Rotary students of the month from CATC and Cony. Those students are Gideon Forbes, Kristen
Yeaton, Christopher Robinson, Erika Wilson, Robert Metcalf, Jessica Brox, Emily
Carr, Katherin Hofferberth, Melissa Birch, Megan Barton.
The School Department
received a letter from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges
concerning the accreditation status of
Committee reports
follow. The only Board sub committee
that met in February was the Personnel Committee who met February 10.
Under the New Business
portion of the agenda there is a student approval requested for a trip (Latin
students) to
The last item of business
will be presented by Sue Campbell concerning a funding resolution and cuts to
General Purpose Aid. The resolution
requests that the State needs to honor the 55% funding obligation to public
schools and stop shifting the burden to local taxpayers..
The next school board
meeting will be March 24. It will begin
with a public hearing on the proposed 2010-2011 school department budget
followed by a board vote. The meeting
will be in the CATC cafeteria.
BUDGET DEVELOPMENT
The Maine Department of
Education released new General Purpose Aid figures last week reflecting the
Change package as proposed by the Governor.
The new figures will add approximately $20 million into General Purpose
Aid. For the Augusta School Department,
the revised figures increase our General Purpose Aid figures by approximately
$284,000.
Other updates last week
concerning the development of the 2010-2011 budget include the recently
released increases for health insurance.
The rate increase is expected to be 2% instead of the 10% that was
anticipated. This change in the budget
will reduce the health insurance expenditures by approximately $200,000.
I will present the updated
revenue information to the Board Tuesday evening at 5:30 along with any other
information that has changed since the Board met March 1.
A reminder to all interested
parties that as we have seen, the budget development process is not static and
can change from day to day. The Board
will vote on a proposed budget to send to the Augusta City Council who has
authority concerning what figure to send to voters for the June referendum.
Which by the way, this year
voters in the City of Augusta will be asked if they want to continue the budget
referendum on the school budget or if they wish to return to the way budget
adoption was done before. Prior to the
budget validation article the last step in the budget adoption process was a
vote of the city council. \
Critical Investments in Education
Panel
Bill
Bridgeo shared with Councilors and asked me to do the same this piece.
|
Remarks by David L. Silvernail |
January 11, 2010 |
How can we not only maintain, but
enhance, our K-12 education system in light of our fiscal crises?
Ø First we must
recognize several realities; and we must face these straight on.
One, we cannot take a “time out” in our efforts to provide a high quality
of education to see
The world will not stop while we fix our financial crisis. The so-called BRIC countries (
And the information describing the current state of
Lowering or suspending our drive for meeting high academic standards is
just not an option.
Two, we must recognize that the current budget shortfall is not just a
momentary blip on the radar. The radar picture is that we must, for the
foreseeable future, do more with less.
Three, we must make some very tough decisions, and choose between
some very difficult equally desirable, but competing options.
Four, We simply must
become smarter about how we use our existing education resources.
Ø But if we do these
things, I’m convinced that the education for our children will have a promising
future.
Ø What does it mean
to be smarter about how we use our existing education resources?
Before turning to this, a disclaimer is in order: I
co-direct the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan
institute which conducts policy research for the Education Committee of our
state legislature, but I’m speaking for myself, not for anyone else or any
other group. Not a representative of MEPRI, nor of the Committee.
Ø So what does it
mean to make smarter decisions?
It
means, in my mind, two things:
1. Being more
efficient in the ways we use our existing resources
2. And it
means reallocating existing resources more wisely.
Ø Before describing
these potential re-investments, let me describe a couple of examples where I don’t
think we are being smart and efficient in the use of our existing
resources.
Ø At the request of
the Education Committee, my center has been working on identifying higher
performing, more efficient schools and school districts in
1.
For example, there are approximately twice as many lower
performing, less efficient schools and school districts as there are higher
performing, more efficient schools and districts.
2.
Lower performing districts are only about 1/3 the size of
higher performing districts, yet the lower performing districts have
approximately 25% more staff per pupil.
3.
System administration costs per pupil in lower performing
districts are 80% higher than they are in higher performing districts.
Clearly there is
work to be done here in improving the ways we use our existing resources.
Ø Turning to another
example:
State aid (subsidy)
to local schools has increased by over ½ billion dollars in the last four years. Yet the percentage of funds school districts
devote to Regular Classroom Instruction has actually decreased by 3 ½
percent over the same time period; from about 44% down to 40.5%.
Ø To me these are
clear examples that we are not using our current resources in the wisest, most
efficient fashion.
Ø So in addition to
becoming more efficient in how we use our resources, what also could we
do? We could reallocate some of our
existing resources.
Ø Let me suggest what
I mean by this in a couple areas, areas which I’ve found Commissioner Gendron
talking about of late. She has
identified them as cost saving areas; I would offer them as examples of how we
may obtain cost savings in order for these to be re-directed to other areas.
Ø First, let’s
examine student-teacher ratios.
Ø
Ø What does this
difference mean in terms of dollars?
The difference
between the
But that is just
not realistic. We are a rural state, after all.
But what if we just increased our ratio to that found in other rural
states – and, in particular, rural states that are currently performing as well
as or better than us in student achievement?
The ratio in those
states is about 13.5. So if we moved to
this ratio, this would represent approximately $400 million in savings (cost
reduction).
Ø A second area of
cost reduction is special education.
This is for a
variety of reasons, but not, as many think, because of poverty levels. It is primarily because our identification
guidelines are more lenient than the federally mandated guidelines.
Clearly, we must
insure that all children with special needs receive appropriate services, but
if we were to adhere to the national guidelines, as Commissioner Gendron has
proposed, thereby lowering our identification rate to the national average, we
could save over $60 million dollars each year.
Ø So these two
reforms alone could save
Ø What should happen
with this potential cost savings?
[It would clearly
wipe out any projected deficits] I propose these savings should first be
re-invested in areas we know are related to higher achievement.
Ø Where should these
re-investments be made?
First, we know that investments in early childhood pay
off. Better performance, fewer special
education referrals, fewer dropouts, and greater lifetime earnings.
So let’s fund universal pre-school for all 4 year olds in
Second, we know more instruction time is related to higher achievement.
So let’s at least increase instructional time in
Third, we know that effective
teachers can make a difference. So let’s:
A. hire better qualified teachers
B. pay them more and retain the best (
C. tie increased pay to performance; and
D. increase the amount of professional
development for them (we spend 6 times as much on athletics as we do on
professional development for teachers)
If
we were to increase
Ø Thus, these
re-investments would cost a total of approximately $250 million dollars – still
leaving approximately $200 million in cost savings. Savings that could be directed toward other
re-investments, or to reduce property taxes.
Ø So this is one
example of how I believe we can face realities, make some very tough
decisions, and still provide a quality education for our children. In fact,
provide a better one for our children.
Ø Is this the only
way? Could there be other
decisions? Other strategies? Yes, of
course. But the bottom line is we must face these very serious realities, and
make some very tough decisions. Indeed,
I believe we have a moral imperative to insure all
CALENDAR of Upcoming Dates/Events
(Please note that this Calendar is to be used only as
a guideline, and that all date and/or /events are subject to change)
|
DATE |
TIME |
EVENT |
LOCATION |
|
|
. |
|
|
|
March 9, 2010 March 9, 2010 |
5:30 7:00 p.m. |
School Board budget meeting School Board Meeting |
CATC Conf. room CATC Cafeteria |
|
March 24 |
6:00 |
Public Hearing on Proposed
2010-2011 School Department Budget followed by School Board Meeting
and vote on Budget |
CATC cafeteria |
|
April 5, 2010 |
5:30 6:30 7:30 |
Education Committee Finance Committee Personnel Committee |
Superintendent’s conference room |