MASBO February meeting: DESE update

Jay Sullivan, DESE Associate Commissioner
extraordinary relief "tis the season": if your circuit breaker 25% higher than FY16, can apply for relief
end of year audits: make sure that districts reporting appropriately on Schedule 3 which is instructional costs by school
"all part of that effort to get comparable data, district by district"
"to make our data as clean and consistent as possible"
end of year audits are due March 31
Governor's budget: Ch.70 spoken about later
charter reimbursement if level funded "about 73% at this point" (which is counting the facilities into that number; which is playing fast and loose with percentages)
about 30% on homeless transportation
non-resident voke "they funded that at $250,000...why don't we just give everybody stamps?"
circuit breaker level funded by Governor; language in line item includes earmarks when Leg does it
"and I hope he doesn't do away with them all, because one of them pays my salary"
just getting through our budget cycle, and more than likely, the fourth quarter with be higher than the 70% posted at this time
in some cases using last year's data on transportation on cherry sheets for reimbursement; posted at 70%
ESSA: new Title I "going to have far ranging implications in a number of areas"
consistent data
requires published per pupil expenditures on a school by school basis
foster child can return to school of origin: local agency or local district can pay
nothing in it about if someone refuses; "and I don't know how many kids this impacts"
school of origin district that would pay; share cost with local state welfare agency
"I don't know how that's going to work, and I don't know what the policy is going to be"
federal mandate
supposed to be decided in the past interest of the child (not an hour on a bus)
"not sure how cost comes into it as a factor"
"stay tuned on that, we're not exactly sure how it's going to play out"
circuit breaker: estimate 68-70% (assuming a 4% increase in costs)
Q link to student achievement data and student attendance data as well as funding
don't want to make decision solely on that
"throwing darts in the dark" on charter reimbursement as Board has not yet decided on new schools