"Applying Agreed-Upon Procedures"

"what you're reporting in your end of year report to the Commonwealth": verification

statistical comparison with other districts
90% of children are staying in district (not counting private)
79.7% of expenses are managed through School Committee
amount of dollars that come from federal dollars into general fund

state average/Worcester/Boston
classroom and specialist teachers $4955/5766/6120
administrative cost per pupil: $446/465/654
in-district transportation: $454/354/1169
out-of-district (tuition and transportation): $20,826/16,714/11,036
per pupil expenses: $13,053/12,906;16,666

Foley asks who is included in administration

City independent auditors for FY09 and FY10

presentation by Sullivan, Rogers & Company for FY09 and FY10
FY09: electricity encumberances
student activity funds now being reviewed on an annual basis
major federal programs: nutrition, Title 1, sped, Title III, and ARRA
state changing dates applicable to things
federal money requested too far in advance
FY10: encumberance issue taken care of
student activity clean-up continued (being dealt with now)
indirect costs: city went to HUD and changed indirect cost rate from 1% to 3%
grants were written with 1%; 3% taken by city
Davis-Bacon act: construction projects of over a certain amount need certified payroll (for prevailing wage rate)
wages and salaries charged to a grant, procedures and documentation must be followed
Foley: to look at it, understand it from a management perspective
nothing here to concern me
keep finding in context

management findings even on WPS were provided by city treasurer...some were not written by WPS, particularly that having to do with grant funding

Continuing spending resolution...now with ed cuts

The House has passed a compromise bill to keep government up and running. In the bill, however, are some education cuts:

The measure also includes significant cuts to education programs that would extend beyond the two-week period, including entirely scrapping the $250 million Striving Readers program, the $88 million Small Learning Communities Program, and the $66 million Even Start program. It also would get rid of the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships, or LEAP, program, financed at $64 million.

I've got to go back through my grants list to tell you if and how much this would change Worcester's numbers. If it passes the Senate, I'll update.

Who's getting hit by the recession?

Robert Reich offers this state-by-state list of education cuts.
UPDATE: And be sure and read  Bruce Baker's take.

Settling up

We're approving $4,839.90 of FY10 spending after the close of the fiscal year.
(If it gets spent after the close of the fiscal year, it needs specific approval.)

Finance and Operations report

Year end report: note that it came out nearly even
South High pool: subcommittee recommends that $26,200 to find out how much it would cost to repair the pool
grant list
$44 million in capital improvements: recommend approval
grant approval process
revolving fund and policy on advertising at Foley Stadium
(the ban on political items causes the mayor to do an "aw-shucks" snap of his fingers)

Mullaney is reluctant to spend money on the study of South High pool
O'Brien replies that the city is trying to create a citywide aquatics plan. "it might be in the interest of the city, if we could spend potentially less money... to have a pool open year 'round"
"would work partnering with the city council, potentially working with them to put it in the city capital budget"
O'Brien says he'd be willing to hold for a week to talk to the City Manager to see about cost sharing

Monfredo mentions that a number of trees are being planted at city schools this fall.
O'Brien mentions that a teacher at Union Hill said she walked in and all she could say is "wow." The kids feel like they're in a transformed school.

O'Connell doesn't want to see the pool report rise or fall on the basis of the City Manager's answer.."represents a failure of aspirations back" when it was built in the '70's
He mentions that Worcester Academy's pool was built in 1915
"let's keep the issue alive"

The mayor mentions that we have to take a roll call vote on the $44 million in capital improvements.."the largest investment in school upgrades and repairs in our history"
"this is really a big thing" and notes the irony of there being (actually three) very few people here
He asks that it be on the website prominently, that it be forwarded to site councils
makes a motion that we maintain it: how do we evaluate the work of custodians, asks for a report
Foley notes that Nelson Place is first on the list to be rebuilt
Novick: motion to share with custodial staff

First week of school agenda

The September 2 agenda of the Worcester School Committee is up.
The first order of business is committee consideration of the recess policy (if you care, please come!). We also have the information regarding all of the summer transfers (including teachers who had to re-apply for their jobs), new hires, and retirements.
The Finance and Operations subcommittee report is coming back to the full committee. This includes the end of year balances for FY10, a proposed sign policy for Foley Stadium, a proposed course of action for South High's pool, and a proposed method of dealing with grants (making them all, in various ways, public).
Mrs. Mullaney has a couple of proposed items regarding summer: summertime administrative coverage, and the avaliablity of student schedules over the summer.
I've also co-sponsored an item on International Walk to School Day, which is October 6. I hope that if your children attend a neighborhood school and it's walkable, you'll walk to school that Wednesday, and ask others to join you! I hope this can also be a chance to have some conversations around what does and doesn't make it possible to have kids walk to school.

Net School Spending and City "In-Kind" contribution

As you probably know from past postings here around the foundation budget, the city is assessed a minimum contribution to the Worcester Public Schools each year.
It doesn't all come in cash.
(I discovered this for myself last year when I asked where the line item was for water and sewer in the school budget. There isn't one.)
You will find here the city's contribution of services to the WPS. There's a calculation at the top that determines how much the city can assess for services provided by the city auditor, purchasing, city technical services, the city treasurer, and the city manager's office.
It's basically "how much of the entire city budget is the school budget?" The answer is about 51%. The schools then pay that percentage of the listed departments. Yes, that does mean that 51% of the City Manager's office is paid for by the schools, as is 51% of the city auditor, treasurer, technical services, and purchasing.
That's about $4.6 million.
Add to that $592,895 in police services (that's the rest of the salaries of the police officers that are assigned to the schools) and the $475, 552 in water and sewer.
That's a total of $5.65 million.

NOTE: This does not include the 3% grant fee assessed for each grant received by WPS. That's an additional $1.3 million.

dispelling rumors

Monfredo goes on record to "dispel rumors" that WPS are not asking for more money
"implore the city fathers"
Worcester close to the bottom in funding education over the legal limit

Chief Accountability Officer

request that the position be held off.

O'Connell: focus the dollars that we have in the classroom
"whether we should under the current fiscal conditions should be adding an additional position"
thrifty as we want to be
refer to the administration
suggests that for next year, admin reduce a position if they move forward with this
"as directly on instruction as it is possible to do"

Monfredo: "can certainly understand why we should wait on this position"
I think the time to say no is probably last year not now
"recommended reductions in the budget"
"one of our benchmarks for evaluating her is student achievement"
"accountability in public education is here to stay here, it's not going away"
"we do not have a position that provides the level of data" analysis
"I suggest that we give Dr. Boone the chance to move our district forward"

Mullaney: "a little confused"
this is just May and June
"we just won't hire this person until July, or we won't hire it at all"
I voted against it last year
"I was more confused at the end of the meeting than I was before"
"I've been a doubting Thomas on this...I go into this reluctantly"
asks if this is a three-three vote: a tie vote keeps it here
"it seems to me that you don't want the job ever at that rate"

Biancheria: "do more with this; built from the child out"
alternative of using current staff members
potential layoffs
"I've been told it's in the budget...the budget is still a challenge"
"our hand has been out to the community...we've asked the entire community to come and help us"
"I realize that data is vital, but so aren't our classrooms..I'd prefer not to make a 100,000 dollar mistake"
recommend that we eliminate the position for Fy11

(then me)

Foley: reminder that this is an item that was brought forward during the FY10 budget
"most of our intention that it would be in the fall"
search is nearly complete
"process is nearly done on a vote that we took last year"
"with the increased scrutinity...we have got to put someone in this poition...to see how this is working...agree with [academics over accountability]...believe this will drive instruction"
evaluation of reading programs
"I do think...that we are recognizing that this is more of a demand on our system than we had thought"
operational issue : give her the power to run the school district
integral part of what she intends to do here

Boone: appreciate the thought that has been given to this particular position
"a strong focus on accountability..."
urban districts and strategy...critical use of data, compelling level of that improvement
informations of the use of lack of student data ranked "poor" by the EQA team in 2005; improved in the next one
regular and ongoing review of programs
"what capacity to support school intervention efforts to date? What effect has it had to date?"
2007 EQA...ID'ed for restructions
review of Level schools...
"the need for a much greater and deeper focus on data"
since 2003 this need has been reported
"yes, we've had some focus on data and assessment...to continue to ignore this documented use of data..."
"the cost of not improving our schools will far exceed our investment in this position"
"I don't see how we can sit back and ignore"

3-3 vote, so motion does not go forward

Notes from Finance and Operations

A few notes from yesterday afternoon's Finance and Operations subcommittee meeting, held yesterday at the Durkin Administration Building at 4 pm (if you check the bottom of the page, it's already up, if you would like to watch it).

• We received a report back investigating a zero waste cafeteria model as implemented in The Harding School in Santa Barbara, CA. A zero waste cafeteria uses paper products that are compostable (made of corn-based plastics, for example). WPS research came back with an increase of at least $180,000 to implement something of this kind. Admin also pointed out that currently all trash from WPS goes to Wheelabrator in Millbury, which incinerates the trash for electricity (a "waste-to-energy" model).
• We also got back a requested report on the school lunch program. Currently 12,700 kids in the city of Worcester get free lunch; 1000 get reduced lunch; about 2000 get paid lunch. (Just as a reminder, there are about 24,000 kids in the WPS.) We have our cooks trained to prepared from scratch parts of the meals from USDA offerings (this is uncommon, by the way. A lot of districts send their USDA chicken out to Tyson, for example). All bread is now whole grain, and we've had an increasing amount of fruits and vegetables coming to WPS in the Farm to School Program. All 4 oz. yogurt and milk no longer contains HFCS.
  
• The special ed bus contract was approved with Durham, whose bid of $27 million came in under that of First Student. The full committee will vote on this tomorrow night.
• There was also the third quarter report. On a quarterly basis, the F&O reviews the accounts as presented by the Business office which recommends transfers as necessary to the full committee. On yesterday's report, an importance piece is a bit on the auditor's report. As I explained elsewhere (and, if you're interested, you can hear Mr. Allen do it above in the video, or watch tomorrow night, as he'll probably be asked to do so again), for the past ten years, the utilities for WPS have, with the approval of the city auditor, been paid on a school (rather than fiscal) calendar. The auditors, in short, interpreted the case law differently, and so WPS will be paying those bills on the fiscal calendar from here on out. However, that leaves the budgeted utility funds for those months for this year available. As a general rule, schools may not carry over funds; however, stimulus funds may be carried over if the state is notified. The state has been so notified. The balance (should the full committee approve) is being used to pre-purchase books and to fund the Clark Master's program for this year.
• (still in the third quarter report) We've also seen an increase in the need for transportation funds under the McKinney-Vento Act, which requires busing to and from their home district for students experiencing homelessness. We've seen a 50% increase. The numbers of kids are up.

Again, this report comes back to the full committee at tomorrow night's meeting.

Report back on the Commissioner's district funds

You might remember we had a presentation on the accountability plan, and I asked about where the money came from and how it was being spent. This is in response to that.

Monfredo: is Focus on Results required? no, put together with state in cooperation
Novick: fleshes out that in essence this money is not ours to spend, largely is determined by the state
disconnect between four core district priorities and how it is spelled out on the ground
chief accountability officer: do we have to hire one? paid for by WPS funds
Boone: it was and has been part of the conversation with the state
how does this work with the accountability people we already have?
O'Connell: strength deployment plan for instructional systems improvement
"investing with our people...in our classrooms"
"it's only through professional development that we can improve as teachers and leaders" says Mulqueen
O'Connell asks what parts of this we should fund ourselves in house, if need be
use of grants to support PD so we can free operating funds to keep people in place
Biancheria asks for costs detail on how much is ours: $108,740 (from federal grants: ARRA, says Boone. In fact, it's from a Teaching American History grant)
Chief Accountability Officer: will it complete four silos? Boone: only position requested as she came into the district
cost detail on Acct. Officer? In the FY10 budget already
not infriged on this year (FY10), and she plans to include it in the FY11 budget

FY10 budget update

One of the biggest responsibilities of the former Business, now FO committee is a quarterly update of the current year budget.

FY10 budget update (as of Dec. 31, 2009)
30.7% of the budget has been expended so far this year (teachers get paid through the summer, which counts on this fiscal year, which is why we've spent 30% of the budget at 50% of the year)

saved money on final actuarial study from city $386,000

lower sped tuitions $350,000--placements that didn't happen
cooler than usual summer; warmer than usual winter= savings on utilities

more outside legal (sped and regular legal) than past years; collective bargaining up (which costs money for the attornies who negotiate)

Health insurance (we hired a few more teachers) and we have less grant funding

plant maintenance (that fat, oil, grease ordinance from the city)

day-by-day substitutes; we assumed a vacancy factor, but it has not panned out this year (or last, come to that)

unemployment comp has been extended by fed and state; we aren't being reimbursed for this.
So far it's $127, 136 over

Have not spent fiscal stabilization funds so far this year ($15.9 million), asks Foley; how are we doing this?
State has not yet gotten the money from the fed; they're supposed to get them during the third quarter, and can spend them retroactively if needed, back to July 1 of this past year.

"worker's comp is the School Committee's snow account", says Foley

Finance and Operations

The first standing committee meeting of the new School Committee is tomorrow afternoon: Finance and Operations (which was Business, but now includes School Plant) meets tomorrow, with an impressive 83 page agenda.

(there's a lot in the backup)

On the agenda: the second quarter update, opening the bus contract bids, and a question regarding reopening the Hancock case (that last is equitable funding for education; watch it!).

On Buses and Budgets

The Standing Commitee on Business (or what my eldest referred to as "the money committee") met tonight. Two major issues on the table: buses and budgets.

1. The bus contract is up for renegotiation. There's an amazing level of detail in the bus contract. A few things I learned tonight: we're starting off by paying $3 a gallon for gas (but it goes up and down with the market). We've got video cameras on the buses (we're now looking for a more modern system as part of the new contract). All buses to be used can't be more than ten years old. Oh, and no, that driver should not be on his cell phone: it's against state law.
2. The budget, or rather two. Business committee gets an update on where we are on money, so FY10 is part of the program. We've hired eight additional teachers (for class size, scheduling, or special ed reasons) since the budget passed. We saved some money over the summer on air conditioning. We lost funding (through 9c cuts) for some school nurses (it's a 50% reduction in the EHS grant, for those who follow this) but they're scrambling to pay for it some other way. And here's an interesting point: the federal and state legislature has extended unemployment benefits, however, city and state governments are not reimbursed for that. So we are losing some substantial money there. As for FY11, you've seen the list (but the business office would like you to be able to recite it in your sleep, so I'll give it to you again): charter school funding formula change; extended the retirement schedule; eliminate private and parochial school transportation requirements; freeze out-of-district tuition rates. This is what the administration would like to see happen on Beacon Hill; if it all did, it would add up to $5.7 million in savings for WPS.

Comments from the members: Clancy

Five points from Councilor Clancy:

• reforms did not come easy on the city side this year. Send the schools a list
• stabilization funds. Do the schools have $ set aside? (note from the mayor-elect sitting next to me: schools can't save money from year to year)
• charter schools would cost $5 million if the 2 new ones get approved
• reform efforts: what are they on the school side?
• numbers are unsustainable for the future

Clancy says the message is that they want the city to live within their budget

liveblogging from the Levi Lincoln Room

I don't know what that does for broadcasting

We've got the School Committe and the City Council all scrambled up together in quite a presentation of unity in the Levi Lincoln room (mysteriously overheated).

We're hearing first from City Manager O'Brien and then from Superintendent Boone.
keep in mind: we are in FY10 now

FY10 : Pension Liabilites one year reprieve
Local option taxes
$2 million decifit as of August 2009
Then the Quinn Bill got cut further ($400,000)
Plus we're projecting a loss of $800,000 of less revenue (interest income, trash bages, fees and permits all are down)
Looking at $3,200,000 then for FY10

FY11: further state aid cuts
valuations are expected to continue to decline
new construction growth is projected to continue to decline (FY07=$4.5 mil, FY10=$2.5 mil, FY11=$1.5 mil)

Local receipts adjusted downward another $800,000 in total
Fy11 projected increase of $1 million

Obligations for next year: $255 million for WPS, $24 million for charter schools, $104 million for fixed costs, $3 million for snow removal
To do everything we have left we have $105 million, but it's going to cost $115 million, leaving a deficit for next year of $10 million
HOWEVER
unemployment claims are down
and we have a hiring freeze of 10 positions
each of those is half a million, giving us $1 million back

$2,200,000 budget deficit for FY10, then
there also is still $1 million cushion for possible future 9c cuts
"Must plan for the worst and hope for the best"

Assuming state aid is level funded, that there is no snow carryover from FY10, and a 0% wage increase for all unsettled contracts

$10 million is A MINIMUM projected deficit

Possible solutions: airport transfer to MassPort of $1.5 mil
pension schedule extension $3.1 million
early retirement $2 million (up to 100 positions and only filling 20)
closure of telecom loophole $1.5 million

Lots of working with the Legislature on things

"Partnership with WPS is key to our city's future...through difficult times and the better days ahead" (capts deleted)

Partnership:

• preserved and exceeded minimum education funding
• $2.1 million in health surplus for funding above minimum ("in the absence of school-side collective bargaining reforms")
• stabilized funding after 9C cuts
• reforms--health and pensions savings--allow for funds to be redirected tot he classroom

Joint meeting

And it's a big one!

The School Committee and the City Council will hold a joint meeting at 5:30 on Tuesday afternoon.

The official agenda is short; just "To discuss issues related to the FY10 and FY11 projected budgets"


Worth attending if you're keeping an eye on budgetary matters. I'll be liveblogging.

FY10 budget

Accept and filed
No discussion.

The latest round of state cuts

The Governor announced his plan to eliminate the $600 million budget gap (for FY10, this year) earlier this week. What does it do to Worcester education?

• Special education reimbursements are down (statewide by nearly $7 million); specifically, these are reimbursements for residential placements
• Charter school tuition reimbursements are down (statewide by $5.1 million)

The regional districts took a real hit on transportation reimbursement: to encourage towns to regionalize, the state has picked up some of the cost of transporting (for example) all of the Paxton high schoolers to Holden every day. Not anymore.

I don't have the numbers for Worcester, but I assume that Brian Allen will be updating the School Committee about this at their Thursday meeting. (As yet, the agenda isn't posted)