Central Mass Special Education Collaborative

audited for FY11
$4.5m in accounts, but had not entered encumberances for the summer
and had not entered OPEB
was (after that) $1.4m
surplus from last year; charge to Worcester is frozen, thus using up $1m of the surplus
currently undergoing an FY12 budget
Allen: that $1m freeze will go away; sped account will go up by $1m PLUS growth
one time freeze used to save teaching positions
double increase for next year
Foley: is this the first time the state has conducted an audit?
Dio: first time the state has paid any attention to collaboratives since their inception
5 out of 28 looked at...finished and moved on
issues uncovered at Merrimack were outside of anyone else's operating experiences
Foley asks how often we have people here: Allen says it seems like every week
audits should be instructive
Dio comments that most collaborative directors locally have been public school employees and are familiar with what is required of them, followed that even as not required

General business, including the audit of the collaborative

Going off to subcommittee:
the annual "changes to the budget"
resolutions for MASC's annual delegates meeting
a Title 1 Parent Advisory Council
more intensive standards for PE
update on implementation on Common Core
...and a bowling club (no word on candlepin or otherwise, though Mr. Monfredo tells me he's a candlepin bowler)
Going to F&O is a meeting with the special ed collaborative to discuss the state auditor's findings: Foley "have an obligation as a school committee under our fiduciary responsibilities..audit to help refine our practices"
Boone: "a number of changes in terms of the governance structure...first board meeting"
updates from our perspective
Allen: "certainly support these audits..." annual audits extensive lists
internal controls
one on retirement contributions will have a financial impact at some point; collaborative reviewing
"excessive fund balance" transitioning their old, cash, basis, to an accrual basis: an accounting issue is being corrected, recreating their FY11 statements now based on modified accrual accounting, unbalance was based on summer salaries
"we insisted on the tuition freeze which saved us a million dollars" (FY13)
"essentially reducing the balance by $1.2m, $1m is a trust fund account, $1.5 tuition freeze ($1m for us)...expenses of (SS) liability will go to the member districts"
"no further action other than the $1m tuition freeze...we want to know what the retirement liability is going to be"
financial statements will be created for FY12 after finished with FY11
"How to best use...the fund balance?"
"don't want to receive the benefit one time...smooth tuition freeze going forward...collaborative does need some balance going forward"
"don't want to be in the situation of a midyear tuition increase"
O'Connell...focus should be collaborative exists to charge what it needs to provide its programs
board needs to be watching this
suggests that F&O consider requiring regular copies of budget, minutes of board meetings,
should we revisit the agreement with the collaborative: is the role of Webster disproportionate to the size of Webster in this collaborate? What should we be doing with this collaborative? Is it meeting our needs?

back to the budget!

tuition
Colorio asks what this is: out of district placement for students
Allen answers that it is, but points out that the state provides circuit breaker
assuming 65-70% in our calculating
O'Connell asks if we have any circuit breaker left
Allen: used all of FY11, might have some carryover in FY12; can provide at the fiscal close
tuition passes
bus monitors, transportation, instructional support, support overtime, school clerical
transportation recommended to reduce by $19,000
approved

Administration: O'Connell motion to cut by $200,000
suggests that it's about 2%
"I could justify a figure several times that"
Monfredo asks for an administrative response
Boone: not sure what positions he could do without
"have said to this committee over and over again that we run an extremely lean shop"
"when every dime that has become available to this committee...has been allocated to support classrooms"
Colorio: will support, will move to tutors
Petty: general cut, don't care where it comes from?
O'Connell from
Motion fails3-4

Non-instructional support:
Colorio: motion to cut $70,000 from account, coordinator of school volunteers
O'Connell will support, but wants to fund position from grants (I think) and move money to tutors
Petty: "But the budget will be done, and we don't have $70,000 to take care of it"
Foley: "there are lots of things we'd love to see in the school district"
Monfredo: "we're getting later and later and we're not doing too much thinking here"
Petty pushes if it is more important than Elm Park Community School liaison

Misc Ed OM
reduction of $1 m for environmental  work
addition of $20,000 for security
Colorio: $8000 for food
Allen: food for various school-based function, "as we provided in a recent length report to you as requested by the media"
Petty: school-based function
Allen: $2000 of it funds the 30 year dinner
Biancheria requesting additional $10,000 for school safety (on top of the regular $20,000, on top of the additional $20,000 added yesterday)
request was to move from building repair
passed

administration clerical
approved

IA's approved

nurses: adding funds
approved

teachers: approved


School nutrition: approved

Where does Worcester fall in administration funding?

To the oft-asked question: where does Worcester fall in administration funding?

Comparison of per pupil expenditures on District Administration between the Worcester Public School and urban peer districts, FY 2011

(click to make it bigger)
Please note: this includes the CITYSIDE administrative costs the city claims as part of education funding, which for FY12 was $4,622,410. That is money the city simply states that it spends on the schools' behalf on administrative oversight. That's more than the school side administrative costs (and is not under the control of the School Committee or indeed the Worcester Public Schools).

Commissioner Chester on Worcester's not meeting net school spending

Sorry, I only have these on paper, so I scanned these. Posted as PDFs. 


Here's the Commissioner's actual letter from November 2011:

The calculation for FY11:

And the calculation for (at that time budgeted) FY12:

report of the Standing Committee on Finance and Operations

You've got most of this already...so minimal notes from me...
I will note that the votes we are taking tonight on the Statements of Interests are heading to City Council for Tuesday night's meeting, with our hope of getting them in next week (?).
Mr. Foley notes that Nelson Place has already been voted and forward to MSBA (thus it will not be voted tonight)
O'Connell stops the vote to ask if the Worcester East Middle vote includes the auditorium. It certainly does!
And note that many of the Green Repair window projects are at the schools either built or repaired during the PCB era.
And yes, MSBA does need an individual vote (phrased correctly) for each school submitted.

F&O liveblog

Transportation:
students who reside less than two miles from the school they attend (as discussed in August; referred back to subcommittee)
List is of places that have bus transportation that are closer than two miles
Question of whether there are places that DPW action could resolve the safety issue (largely, not)
Secondary students are not required to be bussed, but we do, thus all the buses are on the road already, and so this costs nothing extra.
Security cameras
list of current cameras, compiling list of upgrades
notes made of schools that have cameras only at the front door; considering recommended upgrades, as needed by principals

FY11 Budget
final numbers

Finance and Operations subcommittee meeting tonight

The Standing Committee on Finance and Operations meets tonight at 5 pm at the Durkin Administration Building. You can find the agenda here.Note that it's a subcommittee agenda; click the highlighted number to get the item with backup.
We'll be closing out the FY11 year, and doing the first quarter of the FY12 year.
We're setting the rental rates for North High School (and if you've ever wondered how much it costs to rent a school, you'll find the answer in the backup).
If you have an interest in the transportation of elementary students, there's an item is for you.
There's also an item on security cameras.

We're also reviewing, prior to consideration by the full committee tomorrow, the Statements of Interests for the Mass School Building Authority this year. In addition to Nelson Place (which has already been submitted), we're submitting applications for:
Worcester East Middle, Doherty, Burncoat, South, Tatnuck Magnet, Clark Street, Goddard, Flagg Street, Chandler Elementary, Burncoat Middle, Union Hill**, Worcester Arts Magnet, Jacob Hiatt Magnet, Elm Park, Grafton Street, Harlow Street*, Columbus Park, Sullivan Middle, Belmont Street, Canterbury, West Tatnuck, Chandler Magnet, Vernon Hill, Thorndyke Road, McGrath, Lake View, Lincoln Street, Caradonio, Mill Swan*, and Millbury Street*.

In several cases, these SoIs including work already completed this summer, or work planned for this upcoming summer. It also includes, in many cases, windows for buildings that did not get them under the plan from Honeywell. It also includes the auditoriums at Burncoat Middle and Worcester East Middle.

We further are applying for updated science labs (these are a separate application process) for the three high schools and for Worcester East Middle (again, work already planned. Originally, MSBA was not going to consider middle school applications; they now are).

Again, 5pm, Durkin Administration Building, 4th floor, or on Channel 11!


*Head Start location
 **including a replacement for the now-defunct boiler

Auditor finds education costs for homeless kids must be covered by state

As you may have seen, State Auditor Suzanne Bump has found that the busing and education requirements of the McKinney-Vento Act, as complied with by the state, are an unfunded mandate. McKinney-Vento requires that students who are homeless and are living outside their home district be given transportation back to their home district, if their families wishes; students also have extra support services. Under this ruling, districts may apply for a waiver of the requirements or (as is more likely) may work with the Legislature to fund what is estimated at $6.3 million statewide in combined education and transportation costs each year.
You may recall that Worcester saw some substantial increases for FY11 for homeless students, particularly around transportation, and that it came up in this year's budget conversation for FY12. No, I don't know how much money we're spending on this now (good question for the first quarter report!), but it sounds like we've got something else to work with the Legislative delegation on!

motion to add IAs

Motion from several members to consider hiring additional IAs for kindergarten classes of 20 or more kids
"this is where our achievement gap begins" says Monfredo
Boone notes that this would cost $750,000
Going to F&O

Finance and Operations report

One thing I didn't mention in my earlier report is that we're seeing an increase of personal services of $44,000 due to eight students enrolling in the Greenfield Virtual High School (they stay home, do work on the computer, and Worcester pays Greenfield). It looks like most of those students are students who were not previously WPS students (homeschoolers, perhaps?). There's a bit of conversation around whether the committee is or is not concerned about this.
And "equity in pricing" means that we are raising the school lunch price for next school year to $1.55 (that's for paid lunch).
Biancheria asks if there is any change in transportation due to the closure of Putnam Lane. Yes, Allen comments that the routes need to change (as some buses use it). Also, students at North High: some students cut through on Putnam, which puts them at less than two miles (and so they walk). With Putnam closed, there is a possibility that they will be beyond two miles. Next year's budget includes a 95th bus. It would cost $6500 for rest of the year, if it needed to be added. Biancheria asks for updates; Novick asks that they be sent to the City Council as well.

Finance and Operations in sum

It was a brief (three item) meeting tonight, so no liveblog (egregious errors now fixed...mea culpa!). In summary:

• we made the fourth quarter budgetary moves recommended by the administration. Interesting things to note: we are, per the hope/plan, going to be able to forward $2.4 million of education jobs money from this year to FY12 (that's an additional $500,000 over what was projected; small cheer!). This is figured into next year's budget.Also, we're saving $100,000 in tipping fees in trash removal (we're going to figure out why; somehow we're generating less trash, which is good news). We're pre-purchasing WRTA bus passes, as we did last year. Also, due to the large number of snow days, summer school this year is happening entirely after July 1, and thus entirely in the next fiscal year (and yes, that is figured into next year's budget, where there will be a plan to pay for this and a bit of next year's summer school).
• the transportation list (see page 16 and following) is fascinating reading. If you know the neighborhoods, you can largely picture why it is that the kids are not particularly safe walking from the places listed. Also, keep in mind that all of the buses that cover these kids are buses that we would need anyway; they are added ROUTES, not added buses. 
• school nutrition will be seeing a five cent increase in school lunch next year (provided it passes the full committee on Thursday), per the requirements of the federal law. We talked a bit about other requirements and potential impacts.

There was a post-meeting discussion around an F&O FY12 budget hearing; I'll post it as soon as I have a date for it.

Impact of government shutdown on local education

There's much speculation swirling over what happens if the federal government shuts down; the NY Times today had a good list. One item that never seems to get mentioned is federal aid to education.
Title I and other aid of its ilk are reimbursements: in other words, the districts spends the money and then asks the federal government for the money so spent. This is done on a monthly basis and we are currently up-to-date on our reimbursements.
Because whatever budget eventually gets passed will have to include money for the time the government was shut down, one assumes (and the best guess right now) is that we would just get our reimbursements late. We'd have an interesting couple of Finance and Operations meetings where we shuffled money from one account to another, to cover what's usually reimbursed by Title I and others, and then shuffled it back to close the books at year end once the reimbursements came in.
Frankly, I'm more concerned about the proposed CUTS to these funds for next year's budget.

UPDATE: Here's the word from D.C. ('though now I'm confused about summer funding...)

more on Congressional funding

Just got this update from the National School Board Association on the appropriations bill passed by the House for FY11:

The House passed H.R. 1 by a vote of 235 to 189 on February 19, in an effort to cut $61 billion from programs, including education. H.R. 1 would reduce funding for more than 70 education programs by more than 16 percent, or $11.6 billion. The bill would reduce funding for Title I grants for disadvantaged students by $694 million, cut $337 million from Title I School Improvement Grants, and impose a $500 million cut to Teacher Quality State Grants.
...Other programs that would be affected by the funding cuts include statewide data systems ($70.7 million), school counseling ($55 million), education technology state grants ($100 million), and the high school graduation initiative ($50 million). In addition, H.R. 1 includes a proposed cut of $1.1 billion to Head Start and multiple cuts to programs that help support school-based health centers.

To translates some of the inside baseball here: Worcester gets nearly $25 million in federal grants each year. About half of that is Title I funds ($13+ million), which are directly tied to the poverty rate of schools. Title I pays for teachers and IA's, so a cut to Title I is a cut to Worcester's teaching staff (should such a cut get through; this passed the House), and, please note, a cut to the teacher staff at the higher poverty schools (which the administration would then have to rebalance).
As we have yet to receive actual grant funds for either Union Hill or Chandler Elementary (we've gotten transition funds), I don't know (but it's worth asking) whether a cut to the School Improvement Grants would cut the funds avaliable to the states. The cut to SIG was a trade for not cutting special ed money.
We also get school counseling funds, so that is a cut in guidance.
And Head Start is run entirely with federal funds. A cut here is not a cut in the school budget; it is a cut directly to services for those kids.
All of which is to say: keep your eyes on the Senate. And remember: this is THIS YEAR'S MONEY.

Second Quarter report

Notes from F&O:
no big change in the bottom line for this quarter: projecting 1/2 million for end of year, plus edu jobs (total of $2.4 million)
$250,000 normal attrition and vacancies in teacher accounts; nearly the same amount spent additionally in IA's (one-to-one aides)
vacancies for custodians $116, 710 with a $10,797 deficit in overtime (we haven't had to use a lot of overtime for snow clearing, due to timing of snowstorms)
added in moving costs for North High ($50,000; hoping to move this fiscal year)
people no longer collecting unemployment ($237,083)
$54,500 in snow removal (front end loader services, plus hauling, and some snow removal from roofs, and some replacement snowblowers)
$30,000 in chem lab clean-outs

releasing $10/pupil for the schools that had been frozen, with the caution that schools will want to pre-purchase supplies as much as possible

Finance and Operations subcommittee Monday

The Standing Committee on Finance and Operations meets on Monday at 4 pm (what, you had other plans for Valentine's Day?). You'll find the agenda here.
A few things of note:

• The quarterly account transfers (see page 28 or gb 0-215; the links don't work via external link. I should ask about that.) shows how much that weekend snow removal cost us: $54,000. 
• The changes required under the new federal nutrition act are spelled out (gb 1-2 or page 46).
• Curb appeal and clean buildings
• a bit on the financial implications of innovation schools (final item)

Again, the meeting starts at 4 pm in the Durkin Administration Building!

2011 Massachusetts Budget Map

The Pioneer Institute has sponsored this rendering of the 2010 Massachusetts Budget.

Budget reduction

O'Connell rises to oppose
doesn't object to the administration's recommendation, but "a reduction of our budget by vote of the City Council"
(this is only sort of true)

Updates on everything

The agenda for this Thursday's meeting of the Worcester School Committee is up. It appears that the Superintendent's report is an update on all of the various initiatives--Level 4 schools, Promise Neighborhood grant, Focus on Results, innovation schools, the Gates grant--that are currently going on in Worcester. If you're interested in any of the above, coming down to City Hall or tuning in around 7 on Thursday would be well worth your while.
We're also getting back the travel report (which appears to have quite a number of abbreviations and no explanations for those or for the travel...I'm told more on travel will be coming), and a report on the Listening and Learning sessions last spring.
Also, we are being asked to pass the FY11 budget at $362,251 less than we did in June, as the charter assessment rates have come in. It's being recommended that it come out of instructional materials (but, honestly, for FY12, as we'd planned on carrying just over $700,000 forward for next year. We're that much more in the hole for FY12, then.).

Note that the Worcester School Committee is having a legislative breakfast on Friday at 7:30 am at the Tech school.

A bit on the travel funds

..per the article regarding the use of WPS funds for traveling, for those wondering.
The Focus on Results conference in Boston was funded from professional development funds. There is no specific budget line-item for PD--it's funded from a variety of grant sources, including the much-discussed Commissioner's district funds.
The recruiting trip cited to San Diego was funded through our federal Title I grant. Worcester receives (for FY11) about $11 million in federal funds for our low-income schools.
And, yes, I believe that more will be coming on this.