Worcester meetings this week

Two Worcester school meetings this week:

• The Governance subcommittee continues their power drive through policies with a meeting on Tuesday at noon (very conducive to public input). Note that this section includes those on students (J), on negotiations (H), facilities (F), community relations (K), and educational agency relations (L). Most of the policies are MASC boilerplate. Interesting that the superintendent's chief of staff (I have to check the org chart; I didn't know there was such a position) is being given the power to approve WPS statements.

The School Committee meets Thursday at 7 pm with an executive session at 6. In executive session, there are still negotiations with custodians, computer techs, IAs, and educational secretaries, plus there is a teacher discipline case and pending litigation.

MASC will be out to give a series of awards to community members and to Mayor Petty, who is this year's All-State School Committee winner in Division IX (urbans). 

The report of the superintendent is on nursing in the 21st century. There are the usual beginning of year appointments, resignations, and retirements. 

There is a response that the Capstone project--which is the big AP push--was funded in the current year budget; a short response on the wraparound coordinators working at schools; a response on the QUEST program at QCC; a response on the "Seeds to STEM" program from WPI; and a response on improved manufacturing options. 

There's also a response on possible federal grant impacts, which begins with "Federal initiatives are very much in a state of flux," which may be the understatement of the administration. 

There is an update on the  "management plan activities" on the PCB situation at Doherty and Burncoat. The committee (again?) proposes to review the resolutions before the Delegate Assembly of MASC in November. There's a proposed building fee change (no report) and the close of the FY18 books (also no report as yet).

The administration is proposing participating in the model Educator Evaluation system (?no backup?).

There are a series of donations.

Mr. O'Connell wants to invite a representative from MNA to tour the schools; to modify the McKinney-Vento grant to include hurricane impacts (uh...); to investigate licensure options for those coming from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and to ask DESE to extend the October 1 count to later, considering those who may be evacuating elsewhere.

Miss Biancheria wants to discuss the Community Addiction Response Program.

I'm also confused by a series of financial responses coming in from Mr. O'Connell and Miss Biancheria from the last meeting, as there were no fiscal reports on the last agenda, nor any items filed. There's a chart from the Operational Services Division of tuition rates. There's the Educational Divisions supplies account from the FY18 budget. There's an explanation of the changes in the administration account from FY17 to FY18. And there's a report on the Environmental Systems Management. These all feel like budgetary questions, coming during second quarter; did someone just review their budget now?

Worcester's free cash is in

The T&G is reporting that, with FY17 closed, the city has nine million dollars it expects to be certified as free cash.
Note that on Tuesday night's Council agenda, Mayor Petty encouraged the City Manager to use some for the Worcester Public Schools.

Worcester Public Schools Finance and Operations quarterly report

meeting before the budget hearing...agenda is here

Worcester School meetings this week

Two meetings this week:
The Finance and Operations subcommittee meets on Tuesday at 5. The agenda is here.

The part to watch on that (and arguably the most important thing that will end up on Thursday's meeting's agenda) is the second quarter update on the FY17 (current year) budget.

A $375K gap is a lot of ground (yes, non-Worcester readers, even in a $300+M budget) between now and June. You can see that the City Manager's partial filling of the hole left by the Quality Kindergarten grant helps; the city's contributing $280,000. Since the Quality K grant for Worcester was $750K, though, that doesn't get us all the way there.

Also, note what else is going on on the quarterly update:

• rarely do you hear anyone in Worcester talk about special education tuition. That account, though, is now $596K over what was budgeted last June. To interpret this paragraph: "based on student fiscal responsibility" means that kids have moved districts, and we've now sorted out that Worcester has to pay for them. The "approved tuition rate increases for residential placements" means the cost went up for schools kids live at (and this has to be approved the state; it has been). "This account also represents the processing of several necessary prior year payments" means some of this is FY16;  and "as well as new student placements for the current fiscal year" means that new IEPs are still coming through. Remember that the foundation budget only recognizes 1% of the district enrollment as out-of-district special education (and not actual students or costs), and that the circuit breaker, which covers extraordinary costs, is also underfunded (for Worcester, by $294,500 for FY17). It's probably past time to start talking about this.
• because of the ongoing flat funding of the WPS capital account, the district isn't buying new buses at the rate required, so they're increasing the number leased: they're adding adding a special education route, increasing rental use for the transitions program, adding two midday routes through the end of the year, and "The district is developing contracts for the lease of 10 buses during later this fiscal year." The account is projected at $156K over at this point; watch this for FY18.
• Workers' comp. Still over.
• Personal services had some movement due to bringing special education services back to the district, but there's some things going on here besides that: an increase in legal (ok, contract negotiations year, plus the ongoing PCD-ness); translation services (underfunded in about every district serving high numbers of first-language-other-than-English speakers);  security guard contracted rates (has anyone asked why we still have them when we have cops in the schools?); and "nursing services contract rates," (?) as well as "an increase with necessary student services" (and I don't know what that is).
• A balance of over $500K is still in instructional materials; given the above, I have a sneaking suspicion that the schools aren't going to see their remaining $10/pupil.
• And hey! Money saved on utilities!

Also on the agenda: bus tracking (hey, pilot testing before the end of the year!) and running totals on how much the state has underfunded charter reimbursement from FY12 on. 

The full committee meets on Thursday; the agenda is here, and it's a long one, because there was an extra week between meetings. As a result, the following is not in agenda order, but re-sorted into one that is a little easier to follow.
The report of the superintendent is on AVID. 

There are a few appointments and a number of requests for congratulations.

There's (apparently? no backup) a report coming back on window replacements. How the district plans to deal with PCB's is also in there, so perhaps it will be dealt with at least partly in executive session. 

There's a request to approve the update of the agreement with the Collaborative.
They're also being asked to approve the innovation plan for Goddard Elementary.
They're being asked to update the policy on physical restraints (the state adopted new regulations a bit ago on this).

The committee is being asked to accept a donation to Clark Street to encourage families to visit libraries over the summer.
They're also being asked to accept a donation to Worcester Tech for their science fair.
They're being asked to accept a donation from Target to Woodland Academy for the annual Freedom Trail trip.
They're being asked to accept a donation from Fallon for SAT testing for all juniors.
They're being asked to accept accept the Secondary Transition Systemic Improvement Grant for $37,000, which is to improve how high-need kids on IEPs are transitioned out of services from the public schools.
They're being asked to accept the Biobuilder grant for $28,000, which builds on the biotechnology programs at North, Doherty, and Tech, and includes a $500 stipend for students who complete the program.
They're being asked to accept a $10,000 donation for a scholarship from DCU.
They're being asked to approve a prior fiscal year payment of $2,066.40 to a parent for transportation.
They're being asked to accept a donation of $3,000.00 from the Patterson Family Foundation & Scholastic Reading Club for Chandler Elementary.
The audit is in! But not yet attached; being sent to F&O.

Mr. O'Connell is concerned about the edge of Tatnuck Magnet's property; truck traffic from CSX; the federal budget; the update on state accountability (for which comments are due April 5).

He also would like the city to consider issuing bonds to replace schools more quickly.
He also thinks we should have a literary magazine.

Miss Biancheria would like to know which schools are using Mass Work-Based Learning Plans.
She'd like to know about the online program being offered Creamer.
And she'd like a schedule of STEM programs. And a report on the bullying conference.


Mr. Monfredo wants all teachers to read "Casey at the Bat" to students during the week of May 29th.
He would also like the committee to express its concern at the federal budget.
He also wants to celebrate "Heart Health month."
And he's accepting donations for his annual book drive.

Ms. Colorio wants to create a task force "to investigate and seek solutions to drug and alcohol problems in the schools." She's also asking for a report on the Massachusetts ESSA plan and what changes that might bring, and a report on the mathematics and ELL (I think she means ELA?) standards, both of which were voted last week.
She also would like to create "a Hotel and Restaurant within a vacant Worcester public school." Which we don't have any of.

There is also an executive session at 6 pm on negotiations with the teachers' union, two grievances, and (you guessed it!) PCB litigation. 

Let's talk about Worcester Public Schools' facilities

First, let's look at where we are (this is from page 146 of the FY17 WPS budget):

The $3 million "allocated for building renovation projects" is the Worcester-side match on MSBA projects. You'll remember that long list of accelerated repair--window, roof, boiler--projects that the city is doing with state assistance? That city-side comes out of the $3.5 million allocated to the schools.
Once that's happened, and once there's been technology upgrades, and the buses have been replaced, we're left looking at $65,000 for 50 buildings. $1300 per building isn't going to get you far.

That isn't, of course, the only money that's spent on buildings. Capital spending is the big projects: if the HVAC system breaks, that's capital; if a radiator breaks, that comes out of Facilities ordinary maintenance. But here's what facilities OM has looked like (again FY17, this is page 22):

"But it's gone up by one percent!" you note. Yes: it's gone up by one percent for trash hauling. As the EAW noted earlier this week, with four million square feet to cover, that's 33 cents a square foot.

Now, City Manager Augustus raised some hope that he's understanding some of this with his message on school capital funding, though it appears that what he's doing is creating stabilization funds for the projects at South and at Doherty. That isn't a bad idea--it was shortsighted of the Council to cut North High's last year--but all that does it keep those projects moving forward. Important, but it doesn't fix anything else.

And we have some things to fix.
It was of course the Co2--note that is carbon dioxide, like what you breathe out--that got the headline from Burncoat High last week. That's straightforwardly an air circulation issue: people breathing out creates CO2, and it has to go somewhere, and you want it to be circulating out of the building.
Water testing statewide has yielded some results on lead and copper in Worcester schools (that's the report at tonight's school committee). Most of those are the sort that no longer show up once the water has been running.
We've also been hearing a lot about PCBs (there are so many links that I'm struggling to choose one), which have had...varied contacts with reality (check out the EPA here). What I haven't seen get much attention--in fact, I'd missed it myself until Molly McCullough tweeted it out last week--is the history of what Worcester has done over the past seven years (which is when this issue came to anyone's attention). The link is to a January report to School Committee, which I frankly don't remember getting much of any attention at the time.
So what does it say?
The first thing is that Worcester's been talking to the EPA on this pretty much constantly since 2010, and it's the EPA's guidance that's been followed.

The second thing is that, given that PCBs were used during a period of major school construction, this is whole lot of Worcester's schools: 

Oh, but wait: 

Here's where this gets interesting: after the district removes all the light ballast--which is what's widely seen as the biggest health risk--and seals the cauking, works on the air circulation, and creates a regular round of the sort of cleaning that is needed for this, the district reworks the long-term capital plans of the district. And if you compare what schools have had new windows--and it's window caulk that's the main concern at this point--you're going to see something that looks a lot like the above list.

So where does that leave us now? Well, the EAW wants to decide who should do testing to see if there's PCBs. The district has been acting for the past seven years as if there may well be PCBs and pushing those projects through as quickly as possible. We're still only getting $65,000 in capital to spend on building repairs beyond MSBA and $1.3 million to spend on ordinary maintenance.

I'd like to suggest that it's the final sentence that's the most important one. There's a lot more to fix here, and only small parts of it are about chemicals. But we can't do any of it fast or well enough with the funding we have now.

MASBO February meeting, in sum

as sent out over the MASC list-serv

I don’t think this rises to the level of a full “Novick Reports,” but I did want to pass along a few notes yesterday from MASBO’s February meeting, particularly as it focused heavily on state budget issues.

The Mass Taxpayers’ Foundation opened with an analysis of both FY17 and FY18 (my notes are here). There was a particular emphasis on the gap between revenue and expenditures, and in particular the increasing costs of MassHealth.

Jay Sullivan from DESE gave his update (notes). Along with reminders of due dates and reports, he did give some projections for FY18 based on the Governor’s budget (‘though he also reminded us that the Governor’s budget isn’t the end). Do note that the charter reimbursement percentage he gave of 73% bundles in the facilities funding, so that’s not really the number you’re looking for. He did also flag coming changes due to ESSA on how Title I works.

Melissa King of DESE gave an update on the Governor’s budget (notes). In addition to what you already know, she did note that this year 92 districts are getting foundation aid; the remainder of districts are getting hold harmless aid plus the (Governor’s) $20/pupil increase. That brings the amount of funding from the state over foundation aid to over $400 million.

They invited Roger Hatch (now retired) to reflect on state funding of education (notes). Overall, he pointed to the difference having a foundation budget has made from a state budgetary perspective: it pulled equity into the equation (when making additions or cuts), which had not previously been the case, and it established a floor beyond which the state can/does (?) not cut when it comes to education funding.

The school business officials continued their work on data management (in concert with DESE) in the afternoon; a peek at that is here.

Mistakes, as always, mine, and questions welcome.

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

MASBO February meeting: Perspective on the next state budget from Mass Taxpayers

Eileen McAnneny, President of Mass Taxpayers
Trifecta of budget challenges: revenues slowing, non-discretionary spending growing, need to replenish reserves
happening during economic recovery

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

The Worcester School Committee meets Thursday; you can find the agenda here.
The big news will be FY18, of course, but that report isn't yet posted.

However, there is some news for FY17; namely, that the city DID in fact forward $70,000 from free cash when they closed the fiscal year to assist in saving the kindergarten aides! We aren't there yet (if I'm reading this correctly, we're still $300,000 or so short?), but we've made progress.

In the process, some budget related news: FY17's statewide charter reimbursement line (identical to that proposed for FY18) was funded at only 46%, shorting Worcester $714,532 and the whole state by $54.2M.
There are some recognitions, retirements, appointments, and one resignation which is of note: Grace Howard-Donlin, who resigned effective last week, was the appointed director of the international baccalaureate program, and had been charged with planning that. It appears that the last gasps of a hope of any such program in Worcester have (once again) died.

There's a report on the charter school tuition assessment  (which maybe I need to re-read, because I'm not sure why this was being asked...)
There's responses coming back on the Space Monkey Challenge (and dangers thereof) and attempting to expand the AVID program.
There's a request for this year's incidents reports.
There's a request that math activities accompany summer reading lists (as they do already).
There's a request for a report on dual enrollment.
There's a request that Worcester's colleges perhaps kick in for Worcester's students AP exams.
The administration is sending the student handbook to subcommittee, and they are recommending these additional new classes:
High School:  Accounting 1; AP Seminar; Document Processing
Middle School:  Chorus; Dance Ensemble; Dance for Fitness; String Orchestra
Those will go to Teaching, Learning, and Student Support; there is as yet no description of any of them.
There are also requests that the School Committee accept donations of $292.20 and $1,212.49 for Woodland Academy and $400 for Forest Grove.

And the administration is requesting that the following schools and projects be forwarded to the MSBA: 
Burncoat High School: Window Replacements*
Elm Park Community School:  Window Replacements
Lincoln Street School:   Window, Roof and Boiler Replacements
Rice Square School:   Window Replacement
Thorndyke Road School:   Window Replacement

*Yes, this is the ridiculous idea that started circulating at the last school committee meeting that the secondary school that most needs rebuilding should just get windows.

PCBs remain in executive session; there is also collective bargaining with teachers and a grievance from an HVAC worker.

I'm going to try to make the budget report this go-round.

Worcester School Committee Finance and Operations

agenda is here 
MSBA spending: total of $43M in spending
Allen: balance of $3M annual allocation this past year to fix HVAC for Jacob Hiatt which had failed
Foley: money going to windows "and the reasons behind that" but the windows were also in terrible shape
Allen: pretty good results
ESCo plus MSBA plus environmental mitigation
windows "at twenty cents on the dollar, we're going to take advantage of that"

Worcester meetings this week

There are two Worcester school meetings this week of interest:

The Worcester School Committee Finance and Operations subcommittee meets Monday at 5:30 (that's at the administration building, 4th floor); the agenda is here.
This is the first quarter meeting, so it closes out FY16, updates FY17 in full, and with accounts of particular concern...which are concerning. It's only the end of the first quarter, so there are no recommended transfers as yet, but currently FY17 for WPS stands at over $700,000 projected in the red. The reasons are telling:

• The loss of the state kindergarten grant when the Legislature cut it for this year: $694,132
• Special education tuition beyond anticipated: $442,912
• supplemental programs, in largest part additional need for translation due to updated Department of Justice requirements (hey, did we know anything about that?): $264,529
• transportation, due to the city not increasing capital spending, and thus WPS having to cut back on needed new buses (and rent instead): $130,468

That, of course, adds up to more than $700,000; if you look at the report, you'll see projected balances, as well. But this isn't a good place to end the first quarter on. And the first snow falls tomorrow.

And do notice how many of those have to do with the state needing to update the foundation budget.

There's a report on the MSBA-funded work done in WPS since 2012. A question of interest: the reimbursement comes back to the city; has the city been using the funds to pay off the MSBA-related borrowing? Or has it gone into the general fund?

Finally, there's a response to Mr. O'Connell's query regarding the signing of warrants. The full letter from City Solicitor David Moore is here. To say that this has rather startling policy implications, if fulfilled, would be an understatement, as Mr. Moore goes well beyond the municipal charter--which is in line with Lowell and Cambridge's charters, where committees sign warrants--into querying the position the school committee holds in state law (and drawing conclusions I will say that I have seen nowhere else).  He also never speaks of ch. 71, section 34, which is where the authority is derived. I also find the tone of polite horror at school committees having to sign off on every expenditure a little entertaining, as it's done in nearly every district in the state (yes, including cities).

The full Committee meets Thursday at 7 at City Hall; the agenda is here. The report of the superintendent will be on expanding preschool; there is as yet no posted backup.
There are reports of subcommittees, appointments, retirements, congratulations.
Mr. O'Connell requests a salary schedule.
Noting the update on school improvement plans that passed this past year, he also is asking for a process of consultation on school improvement plans.
Administration is requesting the School Committee accept $1700 in donations to Goddard Scholars.
Miss Biancheria would like to know how principals are evaluated.
She also is requesting that buildings be inspected with regard to: water systems, foundations, leaking roofs, heating systems, and wrapped pipes...sounds rather like the facilities plan noted in the subcommittee report.
Miss Colorio would like all teachers and other licensed personnel renewed through "the new data base tool from DESE" by which I assume she means this, which is just a database, not a new way to renew.
She also would like a robocall to go out on the recovery high school and on Worcester Opiate Educational Forum.
There are two prior year invoices, including one for $74,967.76 for special education transportation services.

There is an executive session: the teachers and the IAs are still in negotiations (hm...nobody else?), they're going to talk about PCBs some more, and there's a lawsuit: Lyons v. the Worcester Public Schools. That's at 6 pm, prior to the meeting.

Here come the 9C cuts

This afternoon, Governor Baker announced mid-year (9C) budget cuts. The full spreadsheet is online here. MassLive has a good introduction. Speaker DeLeo is entirely correct when he comments:

"It seems that the Administration is seeking to achieve policy objectives that have previously been rejected by the Legislature through its unilateral use of 9C cuts."

The cuts largely come in accounts the Governor had originally funded differently, or vetoed, or both.

I tweeted out the education line cuts earlier; they begin with 7009 lines. I'll recreate that here with whatever else I can turn up by checking them against the budget as passed; UPDATE: I've also updated with the specifics if I've been able to find them.

• $1 million has been cut for English Language Learners in Gateway Cities. That line item is what it says it is. It was passed at $2M, so that's a 50% cut. That is bigger cut than his veto, which had been for $250,000 for this line. 
• $250,000 was cut from inclusive, concurrent enrollment from a $1.6M line item. That was specifically targeted at expanding concurrent enrollment (being enrolled in college while in high school) at students with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 22. This parallels a veto.
• $1.8M cut from DESE. Given that this brings them back down to $12.4M, which is still more than the Governor's original budget had it, my guess is that this is a cut parallel to that made by Baker in his veto, which cut the earmarks out of DESE's budget. It doesn't get specified in anything released by the Governor. 
• $266,000 cut from the Bay State Reading Institute, even though the full $400,000 that the Institute is funded at has already been expended. This parallels a veto.
• $580,000 is cut from literacy programs, from a $2.2M line item. His veto had cut $600K from this line. He is specifying Reading Recovery and literacy in the Hopkinton schools. 
• $400,000 cut from school to career connecting activities from a $3.3M line item. In his veto, he had cut the same amount. The Governor is specifying Bottom Line and the South Hadley culinary arts program.
• $644,444 cut from adult basic education, cut from $29.4M. He had vetoed $375,000 in the spring. 
• School breakfast was cut by $250,000, which I'm assuming cuts this: "$250,000 shall be expended for a grant for the Chefs in Schools program, operated by Project Bread: The Walk for Hunger, Inc"
• $100,000 cut from military mitigation, bringing it down to $1.3M, paralleling his overridden veto; he is specifying Lincoln's mitigation.
• $350,000 from innovation schools, zeroing out the line item, which is the same as his overridden veto, and brought this reaction from Senator Chang-Diaz: 

. @MassGovernor, why so eager 2 cut Innov. Schools after gunning hard for charters, which use similar autonomies? #mapoli #9Cs @katielannan

— Sonia Chang-Díaz (@SoniaChangDiaz) December 6, 2016

• the innovative assessment consortium likewise is zeroed out from its $350,000 budget, which also is an overridden veto.
• $466,666 cut from college and career readiness programs from a $700,000 line. He vetoed $200,000 back in the spring.
• $300,000 cut from targeted intervention, a $8.1M line. This is the same as his veto in the spring. He is specifying the Pilot Parent Engagement Project and the Randolph science program.
• After and out of school grants cut by $714,999 from a $3.4M line. He vetoed $935,000 in the spring.

That's it on the education accounts, but in terms of things that will hit kids, everything from drug treatment to suicide prevention to basic health services are hit in these cuts. 

FY17 budget update and into FY18

process of building next state year budget
busy finalizing FY17 budget over summer
on FY17 had update on next testing program on Ways and Means committee
$8.7M supplemental budget ask
looking to have it attached to FY16 year end so Commonwealth can close its books
hoping to have it added
met with budget leadership last week: "we're hopeful to see that"
October discussion of budget request and priorities
November vote to advance priorities to Secretary
(and then into January and spring budget timeline)

 FY17 predicated on 4% growth over last fiscal year
September will determine if there are more spending reductions implemented this year
(planned savings of 1% already; $638,000 across 17 state accounts)
FY18 "likely to continue limited spending growth opportunities"

expecting flat funding on federal grants (there's movement across the titles, but overall funding expected to be flat)
Expecting to have the same administrative funds "which fund 58% of the agency right now"

Kindergarten aides are saved! (But pay attention to the details)

I keep telling you that finance departments are crucial...

Brian Allen, chief financial and operations officer for the Worcester schools, said health insurance savings following the city’s open enrollment period, as well as special education cost reductions created through in-sourcing services, have helped cover about half of the roughly $750,000 cost of retaining the positions. Financial staff will comb the budget for additional savings, such as through deferred spending or position attrition, to pay for the aides for the entire year, he said.

"about half"
It isn't all there yet, so pay attention to that.

On the other hand, the schools aren't going to be as short as they were going to be on kindergarten aides, which is excellent news, as is the saving of four of the secondary positions (that's also part of an answer to two of the outstanding questions).

Because this has now happened in Lowell and Fitchburg, as well as Worcester, I suspect the lesson being drawn some places on Beacon Hill is "well, see? They didn't need it anyway."
Instead, the question should be "What are they NOT doing to save this?" In every community, there are sacrifices of other things being made in order to make this choice. That shows how important early education is, but it doesn't mean the things sacrificed aren't important. I hope to hear the "what did we lose to do this?" question asked.
And yes, this has everything to do with the foundation budget needing reconsideration.

New position in WPS administration

Among the things I thought we might hear about in the Worcester opening of schools report was this new position:

This came out the last week of July. If you're saying "wait, I don't remember hearing anything about this when the School Committee talked about changes during the budget!" you'd be right. This new position wasn't in the budget. 

It appears that what has happened is this: Al Ganem, who handled professional development (and AP courses and a bunch of other stuff) has left Worcester to be superintendent in Hampden-Wilbraham. Rather than fill that position, it appears that responsibilities were shuffled (not quite clear how) and this position was created instead (which would seem to be taking some of this responsibility off of Bertha Elena Rojas, who manages supplemental support along with ELL). 

Social-emotional learning is hip right now; it is looking as though the state is going to be pushing that to the fore as a measurement for schools, so it is perhaps understandable that focus would go there. I'll say I'm a bit dubious that an administrative position was the biggest need in improving that.

As for adding the position: these salaries all would fall under the central admin budget account, so the superintendent can pay this position without having to go through the School Committee. As to if the position ought to be created without at least a notification...? Probably not best practice. 

The FY17 foundation numbers

You can see what DESE presented to superintendents the first week of July on foundation budget numbers here. This includes the actual dollar amounts for each category of student, and it also has the deciles of funding for economically disadvantaged.
UPDATE (thanks, Melissa!): If you want to find your district's decile, you can find it on the bottom of your districts foundation budget spreadsheet (which you can find if you download the complete spreadsheet for FY17 from here). Check out line 14:

Overrides of the Governor's budget, part II

Again, you can find these by going to H.4450, clicking on "Bill History" and scrolling WAY DOWN. This time, the Legislature met for two days, so this weekend's updates start on 7/30. Round one post is here. 

• The earmarked funds within the DESE line item (7010-005) ($2.1M was vetoed, all of which was earmarked for programs around the state)
• literacy programs ($600,000 was vetoed from a $1.6M account, $400,000 for Reading Recovery and $200,000 specifically for Hopkinton)
• school nutrition ($250,000 for the Chefs in Schools program had been vetoed)
• federal impact aid ($100,000 for Lincoln had been vetoed)
• targeted intervention ($300,000 had been vetoed: $250,000 for a parent engagement program and $50,000 for the Randolph Public Schools)
• dual enrollment ($100,000 for Holyoke Community College had been vetoed)
• after/out of school programming ($935,000 had been vetoed for programs in Brookline, Lawrence, Brockton, New Bedford, Worcester, Fall River, and Boston)
• JFYNetworks for Accuplacer ($200,000 specifically for them had been earmarked,as best as I can tell from the language)
• innovation schools (the Governor had vetoed the full $350,000)
• adult education ($350,000 earmarked for programs in Boston and Lawrence)
• career to school connecting activities ($400,000 had been vetoed for programs in STEM, the Blackstone Valley Educational Foundation, and South Hadley High School)

If there is more, I will update the post!
Note that the above means that we HAVE A BUDGET! 

Worcester School Committee: Bastille Day edition

probably mostly notes on budget, once they get there.
Oh, hey, I'd missed that this is on here! 

To accept a donation in the amount of $2,500 for student scholarships from the Voya Foundation in recognition of the Worcester Public Schools being the 2016 recipient of the Donald Johnson Operational and Cost Efficiency Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials. 

 Verdolino (quoting Brian Allen): "we believe that this collaborative budget approach has brought millions of dollars" in cost efficiency
Allen "is an exemplary business official, as I'm sure you all know"
Worcester gave the best testimony to FBRC; hope for a resolution to bring a better resolution for Worcester

Jointly passed budget leaves Worcester $1.1M short (and School Committee meets Thursday)

I'd urge those interested in Worcester education to read the backup to Thursday's meeting regarding the budget. Note that this was prior to Governor Baker's released vetoes, which cuts down circuit breaker further (that's probably the only impact the Governor's vetoes have on WPS, though there are quite a number that hit Worcester in other ways).
The budget passed by both parts of the Legislature leave WPS short by $1.1M from the budget the School Committee passed last month. That's:

• $736,360 lost for the kindergarten grant. I'd urge you to read the memo, but, in short, there will be schools with simply will not have a kindergarten aide this year. And that's with elementary class sizes growing. 
• a $63,139 increase over the House budget, as the joint budget adopts the Senate number (again, read the memo for why).
• a $364,059 loss in charter school reimbursement (this is due to the increase in seats, but not in reimbursements). This means that Worcester is $1M underfunded for charter school reimbursements for FY17.
• a further loss of $82,000 in tuition assessment change.

The general fund budget is impacted by $383,725. 

But that's not all!
The elementary classes are, of course, bigger in size than last year. You'll remember, though, that secondary positions were cut in the FY17 budget as passed. As course schedules are being filled "there are courses with full enrollment without budgeted teaching slots" (emphasis in the original). In other words, there are classes full of secondary kids for which Worcester doesn't have teachers.

AND because the preliminary estimates showed a significant drop in the count of Worcester's school-aged population, the Title I numbers are expected to be down. No word yet on how much.

As I was saying, there's a meeting of the Worcester School Committee on Thursday at 4 (summertime!). The agenda is here. The big (big) news is the budget update. 

There are several recognitions. There are also a significant number of donations. 

There are responses coming back to budget questions on: what a .8 position is; how other districts handle their McKinney-Vento reimbursements (Worcester isn't the only school district that loses it); and the IA who handles CORI checks. 

There's a response about buses using Granby Road.

The administration is requesting that the School Committee file this list of outstanding motions (just item numbers given; no motions).  Further, the administration is requesting that all items referred for a Friday letter that have not received a response within 24 months be automatically filed. 

The administration is forwarding these dates as legislative meetings: Friday, November 4, 2016; Friday January 20, 2017' and  Friday, March 10, 2017.

There are proposals to extend the contracts of both Attorney Paige L. Tobin and Attorney Sean Sweeney for three years.

Mr. O'Connell wants to know about each school's substance abuse policy.

Ms. Biancheria wants to know about the new transportation position. Mr. O'Connell is requesting information about the technology capacities of WPS with regarding to state testing (something which has been answered before, when the requirements were heavier; WPS had enough then.).
And Mr. O'Connell is asking about budget impacts.
Mr. Monfredo wants an update on the teacher survey.
Miss Biancheria wants data on MCAS appeals. Miss Biancheria is asking again this month that the grounds of City View and Belmont Hill be trimmed, for an inventory of recess equipment, and for crosswalks, particularly Belmont Hill's, to be repainted, and a list of schools by accountability level.

There is also an extensive executive session, with discussion of litigation, a grievance, and negotiations with most of the unions. The executive session is AFTER the meeting. 

Conference committee budget is out tonight, voted tomorrow

Because we're almost out of time...
You can find the just-released-tonight conference committee budget here. The headlines will be "preserves local aid," and indeed it does use the Senate's chapter 70 number. It also keeps the $61M for regional transportation reimbursement, the $8.3M for McKinney-Vento reimbursement, and uses $80M for charter reimbursement. Note (thank you, MassBudget) that due to the addition of 3100 charter school seats next year, this level funding will leave the charter reimbursement underfunded by approximately $54 million. 

A few things of concern:

• I can't find the quality K grant in here at all; it's account 7030-1002, and I'd be thrilled to be corrected if I'm wrong.  Quality Kindergarten is entirely eliminated. 
• this budget does not make the automatic transfers to Mass School Building Authority (or the MBTA; what a year to short them!); usually a penny of the sales tax goes to them. 
• there is nothing on the foundation budget. Nothing, after the state itself has said that current funding is inadequate. More on this to come.
• As Noah Berger of MassBudget commented, "This budget represents another year of just barely getting by without any clear path to addressing the big challenges our Commonwealth faces, such as rebuilding our transportation infrastructure, making college affordable, and expanding access to high-quality education for all of our children." 

Budgets are moral documents. What we fund is what we value.