Colorio: credit recovery lab:got moved to this account?
Allen: for clarity
works at North High
Biancheria: compares to North High's line item
change in salary from last year to this: decrease in salary
Allen: not the same person
Boone: moved the location of this person's pay to educational support
Allen: there was a retirement
move happened last year; change was noted in quarterly reports
Printing and postage approved
In-state travel approved
Out-of-state travel
Biancheria: zero to $5,000
grants no longer covering the expense
Boone: was not zero; it was reflected in a grant budget
being reflected in an operations budget
Biancheria: tax-based dollars of $5000
Luster: "happy to have the opportunity to discuss the Worcester Public Schools teacher recruitment program"
plan to attend a job fair in Chicago: to benefit from loss of teaching positions there
3 to 4 out of state fairs for national recruitment
Biancheria: Chicago an excellent location to begin the process
"don't have an issue with recruitment"
"also reads staff development" ('though that line item is set at zero)
Luster: "can barely manage our recruitment efforts with $5000"
Allen: staff development and personnel office both are in here, but none of the money is for staff development (which it says in line B)
Colorio: how many teachers are recruited this way?
Petty suggests "success rate": getting a report
O'Connell: recruitment trips out of grant funds?
Allen: Title IIA funds used for recruitment
O'Connell: still have Title IIA funds available? still exists but in a reduced form
Allen: 8% reduction, as across the board
Showing posts with label in-state travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in-state travel. Show all posts
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
On the Council agenda
Expect some mentions of the school department at tonight's Council meeting; several agenda items specifically reference the school department:
Thursday, December 30, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
How about a little online research, Mr. K?
Sorry: between sick kids and Christmas, I'm a bit behind on my newspaper reading. This is from Sunday's paper. And sorry the budget links don't go straight to the page; the budget doesn't allow for that.
In a rather rich irony, it appears that Nick Kotsopoulos in his Sunday column lauding the city's transparency in putting the checkbook up online, neglected to do much WPS online research for the rest of his column. In saying, for example, this:
which shows a zeroed-out Worcester Public Schools out-of-state travel account. (There is out-of-state travel, but it is always required and thus covered by grants; aka: we have to send people as a condition of the grant, and the grant pays for it.)
As for WPS in-state travel (page 107), it was funded by city funds at $81,619 for FY11. There's a couple of things in this that you might not expect. For example, itinerant teachers (teachers who teach in more than one building) are paid 50 (now, as of last week, 51) cents a mile in their travel between or among schools. That's not exactly a jet-set expense, but it's a real one. This also covers in-state conferences (including one I went to; the Mass Association of School Committee conference in Hyannis came out of this account), which means that it covers a lot of mileage (and probably some Pike tolls), but not a lot of hotel rooms.
As both the city budget and the WPS budget are up online, a minute or two to check accounts would have cleared this up, but I suppose that would have made for a less-dramatic column.
In a rather rich irony, it appears that Nick Kotsopoulos in his Sunday column lauding the city's transparency in putting the checkbook up online, neglected to do much WPS online research for the rest of his column. In saying, for example, this:
Believe me, there is some eye-opening stuff in the travel account alone....he never bothered to check this (page 86):
Based on a quick perusal of that account, it does not look as though any of the public school or municipal employees who attend out-of-state conferences, workshops, seminars etc. are staying at Econo Lodges or other discount hotels in their travels.
which shows a zeroed-out Worcester Public Schools out-of-state travel account. (There is out-of-state travel, but it is always required and thus covered by grants; aka: we have to send people as a condition of the grant, and the grant pays for it.)
As for WPS in-state travel (page 107), it was funded by city funds at $81,619 for FY11. There's a couple of things in this that you might not expect. For example, itinerant teachers (teachers who teach in more than one building) are paid 50 (now, as of last week, 51) cents a mile in their travel between or among schools. That's not exactly a jet-set expense, but it's a real one. This also covers in-state conferences (including one I went to; the Mass Association of School Committee conference in Hyannis came out of this account), which means that it covers a lot of mileage (and probably some Pike tolls), but not a lot of hotel rooms.
As both the city budget and the WPS budget are up online, a minute or two to check accounts would have cleared this up, but I suppose that would have made for a less-dramatic column.
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