Post-blog of the Worcester Public Schools FY20 budget hearing

I only caught the very end of last Tuesday's Worcester Public Schools FY20 budget hearing (I keep haunting this page in hopes the presentation will be posted), so I thought I'd take one of my train commutes to watch the video of the hearing and take some notes. Sharing below for what it's worth...

Mr. Allen: WPS budget will come out on May 10, as is past practice will be from House Ways and Means budget; though Senate budget will come out May 8, WPS budget will not be updated again until after the final state budget is agreed upon (in June? we hope?).
"it's been about fifteen years of kind of budget cutting in each of these hearings...first year since then that we've had modest growth in our revenue..."
"had really some robust conversations about the needs of the school district...truly hearing what the needs are of the school district are out in the schools"
House Ways and Means "aligns closely to Governor's"
increase "will not match all of the needs out there"

Themes of FY20: modest inflation growth (3.75%); overall enrollment growth; initial foundation budget formula proposals (in Governor and House)

foundation budget going up $21.7M:

• $18.1M in Ch.70 (a 7.2% increase)  
• $3.6M in local city required contribution (3.8% increase)

Change from FY19:

• inflation at 3.75%= $13.2M 
• enrollment change (overall 189) = $1M
• econ disadv (310) = $1.2M
• totalling a base foundation change of $15.5M "would be going up...anyways"
• new funding from FBRC changes = $6.1M

HWM budget uses Governor's goal rates but phasing in over a quicker period of time but end result would be the same

"it appears the House budget, anyway, is adopting the Governor's goal rates and just adopting quicker"

Biggest change between House and Governor for Worcester is adding back in English learner students (the Governor's budget had a lower count due to students who had higher English achievement not being counted as EL) 

HWM does not provide high needs increment and does not propose early college line

Change for Worcester between Governor's budget and HWM is $852,306; increase is essentially all English learner funding amount (due to change in count)

take out charter and choice of $1.8M (in $21.7M) plus loss of $300,000 of impact aid from Hurricane Maria

thus change over FY19 for Worcester Public Schools is $19.6M (5.8% increase)

level service cost increase:

• employee salaries $5.5M
• employee benefits $3.3M
• transportation increase of $0.9M
• tuition assessment $0.6M
• all other accounts $0.7M
• ...for a total of $11M

And the budget increase is $19.6M (better when it works that way than the reverse!);$8.6M available for new spending

HOWEVER: $21.6M in new spending requests from principals and programs:

• 42 secondary teachers; "primarily content area teachers, reducing/eliminating studies" ($5.6M)
• 30 ESL teachers ($2.6M)
• 23 special ed teachers ($2M)
• 19 elementary teachers "for class size purposes" ($1.9M)
• 21 student support positions "school adjustment counselors, wraparound coordinators..." ($1.8M)
• 38 special ed IAs ($1.5M)
• 11 guidance counselors ($1M)
• 9 assistant principals ($0.9M)
• 8 preK enrichment ($0.7M)
• additional Chromebooks; going 2-1 in K-2; 1-1 in 7-12 ($0.7M)
• 9 school nurse/clinical care ($0.6M)
• instrutional supplies and PD ($0.6M)
• "student information system" with an online grading access for parents and students" ($0.5M)
• 12 ESL tutors ($0.3M)
• 10 literacy tutors ($0.2M)
• 34 school and district support positions ($2.7M)

"as we mentioned we have $8.6M in new spending...not every one of these will be funded in the FY20 budget"

"hopefully the Senate version will be higher than the Governor and House version"

Worcester Public Schools budget released on May 10; hearings on June 6 and 20

Worcester School Committee meets Thursday

After a posting issue last week caused a same-day cancellation of the main meeting, the agenda for this week includes the entire agenda from last week, which I covered here. As Worcester Magazine notes, the executive session again includes the superintendent's contract.

In addition to some new recognitions and such, it also includes:

• requested acceptance of a grant for $110,000 for improving mental health access; it appears that this is $10,000 for professional development and $100,000 to "secure supervision" for community agencies to provide the actual mental health services, which would appear to mean that this is simply to keep the buildings open.
• requested acceptance of a state grant of $178,560 for teacher diversification, which only runs through August?, to include:

  ...an assessment of practices in the school district by a state designated vendor to review district policies and procedures and identify the cultural proficiency and anti-bias training neesd for district hirning managers, teachers, principals, and school committee members...

  ...which seems like a report that ought to be made public, plus support for IAs to become teachers.
   
•  voting for the delegate and alternate for the MASC annual Delegate Assembly (in November...)
• a prior year payment of $1,069.10 to a custodian 
• a prior year payment of $3,038 to a computer tech 
• a prior year payment of $1,444.43 to a nurse
• Ms. McCullough, supported by Mr. Monfredo and Mr. O'Connell, suggests the hiring of a Director of Corporate and Community Relations 
• Ms. Biancheria, along with Mr. Monfredo and Mr. O'Connell, requests "that the Facility Division clean areas of growth at school sites to make student pathways clear and safe." 

For your listening...

If you'd like to hear me riff on education policy, Worcester schools, and local politics, I went on 508 with Mike Benedetti and Brendan Melican on Friday; you can see it here. I'm just honored that they keep having me on even after I still haven't seen season 4 of The Wire.

Of Parkland

Lengthy but worth it piece on Parkland, and suspensions, and school safety, and race...

April Board of Ed: House Ways and Means budget

backup is here

O'Donnell: HW&M builds off framework of House 1
clarifying question from McKenna: "And that IS the Governor's budget?"
about $218M increase over FY19
increasing over inflation: "one-sixth of the gap proposed in House 1" on benefits; and towards econo disad in deciles 6-10 (1-5 by inflation alone)
I am SURE that no one is going to understand this
"House Ways and Means is accelerating implementation" while using the same ultimate goal
did not fund increment for high needs
adds back in the students dropped as English learners under Governor's budget
adds back about 6000 students
$16.5M on low income; about $6M is for academic support grants; $10.5M for pothole accounts

April Board of Ed: annual report of State Student Advisory Council

There's a backup here, but they have a better PowerPoint, which I'll see what I can share later

looking for stronger world language and culture education and reform in Massachusetts
cognitive beneifts of learning another language
need to produce a global citizen
standards are too loose; need more access and funding for foreign language
"there is movement and there is a push for" greater access to foreign languages
"a student-led social media platform" on Twitter here
disconnect with world language program at DESE
discussion of if state should adopt national framework
high school graduation requirement of at least two years
4th grade baseline
need for feedback from students on language
challenge of disconnect between Department and the students
hope to work with legislators on drafting a bill
Morton asks for impact on knowing another language
"amazing just to be immersed in Chinese"
"I can't imagine what my life would be without Chinese"
"how attractive it is to be a global citizen"
Moriarty thinks it would be great to make the case for ancient languages across the state
A: proficiency in foreign languages taken by normed exam
Fernández speaking in Spanish comments (I believe) that she appreciates the work they're doing on the importance of other language
what about working with populations that do not speak English?
A: early in the stage; "fair and valid point"

April Board of Ed meeting: opening and public comment

Posting this morning from Newton North High, as this is the annual off-site meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, hosted by the home school of the student member of the Board of Ed, which this year is Maya Mathews, a senior at Newton North. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:30...we're assuming it isn't going to start on time.

The agenda can be found here.