How Would You Change the District Budget?
From a comment by Board Director Sue Peters:
Have at it.
I invite Melissa, Charlie and readers to start a thread or send the Board emails on their Dream Budget or People’s Budget (with a nod to Councilmember Sawant, who initiated a similar proposal with the city's budget): What would you like to see added to the school district budget? What would you like to see removed?
Because we are working within the reality of an unfulfilled McCleary mandate and thus limited resources (the state's failure to fulfill its Constitutional duty to amply fund public education), everything we add to our wish list will require an adjustment somewhere else in the budget.
What expenditures or initiatives should stay or be added? What should go? How can we make the most of the resources we have to better serve our students, teachers and schools?
The current Seattle School Board is seriously committed to directing as many resources as possible to the classroom. (As all boards likely are.) My own position is that we need to fund the fundamentals first. My question to you all is: How do we define fundamentals? Counselors? IB programs? Language immersion IAs? New curricular materials? School supplies? More staffing--where? Wraparound services? Ample time for lunch and recess? Fully resourced libraries for all schools? Arts and PE for all students? A computer for every student? Cultural competency training?
Have at it.
Comments
How to pay for all that? Well, there's some basic cost savings. If they fund IEPs, they probably reduce the number of lawsuits and payouts about IEPs. That may or may not cover the entire cost of doing it right. Three or four of the $100K+ salaries (plus benefits) added over the last couple of years could cover all of IB. Honestly, I think that anyone who does not see students on a daily basis needs to justify their existence in the organization. For some people (eg the JSCEE people who package food for schools), that's not hard. For others (eg the many new directors and managers), it might be a lot harder. I don't know if that's enough to cover all of the needs or not, but it would be a good start.
You know, really go to the model of funding schools first instead of just talking about it.
My specific pitch: Counselors. My son had terrible difficulty adjusting to kindergarten; we moved him to a public school in a different district when he started having panic attacks every day before school. Stevens didn't have a counselor, the new school did: a month or so after she intervened and found ways to help him feel safe while she worked with him on some of the social-emotional skills that he was lacking, and now he's thriving, no discipline incidents, working well above grade level, may not even need an IEP. None of the rest of the things on that list, not PE, not arts, not recess (recess was one of the big problems for a kid who didn't feel safe, and then acted in ways that made other kids feel unsafe) can help a child who can't cope with the classroom.
That's just my personal experience; I would put IAs and people whose work fills IEPs in the same category.
Former Stevens
Our school just installed 3 computers in a Kindergarten class and now instead of playing with other kids during "choice time", they compete to use the computers to play reading games. (Iread licenses are $35.00 per student)
http://www.donorschoose.org/project/iread-adaptive-computer-software-can-he/1644775/
Imagine the field trips this class could have enjoyed with the thousands of dollars spent on computers and software licenses.
Maybe if they use evidence based approaches and follow the IDEA then they might see the law suits reduced.
SPED Parent
Why do Seattle students have to drink apple juice grown in China, or eat green corndogs?
Transportation for kids who want to go to a school that is not in their catchment area, but in a contiguous catchment area.
Cut the number of people making six figures downtown.
Better Priorities
I absolutely agree that technology should not be introduced in elementary school except for disadvantaged populations that might not have access at home to acquire the skills. There was just a study put out that kids who take hand-written notes do better than those that take notes on laptops. Cut technology, testing, the many layers of admin between the Superintendent and the Principals. Add art, PE, music, drama, language, recess back into school budgets and we will see academic improvements. Same things worked much better in the past when they were handled by the schools instead of being centralized to downtown.
Nyland recently commented that laptops are so great for teachers. Well, my kid's school regularly gets bagged-on for having a PTA that raises so much money at our auction. You know what we funded last year? Laptops for teachers. If they are so helpful, Nyland needs to find money in the huge SPS budget to pay for them instead of more highly paid admins and pet projects. Don't start pre-school until we can fund the basics for k-12. And, yes, successful programs like IB and language immersion started by SPS should be funded.
-- Ivan Weiss
I also like the suggestions for expanded PE and more counselors. Much better than endless testing.
S parent
-sleeper
-Keyboarding
-StepJ
Parents who themselves attended WA public schools accept 30-40 kids in a class as "normal". Many areas of the country including the East coast there are 17-23 kids in a class K-thru high school. My child had 30 kids in elementary, currently has an average of 32-36 in "core" middle school classes math, LA, science etc. not counting electives like band/orchestra that have 65-97 students. Teachers also have on average 5 sections, so they have to get to know 160-175 kids. Nuts.
- help
For example - there's a new job listing for "Director of Policy, Board Relations & Special Projects" with salary range of "$85,670.00 - $118,284.00 Annually" - I love this line in the job description "serves as a strategic problem-solver and adviser for senior staff and the Board. Seriously? there aren't enough people sitting around thinking down there?
Classrooms first. Admin last.
reader47
Melissa can have the spot on the Times editorial board, I want this gig.
Simple Logic
Every other school in the state funds IB programs and it is time for SPS to do the same.
The board should revisit policies that provide free space to private entities. SPS lost $12M due to the state lowering the levy inflator, and $4M in federal funding. In short the district lost $16M in funding this year and issues regarding the levy cliff have not been resolved. It is not unreasonable for the board to consider the needs of SPS- first.
The district provides data to many entities and there is a cost to the district for providing these services. I'd like the board to impose fees for those that request data.
They can do keyboarding in 3rd grade if needed. I didn't learn typing until college, and yet somehow or other I still make a living programming.
-Ideas
2) Eliminate coaches who have an office at the district and instead pay teachers in the buildings extra to take on coaching roles.
3) Get rid of Schoology!
4) Get rid of SBAC and MAPS and any other test floating around and replace with ITBS.
5) Slash technology in K-5. see #4.
6) Add the staff that each school needs based on the population served.
7) Fund IB.
I would really like them to reprioritize things like shop class and home ec over programming languages and such (my programmer husband agrees!) It's much easier to learn a coding language later, but physical and financial literacy can be hard to pick up.
Fewer coaches that don't work with children.
A rebalancing of the arts, my visually inclined kids have WAY fewer options than their musically talented peers. Maybe the city could fund more of that, perhaps in conjunction with the public art money?
-Hopeful
Cut testing, specifically non-required district tests like MAP and Amplify. First on the chopping block should be MAP in grades K-2 - too young for all this testing. Second making testing as limited and as cheap as possible given state requirements.
Southend Mom
Ana
-IMHO
I do like the idea of a line item budget, as well.
I'm trying to figure out how only $401M of the budget (pp 74) is under control of the schools out of $753M (pp 39). My personal opinion is that the centralized control of the budget isn't producing what we want, and I'd love to see a much smaller central administration focus solidly on helping the schools rather than controlling them through the budget. This history of powerful superintendents with massive central administrations doesn't seem to be working, at least not according to the data I've seen.
Yeah…yeah…yeah…standards-based blah, blah, blah. Science as an inanimate (NGSS-driven) object is no longer a viable strategy to inspire curious learners. Teach students how to build stuff and they will eventually want to engineer and design stuff.
Signed…any dog on the street
-pagefive
-disgusted taxpayer
Also, I agree with not prioritizing tech--as far as I can tell, computer lab does nothing for my kid--there are 29 kids in there and it's basically game time. Supposedly, they're teaching them to type so that they can take those tests. Totally backwards.
My priorities are class size reduction and support staff/family liaisons to shore up equity at our most under-resourced schools. And buildings--the schools are bursting at the seams.
More "regular" counselors so students are getting more guidance on their courses all through high school.
I have always advocated back-to-basics (but with some already district-generated add-ons) but we start from this absolute premise; every child should have his or her academic needs met. Now we can certainly argue about what that means but again, the basics. Teaching to beyond their skill level to push them ahead with supports who need them either because of disabilities and/or challenges.
Teaching beyond their skill level lets every kid know that we believe in them and believe they can do it.
Basics:
- smaller class size; I'd go with what is current mandated but not yet met
- safe, comfortable buildings. I give the district credit for investing huge amounts of taxpayer dollars (thank you Seattle voters) in our buildings and currently the numbers are outpacing the renovations but we have to get there soon. We can't have the same expectations of kids in crummy buildings when others are in new buildings with better wiring for technology.
- curriculum that aligns with CC standards. Surprised? Don't be. Because, even if I think these were created in a bogus, underhanded manner, they are here. The goal is to shape them and use them BUT with a discerning teacher's eye for each class. Meaning, no teacher should be tied to any single curriculum. Also with this - also not negotiable - is professional development. Want better teachers? Help them get there as they face the constantly changing winds of mandates and ed reform.
- less testing, better tests when we do. It was pretty funny to try to hear staff tell the Board that there was only a 5% difference in outcomes for HCC cohorts versus HCC kids not in a cohort class. Director Peters asked if one year of SBAC test scores was the only measure. The answer was...yes. Please, one year of a brand-new test ( seemingly too long and not developmentally appropriate in all case) is NOT enough to base any kind of judgment and Peters was wise to point this out.
- Promises made, promises kept. Did I think it was a good idea to plunge forward on dual language/world schools? Nope but you can't have a program that doesn't progress. (Former Director Michael DeBell said, over and over, how these parents had been "promised" these programs. That's all good and well but without solid dollars for every year, that was one hollow promise kept that he made going out the door.). Fund these schools.
-Ditto on IB. I have identified (and President Patu said others have as well) that there is money in the Families and Education Levy to support a program that IS reaching kids of color AND is established AND is showing results. The City wants to help? Here you go.
- Promises made and legal rights observed. Special Ed and Native American programs. Enough said.
- Get rid of Ex Directors. Sorry but I see no value-added there and it's costing a lot of money.
- Data use. Sigh. Look, I get looking for patterns and assessing how it all looks. But that whole data thing? A LOT of time and attention and money is going out the door. I'm not sure it's worth it and I'd want someone to tell me how it is. We have human computers called teachers who used to do the same things. And when I see the near millions having been spent over the last decade and yet, Technology says "more" and staff complains that data systems can't work together, I just don't know. It feels to me that I've heard this "systems don't sync up" for a decade or more. It's quite curiously confusing.
- partnership with the City on homeless youth and ELL youth. I say ELL youth because their struggles with language are very much tied to their home life. Their parents don't just want their kids to learn English and thrive; they, as parents, want to be part of that journey. But to sync up all that is going to cost a lot of money and it's money the district doesn't have.
- counselor or family support worker in every single building.
- last, but not least,arts. Life is science, for sure, but we need the arts to express, to share, to live as human beings and we need to bring that our children.
That's what I would do.
The only area (central) that may need some growth is tech support, but from what I've heard they're finally getting some support after years of neglect. Then again, I've also heard some of the tech support growth is middle managers instead of actual in the school tech support staff so.... TBD
RP
To pay for this, I would cut downtown staff to a lean support service. If the central office were a resource of support staff for schools, rather than a management organization, it would need many fewer people (half?), and the people it needed would be less expensive. Start all schools at 9:00.
No mandatory additional periods in secondary schools either. We have huge class sizes, ancient textbooks and insufficient counseling staff and budgets for supplies. Until we fix all of those problems, we can't increase the school day (and our costs!) by a third. Maybe the city wants to pay for extracurricular enrichment classes at community centers?
- Less spent on central administrators.
- As Melissa & others stated :"currently the numbers are outpacing the renovations but we have to get there soon". Plan to address this problem now. They have the enrollment projection data that shows many buildings (middle & high schools) will be way too far over capacity to function prior to the levy funded renovations/additions being completed. Are those schools going to have to hold classes outside in the meantime?
- counselors in every building.
- less testing & better tests linked to what kids are actually learning.
- Techymom's suggestions regarding a longer school day is important, but perhaps someday when McCleary is actually funded. What about another Levy sent to voters in Seattle funding some of these things in the meantime? I think Seattle voters would support the kids, especially those who will otherwise do private schools.
LT
Irene
*Fund schools first, including a counselor, nurse, art, music, PE
*I would fund programs that are proven to help students - such as IB.
*I would not accept grants to create a new program - this just seems to add staff downtown to oversee the program and creates unnecessary swirl and churn for our students and schools.
*Hire consultants to map all the processes at JSCEE.
*Once the mapping is complete, streamline the processes across departments so there are no redundancies. This would enable the transparency to create one central source of accurate information about students for reporting, decision making and lean efficient operations.
*Initiate a hiring freeze for positions outside of an actual school building. *Require Board approval before any new downtown positions are created.
*What to do about unfunded State mandates such as the SBAC? The state is requiring that districts administer a computerized test, yet provide no funding to add the infrastructure needed. Can a waiver or other be obtained to administer the test on paper?
*Seek out funding from the City, State, Feds., Private groups to help fund things like family support, Art, Foreign Language, Music, etc.
-StepJ
-NW Mom
So, school year 15-16 is just about over....has the district improved under our new board?
Same old
However, computers and educational software are expensive, and unproven in early childhood curriculum. Most agree that young children need less screen time, not more.
Use the money to put amazing and useful innovations such as spelling, grammar, and world geography back in the curriculum.
Also agree on dumping the Ed Directors, especially Pritchett. Use the money for librarians.
-McClureWatcher