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NewsFacing tough budget and program challenges...Superintendent David Jennings answers Frequently Asked Questions Q. With the Legislature passing a budget that continues state education aid at its current level, why pursue the 'worst-case' budget that reflects cuts to state aid? A. The situation is this. If the bill holding funding at 0%/0% for the next biennium survives the governor's unallotment process, the District will be in a better financial situation than the 2% cut in aid the 'worst-case' budget reflects. However, we won't know the governor's decisions until after July 1. We are not confident that we know for sure what the governor will do, so we are unwilling to commit irreversibly to spending money we do not yet really have. The governor is not constitutionally authorized to "unallot" until after July 1, the beginning of the new biennium. It is the existence of an unbalanced budget that triggers his constitutional authority to unallot. Our hope is that he will proceed quickly after July 1, so that we will know as soon as possible whether the state will hold firm to the proposed level of funding. Q. If the Governor does not take money away from public schools through unallotment or the line-item veto, will the District still seek a wage freeze? A. The first budget developed by the District earlier this year assumed no increase/no cut in state aid for the coming year, exactly the bill that finally passed in May. That first budget assumed a wage freeze for all employees as a way to eliminate class size increases. So, even with no cuts in state aid, we will need the wage freeze if we are to keep class size at current levels. One way to look at it is that the legislation takes care of about one third of our class size issue. A wage freeze would take care of the remaining two thirds. Our first negotiations meeting with the Chaska Education Association is scheduled for mid-June. By early July, we may have a sense of where that is taking us as well as a better sense of our overall financial picture going into the fall. Q. What happened with the FICA situation from last fall? Is this the reason we have to cut teacher positions and raise class size? The Board and IRS reached a final settlement agreement in April regarding the District's unintentional under-withholding of FICA wages over a period of several years, dating back to 2002. The District repaid the $2.1 million owed to the IRS. The money used was acquired by cuts made to the 2008-09 district budget and by using money in the district's fund balance reserves. Employees, who were over-paid due to the error during the period that ended last November when the error was discovered, are repaying their portion through a series of small payments, to be withheld from their paychecks, over the next 46.5 months. While making these cuts strained our 2008-09 budget, it is not the reason we are forced to cut teacher positions and possibly raise class size in 2009-10. The pressures on the budget for the 09-10 school year are a result of frozen or reduced state funding for schools for the next biennium and slowing enrollment growth. We had been growing by about three percent each year until the housing market fell apart. We are now seeing yearly enrollment increases less than one percent. Q. Why continue with implementing the secondary redesign in the face of these budget challenges? Isn't this a place we could save money? A. Because of budget concerns, we have scaled back the original phase one plan for the secondary program changes for next year and we will slow the pace of the conversion to the new program, but entirely abandoning secondary program reforms in the face of short term budget issues would simply transfer the pain of budget cuts from adults to kids. The countless hours and energy spent on the redesign of the secondary program have created what we believe to be an extraordinary opportunity for our students. We choose not to take that opportunity away because of short term budget pressures. Q. Why not wait to open Chanhassen High and re-open Pioneer Ridge as a middle school? A. The issue is space for already over-crowded middle school programs. Chaska High and Pioneer Ridge are full this school year. Middle Schools East and West are both at or over capacity right now. One of the four most basic commitments we have for sustaining great education experiences for kids is a commitment to providing safe and nurturing learning environments. We believe cramming students into currently full buildings, when additional space is ready to accommodate them just a short distance away, would be unconscionable. As for the operational funds to be used to open Chanhassen High, that money comes from a 2006 referendum and the voter approval of a ballot question specifically identifying how the money was to be used. The money can be used only for the purpose stated. Q. What is the 6 plus 1 program at the middle school? A. Some of the "best practice" research we've reviewed notes the importance of helping students to prepare for not just high school, but also for that first year beyond high school. The 6 + 1 program at the middle schools next fall will do exactly that. It will help students in 7th grade and their families begin to think about their hopes for the future. These plans do not lock students into a prescribed program. They simply offer students and their parents a way to think about the future and how the academic choices they make in middle school might later impact their options in high school and beyond. To maximize success, kids need to be able to see the relevance of the things they are doing today, in terms of how it connects to their future life. They sometimes need the help of counselors to "connect those dots." The individual student plans will be reviewed annually through 12th grade to reflect their changes in thinking or their new goals. Q. Why go to a 7-period modified block schedule? In consultation with a nationally recognized expert on scheduling design two years ago, we concluded that many schedules might provide a successful framework for a quality program, and that the important question was which of those schedule options would best support the academic program we have in mind. We believe the 7-period modified block schedule is the best approach. Three days a week, students will move through a 7 period day. Two days a week, students will attend three or four 90-minute block-style classes. This is the schedule used at Pioneer Ridge Freshmen Center since its opening in 2002. It is a proven approach to delivering our curriculum. 1.) It enables students to have the continuity of a connection with important requirements, especially in key areas like math, science, English, etc. over the course of an entire year, rather than for merely a semester. With the existing block schedule, some students find themselves with as many as two semesters between math classes, and the students risk forgetting key concepts necessary to succeed in the next course. 2.) At the same time it provides opportunities during the week for extended "block style" periods that lend themselves better to things like lab classes in science, where additional time is required to get the depth of instruction necessary. Q. Going to the 7-period modified block schedule at the middle level is expensive. Why do it? A. The new schedule is cost neutral for the middle schools. Q. The elimination of PAC teachers at the middle level really means the PAC program will not exist, doesn't it? A. The redesign of the overall secondary program also led us to more closely examine our approach to high ability students in grades 6-8. Frankly, what we found is too often our current program ends up serving high ability students only at the margins of the school day. It is our intent to instead make sure some part of every hour of the school day (and in every subject area) directly addresses the needs of the highly talented students. The revised program will use a combination of objective criteria to identify the population of kids to be served in this area and, within limits, will also consider teacher recommendations to identify students where the results of the more objective criteria are mixed. The current idea of a lone "PAC teacher" in each building will be replaced and supplemented by raising the level of the PAC professional staff role to a "coordinator" level person who will devote their entire year to the development of curriculum and the training of classroom teachers. We aim to have high ability learners be in classrooms every hour of the day with people able to challenge their abilities and with program that makes that possible. Q. How much stimulus money came to the District and how is it being spent? A. The bulk of federal stimulus money coming to Minnesota is aimed at help for students living at or below the poverty level. The percentage of students in our schools meeting these criteria is low enough that the district doesn't qualify for even one dollar of additional Title 1 stimulus money. We will receive some federal stimulus dollars for special education, but the amount of flexibility we will be given to use portions of the money to offset regular expenses is unknown at this time. Reports from other districts which are further along in this process suggest that the actual benefit to the district's general fund will be marginal. Q. Can the District afford the artificial turf at the high schools? A. Artificial turf has been installed at both Chaska High and Chanhassen High Schools. It was paid for using referendum dollars specifically approved for capital projects and capital projects alone. The money could not be used for general fund expenditures like salaries or programs. As for why the District took the step of installing the turf in the first place, we view it as a cost-effective way to provide usable field spaces year-round. District athletic fields are not only used for school based programs, like physical education classes, but are also widely used by youth athletic associations and local sport teams. We have experienced increasing pressure for more such spaces and the old fields with regular turf have proven to be unusable for many parts of the year. The soil conditions in our area are such that the sod on those fields is quickly damaged with frequent use. In the case of the football field at Chaska High, for example, we found we could use it only for a dozen or so game nights during the year and it was unavailable for even high school football practice, let alone community activities. The alternative to making better use of the fields we have (by installing artificial surfaces) is buying additional land. That, too, costs money, not only for the initial investment and the ongoing maintenance, but it has the effect of taking more land off the tax rolls. Faced with the choice is between buying more land and using the land we have more efficiently, we simply chose the latter. Q. Were any cuts made at the District Office? The District Office already made an earlier 10 percent cut in department budgets for the current school year (2008-09) as one of the cutbacks necessary to pay the FICA bill to the IRS. In addition, for the 2009-10 budget year, the District Office will enact an across the board cut of 25% from the budget of each department and do an additional $400,000 in more targeted reductions throughout the building. Cuts include some personnel, four clerical positions and a network specialist as well as reduced program and equipment support that may affect the level and turnaround time of services to buildings next fall. Q. Why will Chaska High have fewer school resource officers next year than this year? First of all, our school district as a whole will have exactly the same number of school resource officers next year as we have this year. Half of the students and half the teachers now at Chaska High and Pioneer Ridge, however, will be located at Chanhassen High next fall and therefore one of the two resource officer positions currently at Chaska High will move to Chanhassen High along with the students and staff. Because Chanhassen High School is outside the city limits of Chaska, that resource officer position at Chanhassen High will be filled by a deputy from the Carver County Sheriff's Department, just as is the case in the district's elementary schools which are located outside of Chaska. The total number of officers remains the same. The plan is for schools inside of Chaska to be covered by Chaska PD personnel and schools outside of Chaska to be covered by County Sheriff's office personnel. This has been district policy for many years. Q. How will budget cuts impact high school sports and co-curricular activities? Will some sports or activities be eliminated? The activities offices of both high schools have been assigned the responsibility to "contribute" a total of $400,000 toward the solution of the budget problem. It would be inappropriate to do otherwise, to exempt athletics and activities when other areas are being affected so much. They have been asked to develop a plan to address their assigned $400,000 by either reducing expenses or increasing revenue. Their first attempts at that suggest that most of the solution can come from increased fees and admission charges rather than elimination of athletic and activity options for students. Any plan recommended, of course, will be subject to Board approval before being enacted at the building level. | ||||||||||||||
