School Board Meeting 10/30/14

Notes from the October 30, 2014 School Board Meeting

Financial Fiscal Year-end Update (June 2014)

·        General Fiscal Info

o   $3.8 million surplus

§  $0.929 million to Minor Capital=$1.882 million
§  $2.347 to Major Capital=$4.252 million
§  Considering the size of the total budget, this is not huge considering that $2.0 million of this is in an “Emergency Fund”.

o   Recent Year-end surpluses (% of total budget)

§  2009- 3.5%
§  2010-5.0%
§  2011-7.7%
§  2012-2.5%
§  2013-1.2%
§  2014-2.1%

o   Budgeted for 13,801 students at $3,500 per student from state

·        Money Pots (Places holding cash surpluses)

o   Nutrition:  ($92,059)
o   Instructional resources (Texts plus): $42,000
o   Transportation (bus):$1,394,821
o   Grants: $75,000
o   Laptops:

§  $1,099,085 (unreserved)
§  $204,750 (reserved)

o   Health:

§  $3,565,069 (unreserved)
§  $4,258,746 (reserved)

§  Last year was a good claims year.
§  We are self-insured…meaning we pay all of our own claims from our premium pool. Anthem just administers the program.
§  Our Health insurance carrier contract will be out for bid this year (every five years)

Cell Towers on School/County Property

·        About to send out RFP’s for a group to manage cell tower leases·        Schools would lease desirable school property to a group that would, in turn; build, maintain, and sell space to companies needing cell infrastructure. ·        This could become a steady, reliable source of new revenue for the school system.

Notable Board Member Reports

o   Mr. Minnix:

§  “I look forward (Kinda) to the budget process.”

o   Mr. Canada:

§  Concerned about pay equity for bus drivers.  Apparently some who drive more than four hours receive less money per hour for driving more than that.

·        Hours 1-4@$16 an hour
·        Additional hours @$10 an hour

o   Mr. Barrineau:

§  Pointed out that WalMart is reducing/eliminating insurance benefits for its part-time workers as are many other major corporations.  So we aren’t the only ones dealing with this.

Superintendent Search

o   The process begins November 4 in earnest
o   There are 19 applicants.

RCEA speaks before the School Board

RCEA President, Tim Summers, spoke before the  Roanoke  County School Board tonight.  He came out strongly against outsourcing and in favor of more than just a half a cost of living adjustment for school board employees.

Stay tuned.

Tim did a great job. He was forceful and forthright.  The board had no comment.

RCEA Lobby Day 2014

RCEA Lobby Day Report

The RCEA took five members to Richmond on Monday January 27 to visit with local legislators and to commune with hundreds of our education friends from all across the Commonwealth.  Everywhere you turned in the General Assembly building today, you found teachers.  In addition, our friends from the PTA, School Boards Association (VSBA), and the Superintendent’s Association (VASS) were in the house. 

 

We had the opportunity to sit in the House Education Committee meeting and listened to several bills being discussed.  One bill is this year’s version of what’s known as “The Tebow Bill”.  If passed,  this bill would effectively force VHSL to change their policy regarding allowing home-schooled children to participate in local high school sports OR would force high schools to disassociate from VHSL.  The bill definitely has legs in the House committee, and proponents spoke to it forcefully.  VEA’s position along with PTA, VSBA and VASS is that the current VHSL regulations have stipulations with which public school students would have to adhere -like attending school on the day of a game, maintaining a certain grade point average, and taking the required number of classes.  A home-schooled student would be under no such stipulations.  Furthermore, a home-schooled student, if allowed on a team, would effectively be taking the place of a student who actually attends the school.  Lastly, the relaxation of the rules would open high school sports to being ‘gamed’ by faux students.  Ultimately,  the parents of home-schooled children executed a choice when they withdrew from public schooling. That choice has consequences.

Today, we met with Delegate Rasoul (Roanoke City), Delegate Habeeb, Senator Smith, and Senator Edwards’ legislative assistant-Alison Baird.  Unfortunately, Delegate Head did not respond to our requests for a meeting.

While he doesn’t represent our immediate area, Senator Rasoul (Democrat) is a strong supporter of public school education and is well-versed in every issue we broached.  In fact, he commands the issues and can articulate his positions.  Rasoul pointedly said that he is serving to help the entire Roanoke Valley and will work with local legislators for us.

Senator Smith (Republican) spent a cordial time with our representatives.  While we tend to disagree with him on many policies relating to education, he is always willing to meet with us and listen respectfully.  Senator Smith is working hard to give school divisions more control over their calendar.  

Our meeting with Delegate Habeeb (Republican) was relaxed.  We probed him on his thoughts about Medicaid expansion.  He never said he would support it, but proceeded to share a rather confusing tutorial focused on unspecified system inefficiencies that need to be addressed and the fact that it isn’t “Free Money.”  The fact is that Medicaid expansion is FREE money.  It’s money that the Federal government has earmarked for our state.  The Federal government will pay 100% of the cost of expansion for two years then 90% thereafter…forever.  Of course, nothing in government is ever guaranteed forever…NOTHING.  So to argue against this expansion by saying that maybe one day it might stop is illogical.  The fact is that Medicaid expansion will save Virginia an estimated $1.3 billion in real dollars over 7 years.  It will also alleviate the “secret tax” on our insurance premiums (est. 10% annually) because the uninsured will no longer invade our emergency rooms without the ability to pay.  Furthermore, it will create an estimated 33,000 jobs in Virginia and create insurance coverage for almost 200,000 Virginians who have no insurance…many of them children. There is no logical reason to stand against Medicaid expansion, unless you like our current system for serving the uninsured.

Our neighboring legislator, Delegate Yost, is sponsoring a bill that would allow localities the option of joining a state health insurance pool for public school employees.  Such a pool would allow all participating divisions to tap the economy of scale to help stabilize their health insurance premiums.  Roanoke County is currently self-insured (we have our own pool) and we most likely would not participate in the state pool. However, for small divisions, such a pool could be a godsend in controlling rampant fluctuations in health care premiums.  Delegate Rasoul supports this concept and Delegate Habeeb will study it. 

One item that we discussed is a pending budget amendment to provide the state share of a 6% salary supplement for instructional and support positions (Delegate Chafin/Senator Puckett).  Without a doubt, this amendment would have a tough road in the House,  but the Senate should support as will the Governor.   Delegate Rasoul and Senator Edwards are on board, but we don’t know how Delegates Habeeb and Head, as well as Senator Smith will stand if called to vote on the matter.

We also spent time talking about two administrative tweaks. One will tighten the CPS investigative period to make the 45 day reporting deadline mandatory. The other increases a teacher’s deadline for requesting a hearing after receiving a notice of dismissal from 5 to 10 days.  Previously, before last year’s “reform,” teachers were allowed 15 days to decide on a hearing.

Other issues we discussed were HB 720 which would mandate school divisions to give education employees lactation support or more plainly, a safe, private place to pump breast-milk during working hours.  Some schools currently offer teachers closets that store caustic cleaning chemicals as pump rooms. In another unrelated issue, VRS was “reformed” last year.  One reformation component was a mandate for the state to fully meet its actuarial obligation for supporting the fund. We encouraged legislators to keep to the plan and step up to fully fund VRS by July 2018 as agreed upon.

VEA’s annual Lobby day isn’t the end; rather, it is just the continuation of a year-long process to protect and strengthen public schools in Virginia.  Our state has one of the best public school education systems in the country and world; yet, there are forces that either knowingly or unknowingly, are trying to tear it all down.  We must be present.

You can learn more about by reading VEA’s Daily General Assembly Report.

Meeting Week Begins!

Meeting Week Begins!

Monday took me to two meetings after school.  First up was the Employee Advisory Committee (EAC) followed directly by the Roanoke County PTA Council Meeting featuring a special presentation on Sequestration.   I learned a few things from these meetings that I can share with all of you.

EAC

The meeting was hosted by Dr. Whitaker, Dr. Lange, and Mr. Journell.

•   Allen Journell spoke to the body of school representatives about school calendar development.    He’s concerned that we may have to actually follow the Commonwealth’s post-Labor Day School Opening law (King’s Dominion Law) next year.  For many years now, Roanoke County Schools have opened prior to Labor Day thanks to a waiver from the state.  That waiver expires after this year unless we miss ten or more school days due to inclement weather.  If we do, we will get a one year reprieve.  More likely is that we will not meet the ten day requirement.  If that happens we will have to open after Labor Day.  This will mean the compression of the school calendar, Mr. Journell suggested.  Winter break will likely be shorter, and we will lose some of our scattered work days throughout the school year.  Dr. Lange said that they would preserve a week break in the spring.  I asked if they have explored holding high school graduations at individual high schools to open up some flexibility in the school calendar or are they locked in to using the Salem Civic Center.  All three hosts explained that they will keep the Salem Civic Center dates because parents really like having graduation there and the facility has plenty of parking and space inside.

•  Dr. Lange spoke about the upcoming local school budget and pending sequestration.  She noted that county revenues and real estate tax collections are trending down this year.  State funding is a huge question mark with increased funding unlikely.  Federal monies are tied up in the sequestration mess.  If sequestration were to occur, Roanoke County Schools would likely see a 7-9% decrease in federal funding.  Since most of the federal programs are mandated by law, either the state or locality would have to pick up the reduction or the cuts will come right from the general school funds.  This would impact jobs, since 80-90% of the school budget is invested in personnel.  Dr. Lange and the school board plan to ask the supervisors to petition the state to allow for a 1% increase in the lodging tax.  If such tax hike is allowed, about one million dollars could be generated.

• Dr. Whitaker spoke about a new program called “Employee Self Serve.”  This is a program that will eliminate the paper trail for paychecks.  All payments will be handled online as will all reports.  Essentially, we will have paperless pay stubs.  Look for this system to come online by January 1, 2013. It’s a lot like Aesop.  J

• Dr. Whitaker also spoke about the latest in insurance options.  The county is currently investigating several ideas.

o   Health Savings Accounts (HSA):  These health insurance programs for current employees only are a voucher-like savings plan.  They theoretically encourage participants to use less health care by enforcing a higher deductible and offer cash back to users for not using insurance services.  As an aside, study of this type of plan was originally initiated by the county at a joint work session between the school board and the county board of supervisors last year. 

o   Wellness Options:  These options will offer lower rates for non-smokers and people who get yearly check-ups among other things.  They would be in place for current and retired employees.  No further details or explanations were given.

o   Keep the current plan intact

At this point, school concerns were addressed. 

•   One of the first was a question about “strongly encouraged” quarterly meetings.  The person bringing the issue noted that elementary school teachers could be on the hook for 16 or more quarterly meetings (4 Math, 4 English, 4 Science, 4 Social Studies).  Dr. Lange acknowledged the elementary quandary.  She told us point blank that elementary teachers should send representatives to these meetings and share the information with their colleagues.  She said that she would discuss this issue with the elementary school principals.  She also said that the quarterly meetings were instituted this year in response to our low Math SOL scores.  Last year’s meetings were not well-attended and she noted that our scores had dropped.  She said that we need to be at these meetings to “learn strategies.”  Dr. Whitaker added, however, that “Teachers cannot work any harder.”

•  A representative asked about the possibility of getting paid over 12 months.   Dr. Lange and Dr. Whitaker dismissed that possibility.  Dr. Lange suggested utilizing a hold pay account at the credit union.  As an aside, employees are better off getting paid over 10 months.  You get your money sooner and can put it to use for you earning massive interest.  12 month pay is like a free loan for the county.

• Another representative asked about the issue of new Mac’s vs old Dell’s at the high schools.  Dr. Lange affirmed that there is no hard date to retire the Dell’s. 

• Another representative asked if elementary school teachers could take an i-Pad home to explore the machines and find instructional uses.  Dr. Lange said that would not be possible since the machines are not insured for home use.  “Kids should be figuring it out,” Dr. Lange said.

PTA/Sequestration Meeting

The Roanoke County Council of PTA’s met at NMS on Monday night.  The meeting featured Dr. McLung and Dr. Eastwood discussing the possible perils of federal sequestration.  Dr. Lange also spoke as did school board members Jerry Canada and David Wymer.

The meeting was a call to action.  We need to be writing our US Senators and Congressmen to share our views on sequestration.  Congress has until December 31 to act to stop this horrific axe blade.  You can find useful links, addresses, talking points, and sample letters at the Sequestration Link on the RCPS web page.

Tomorrow will take me to a English/Reading quarterly meeting followed by a school PTA meeting.  Meeting week is fun!

Thom Ryder

Reality for Mr. Coulson

Reality for Mr. Coulson

Andrew Coulson is the long-time director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom.  He recently opined on education in the conservative Wall Street Journal.

Over the past ten years, he has criticized public schools and public school funding with regularity. He trumpets private schools, vouchers, and tax credits as the solution to the perceived mediocrity of student performance.  This is what he does for a living, and he’s very good at it.  I teach third grade, and I like to think that I’m pretty good at it.  Much of my perspective is prejudiced by my actual classroom experiences over the last 30 years.

It’s interesting to me that Mr. Coulson chose the last 42 years for his comparison.

Public-school employees have doubled in 40 years while student enrollment has increased by only 8.5%—and academic results have stagnated.

1970 was an interesting time.  I remember it well.  I was a fourth grader that year and shared a nice, naturally air conditioned classroom with 34 other white children.  The year before,  I had witnessed my grade’s first Black student sit in the front left of the room facing the wall for the entire school year,  because my third grade teacher assumed that the dark child was a trouble-maker.  Sometimes a nice wind blew in the big windows, but stifling June days were unbearable.  Sometimes we were allowed to whisper.  Daily, a parade of students went to the hall to receive their paddlings.   We had no Art teacher and the Music teacher was able to visit once a week for a half hour.  There were no computers.  The library was stocked with nice books, and they had one TV on a cart that played an early version of video tape.  Our school cafeteria had just opened.  Before that year, we would line up at the kitchen, get our food, and walk back to the room with our trays.

Since 1970, the public school workforce has roughly doubled—to 6.4 million from 3.3 million—and two-thirds of those new hires are teachers or teachers' aides. Over the same period, enrollment rose by a tepid 8.5%. Employment has thus grown 11 times faster than enrollment. If we returned to the student-to-staff ratio of 1970, American taxpayers would save about $210 billion annually in personnel costs.

I have no doubt that his employee and enrollment numbers are accurate.  However, Coulson does not mention what the pupil/teacher ratio was in 1970  (35/1 in my classroom[i]).  Nor does he note how he arrived at the $210 billion in savings if we reverted to 1970 pupil/teacher levels.

But can we do that?  Is that even possible?  Sounds easy.  Just get rid of them.  Go back to 1970.  Does that mean that we get rid of cafeterias, special education, teaching assistants, art, music, pe, all technology and technology support, test coaches, test coordinators, speech therapists, guidance counselors, drug awareness educators, and school nurses to list a few? In my experience, we’ve seen very little increase of actual instructional classroom teachers.  Instead of 35/1, I’m generally teaching classes at between 20-28/1.  While there is no doubt that the pupil/ teacher ratio has been lowered over the past 42 years, the majority of growth hasn’t come from that area.

 

Do we pay teachers like they were paid in 1970?  Beginning teachers in my locality received about $6,000 a year back then.  These days, a beginning teacher in my locality rakes in an astounding $36,000.  There is no doubt that private schools pay much less.  I’m not sure if Coulson accounted for the increase in the cost of living over 40 years, because he didn’t mention if that was factored.  My goodness, think of all the money that could be saved if teachers were paid at 1970 levels!

Nor can the explosive growth in public-school hiring be attributed to federal spending on special education. According to the latest Census Bureau data, special ed teachers make up barely 5% of the K-12 work force.

Mr. Coulson is being selective in his use of facts here.  Earlier in the piece, he mentioned that public school workforce has increased by over 3.0 million over the last 40 years.    Then what he shovels here is a fact that only 5% of teachers are special education teachers.  What he’s neglecting to mention is that most of the hiring in special education is not for teachers, but assistants.  You see, when PL-94142 (special education federal mandate) was passed in 1972, public schools (not private schools) were required to educate every child in their least restrictive environment.  This means, that if you have a physically handicapped child and you can make the classroom their least restrictive environment by providing a one-on-one teaching assistant, you must do that. The same is true with mentally challenged children, autistic children, blind children, etc.  Many of these children require adult assistance to help them navigate their way in the classroom.  While such assistants are paid at about 1/3 of a teacher’s salary,[ii] the need for these positions has sky-rocketed as public schools work to fulfill the federal mandate.

The implication of these facts is clear: America's public schools have warehoused three million people in jobs that do little to improve student achievement—people who would be working productively in the private sector if that extra $210 billion were not taxed out of the economy each year.

Mr. Coulson is entitled to his opinion, but I will argue that the $210 billion, if that indeed is an accurate number, isn’t taxed out of the economy.  It’s not like those three million are tax evaders and societal free-loaders.  They pay taxes, buy goods, and use services.  They do their fair share for the economy.   What Coulson is really arguing for is for different people to use the $210 billion dollars to pay taxes, buy goods, and use services.  Furthermore, Coulson’s use of the term “warehoused” is quite inflammatory and inaccurate.

We have already tried President Obama's education solution over a time period and on a scale that he could not hope to replicate today. And it has proven an expensive and tragic failure.

What time period have we tried President Obama’s educational solution?  He’s only been president for 3.5 years.  During that stretch of time,  the Elementary and Secondary Education Act[iii] had NOT been reauthorized, even though it should have been four years ago.   The House simply hasn’t put it on their agenda.

Obama, instead, has built upon the previous two administrations policies on standardized testing and teacher evaluation as the primary tools of school “reform.”  Only recently has Secretary Duncan relaxed some of the NCLB AYP[iv]  for some states.  But these waivers come with more accountability and evaluation strings attached.

To avoid Greece's fate we must create new, productive private-sector jobs to replace our unproductive government ones. Even as a tiny, mostly nonprofit niche, American private education is substantially more efficient than its public sector, producing higher graduation rates and similar or better student achievement at roughly a third lower cost than public schools (even after controlling for differences in student and family characteristics).

I don’t understand what Greece has to do with this.  Coulson just tossed that threat out there.  He could have just as easily said that “To avoid the inevitable mutation of a virus with no known cure because our public school graduates are incapable of finding a vaccine, we must create….”  Seriously though,  I personally disagree that private schools as a whole provide better student achievement.  

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the most frequently used method to chart student progress in the United States.  Coulson bases his whole argument using that measurement to show flat academic growth in students over the past 40 years.  In a NAEP study looking at 2003 data (latest I could find),  the Department of Education found that private schools and public schools were statistically even in Fourth Grade Reading and Eighth Grade Math after the scores were “adjusted for student characteristics.[v]”  Public Schools performed significantly better in Third Grade Math while private schools performed better in Eighth Grade Reading.  Religious schools (Lutheran, Catholic, and Conservative Christian) performed similar to private schools at all levels except the conservative Christian schools performed much worse than public schools at Eighth Grade Math.

I would expect that private schools have a higher graduation rate than public schools. After all, when most people drop out of private schools, they enroll in public schools.

One way that private schools save money is by paying its instructors about 2/3 of what a public school teacher makes.  Personnel costs generally claim about 80% of a school budget, public or private.  Most private schools do not provide transportation. Another savings is private schools do not have the cost associated with providing special education. Most don’t accept those children.  In fact, what’s happening now is that when private school children are identified as having a special education need (speech, learning disability, etc), the public school district has to provide the service.  One of my friends is a speech and language teacher.  Many of the 60 children on her caseload come from a private school nearby.  This cost is born by the public school district, not the private school.

By making it easier for families to access independent schools, we can do what the president's policies cannot: drive prosperity through educational improvement. More than 20 private-school choice programs already exist around the nation. Last month, New Hampshire legislators voted to override their governor's veto and enact tax credits for businesses that donate to K-12 scholarship organizations. Mr. Romney has supported such state programs. President Obama opposes them.

The reason that the president opposes these tax credit schemes is that they will inevitably reduce the amount of money available to fund public schools.  One might argue that if the children are not there, you don’t need money to educate them.  Buildings don’t understand the difference.  They turn on lights no matter how many are inside.  They condition the air no matter how many are inside.  It would take a mass exodus for that model to be a fair trade.

While America may have too many teachers, the greater problem is that our state schools have squandered their talents on a mass scale. The good news is that a solution is taking root in many states.

I agree with Mr. Coulson on this most key point.  My talents have been squandered for the past 15 years.  During this ridiculous political struggle for our public schools, my opportunity to teach has been corrupted and turned into a mandate to test.  That’s where the great threat is to public schools today.  I also agree that a solution is beginning to take root in many states; one that is different than he may imagine.  Parents are finally beginning to stand up against the high stakes testing that is destroying their children’s public schooling.

---

[i] Many school divisions use unusual formulas to calculate pupil teacher ratio.  For example,  they sometimes count any person who works in the school, not just teachers, in the formula.  So be wary of such numbers if they see low.)

[ii] One assistant at my school has to write the county a check after the county deducts her entire paycheck for health insurance.

[iii] Aka NCLB No Child Left Behind

[iv] Average Yearly Progress

[v] This means race, gender, socio-economic status, special needs, etc