Council Budget Hearing – March 28th, 2012

Cathy Reilly – Executive Director

We strongly support the Mayor’s Six-year plan, which authorizes $649 million for high school modernization with $203 million for new and modernized high schools in FY 2013 alone

•Construction on Ballou High School, Cardozo High School, and Dunbar High School in FY 2013

•Modernization planning and design on Ellington High School, Coolidge High School, and Roosevelt High School also in FY 2013. 

Recommendation: Keep the promise made to these communities.  The unfairness of the delay this year has rightfully roused particularly Ward 4 high schools where there has been the least capital investment in the city in the public schools. 

The continued investment in the infrastructure of these historic and important public institutions will reap benefits for generations of the District’s children.  It has to be matched by strategic quality outreach and program supports.

However the DCPS fund allocation to the high schools does not do this – this year, it is in fact unconscionable.  These schools serving the widest range of the most challenged students in the city are faced with impossible choices.  We see teachers, librarians, business managers and registrars disappearing.

The Uniform Per Pupil Funding Formula provides a weight of 1.16 or $10,584.00 a pupil for high schools in recognition of their higher costs, but the DCPS gives comprehensive high schools less in per student funding on average than schools at any other level. The average per student funding ranges between $6140 and $7218 for the comprehensive high schools excluding special education and ELL. 

Ø      Schools are facing a reduction in other than personnel funds from 3.5% to 2.75% - these funds cover all supplies including cleaning, TP, paper, science lab supplies, computers etc.

Ø      While schools gained some guidance counselors shifting from 1 to 400 to 1 to 250; the increase in the teacher pupil ratio from 22 to 1 to 24 to 1 represented a greater loss exacerbated by the failure to take into account the planning periods (see attached testimony to Mayor). The resulting class size of 28 to 32 to 1 now puts all the high schools in violation of the WTU contract aside from being poor educational practice.

Recommendation: Require DCPS to be in compliance with the WTU contract in their budget submission. The cost of restoring the teacher pupil ration to 22 to 1 for the high schools is approximately $2.5 million.  

The cost of restoring the OTPS funding to last year’s level for all schools would be roughly $4 million.  We would be happy to work with you and your colleagues on identifying these funds in the DCPS budget as supplementary spread sheets are forwarded to you.  

Ø      DCPS passed along the cost of the IMPACT bonuses and salary increases to the local schools.  Despite all the assurances at the time the teacher contract was passed, that these costs would be covered by private funds and savings- for FY 13 they represent a cut in every local school budget. The trade off for the percentage of highly paid teachers is larger class size and less ability to offer special classes to better meet the needs and desires of the student population.

This system has not been independently evaluated as effective nor have we as citizens agreed to or supported IMPACT and the large increase in supervisory personnel as a primary improvement strategy with costs that preclude other vital strategies. 

Recommendation: Insist on a thorough breakdown of how the average salaries passed to the schools were arrived at. They seem extremely high.  Prior to voting on a new WTU contract insist on a cost and benefit analysis of IMPACT including the higher foundation salaries and bonuses now pushing up class size at every school.   Enlist outside independent sources in this evaluation.

Ø      In the DCPS budget we see newly initiated modest charges for summer school with no accompanying rationale that looks at the impact on enrollment if students do not attend, return in the fall or fail to graduate.  

Recommendation: Require a budget on how the allocation for summer school is being spent and a cost benefit analysis of the charge. 

Ø      Both the Mayor and the Chancellor have spoken repeatedly of school closings, the IFF study uses performance test scores as the only criterion.  We see our sister urban areas distraught over the injustice and loss this approach has initiated.  The previous round of closings done unilaterally by the chancellor precipitated an accelerated decline in DCPS, and did not serve our city well.

Recommendation:  All closings should be prohibited until the due diligence has been done. The Council can require that school closings only occur in the context of a master plan which works with boundary and feeder pattern adjustments, includes both the DCPS and charter sector, and maintains DCPS as a municipal system of democratically controlled neighborhood schools.  Insist on holding hearings on this plan and approving it prior to implementation.    

You have become the place of appeal and redress under mayoral control of the DC Public Schools; we do not view you as 13 chancellors but rather as our elected representatives required to do the due diligence of budget and policy oversight.

OSSE

Since this is the OSSE budget hearing also I would like to further mention that the new formula for calculating the graduation rate treats all students who take longer than 4 years to graduate essentially as dropouts.  What a message to send the ELL, Special Education and even struggling 9th graders who sometimes get off to a tough start and need 5 years.  Hopefully schools will follow their mission and their connection to these students and support their graduation even if it takes 5 years.  However if they are looking at the bottom line of their rating and their AYP status they would be better off to not have these students on their rolls at all.