Memo to City Hall....How about letting us in on Your Grand Vision for OUR PROPERTY!

So at the Thursday discussion meeting of the Escambia County School Board, a frenzied last minute shuffle took place as various School District Operations Personnel left and entered the room, answered phones, then made calls, in and out of the meeting, up and down, back and forth.

Eventually, Mrs. Hightower told us all that she had received late word from an ECUA board member about a significant zoning change that was about to be discussed by the Pensacola City Council, that very night at 5PM, which would affect a large swath of downtown, the former site of the ECUA sewage plant, and also our significant property at 215 W. Garden Street.

“Were we noticed?”  Was the question from the assembled staff and School Board members?  The answer thus far appears to be no. 

Nobody was noticed officially, unofficially, in writing, or via a courtesy call—until the night of the meeting by a third party.    Wow!  Really?        

As a governmental entity that levies ad-valorem taxes, and also as a substantial property owner within this proposed district—The School Board and Superintendent Thomas and his staff should have been noticed about this meeting.  We should be
 

The “Thursday Morning Money Grab”

No, it’s not a catchy and fun song like “Tuesday Night Music Club” by Sheryl Crow.  And no, there was nothing warm and fuzzy about it.  Nope, as it turns out it was just a Thursday morning email blast (see the email below) that sent shockwaves through schools and colleges statewide.   And we found out about it today at this morning’s regular workshop of the Escambia County School Board.

As is usually the case at our meetings, several interesting topics were discussed. Today, however, this unusual and troubling bit of information about this money freeze was passed along to School Board members by Terry St Cyr, Assistant Superintendent for Finance.

Our School District, along with every other school district and college and university in the state, received this email Thursday morning, a very matter-of-fact memo---- just essentially freezing hundreds of millions of dollars statewide—that’s all.   Just a hundreds of $millions.

Yes, every college and school district in the state has suddenly and inexplicably had their Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) budgets frozen.  What this means is essentially that any monies

A.A. Dixon--the Financial Struggles Continue...

The financial woes affecting A.A. Dixon charter are not going away.

At a special meeting of the Escambia County School Board this Thursday, January 12, at 3:00 PM, the board will discuss the current state of A.A. Dixon’s finances.   Board members will be presented with a PowerPoint presentation by the finance department which projects A.A. Dixon’s fund balance to be a negative (-$63,090.00) at the end of FY 2012. 

This conservative projection shows a negative fund balance at the end of the FY, in comparison to the Corrective Action Plan (CAP) submitted by this charter earlier this year which projected a positive fund balance of around 5K at the end of the FY. 

I never thought the CAP’s fund balance projection was realistic, and I am actually somewhat skeptical about the final number this charter’s fund balance will be when the FY ends in June of 12.  I believe the final number will be worse that $63K, more like between (-$100,000.00 and -$150,000.00)

The presentation, which has already been provided to board members, also contains some line items which will create questions from me such as:

1.        How do you plan to pay for the repair of the district provided buses such that your transportation projection (7800-390), which is drastically lower for the second half of FY12, will be realistic, given your current fund balance is (-$30,970.00)

2.       What is the nature of the $10,000.00 expenditure in 7300-390, to whom was this expenditure made?

3.       What is the nature of the $4,688.00 expenditure in 7100-315, to whom was this expenditure made?  (My understanding of the CAP was that the school was no longer going to use consultants)

4.       Given the fact that your checkbook is essentially in the hole about -$30K, will you continue to be able to make your payroll for the rest of this year?

5.       Has your staff’s total “voluntary” pay cut been 10%, 15%, or a combination (25%?)

6.       If the fund balance increases as it looks likely to at the end of the FY—will this school close voluntarily per the agreement between Dixon’s Board Chair and the Superintendent, and the amendment to the CAP?

These are some of my initial questions; there will be more as this meeting (in room 160 at the Hall center) unfolds Thursday.

5 Escambia County High Schools Earn Enough Points for an "A".......

....but only one High School earned the "A".  This due to a penalty assessed for the 2011 year for  on time at-risk graduation.  See the chart below......

..And compare the grades from last year with this chart, below....

The High Schools and all schools in our district are making signifigant forward progress.  As is illustrated in the first chart, five High Schools of Seven in our district earned enough points for an "A" but 4 were penalized back to a "B" level due to a newly enacted penalty on High Schools that do not graduate at-risk students within 4 years.

This is an issue that we are working on and we will have to focus more resources on solving this problem; but that does not  and should not diminish the accomplishments of the high schools in all other areas.

Congratulations are in order for the students, parents, teachers, staff and administrators that are driving these results!

Panhandle County Gets National Recognition for Cost Cutting

Not Escambia.  Santa Rosa is singled out in this recent article that appeared on Breitbart's Big Government site.  Santa Rosa's efforts at privatizing services has saved tremendous sums of taxpayer money--and has proven to be a wise course of action.....

From the article:

"Some Florida schools have managed to weather the financial storm on their own by tackling runaway labor costs. The Santa Rosa district is a good example. Like most districts, it has felt the effects of decreased state aid. Santa Rosa’s current operating budget is about $15 million less than last year’s budget.  But school officials did not have to hit the panic button, or demand tax increases to maintain their programs. Instead they made some “tough decisions,” including the privatization of their food, custodial and transportation programs, a gradual process that began in the 1990s.  “(The tough decisions) are paying dividends because we are very solvent and we are able to navigate through the next year without too much concern,” Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick recently told NWFDailyNews.com.  Jim Crane, director of purchasing and contract administration for Santa Rosa schools, helped implement the district’s privatization plan, which was among the first in the state. He’s seen the benefits of privatization first hand.  “We’re saving millions per year because we contracted out, and we’re getting better service,” Crane told EAG. “It’s been a net plus for us.”
Crane notes the district’s switch to privatization was very gradual. Instead of replacing union employees with private sector counterparts immediately, Santa Rosa decided to replace employees through attrition. As they quit or retire, they’re replaced with contracted workers.  Eighteen years ago, two-thirds of Santa Rosa’s custodial staff were district employees, and were paid according to contractually negotiated salary schedules. That’s down to two percent today.  When salary and benefits are averaged out, a custodian employed directly by the district costs twice as much as a privately contracted custodian, Crane said. District-employed transportation employees cost one-third more than their private sector counterparts."


Read the full article here

Putting Themselves Ahead of Kids, Obstructionist Union Costs Schools $60 Million

Yes, sad but true.  Luckily this is not happening here but in New York--- it still aggravates me though.  I hate it when adults put themselves and their needs ahead of students and it happens everyday in America, and it has to change. 

From today's NY Daily News

"New Yorkers have 58 million reasons to jeer teachers union President Michael Mulgrew.
Thanks to him, 33 schools in desperate need of money to improve have just lost $58 million in funds intended to turn them around. Thanks to him, some of the worst teachers at some of the worst schools will continue to be protected at the expense of the kids in their classrooms.  Thanks to him, the state may soon have to forfeit $700 million in additional federal Race to the Top money awarded based on promised reforms."

A more union sympathetic viewpoint is below, from the WNYC blog.


"The New York State Department of Education awarded the funds, called School Improvement Grants (SIG), on the condition that school districts and unions revise their collective bargaining agreements to include a new evaluation system for teachers and principals. New York City is one of 10 districts statewide to be promised the funds.  "Sadly, the adults in charge of the city's schools have let the students down," said John B. King, state commissioner of education, in a written statement. "This is beyond disappointing. The city and the unions have known about this deadline for many months, but there’s no evidence of any real progress."

Read more here

Florida Loses out on RTTT Early Childhood Education Grant

Thirty-five states and Puerto Rico applied for federal ECE money, but so far only 9 states have received the awards.  Florida's application was rejected, in part, due to a lukewarm application package laden with conditions.

From the Orlando Sentinal

"Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the state's application, said the state would accept the money only if "no federal strings" were attached and no "new burdensome regulations" were placed on private child-care centers...Scott said Friday that sticking to those conditions cost Florida. "Unfortunately, our insistence against irresponsibly using one-time dollars for recurring government programs did not win the favor of the administration in Washington," he said in a statement.  Florida will continue to push for "a world-class education system," the governor said. "We will accomplish this goal for the benefit of our current students and generations of Floridians to come without sacrificing responsible spending."

Not winning this particular award will not damage our schools in my opinion.  I remain somewhat skeptical about the effectiveness and benefit (relative to the costs) of  spending tremendous sums of money (Federal and or State) on ECE, given that the evidence of long-term learning gains measured after the third grade between students that received preK services compared to those who did not is very thin.  Some even would assert that the government spending huge sums on preK ammounts to nothing more than an additional entitlement program, as preK and childcare should be an individual, parental responsibility.  So losing this grant is not going to keep me awake at night 

By contrast, however--- Florida's winning of the $700Million  K-12 RTTT Grant has been tremendously impactful to our schools and will bear fruit for many years to come in this state as it has put the status quo directly into the cross-hairs of reform.