Mayor Dave in the blogo-sphere

The Cap Times covers Madison Mayor Dave's blog which is hosted on the city's website.  The article goes on to discuss the issues of politicians and blogging.  Cieslewicz, as mayor, can speak for himself in an official capacity, and the blog's status would be similar to a press release or other communiqué from the mayor's office so long as it sticks to city business.  The mayor doesn't allow comments, but his office has a much higher profile and there are many other avenues for public feedback.  

Of course no one on the school board can speak for the board as a whole, so any blogs should be privately hosted and operated.

I found this quote interesting:

“Some research has shown that whatever a politician’s intention is with the blog, the content will inevitably get him or her into trouble, politically,” she adds.

So far I think I've avoided that fate, despite relentless criticism from some of my colleagues.  I do feel avenues for communication with the public are far more important than any political risk I might run.  

Tax rates comparisons.

Sunday's State Journal reproduces this table for comparing property tax rates in Dane County:

http://danedocs.countyofdane.com/webdocs/pdf/treasure/tax_chart.pdf

I just found it interesting to see where our communities fall...

Merry Christmas to all...

4k-8 study report

At last nights board meeting former Winnequah Principal Patti McGinnis presented the results of the 4k-8 study commissioned by the board last summer.  The report detailed the costs of implementing 4k-8 grade configurations in each community.  The proposed configuration would require significant changes to Winnequah school to accomodate programming for Monona 3-8th grade students and some changes to Glacial Drumlin to shift CG 4th graders into the building. 

The report (I'll link it here when it is up on the district website) was very thorough, and I found it a useful exercise to see all the costs and factors that go into making a school laid out in one place.  It is worth a read on that basis.  One issue identified from the study was that the scheduling wouldn't work with the current encore staff and additional staffing would be required.  These additional requirements hadn't been worked out, but they would add to the costs included the study.

The bottom line of the study is an estimated $1.05-1.1M in the first year with an ongoing cost of $150-200K each year thereafter, plus the additional staffing costs.
This study was involved significant effort from much of the administrative staff, I'd like to thank them for the care and thoroughness of this report.

Update:  The report has been posted on the district website and can be accessed by clicking here (Adobe Acrobat required).

Update: Patti reminds me that the Winnequah and Glacial Drumlin staff made significant contributions to the report, and deserve our thanks!

Race to the top

The district received an initial solicitation from the state DPI regarding "Race to the top" funds. The race to the top funds will be divided into two parts, with half of the funds going to districts that agree to implement programs in 5 areas outlined in the memorandum:

I. Standards & Assessments

1. Implement a curriculum aligned to the Common Core Standards in reading, English language arts, and mathematics.
2. Implement a statewide benchmark assessment system in reading and mathematics that allows measurement of growth throughout the school year.
...
II. Data Systems
1. Develop or enhance local data systems or tools that track student growth and link students, their course records, and their test scores to teachers to enhance instructional improvement efforts.
2. Support education research efforts by continuing to provide data currently required by state and federal law and new data required for Race to the Top.
...
III. Effective Teachers and Principals
1. Provide school-based coaches for reading and mathematics at a level sufficient to having coaches in each school in the district at least the equivalent of one full day each week. These coaches must be highly trained and work with teachers in classrooms to implement new curriculum and/or instructional strategies as well as assist teachers in using data effectively to improve instruction.
2. Implement a teacher mentoring program that utilizes an ongoing feedback process that supports teacher growth and development.
3. Implement a principal mentoring program that includes ongoing feedback and supports principal development.
4. Provide professional development and support to staff to implement new curriculum and/or instructional strategies as well as to use data effectively to improve instruction.
5. Develop or implement a rigorous, transparent, and fair annual evaluation system for teachers and principals that differentiates effectiveness using multiple rating categories, takes into account data on student growth as a significant factor, and includes multiple observations or examples of actual classroom instruction.

...
6. Develop a plan to ensure the equitable distribution of effective teachers in high-poverty and high-minority schools.
7. Adopt criteria for principal placement that includes prior evaluations and student achievement indicators, if principals have prior experience.
...
IV. Turning Around Struggling Schools
1. Implement a response to intervention model that provides diagnostic assessments, core instruction to all students, differentiation strategies, and interventions in reading and mathematics.
2. (applies only to Milwaukee)
3. Implement or expand interventions for students who need more academic support and instructional time in at least one of the following areas: extended learning time, enhanced transitions, or intensive interventions.
...
V. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
1. Expanded opportunities for courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which may include but is not limited to:

Click through here for the complete document.

I think that all of this is worthwhile, and MG is well positioned to meet these requirements.  Indeed MG has already gone down much of this path already, we have a leadership role in WI in the implementation and use of growth based assessments, data systems, RTI, teacher mentoring and other elements on the list.  I am particularily pleased to see the "Effective Teachers and Prinicipals" efforts outlined in the proposal.  The features outlined should be what schools are doing at a minimum, and would be considered fundamental requirements for basic operation in any well run private sector organization.   I don't think they go far enough, for example the teacher mentoring requirement only extends to teachers in their first two years.

The problem of course is that these efforts require significant resources, done well the professional development portions alone will need substantial investments of time that in my judgement currently aren't available.   To fund these requirements, the DPI has estimated that MG's allotment would be $127K (more might be available if some other districts choose not to participate). 

12/16 documents

The documents presented at the budget workshop are posted on the district web site here (Adobe Acrobat required).

In what I thought was a productive discussion the administration presented details from a list of 27 items totaling about $1.9 million in potential savings. Virtually all of the items represent reductions in personnel and services to students or the community. Each item is listed in the document with a summary of the savings and the impact on the district and district goals.

The list includes suggested reductions in administrative staffing, support staff, elementary and middle school arts programming, custodial services, middle and high school teaching staff. A few other areas not yet detailed, are also found at the bottom of the list. These should provide a few more options to add to the list.

The meeting on Wednesday served only to introduce this list and the board requested more information on many of the items. No decisions or prioritization of the list have been made at this point.

Probably the most important meeting of the year...

Takes place tonight in the Nichols Board Room.

AGENDA Wednesday, December 16, 2009
I. Opening of Meeting – Susan Fox
II. Declaration of Public Notice
III. Discussion of Possible Budget Reductions – Craig Gerlach
IV. Adjournment

Contract climate

Rick Kerr forwarded a link to this interesting Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about the status of teacher contract negotiations around the state. Recent changes in the law (elimination of the QEO), the economy and the state funding levels have combined to set a new climate around contract negotiations.

Snow Day Tomorrow...

My kids are already celebrating!

December 9th board agenda

Next Wednesday's agenda can be found here.  Items of note:

X. New Business

  B. Discussion and Possible Approval of Financial Audit 2008-2009 – Reilly, Penner & Benton LLP

-The audit results of the 2008-9 year will be presented to the board.  The report details a very clean audit with no compliance issues or discrepencies found.  The one deficiency noted is that the district relies on the Audit accountants to prepare detailed financial statements in compliance with the complicated GAAP requirements.  The auditor notes that this is a very common practice among school districts due to the level of expertise required.  

C. Report from Applied Population Laboratory Regarding Enrollment Projections – Sara Lazenby

- The annual APL enrollment report will be presented.  The "Baseline Model", which is usually accurate to a couple percent, shows a slight increase in enrollment (by about 100 students) over the next five years.

F. Update on Energy Committee – Jill List

- The energy committee has started working on ideas for reducing energy consumption through changes in operation and behaviour, I'm interested in hearing how this is moving forward.

"The Little Match Girl" tonight at the MGHS auditorium...

Playtime productions musical "The Little Match Girl" is in the MGHS auditorium tonight at 7:00pm,  "Cookie Walk" benefit and fundraiser starts at 6:00pm.

Don't miss it!

No "rainy day" ahead

In this week's column about the last school board meeting, Adam refers to our budget reserve as a "rainy day" fund that will be eaten up by future deficits. Problem is we don't have a "rainy day" fund. At the end of the last budget year we did have cash on hand of nearly $5 million, (what we call the "budget reserve") but this is necessary for the day-to-day operations: payments to the district come in large lumps at long intervals (the schedule can be found here), in order to meet our obligations before and between these payments we have to spend down our cash reserves and then some. In fact we still need to do a few million dollars in "cash-flow" borrowing each year to keep us solvent between state payouts. So there is no pot of money sitting around for us to spend.


The "budget reserve" does dramatically reduce required short term borrowing and avoids the resulting interest payments, each dollar reduction to the budget reserve results in higher interest costs to the district. Further, the size of the reserve helps maintain the district's bond rating, which helps reduce the cost of any district borrowing. This is why the board recently passed a policy recommending a 15% "budget reserve". At the time I advocated for some teeth to this policy- requiring a plan to restore the budget reserve to 15% should it drop below- but the majority of the board opposed this provision.

If the budget forecast predicted a year or two of deficits before returning to a balanced budget, then it might be okay to spend down the reserve temporarily to preserve programs and refill it later. But the projections show a continued and growing deficit for the foreseeable future, so spending down the reserve would only increase costs and make future cuts worse. It will be tempting for politicians (like me) to spend the reserve now to avoid unpopular cuts, but IMHO this would be short sighted and only leave the district in worse shape in the future.