March 30 meeting

The board will meet tomorrow Wednesday with a few items on the agenda.  In closed session the board will:

III. Motion to Move into Closed Session Pursuant to Wisconsin Statutes 19.85 (1)(c)
(e) for Consideration and Deliberation Regarding Administrative Contracts/Salaries,
Superintendent Evaluation,  Possible Contract Extensions for Support Staff,
Possible Negotiation of Resignation Agreement with an Employee and Strategies
for Real Estate Practices Regarding School District Properties.

In open session the board will:

A. Discussion  and Possible Approval of Planning Grant Application for School of
      Health and Environmental Sciences - Nancy Gagnon and Stephanie Ramer   (30 Min) 

The board will review the planning grant application proposed by a group of Monona residents for "the Monona Grove Environmental and Health Sciences Charter School" designed to serve as many as 75 middle school students with a project based learning environment.  You can review the document here. 

B. Discussion and Possible Approval of Open Enrollment Recommendations    (30 Min)
C. Discussion of 2011-2012 Budget Reduction Items.                                          (60 Min)

The proposed 2011-13 state budget puts the district in need of significantly more budget cuts than we had planned- the board will consider recommendations for the administration for different directions we can go.

Expand vouchers because...?

From today's WSJ:

The test results show the percentage of students participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program who scored proficient or advanced was 34.4 percent for math and 55.2 percent for reading.


Among Milwaukee Public Schools students, it was 47.8 percent in math and 59 percent in reading. Among Milwaukee Public Schools students coming from families making 185 percent of the federal poverty level — a slightly better comparison because voucher students come from families making no more than 175 percent — it was 43.9 percent in math and 55.3 percent in reading.

That is a gap of 9.5 percent in the math proficiency between the MPS students and voucher school students.  At the very least the state should stop to look at the Milwaukee voucher program and seriously consider if and under what conditions it should continue- because what is happening now is not working. 

3/16/2011


The Honorable Senator Luther Olsen
The Honorable Senator Mark Miller
The Honorable Representative Gary Hebl
The Honorable Representative Joe Parisi
Madison, WI

Gentlemen,

Thank you for taking the time today to allow me to express my concerns about the impact of the Governor’s 2011-13 budget on education in the Monona Grove School District and the state of Wisconsin.

As I noted to some of you, according to the website //www.usgovernmentspending.com, K-12 education spending in Wisconsin over the past decade has shrunk from 4.5% of GDP in 1990 to 4.05% in 2010. In other words the education “piece of the pie” has shrunk more than 12% in a little over 10 years. To the dubious extent that Wisconsin is “broke” it is certainly not the fault of public education.

Those of us involved with public education don’t need to be told of this statistic because it has become part of our way of life: Year after year we adjust and cut, increase class sizes here, reduce a student service there, and always defer maintenance of our infrastructure. At the same time our ability to compensate qualified staff has increasingly slipped behind inflation. On top of the corrosion over the last decade I fear the significant cuts in the proposed budget will do irreparable damage to our schools. Wisconsin is known for one of the best education systems in the country (although it admittedly has problems), but the proposed budget now places that system and our reputation at risk.

Please contact me for additional information or if I can be of any assistance.

Regards,

Peter Sobol
Member, Monona Grove School Board

The pesky spam filter

blocked a half dozen comments.   They are in now, but hopelessly out of date.  Thanks for commenting anyway!

Board agrees to MGEA contract extension (with modifications)

The MG school board met in special session this afternoon and approved an extension of the current contract with MGEA for the next school year with several important modifications:

1) Teachers will contribute 1/2 the WRS pension contributions from their salary.  This is the same requirement as the "Budget repair bill".

2) Teachers will pay 12.6%  of their health insurance costs.  This is the same requirement as the "Budget repair bill".

3) Only teachers currently eligible for retirement within the next 5 years will retain the current retirement benefits.  No provisions for retirement benefits for teachers retiring beyond the next 5 years are provided in the contract, these will be up to the board to provide in policy.

4) There will be a 0% increase to the salary schedule, although step and lane increases will occur.

5) The district calendar will be determined by the board and is no longer a subject of bargaining, teacher transfers also become a management prerogative. 

Estimated Fiscal impact:  The WRS and Health care contributions will save the district about $1M a year.  The salary schedule freeze will probably cost less than the possible CPI salary increase that would be the subject of bargaining under the "budget repair bill".   The agreement also allows the board to very significantly reduce retirement benefit liability in the future.

Question:  Why would the board agree to this contract when the "budget repair bill" would allow us to "do anything we want" next year?

1) Without a contract, disputes regarding employment are governed by applicable (and complex) state law, which means they end up in court, which can be expensive.  Considering the vast changes in the law there is considerable risk of litigation - this contract protects the district from that risk because it establishes the working conditions and compensation and procedures for resolving disputes.  Private companies frequently establish agreements and systems which minimize recourse to the legal system in the event of disputes.

2) In the event that the new law is overruled in court, or repealed in whole or in part (either of which is a possibility) it is a very distinct advantage for the district to have an established contract with these terms (especially reduced retirement liability) in places as a starting point for any new contracts. 

3) The operating structures of the district are long established through our contract - this extension provides the district and the staff with a bridge that allows us to adapt to both the new law and other budget changes with some degree of security and structure, while giving the board significantly improved flexibility. Continuity of operation is critical to good management of any organization. 

5) Establishing a cooperative environment through a voluntary agreement rather than the adversarial relationship that will result from a one-sided imposition of conditions will go along way towards helping us adapt to the new realities.  The relative goodwill is a significant advantage to the district.

Once the "budget repair bill" becomes law (no later than March 25th) we would not have the opportunity to enter into this contract and would therefore be unable to obtain the risk protections afforded.  This is a good deal that provides important benefits and reduced risks to the district.

1 meeting 2 meetings ...

Meeting 1: Last night's board meeting, recap in brief:

A Update and Discussion on Open Enrollment (30 Min)

We have received about 210 open enrollment applications including a significant number for 4K. We have room to accomdate about 50 of those applicatants.  The board debated the possibility of adding an additional sections of 4K students in one of the CG off site 4K programs.

Discussion and Possible Approval of a Resolution Authorizing the Issuance and Sale of Approximately $3,895,000.00 General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2011

We approved a refinancing of some of the High School construction bonds that will save some $25K per year. 

D. Discussion and Possible Approval of Proposal to Make-up Loss of Instructional Time

We approved a plan to make up lost educational time (although we weren't required too, we have enough hours) by extending days for a few minutes and using some 1/2 day releases reserved for professional development.

A. Discussion and Possible Approval of Two Sections of Second Grade Students Remaining at
Taylor Prairie School for the 2011-2012 School Year. (15 Min)

The board approved splitting next years CG elementary 2nd grade elementary students, leaving 3 classes in TP and 4 classes in CG.  This move helps balance the students with the building capacities.

B. Discussion of State Proposed Biennial Budget (30 Min)

C. Discussion of Budget Reduction Proposals (30 Min)

Given the current budget proposal the district will have a $3M projected deficit for next year.  We anticipate a $1M savings from teachers WRS and health care contributions, in addition we have $850K in stimulus money we can spend and $500K savings in proposed cuts.  This leaves an additional $500K we will have to find.

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Meeting 2: The board will meet in both closed and open special session tomorrow to consider a possible extension to our current contract (with modifications) with MGEA.

Dear Senator Miller-

Welcome home.

My family and I would like to thank you and Jo for the personal sacrifices you have recently made in the service of our community and the people of Wisconsin. 

Best wishes,

The Sobols.

A tale of two governmental bodies...

Last night the school board met in both closed and open session. In compliance with the WI Open Meetings law our meeting was properly noticed more than 24 hours in advance and accommodations were made for the public to attend and participate. Our closed session stuck rigorously to the topics that were noticed and are allowed exemptions.

Another governmental body of the state also met last night at the same time.  However that body betrayed a contempt for both the open meetings laws and the public interest in open debate and transparency. 

Why the double standard?

Wississippi

The Christian Science Monitor (I'll repeat myself: one of the best sources of news in the US) asks the question: If Gov. Scott Walker Prevails will Wisconsin look more like the South? and discusses the "southern strategy" of economic development: low services resulting in low taxes that make the region attractive to businesses and job creation. The article does correctly point to a migration of people from northern & eastern areas to the south and west in pursuit of jobs. But I think the article misses a key factor. This strategy works because the educated american worker is highly mobile and can follow the jobs south. Why invest in local education when you can just import brains for other areas that do?

I noticed this effect first hand in California. We hired a lot of people, but virtually none of them were the product of the by then poor quality CA public schools. This was contrasted with the senior management of the company which included a number of native Californians who had been educated in the 60's and 70's when CA public schools were considered the nations best.

In essence job growth in the south and west of the US is subsidized by the taxpayers in the north and east that provide the educational infrastruct.

Dear Governor...

The following is a copy of the letter sent by MG School Board President Susan Fox. I agree wholeheartedly.

Governor Walker,

Speaking as a local school board president, I appreciate some of the required contributions to health care benefits and even the retirement system, although I would not have enacted the level you chose all at once. That level of salary cut is very difficult for teachers and other public employees and it will have a significant negative impact on the local economy in the form of reduced discretionary spending. I do not support some other provisions of your "repair bill."


With regard to your budget proposal, the only interpretation possible is that this is an all-out attack on public education. The so-called "tools" you give us, in the form of employee contributions to benefits (salary cuts), will not come close to filling this hole. Additionally, if you really believe that we can lay off our most senior (expensive) teachers and replace them with people right out of college, or even those with a master's degree, you need to collect information from people working with schools. The negative impact on schools caused by the loss of this knowledge/experience base (these are the people who mentor our beginning teachers) is huge, to say nothing of age discrimination lawsuits. Schools improve in a collaborative culture with accountability built in.

We have worked hard at Monona Grove to build a collaborative process of using student performance data to inform teaching, and to build a process by which teachers share best practices. We are seeing positive effects, in early reading, for example, as well as in other skills. Your funding reductions threaten the gains we are making. When we increase class sizes to more than 30 (our current middle and high school max), we reduce the time teachers have to grade papers and provide meaningful feedback and re-teaching experiences for students. When we increase the number of classes teachers have to teach, we increase the exhaustion level, in addition to the number of students with whom to form relationships. Studies show that relationships between staff and students have a significant impact on student achievement. I seriously would like to see the critics of teachers spend just one day teaching a full class load, and of course a week would be even better.

I recognize that we need to make changes. We need to come up with a more equitable funding plan and re-invest in public schools. This is crucial to the economic success of our state as well as our country. How many businesses will want to locate in Wisconsin when the public school system has declined? Schools are a part of the high quality of life here. Private charter schools do not have any better track record over all than public schools. The method of school governance is not what determines school effectiveness; rather, the crucial elements are the teaching and the learning. At Monona Grove, we have worked with other districts on a curriculum model that uses data heavily and which works to improve student performance. We use the research-based benchmarks set by the ACT, and are incorporating these with the national core standards. With the loss of the public school system comes a situation of increasingly random acts of improvement.

Please invite us to the table to talk about these issues. These sweeping changes will be devastating and cause damage that will be hard to fix when the pendulum swings the other way in a few years. When making significant changes, thought must be given to all the ramifications. Compromise is usually the best course.

Respecftully,
Susan Fox

Global warming comes to Madison...

As you can see in this video from Fox news the Capitol Square now is lined with Palm Trees:

A tale of two departments...

Wisconsin has a Department of Administration:

16.003 Department of administration. (1) PURPOSE. The department shall carry out the purposes of this chapter by improving the techniques used for such management specialties, not limited by enumeration, as budgeting, accounting, engineering, purchasing, records management and fleet management; by coordinating and providing services which are used by more than one agency, and by reviewing agencies’ programs and management to identify problems and suggest improvements.

And a Department of Instruction under the State Superintendent of Schools whose first responsibility is:

(1) GENERAL SUPERVISION. Ascertain the condition of the public schools, stimulate interest in education and spread as widely as possible a knowledge of the means and methods which may be employed to improve the schools.

Guess which one is to implement Walker's new 3rd grade reading program?

And the other shoe drops...

Scott Walker today released his budget proposal for the 2011-13 biennium.  The proposal includes a 5.5 reduction in the revenue limit for schools.  For the Monona Grove school district this works out to a reduction of about 1.7 million dollars - this will be somewhat offset by mandatory reductions in teacher compensation, but it will add an additional ~$700K to our projected budget deficit which is already $750K plus in the red (all numbers are approximate until we get the details!)  The total spending cuts needed for next year will be on the order of $1.5 million.

To give you an idea $1.5M is the equivalent  of more than 25 full time teachers.  Elections have consequences and the last general election made it pretty clear that the electorate didn't want the budget to be balanced by raising taxes.  This, of course, is the alternative.