Ann Arbor Schools: Budget Meetings for This Year and Next

2013-2014 Budget Needs Mid-Year Revisions

For details, you can see Amy Biolchini's article.

But here is the key point: as a result of students choosing charters, private schools, or the WISD consortium, the Ann Arbor schools were short 200 students compared to what was budgeted.

The important meeting is Wednesday, March 19th. From the article:

The budget adjustment will be a part of budget planning discussions the school board is set to begin Wednesday in a 5 p.m. study session at Skyline High School.
Immediately following the study session will be the board’s regular business meeting, which is set to start at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The meeting is a make-up session for the March 12 regular meeting that was canceled due to inclement weather.

2014-2015 Budget Planning

AAPS will be hosting a round of budget forums to discuss the 2014-15 AAPS budget. 

All forums are scheduled from 6:30 – 8pm

Tuesday, March 25, 6:30 p.m. at Slauson Middle School 

Thursday, March 27, 6:30 p.m. at Scarlett Middle School 

Monday, March 31, 6:30 p.m. at Clague Middle School

Tuesday, April 1, 6:30 p.m. at Forsythe Middle School 

Thursday, April 3, 6:30 p.m. at Tappan Middle School

Consider subscribing to Ann Arbor Schools Musings by Email!

Ann Arbor Schools Budget: Summary, Thoughts, Feedback

The Ann Arbor School Board is scheduled to vote on the AAPS budget at the Wednesday June 12th meeting. In this blog post, I try to share as much background information as I can--including posts I've written and articles others have written, as well as school-provided background information.

Remember, you can still contact the Board of Education with your concerns and ideas: boe@aaps.k12.mi.us.

Remember also, that even if they don't cut something (say, for example, high school transportation, reading intervention, or seventh hour) they will need to make up the cuts somewhere else.

Before you take a look at all these links, let me reiterate my opinion that the issue that will affect the most students negatively, and likely lead to reduced student enrollment most directly, is cutting high school transportation. I hope the board decides that is not a wise decision and chooses to preserve high school transportation.

Ruth's posts (not including posts about state funding decisions):

Paying for Seventh Period? (May 29, 2013)

Are We Operating in a Data-less World? (May 16, 2013)

But Is It Working? (April 28, 2013)

Budget Forums: Three Down, One to Go (April 18, 2013)

Ann Arbor Chronicle:

Column: Disparate Impact of AAPS Cuts (June 7, 2013) by Ruth Kraut--yup, yours truly :)

AAPS Trustees Get Draft Budget (April 24, 2013 Board Meeting) by Monet Tiedemann

AAPS Mulls Redistricting to Save Costs (December 19, 2013 Board Meeting) by Jennifer Coffman--keep your eyes on this for next year.

Annarbor.com 

Most if not all articles are by Danielle Arndt

Principal's Union Contract Negotiations

Teacher Layoff Notices (Note: a lot more teachers get layoff notices than will actually be laid off due to specific credentialing and to seniority)

School Board Tweaks Proposals (Cuts to high school busing, 7th hour tuition proposal)

School Board to Pursue Forum Suggestions

Class Sizes, Transportation, Seventh Hour Priorities at Budget Forum

Morning Only High School Busing Proposal

Surviving the Budget Cuts ($5,000 school board food line)

$5,000 School Board Food Line Item (survives)

AAPS Budget Forum

Surviving the Budget Cuts

Paying for Layoffs: Unemployment Insurance

Revenue: School Billboards

Budget Report Brighter ("Only" 8.67 Million Dollar Deficit!)

Administrator's Budget Proposal

Budget Forums

All notes taken by school board president Deb Mexicotte

BOE Budget Forum #1

BOE Budget Forum #2

BOE Budget Forum #3

BOE Budget Forum #4

Ann Arbor Schools background information:

2013-2014 Budget Projections (April 24, 2013)

2013-2014 Proposed Budget Reductions (April 24, 2013)

2013-2014 Potential Budget Reductions (February 27, 2013)

Find budget reporting (by quarter) here.

2012-2013 Budget Proposal (May 23, 2012)--useful as a comparison, perhaps

[By the way--take a look around the Board Docs. There is lots of good information there!]

How A (Zombie) Bill Becomes A Law in Michigan, Featuring Schoolhouse Rock

Here is what we say happens through the legislative process:

from Schoolhouse Rock, "I'm Just A Bill."

But in Michigan, the Republican leadership in the legislature apparently does not want to follow any regular bill-making process. Instead, in order to avoid committee hearings, discussions, or the required five-day waiting period, for the so-called "right to work" legislation, the Republican leadership did a "full text substitute," replacing some appropriations bill language with entirely different language. I saw someone on facebook calling this a "Zombie Law!" [I like calling the legislation "freedom to freeload" legislation myself, since it basically says you don't have to pay dues to a union that represents you, even though the union is doing the work of negotiating on your behalf.]

I feel that Rep. Dillon's speech gets to the heart of the matter. This is a travesty of the democratic process.

Need a class assignment?
Students: Compare and contrast the process explained in the Schoolhouse Rock video with the process described in Rep. Dillon's speech. 


 Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, speaks on the floor of the Michigan House on 12/6/2012.

*Further, because it is tied to an appropriations bill, citizens are barred from pursuing a referendum.

Athletics: Equity and Cost Between Ann Arbor High Schools

Last year, for a blog post I wrote about administrative positions in Ann Arbor schools, I requested data from the 2005-2006 year and the 2010-2011 year. In the post, Administrative Cuts: Easy to Be Hard, I discussed the changes that occurred over those five years.

In 2005-2006, Skyline did not exist, and when it opened, Skyline High School was allocated an Athletic Coordinator (not an assistant principal level position, but a lower-level position), while Huron and Pioneer had Athletic Directors (which are assistant principal level positions).

I was told at the time (which was just before Pat Green started), by Liz Margolis, the AAPS Director of Communications, that the plan was to move to a single Athletic Director/two Athletic Coordinators format, after one of the current Athletic Directors retired. Obviously, this would be a cost savings.

Well, one of the athletic directors just retired.

In an annarbor.com article about administrator-level changes, Danielle Arndt writes,

"Pioneer’s athletic director, Lorin Cartwright, also retired at the end of the 2011-12 school year. Cartwright worked for the district for 32 years, Margolis said. She made $103,690 last year, the top of the pay scale for her position, which starts at $91,965.
An interim athletic director will be appointed next week. Like the high school principal’s position, the interim will carry out the athletic director’s duties for the “foreseeable future," Margolis said. Officials are looking both from within and from outside the school district for a replacement, she added."

I wondered if perhaps Danielle Arndt had misunderstood, and the position was actually going to be filled at the athletic coordinator level.

So of course I had to ask: Did Danielle misunderstand what the position is? Or, if not, what happened to the plan? 

And I got back the answer, "As is common with new leadership, plans change. I understand the plan is being reviewed."

So I asked, "Of course--that is understandable. What is the timeline for reviewing that plan? And what permutations are being considered? Would, for instance, the district considering raising John Young's level to be athletic director, giving the district three ADs?"

Liz Margolis' response: "I am  not sure of the timeline. I know the Pioneer AD position is set for interviews this Friday. I am unaware of any plan to create the position at Skyline as an Athletic Director position but if that did occur ( and I have no idea if this will or will not), the job would have to be posted for applicants. There are different requirements for this person including administration qualifications."

So I asked, "Thanks--so can you find out: a. If there is an actual thought out "plan" regarding the levels of athletic direction at the three schools? And if so, what that plan is?"

Liz Margolis' response: "Based on the posting  I would say the plan is to hire an AD at Pioneer and maintain the AC at Skyline. I will ask Alesia Flye if this has changed."

****

I am still waiting to hear back, but it's only been a couple of days. Based on what I know though, the supposed (new) plan doesn't seem reasonable. My concerns relate to both equity and cost.

The original plan, to maintain one athletic director and two athletic coordinators, was clearly based on cost. Athletic coordinators cost less, so there would be a savings. Other local school districts have adopted this approach--for instance, Plymouth-Canton. At the time (last year), my main beef with this idea was that maybe it should happen immediately, and not at some hypothetical time in the future.

The current "plan," to maintain athletic director-level positions at Pioneer and Huron, but not at Skyline, doesn't make any sense at all. The schools are essentially the same size now. Why should Pioneer and Huron get athletic director positions, but not Skyline? With similarly-sized schools and programs, shouldn't the work be equivalent? Speaking as a (former) Skyline parent, what would be the equity in bringing in a new person to Pioneer at the AD level (and keeping the Huron staff person at the AD level) but keeping the Skyline staff person at the AC level?

My third concern is this: was there an actual, real-life, thought-out decision to scratch the earlier plan? Or was there just an automatic "let's fill the position" reaction when Lorin Cartwright decided at the last minute to retire?  With both Pat Green and Alesia Flye being brand new to the district, did anyone even realize (and share) that there had been a plan to stick with a single Athletic Director position?

How is it possible to read about this sequence of events, and then not laugh at the headline in today's annarbor.com, "Ann Arbor school board to set goals: zero-based budgeting will be top priority." In zero-based budgeting you have to justify the rationale for your expenses. Where is the rationale?

I'm not an expert at what athletic directors and coordinators do, or whether cost or equity is more important in this case, so I can't tell you what is the right decision: three athletic directors at three schools; or one "lead" athletic director, and two athletic coordinators assigned to the other two schools.  What I do know, though, is that a plan with two athletic directors and one athletic coordinator serves neither equity nor cost savings, and should not be pursued.

There's Lots Going On Locally

Ann Arbor Public Schools are deciding if they should be open for schools of choice. Here's the proposal, the decision comes next week. [Don't get too excited, it would only be for K-6 students.]

Meanwhile, Saline has schools of choice for the high school. [Updated: See the comment that explains this is only true for the alternative high school, which I did not realize. I wonder if there are concerns about "who" would opt in to Saline and if that is really code for concerns about African-American students from Ypsilanti coming in to largely white Saline?] Saline is now considering extending it to the middle school.  The Saline Superintendent described the motivation as "largely financial." I think that's true for every district in the county!

Student applications are still being accepted for the Washtenaw International High School (the new International Baccalaureate program which will be located in Ypsilanti at the former East Middle School). It is open only to 9th graders. There is another parent information session scheduled for March 28th at 7 p.m. (but the web site doesn't say where!). The following districts are in the consortium, which means students from those districts can apply: Ann Arbor, Lincoln, Milan, Saline, Whitmore Lake, Willow Run, Ypsilanti.

Look for Dexter to set up its own IB setup next year, and it won't surprise me if the districts on the west side of the county (Chelsea and Manchester) work out some agreement with Dexter. It is, after all, a pretty far drive from Manchester to Ypsilanti.

Washtenaw Community College has reopened the search for a new president.

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District board continues to interview candidates for superintendent. One candidate, however, Thomas Langdon, has removed his name from consideration because he took another position. And then there were five...

There's a big College and Career Fair next Wednesday March 30th at Pioneer High School from 6-8 p.m. There will be lots of colleges and businesses attending. See the list here.

And according to Annarbor.com, the Scarlett-Mitchell Lab School is still planning a fall 2011 opening. Parents in the area have until Friday to take a survey. I wish they would ask the rest of us to take a (possibly different) survey, and I really hope they don't move forward until they answer these questions:

1. Can people opt out of the school if they prefer a different school?
2. Can people opt in if they are at a different school but want the lab school?
3. How is this going to be paid for? I'd like to know about both the short-term funding and the long-term funding. We've had lots of trials that haven't lasted, and in this financial environment I'm feeling rather nervous. . . especially about the idea of "intersession" being paid for by grants. . . did we notice the report that Ann Arbor Public Schools are expecting a $15 million dollar deficit next year?

The district is already saying that the budget cuts will affect class size, mostly at the high school level. Well, at this point 4/5 of my daughter's high school classes have 32 students or more. So. . . let's have that conversation too. How big were you thinking?

And on May 3d, we will have the opportunity to vote on a special education millage. I'll write about that another day, but if you want to start reading up on it now, try here and here.

Ypsilanti's Turnaround Problem

Now that you've read about Detroit, let's turn our attention to Ypsilanti. Ypsilanti has two interrelated problems. One problem is their deficit. The other problem is that their high school has not achieved adequate yearly progress in the last few years--giving it the dubious distinction of being a "failing" school. [And having said that, I also have to say that I know several people who have been very satisfied with their children's education at YHS.]

Their high school turnaround plan has been accepted by the state, and there is a lot of discussion going on about their deficit elimination plan--which includes the systematic dismantling of custodial and food service staff as district employees, as well as making YHS into a grade 7-12 school.

In Kyle Feldscher's annarbor.com article, trustee Andy Fanta is quoted as saying this:

“We’re not asking the right kinds of questions when addressing this budget,” he said. “We’re focusing on cutting, cutting, cutting. We’re not focusing on what we’re doing and what kind of district we want, and we’re not answering the parents who are asking those type of questions.”

There is some excellent analysis in Mark Maynard's post:

More school consolidation in Ypsilanti, and its long term ramifications 

Mark has been blogging for a long time about Ypsilanti, and he puts something interesting up at markmaynard.com almost every day, sometimes more often than that. Oh, and by the way--if you want to see the actual documents, you can find the submitted deficit elimination plan on the YPS financial page (scroll down). And here is the approved YHS turnaround plan.

PS I neglected this piece from the annarbor.com article: 

Trustees asked Houle to present another version of the plan at a board district operations committee meeting at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 17 at the East Middle School building. The meeting is open to the public.
The district has to turn a plan over to the state by Jan. 25.

New Year, New Business

Here are a few things you might want to know about coming up VERY soon.

1. You might remember that a year ago, during the AAPS budget forums, participants were invited to indicate interest in working on strategic planning subcommittees. I had thought that would happen last spring, but it was delayed, and delayed again--at least the public participation part was. Although there are, I believe, 8 subcommittees of the strategic plan, they are only asking for assistance on three of them. [Why only three? I don't know. At the budget forums people were asked to indicate which of 8 subcommittees you might be interested in joining.] In any case, there is a January through March timeline for this--at least, that is the plan. I also can't really tell what some of these strategies mean. For instance, if you were interested in the education achievement gap, or school funding, what would you choose? Here are the details from AAPS News: 

Action Teams will reconvene in January to discuss these strategies:

• Strategy  No. 1–  “We will create a complete educational program featuring personalized learning that realizes student aspirations and meets international standards.”
• Strategy No. 5 –  “We will implement a system to ensure continuous development of staff capacity.”
• Strategy No. 6 – “We will engage and inform our constituents to engender trust and support to accomplish our mission and objectives.”

Contact Liz Margolis by Jan. 7, 2011 if you would like to be a member of one of the Action Teams listed above. E-mail her at margolis@aaps.k12.mi.us or leave a message at 734-994-2236.

UPDATE 1/5/2010: Read the comments from Liz Margolis of AAPS if you would like more information about the strategic planning process.

2.        My friend asked me last month, "Would you send your child to the International Baccalaureate school?"
           I said, "Probably not, but I'm glad it will be there for someone else. I'd be more interested in Washtenaw Technical Middle College where you could get actual college credit for the classes."
          He said, "Really? I would have thought you would be really interested in an immersion language program."

OK, so let's get something straight: International Baccalaureate schools are not immersion language schools. You can read more about them in this earlier post (and its links). It is possible--but not guaranteed--that an IB program will give you college credit. Many of our local school districts are banding together under the auspices of the WISD to set up an IB school. [Dexter is planning on integrating an IB program into their own high school.]

Why am I telling you this? Because, if you have a student entering ninth grade, you might want to check out the International Baccalaureate question and answer sessions (mandatory for application):

Please plan to attend one of the following sessions:

• Wednesday, January 12: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Tuesday, January 18: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Thursday, January 27: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Monday, January 31: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
  
• Wednesday, February 9: 7:00 p.m.  – 9:00 p.m.
  

Information sessions will be held at:
Washtenaw International High School (WIHS)
510 Emerick Street, Ypsilanti, MI 48198.
For more information, please call 734-994-8100 x1263, or visit the web site at http://www.wihi.org/

3. Ann Arbor's Community High application packets are available now and are due on or before 2/11/2011. Information can be found here.

4. Ann Arbor's Skyline High also has an application and information here, also due on or before 2/11/2011.  It looks like they have reduced the number of outside-of-Skyline-district student openings from 125 to 100. I am guessing that this is related to the fact that the number of in-district students has been increasing, but I'm not positive. (Nor am I sure about how that decision is made.) Also, if you are in-district, there is a curriculum night on January 12th (which seems early to me!).

4. Similarly, Ypsilanti's New Tech High School is also taking applications for incoming freshmen. Find more information here. Unlike Community and Skyline, New Tech High School is open to students from other districts.

4. I changed the blog design. I'm not sure what I think--and comments are welcome.

Ann Arbor: Meetings, Transportation, Strategic Planning, Loss

The Ann Arbor Board of Education has two "regular" board meetings, as well as the performance committee meeting, scheduled for the next 10 days. It is unusual to have two full board meetings so close to each other. (And they also had a board meeting on May 26th, which you can read about in detail in the Ann Arbor Chronicle.)

There are no agendas posted at this point, but I am assuming that the issue of transportation consolidation is going to be on at least one of those agendas...which one? Meetings are not usually scheduled for Friday at 5. [Update 6/2/10 7:40 p.m. The agenda for Friday is still not posted, but I've been told to expect that the focus will be on transportation/consolidation.]
There is also a Performance Committee meeting scheduled and, since the Ann Arbor Chronicle article says that Superintendent Todd Roberts is going to be evaluated in June, I am thinking that process will start at the Performance Committee meeting.

1. 6/4/2010, Friday, 5 p.m., AAPS Board Meeting, Balas Main Conference Room (this is the non-regular, or added, "regular" meeting)
2. 6/9/2010, Wednesday, 7 p.m., AAPS Board Meeting, Ann Arbor District Library 4th Floor Meeting Room
3. 6/10/2010, Thursday, 6 p.m., Performance Committee, Balas Superintendents' Conference Room (This doesn't say executive session, but then again the agenda is not yet posted. Evaluations are generally done--at least partially--in executive session.

Remember, if you have something to say, you can a) be there for public comment; b) mail or email comments specifying they should be considered public comment for the meeting; or c) email the entire Board of Education in one fell swoop at boe@aaps.k12.mi.us.

Tell them what you think about consolidation. Tell them what you think about Todd Roberts' work.

And here are a couple of other things to think about:
1. Larry Simpson, who is the head of the special education division (known as Student Intervention and Support Services), is retiring. Who will take over for him? According to the Chronicle article, there have been 5 administrators of special education in 13 years, and Simpson's tenure (4 years) is the longest. Obviously, that is a problem.
2. If you went to the winter budget meetings and, like me, signed up to be part of a strategic planning subcommittee, you might have been wondering what happened to those lists. Did they get lost? They were supposed to start in May, and now the board is discussing whether they should get started over the summer or in the fall. Are they trying to avoid engaging the public? It seems like it is "never" a good time. Summer is busy, fall is busy, then we get into December, and--well, my goodness--everyone knows that December is busy.
Listen up, school board and staff--the best time to start strategic planning is now. Strategic planning does not have to be intimately tied to the 2011-2012 budget, because strategic planning is long-term. It is not budget planning.
3. Buried (no pun intended) in the Ann Arbor Chronicle report is a mention of the death of Pioneer student Jasmine Thomas. As far as I could tell, there was no other reporting of her death. You can read her obituary here.