Nov. 19, 2009
           

Superintendent calls for $20 million in cuts

Wake County schools Superintendent Del Burns said Thursday that he is asking his department heads to identify cuts of $20 million in central services in anticipation of a 2010-2011 school year with more students and fewer dollars.

Burns said the request is the first step in the lengthy process of approving a budget for next year. He hopes identifying $20 million in cuts now will allow the school board to avoid any direct classroom cuts when it begins its formal deliberations this spring.

“We will have fewer dollars, fewer services and fewer people in central services,” Burns said. “We had to go into the classroom this year and I do not wish to go back to the schools again in any form or fashion.”

Burns said central services cuts will affect classrooms indirectly. Central services include areas such as payroll, technology services, maintenance, security and human resources.

The system’s administrative costs were directly criticized during the recent school board elections by the four new incoming school board members, but Burns said central services is a lean operation that has taken a disproportionate share of reductions in past years.

He also said cuts for 2010-2011 aren’t likely to be the last unless lawmakers figures out how to replace federal stimulus money they used to cover shortfalls in the statewide education budget for 2011-2012.

The state allocated about $35 million in stimulus money for Wake County school operations that would normally be paid with state dollars. The hope was that the economy would recover by the time all the federal stimulus money was spent, but revenues so far have been slow to bounce back.

Learning the hard way

If you look hard enough, there is a silver lining in just about any situation. That’s one of the nicer things you can say about plans to build a new high school in eastern Wake County.

Known as Forest Ridge High, the new site became a magnet for criticism this summer when school officials said it would require $7.4 million in road improvements to get the facility ready. That’s about $5.7 million more than expected.

The issue immediately became a school board campaign issue. The newly-elected board members then demanded the system stop spending money on design work, even though new members don’t take office until Dec. 1. Faced with an expensive mess, the school system and county decided to have a new team of people review the options all over again.

The results of that review, which narrowed a list of 86 sites down to five, should be ready in the next 30 days, according to Johnna Rogers, deputy county manager.  In the meantime, the new process has revealed a fairly obvious lesson to school and county leaders: Good teamwork produces better results.

Some school and county leaders would still like to blame each other for not predicting the cost overruns that threaten the project, but they all agreed at a joint meeting this week that they want to make the review process permanent that they are now using for Forest Ridge High.

That process includes a group of 19 people from seven different government agencies –including the school system, the county, Rolesville town leaders, Raleigh planners and public utility representatives.

“We did not have the commitment or early involvement from this many people before on previous site selections and we have that now,” Superintendent Del Burns said. “That is a good thing.”

Burns comments helped soften the harsh critique that others offered. Commissioner Joe Bryan, for example, got little disagreement when he called the selection process “an embarrassment” and “a miserable failure.”

Some incoming school board members and current board member Ron Margiotta have questioned if the school system should even be in the real estate business. The question is similar to one posed by Wake Education Partnership in 2008 when it suggested county commissioners take over land purchases and school construction so the school system could focus more time on academics.

Rogers told school and county leaders they should have all the information available on all suitable pieces of land by mid-December. That will allow the boards to make “apples to apples” comparisons of costs, including the costs of delaying the project if another site is chosen.

The school is currently scheduled to open in 2012, although delays could push that date back one or even two years.

Recession creates some wiggle room

Slower enrollment growth this year combined with the final phases of a building program approved in the boom times of 2006 has left Wake County’s public schools with something unusual – extra capacity.

The extra room will be temporary if enrollment grows as predicted by another 9,300 students during the next two years. But that leaves plenty of time for the new incoming school board majority to consider changes to year-round school calendars and reassignments that might otherwise crowd overused facilities.

The report on facility use was presented Wednesday to a joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners. It showed elementary schools operating at 89.8 percent of capacity, middle schools at 94.5 percent and high schools at 92.9 percent.

The county’s goal is to operate its 132 elementary and middle schools at 95 percent capacity and its 23 high schools at about 97 percent capacity. Overall, the system is using 91.3 percent of its capacity, down about 2 percent from last year. The numbers include students in classroom trailers, which now hold about 17 percent of all students enrolled.

While there is extra room overall, the picture differs significantly from school to school. For example, capacity exceeded 105 percent in two dozen schools while falling below 80 percent in 21 others.

The newest schools are the most likely to be the least full, which is done by design so enrollment can grow there. But the new schools are also the most likely to use year-round calendars under an agreement made with the county in 2006 to hold down construction costs.

That means some families are required to use a year-round calendar, a policy newly-elected school board members would like to change once they take office Dec.1.

The facilities report was coupled with new growth projections showing student enrollment is likely to hit about 164,000 in 2013, which is when the current building program is scheduled to end. Given the economy, there are no formal plans to ask voters to approve additional construction bonds for growth beyond that date.

Noteworthy…

…  The superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg public schools has announced a new strategic plan that puts far more emphasis on students’ academic growth instead of teacher credentials when measuring teacher quality. The plan’s summary says teachers will be "chosen, trained, paid and retained" based on the new approach. It also calls for increasing the graduation rate to 90 percent by 2014.

… The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a state-by-state report card last week that looks at innovation in education and found North Carolina lagging in several key areas. The report, “Leaders and Laggards,” assigns letter grades in the areas school management, finance, hiring and evaluation of teachers, removal of ineffective teachers, data,  high school quality and technology. North Carolina scored in the bottom five states in the area of finance for the simplicity of its state funding. Overall, the state received five Bs, one C and one D. 
… The Harlem Children’s Zone, a New York city initiative that combines charter schools with community services for minority and low-income families, is closing the achievement gap in many areas, a new study finds. Less clear, according to an article in Education Week, is whether the improvements are the result of the schools or the support services. The Obama administration has touted the program as a way to improve public schools in urban areas.

Wake Education Partnership is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created in 1983 to support public schools, in part by educating the community on current school issues. Most of its financial support comes from local business. Send comments to Tim Simmons, VP Communications, at  tsimmons@wakeedpartnership.org