Wednesday, September 7, 2011

We are all reading teachers (thanks to SB 736); breaking-point budget

Toward the beginning of September's School Board meeting was, at some times contentious, discussion of the recent Race to the Top ratification vote, which passed with a little over 85% of the vote, in which approximately 6,000 bargaining unit members participated.

D-22: Race to the Top Ratification

There were accusations from speakers that the vote created a merit-pay and data-based evaluation system 3 years before the state made it mandatory. However, SB 736, which became law this spring, mandated the implementation of a new evaluation system where 50% of a teacher's evaluation would be based on student data as of the 2011-2012 school year. Failing to ratify the agreement would not have changed the new evaluation system or prevented it from coming into existence.

Assistant Superintendent Enid Weisman explained why reading tests are being used for subjects not covered by FCAT: "Because we do not have the end-of-course exams available now, it was felt that reading is the most fundamental skill that we have. Where a teacher has no students in a grade that has an accountability measure, their second 50% will revert to the reading scores in the building."

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho addressed the School Board with an explanation of the root of the new system, commenting on the uselessness of teachers' complaints to the dais: "I understand the discomfort with a new model for evaluating teachers, but let's understand that expressing that to you is irrelevant because you did not make the law. When the comment was made that 50% of the teacher's evaluation was due to objective data provided by the state and the other 50% is from a teacher's evaluation based on the principal's observation, and hearing that that may not be fair because a teacher's principal may not like him, let's get it straight that before now, 100% of a teacher's evaluation was based on that subjective observation. We were careful in our negotiations. That is why we negotiated an agreement that I believe honors and dignifies teachers but leverages the financial opportunities before us. And simply put, based on preliminary estimates and data available to us, about just a little less than 90% of our teachers will be rewarded with financial incentives. Should we look at student results that should inform teachers' evaluations? The state has opined on that; we are following the law. Returning $14 million? Not using those funds for me is not acceptable, so we're going to use them in a way that is cautious and takes into account some of the good questions the speakers put on the table."

Board member Dr. Martin Karp asked for clarification: "For this year's performance pay plan there is no negative impact on anyone's salary. Once we see the results we can seek improvements for the future. Will we be going back to the state to share what worked and didn't work?"

Weisman specificed that we'll be sending next year's plan to the state in evaluation of this year's plan, in hopes of pushing them to fix elements that do not work.

Teacher Shawn Beightol has filed a complaint in court that the ratification vote was improper, so some School Board members were wondering if they should vote on it. The district risks losing the $14 million of federal money if they do not ratify the agreement quickly. School Board Attorney Harvey explained: "They're seeking injunctive relief to prevent the board from acting. It has not been heard by the judge; this matter has been put properly before the board and the board can vote on it without reservations. If the judge determines the vote was inappropriate the court can send it back to us. The information has been submitted to the board and the board is right in exercising its duties to vote on the item."

Board member Raquel Regalado pointed again to the state mandates: "Asking whether teachers and parents have had input...As School Board members we have not really had input. This is a state mandate and we're very limited in what we can do. We all have met with staff, we have discussed ad nauseum the buckets, and my concern, much like board member Karp, is regarding special needs and what falls outside the general rule. I think we all understand what's going to happen in certain classes. We're being forced to create a certain system and implement it and there are certain components that are missing. This idea of being graded as a teacher on something that is outside of your control is because in many cases there will not be a test in existence. Many parents do not understand that with this concept of merit pay come more tests, and some of these tests have yet to be created. We're going to be forced to test in areas from art to P.E. to math and yes, the FCAT encompasses some of these areas, but for the non-FCAT areas we have to create tests and we're still in that process. In the absence of those tests we have to use reading scores and that's part of the frustration teachers have, but again, we're being forced to implement this at the state level, and this is an ideological push that's outside of our control. I wish we could have all sat down and had a discussion about this, but we're way past that. When we talked about merit pay the first time around it was a four-year experiment, and then the state legislature passed a bill and now it's a permanent fixture in the state of Florida. Those are the two things that are battling here and the overlap. I don't want it to be lost in the discourse that this board hasn't vetted it or that we don't understand there are issues. If we could ask for more time we would. We have funding, we have to implement it, we have to figure it out as we go, we hope that our teachers and parents really consider who is responsible for these decisions and the ideological reasons these decisions were made."

Board member Dr. Marta Perez voiced similar concerns: "There are a couple of issues here that are very important to the entire community, and I want to thank all the people who are involved because everyone has taken this with a great deal of responsibility and seriousness. One of the issues is, for example, a music teacher or any non-reading or non-math teacher will have their evaluation based on a subject they don't teach directly, and this is concerning, and we will have to work on that. Ms. Regalado gave some discussion and insight into that. Secondly, we've been told there are other models, and I think Dr. Karp mentioned we need to diligently look at those models and see how they compare to ours and see what we can do to make ours the best and the fairest. The third thing I see, having been a teacher and putting myself in the position of the teachers that will receive this imposition or this benefit, whichever way we want to look at it, there are concerns. One of the things I discussed today is that tenure is a powerful psychological property, but change is coming. We have to create new paradigms, new ways of evaluating, not only our schools but our teachers and the way we have been conducting the business of education. This is an issue of basic fairness for our employees, it is relevant to us. I also disagree with Natasha, that I would just say no until it was right, because basically we don't have the luxury of time, and $14 million, we can't just pass on it. I think it would be irresponsible of the board to do that. I do agree with the superintendent about the limitations we've had with the bargaining unit and the impositions we've had by the state and the federal government. We're at the crossroads and we have to take the first step. Yes, we have 12 months in which to look at it and review it and try to come up with what is in the best interest of what we do, which is educate our children, and that should be the #1 most important priority."

D-22 carried unanimously and was signed by Superintendent Carvalho, the School Board members and UTD President Karen Aronowitz.


H-4: Public boarding schools coming to Dade County?

Board member Dr. Martin Karp brought an item proposing a feasibility study of creating boarding schools for children with special needs in Dade County through public/private partnerships. "Public boarding schools increase educational opportunities for children with special needs. 91% graduation rate for those in boarding schools 5 day a week and 97% of those are admitted to four-year colleges. We want to see if it's feasible in Dade County."

Dr. Marta Perez expressed cautious but skeptical interest in the idea: "It will be a very interesting research. I don't think the school district can afford to send children to boarding schools, and to afford one that is not up to [the] standards [of the famous ones on the east coast], I couldn't support that. The statistics sound good, I would like to read more of those."

Board member Dr. Larry Feldman proposed examining residential facilities for other children as well: "My colleague Dr. Karp, outstanding job. I'm very proud of what you put together here, not just the research but the actual item. It opens up the door to private-pubic enterprise, and being able to maintain our own students in the ways that best meet their needs. There's no reason we can't cross that line and look at programs for non-handicapped children in a residential setting."

H-17 Political activity by employees

This item brought forth by board member Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall directed the Superintendent to review the current policy related to political activity by district employees in light of the coming elections in 2012, and report back to the Board.

UTD Vice-President Artie Leichner took the microphone on this item: "One of the biggest concerns about the last legislative session, and I realize it's only tangential to this item, is that we probably have the best plan in the state for reigstering high school students to vote, and the same law that no longer allows the League of Woman Voters to register voters because of the two-day turnaround now prohibits our social studies teachers from registering students to vote." He was referring here to new voter registration laws that mandate that all new voter registration cards collected by third parties be turned in within two days, effectively stymying many voter registration operations that register students, women and minorities. In Dade County, we have an excellent program of registering 18-year-old students to vote through their social studies classes, and thus encouraging young people to exercise their civic duties and rights.

H-18 Legislative Plan of the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards

Dr. Larry Feldman proposed this item to approve the legislative plan of the Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards.

UTD President Karen Aronowitz did not mince words in addressing components of the legislative plan: "I always think it's great when we work together, and working in consortium is in the best interest of our board, especially in review of the districts that are in this particular consortium that have to do with South Florida. My concern remains over charter schools, because now school boards are allowed to serve as board of directors of charter schools. M-DCPS is operating as a charter management company, which is a different animal. For one thing, you will  be competing against your own schools, and it's also union-busting, because you might find that working with a negotiated contract is too difficult."

There was some discussion over an item in the consortium's plan that allows school districts to levy a quarter of a million dollars in millage for critical needs without a referendum. According to School Board lobbying Iraida Mendez-Cartaya, there must be unanimous consent for the legislative plan for it to hold, including line by line. So if Miami-Dade County strikes an item from the review, it will be gone for the whole consortium.

Dr. Feldman moved to strike the item allowing for the levying of millage for critical needs without referendum.

Board member Regalado concurred: "I think that it's important, given the political atmosphere, to take this out. In the past we left it in because we didn't believe there was the political momentum. I don't want to infringe on any other school board's rights, but I think this leaves the door open for legislators to drop this in our lap, and I would like to take it out."

In other words, legislators would feel they had the upper hand in continuing to underfund districts by claiming that, if the money allotted by the legislature wasn't enough, the school boards could simply levy more taxes themselves.

The motion carried.

Class size:
Superintendent Carvalho addressed the class size issue that has generated quite a few complaints among teachers and parents, result of draconian budget cuts and the legislature changing the definition of a "core class" for the purposes of class size. "This is a good problem to have at this point. Our system is experiencing a surge in FTE enrollment into our schools. So where we stand today compared to the same time period last year, we are about 2500 pupils above where we were last year. So today, we, including pre-K, at 348,331 pupils. Last year around this time we were 345,000 pupils. Obviously when 2500 or more children show up that were not enrolled, they are going to be enrolled in some school. Good principals don't react automatically by hiring new teachers because there is a process of leveling off. In our district there is a great deal of mobility between schools. Principals give 2 or 3 weeks to make adjustments to the number of teaching positions in our schools before they level the classes. A lot of parents do not enroll their children until after Labor Day. In the mind of a lot of our parents the school year does not in fact begin until Tuesday, yesterday. So we're seeing more enrollment in our schools. Our principals are working on it, leveling classes and making sure class size is met."

Perhaps this is true when it comes to those few classes that still fall under the class size amendment: those tested by the FCAT. But for teachers of all the other classes--a majority of teachers--there may be no "leveling" in sight. Packing more kids into fewer classes mean paying fewer teachers, and paying fewer supplements to teachers. As it is allowed by law, and as school budgets are squeezed ever tighter, most of us who do not fall under the new legal definition of a "core class" can expect to do more work (more grading, more classroom management) for less money.

A-2: Vendor policy revision expanding economic opportunities to women and minorities:

Superintendent Carvalho announced a revision of vendor policy that would increase economic opportunities for local businesses owned by women and minorities. Every purchase over $1000 will have to demonstrate that local businesses owned by women or minorities were invited to bid. He elaborated: "Principals will be mandated to maintain records that demonstrate that minority vendors were called for minority businesses. This will go a long way. This is an issue whose time has come. It's an issue of fairness, equity, transparency, local economic recovery beginning with our very own. I'm asking that the minority business community help. We're making a database of minority business owners of services and goods by zip code so that our principals, managers know who they need to call to procure a service or good. It goes a long way toward ensuring that the recovery of our hardest-hit communities is felt right here. This is the right thing to do at the right time."

The CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce stood to praise the new system, saying that a year ago it took minority businesses 9 months to register with the school district, and that now it took only 15 days.

Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall expressed displeasure even with 15 days. "Why would it take 15 days?"

Carvalho responded: "The speaker was actually quite impressed; 15 days is a very expedited process. We had a huge backlog; it would take months to get somebody approved. The backlog has been eliminated. We're working through associations to get people certified. We've made huge improvement and we'll continue to do better. We're going to deliver this message: we're open for business; we're looking for good people to deliver great goods to our students and staff; the time is now because there is no waiting."

Mindingall insisted that we should do better than 15 days, and that a quarterly report is not sufficient and that we should have a monthly report instead.

Carvalho answered, "Every single time we audit schools, we'll be looking for compliance with this policy for every purchase over $1000, and believe me, no principal wants an audit exception."

Board member Carlos Curbelo lauded the change. "I've always said I believe in giving local entities special treatment. It doesn't mean we're handing out anything, we're giving equal opportunities and equal access. It should not have a fiscal impact; we should give local firms the opportunity to bid and to win so we can keep more resources here."

Superintendent Carvalho repeated that the district is "open for business." Anyone who knows minority- or woman-owned businesses interested in providing goods or services to public schools or the district should encourage them to contact the district to be added to the vendor database.

Second budget hearing: Budget at the breaking point

Superintendent Carvalho stressed the severity of the current budget situation, while pointing out what the district has done to minimize impact on students and employees. "An entity private or public without principle is like a ship without a rudder. This is a budget that protects a highly skilled workforce and values programs in our community like arts, music, physical education and world language programs. It is a budget that respects the taxpayers in our community. It respects the will of our people and recognizes the hardship on them. This final budget is almost the same exact budget as the tentative budget you adopted on July 27, 2011, with two differences. They're actually good news. We recently had closed our books fo rthe previous fiscal year. As we closed those books, we came up with a better than anticipated general fund. If you go back to what it was three years ago, it's really a Miami miracle. Because of that better than anticipated closure of the last fiscal year, we came up with an additional $3.5 million that we had taken from instructional materials that we're putting back into the budget, fully restoring it. It slightly reduces taxes and does not negatively impact classroom services. It is not a perfect budget, but I can assure you it is a best-in-class budget as far as governmental institutions in our community go and as far as school boards go. We decided the dignity and honor of a teacher is of paramount importance to us, so we saved them all, and that should be the hallmark of this budget."

Board member Regalado emphasized the political nature of the budget crisis for our public schools. "We've been talking about this, as Dr. Feldman said, since December. It's been a long time and some of us know these numbers by heart. Not to belabor the process, but I think it's important for those listening and watching that nevertheless, even though Hinds correctly projected the deficit and we had an idea of what was going to happen, we still had to make very difficult decisions. We maintained what our priorities were, but many times, when we went to schools now for open houses and orientations, we had to explain to parents the state of our schools and the facilities issue is a big issue. In district 6 it's particularly heartbreaking because we have so many schools that are over 50 years old. You wonder what the difference is in the learning environment in those classes for our students and our teachers. It's very difficult to look at the 5-year facility. We can't borrow for another decade. We've really reached the line. We've talked about doing more with less, doing more with less, but once we've passed this budget we've really reached the breaking point. There is no less. We already have an idea of what the deficit is going to be and that we're going to do less with less. I think we need to be honest about that as committees start in Tallahassee. We wish other school districts had been as proactive as we were and that they had the team we had. At the same time we need to be clear: this is the end of the line. The priorities we were able to sustain this year we will not be able to sustain next year. I just wish that our legislators when they're in Tallahassee consider their priorities when they start thinking about their budget cuts."

Superintendent Carvalho addressed the closure of schools under the new budget. "Even if there was no budget emergency, I was going to shut down some of the schools we shut down. This was a moral imperative for me; I thought of them as drop-out factories. A group of students came to me at Madison Middle School and said to me, 'Mister, mister, I know who you are, and I just want to thank you, and you thank those people you work with. I want to thank you because you closed that school I went to. This is a much better school.' That was a wise decision. What we have in place now is a much better environment for the children. I am not a huge proponent of alternative education programs. For the past decades we send kids to these schools and there often is no way back for them. We're delivering something better."

Freddie Woodson, Deputy Superintendent for school operations explained what happened to the alternative education programs. "We have not curtailed any programs. We have space in various facilities where we have consolidated those programs. It has allowed us to expand our thinking about the kinds of programs that will help those kids. We had a number of kids who were over-aged in elementary schools, so we put them in better environments where they could make up the credits and move on. Alternative ed is alternative, and we're looking for alternatives. It's something we have to think outside the box to provide additional opportunities for children to succeed."

Superintendent Carvalho added, "We inconvenience adults for the sake of the kids. When we saved money as a result of shutting down these six centers, we automatically provided a much better opportunity for the kids who lived and lingered in these centers."

Returning to the budget at large, Superintendent Carvalho expounded on the dire situation that is to become darker next year: "We did begin this process many many months ago. You plant a seed of good budget development that eventually grows into a solild tree that provides protection and shade for the countless teachers in our community. But I want to be very clear to our workforce and our community at large: this is a tough budget. This is one that has not only imposed but negotiated sacrifice. That we are doing better with less is a testament to great teachers, great principals and great budget managers. We have an opportunity now, having posted very good academic results, having negotiated a one-of-its-kind budget, we have a perfect opportunity to tell a story to Tallahassee. Not a story that demands more but that invites a greater contribution based on our results. That is going to be our strong advocacy in Tallahassee. The balancing of the '12-'13 began three months ago. We've already identified and are having conversations with Dade delegation members. Never before have I heard voices from members of the delegation that recognized the good work that's done here. We hope to leverage those opinions with a positive outcome from Tallahassee. The federal jobs bill money is sunsetting. We decided to stretch it out and divide it into two years, so we have one additional year of that money, but after this year, $35 million will disappear. The mandatory increase for the Florida Retirement System of 1.9% means that this year the Board will have to reserve $35 million that is the responsibility in my opinion of the state. Because of our good stewardship of the public's dollars we created a reserve, which we used this year to do exactly what it was intended to do: protect employees. That fund was $35 million. It will be good for one year. Next year it will be gone. As we celebrate a good year we are already planning for the hardship of '12-'13. This time around, we're going to need a little assistance. We're going to need assistance from Tallahassee."

In other words, many employees and programs essential to children's education are being paid for right now out of reserves; if the budget system coming down from Tallahassee next year is not better, we will see drastic layoffs and cutting of programs. Is that what it will take to convince teachers and parents to vote for people who will support public schools instead of tearing them down?

Public hearing:

 UTD President Karen Aronowitz spoke to Race to the Top and the absurdity of the new evaluation system at the public hearing. "We have just finished the celebration of Labor Day and all those who are hardworking citizens and especially public citizens hwho work in public sector have made many sacrifices for this nation and continue to do so. We heard much discussion today concerning a negotiated agreement concerning Race to the Top and our evaluation system. Although we were able to reach settlements on these issues, much of it was imposed by SB 736, and the parts that are unpleasant and seem to be unfair to our teachers have to do with a mandate that was imposed on this district, and we were forced to bring our evaluation system into line with the requirements of that. We are not opposed to assessement or accountability. What we are concerned with is fairness. Consequently, when teachers are judged upon scores and they have no control over the scores that are being utilized to judget them, they of course are afraid. I want to assure everyone that when we negotiated Race to the Top it's because we saw an opportunity for distribution of money to as many teacher as were able to receive something. I'm proud of the members of our bargaining unit who exercised their right to vote and expressed their desire to have the distribution of funds taking place through Race to the Top. We're also proud of the negotiatons we were able to obtain to protect teachers rated effective and highly effective. We are proud of this language that says that competent teachers deserve to remain hired by our system. UTD will continue to bring successful global systems to the attention of this board, including Finland, which has a much less competitive model. We want to discuss education issues in terms of what is good for children, and we will continue to do so."