Eric and I plan to do a live Q&A on the latest twists of CMS's bleak 2011 budget plan from noon to 1 p.m. Friday. Since Tuesday's presentation on possible cuts, which would eliminate just over 1,500 jobs, we've been trying to get answers to some follow-up questions. We hope to have some clarity on proposals that stand to shake up families, neighborhoods and livelihoods at one of Mecklenburg County's largest employers.
Still, it's a sure bet that our answer to many questions will be "We don't know yet." In some cases, a reader will think of something we haven't asked. In others, Superintendent Peter Gorman and his staff may know the answers but not be ready to make them public. And sometimes even Gorman may not know exactly how some items will play out. Spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry says CMS officials aren't crazy about the rapid-fire format of online chats (we'd love to have had Gorman answering the questions himself), but she has promised to help us track down answers when the session is over.
The pace of all this is challenging. Normally, in January the superintendent and his staff would be starting to draft a budget plan behind closed doors. They might be sounding out board members in private, but public proposals would be months away. This year CMS has has lifted the curtain early to give the public a glimpse, let more people have their say and avoid late-breaking decisions that leave schools and families in turmoil. From that perspective, it's easy to understand why officials aren't ready to roll out exhaustive details of a work in progress.
On the other hand, they lifted the curtain knowing that what it revealed would create a collective gasp from the audience. No one can be surprised that the thousands of people affected by proposed cuts want to know more. So we'll be pushing to make sure the curtain doesn't drop too quickly.
The budget crisis has jarred a lot of people into caring about a process so complicated it can make your eyes roll back. CMS and the state are both posting information to help people understand. We've created a new section of budget links (to the right, under our mug shots). For budget newbies, there's some great "here's how it works" material. For data-divers, there's a lot to be found if you click around (keep checking for updates).
Besides the obvious links, I've included CMSdollars.com, a private site by Bolyn McClung, a certifiable CMS junkie. I can't vouch for every fact on his site, any more than I can promise there won't be errors or spin on official sites. But he's digging out some good stuff and seems to be more interested in informing than opining. The Charlotte Chamber and Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education have announced a campaign to share CMS budget information; we'll be checking the MeckEd site to see when it has anything ready for viewing. If you know of others, let us know.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Live chat and budget links
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Ann, you might want to discuss the "disturbance" at the West Meck basketball game created by a group of Kennedy Charter School students. The CMS schools get the bad PR, the charter school, of course, has been elevated to the sainthood pedestal of current educational status. It's not budget, it's perception.
Ann, I'd like to know how elementary schools are expected to survive the cut of one support person. While it might seem fair on the budget line, when you look at staffing between elementary and secondary schools it is far from it. Secondary schools have multiple support people who provide similiar functions based on a provider to student ratio (example, one academic facilitator or support coordinator for every 400 kids or whatever). This leaves secondary schools with dozens if not more support staff. Elementary schools do not have that luxury. They are staffed with one person per major support staff function (although some are lucky and do get a social worker assignment as an extra or the principal trades in positions to get a family advocate or an extra facilitator). However, the large majority of schools are left with one counselor, one facilitator, and one media specialist to support 300-1200 children depending on the elementary school size. Media specialists spend the entire day teaching classes. Academic facilitators run planning sessions and provide some best practice support for teachers. Counselors support the student and parent body (in addition to the staff) with issues addressing academic interventions and development, career exploration and work skills including study skills, and personal/social avenues IN addition to often providing the job functions traditionally assigned to a social worker and/or family advocate.
How does a school choose between those three functions? How is that equitable for these young children where early intervention and support is vital in order to ensure future success in school? How is this fair to elementary schools when secondary can still function close to normally with a little bit more work to do spread around while elementary school personnel who are already doing the work of 3-5 people, get no duty free lunch, and now have their work days extended with children will have to find a way to function without the eliminated position?
I'd be curious to know if this question will even be asked, much less if you get an answer.
Actually Ann, this is just a variation of the Washington Monument syndrone so all of the dependents of government handouts can get loud enough to overshout the reasonable for higher taxes that they will not have to pay themselves and the government officals who we the taxpayers pay their taxes for them.
Thanks for bringing this up 7:48. Since the community doesn't value public libraries and seems willing to accept great reductions there, I'm sure it won't blink an eye at self-service media centers or ones staffed with volunteers, oh, except for those schools that have no volunteers. I'm sure a solution will be found for all those media classes that are taught, someone else will do it, as well as MMIS, bus duty, class coverage, etc. No problem, sigh...............
Kennedy Charter School has never done well on NC state exams and does not appear to be providing a sound or basic education that children are supposedly entitled to by law. I can't answer why this school is still allowed to receive public funds to operate. I wouldn't send my children here.
What charter school advocates are trying to do is replicate and increase choices for parents to have their children attend charter schools that ARE effective. For example, KIPP (a national charter school supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy, Lake Norman Charter School and the Harlem Children's Zone - to name a few. For this to happen, charter school advocates are pressing lawmakers in Raleigh to lift the NC charter school cap.
I forgot Queens Grant Charter School in Matthews. I don't know how this school stacks up apples-to-apples compared to similar CMS schools but I think it is a successful school. The mayor of Matthews (Biggs) was or did serve on the board of directors for the school. I've met numerous parents with children at this charter school and would definitely consider sending my children here. Like most successful charter schools, they have a lottery system to get in which keeps the school at capacity without overcrowding issues becoming a problem.
Still trying to figure out how eliminating 1:45 elementary dismissals helps to save $4m.
Are we firing drivers and selling buses?
How about eliminating the bus ride from the neighborhood across the street from Calvary Church on HWY 51 to their "close proximity" neighborhood high school located in Myers Park?
Ditto for the neighborhood across the street from the Arboretum Shopping Center on Providence Road which is within easy walking distance to Providence H.S. that is also bused to their "closest proximity" neighborhood high school located in Myers Park.
I propose CMS bus my neighborhood to Fort Mill high school while eliminating magnet school bus transportation to save some cash.
JAT - I don't think the ending of the 1:45pm dismissal time in and of itself saves the dollars. It is the extension of the elementary day to 7 hours (and if you want to keep the 1:45pm dismissal that would mean a 6:45am start time - not going to happen). By extending to 7 hours - it allows the buses to have the time to ALL run 4 runs a day - not just some of the bus routes as is happening this year. If all of the buses are able to run 4 runs (pick-up and drop-off for 4 different schools) then you need less buses (savings of maintenance costs), less drivers, possibly reduction in insurance costs, etc... That is how they arrive at the $4million savings.
I don't think the 7 hour day is detrimental to the kids - they will handle it fine - but I really feel for the teachers. I know at my daughter's school where planning is taking place during the school day vs. after the school day - the teachers are really overwhelmed. Add to that no teaching assistants and the teachers have a tough time getting in lunch, bathroom breaks, etc. - let alone planning.
11:09: There's no neighborhood across the street from the Arboretum that's zoned for Myers Park. Those neighborhoods are zoned for Providence. In fact, neighborhoods further north off Providence are zoned for East Meck. Your outrage is incorrect.
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