NEWS
- D.C. educational system to cut staff at central office, hire 200 at schools [Community Academy PCS mentioned]
- Transparency for charters [Community Academy PCS mentioned]
D.C. educational system to cut staff at central office, hire 200 at schools [Community Academy PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
March 12, 2015
The D.C. public school system plans to cut central office spending by 25 percent and increase funding for the city’s schools to improve course offerings next school year, part of a new budget that includes $726 million in local moncy.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced Thursday that after years of school closures, D.C. Public Schools plans to open four next year and will hire 200 new school-based staff members. Many of the new employees will work in the city’s comprehensive high schools, offering a more expansive and consistent range of extracurricular activities and advanced courses citywide.
The budget aims to improve equity as school leaders push to persuade more families to choose neighborhood schools. City public school enrollment continues to grow overall, but many families have been choosing public charters or schools across town through a citywide lottery.
The system is projecting a fourth straight year of increased enrollment, with more than 1,500 new students next year, putting enrollment at more than 49,000.
“Next year will be a great year for us,” Henderson said. “We will have more teachers, more DCPS staff, better high school programs, more exciting initiatives, and a lot more fun happening in school.”
While many D.C. agencies are cutting spending, the city’s traditional public schools received a 3.4 percent increase in local funding, largely based on the growing number of students. Local funds make up most of the system’s budget, but projected federal funding was not available Thursday.
Henderson also announced that the school system will, for the first time, invest in library collections, with a per-student allocation ranging from $20 to $30, depending on the number of at-risk students in a school.
The city’s schools have mainly relied on parent fundraising or philanthropy to stock library shelves, creating a wide disparity in collections, a Washington Post analysis found. The new library allocation aims to improve access to books for all students, particularly those from poor families.
Another new per-student allocation will pay for supplies for art, science and physical education.
“This is a way to ensure that communities that are not as affluent or active can have the same kinds of resources at school,” said Christopher Rinkus, deputy chief of enrollment and school funding. “It’s just a more equitable approach.”
Henderson has called next school year “the year of the high school,” after making heavy investments in elementary and middle schools in the past two years.
An extra $13 million for the city’s nine comprehensive high schools will provide enough staffing to offer at least six Advanced Placement courses and 20 elective courses, such as choir, marching band, yearbook, debate and African American literature in each neighborhood high school. Current offerings differ widely by school, depending on enrollment and budgets, and many students have clamored for more activities and nonacademic courses.
The spending plan also includes funds for expanded career and technical programs and for more athletics; each high school will have a coordinator for extracurricular activities.
Selective and alternative high schools will not see big changes this year. Wilson High School, with the city’s largest high school enrollment, offers a range of academic and extracurricular programs and also will not see major changes.
Cathy Reilly, executive director of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators , said she is “delighted” to see the extra investment in high schools and more uniform offerings. “Students and their families will really welcome this,” she said.
The schools scheduled to open next school year include Brookland Middle School in Northeast, which will focus on arts and world language and was originally supposed to open this year; Van Ness Elementary in Southwest, which closed in 2006 and will reopen with an early-childhood program; River Terrace Elementary in Northeast, which closed in 2012 and will reopen for special-education students; and an elementary campus of Community Academy Public Charter School in Northwest, after D.C. schools agreed to take it over because the school’s charter was revoked.
The budget includes $45 million in funding for at-risk students that will be awarded to schools based on the number of enrollees who are in foster care or are homeless, who are receiving welfare benefits or food stamps, or who are performing at least a year behind in high school.
The D.C. Council approved the boost in funding last year to help schools mitigate the effects of poverty. Last year, Henderson had more flexibility in how the funds were allocated; this year, the funds will be distributed according to a strict formula and will fund a range of support elements, including extended-day programs, reading specialists and extracurricular activities.
The school system also is investing $1 million in a pilot program to extend the school year at Raymond Education Campus.
Henderson said she did not have details about how she will make cuts to the central office, although she said each department will have to meet a specific target, and cuts will come in the form of positions, programs and through vacancies. DCPS has 275 central-office employees.
The end of judicial oversight into how the school system administers special education services — when an 18-year-old lawsuit known as Blackman-Jones was dismissed in December — already has led to reduced costs in monitoring and supervision, Henderson said.
“There will be limits on what the central office can support and provide next year to schools,” she said. “A 25 percent reduction, people are going to feel.”
Transparency for charters [Community Academy PCS mentioned]
The Current Newspapers
By Davis Kennedy and Chris Kain
March 11, 2015
The Washington Post recently reported that two local charter school leaders earn as much as, or more than, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, despite running programs with significantly fewer students.
Charter schools are operated independently, and thus they don’t have to make their salary data public, so the newspaper analyzed schools’ federal tax forms to learn about compensation. The reporters noted that they couldn’t access all of the salary data, because some of the city’s charters — which the law requires to operate as nonprofits — are run by larger for profit management firms. But they said a recent lawsuit revealed that the executive of one such management company earned $1.3 million in 2013.
It’s hard not to be troubled by that figure, especially since the executive’s company, which runs Community Academy Public Charter School, recently lost its charter due to financial mismanagement.
For the most part, we appreciate that many charter schools have built their success on their independent operating status, which allows innovative leaders to create stellar programs free from the sometimes-shackling constraints of bureaucracy. But that’s not the case at all charter schools. And given both the disparities in quality across the field and the evidence of corruption at a few schools, we think greater transparency on compensation would be an improvement.
At-large D.C. Council member David Grosso is pushing for such sunlight. He introduced legislation last week that would give greater reign to the D.C. Public Charter School Board in terms of examining financial records of private companies that manage charters. His proposal seems extremely fair, particularly given that this money comes from the public coffers — put there by local taxpayers. Charters will continue to make their own decisions on salaries, but the public will be able to consider those choices and demand action if the numbers seem inappropriate.
As is generally the case with charter schools, the errors of a tiny minority can cast a poor light on the majority. We’d hate to see misspending in certain spots tarnish the reputation of the whole, especially when so many charters provide such an excellent service to the city. Sharing more financial information will help the public distinguish among the offerings.
__________
FROM FOCUS
 |
Upcoming events
Click Here > |
__________