The Superintendent's BLOG 2007 - 2008                      

 

We had our first-ever "legislative breakfast" yesterday morning at the Board of Education offices.  Organized by James Michel, Board Chair, the event was attended by several town council members, Board of Education members and - most importantly - three members of the Connecticut General Assembly.  Representatives Ken Green and Beth Bye (filling in for Faith McMahon) and Senator Jonathan Harris attended the event.

This year, more than ever, we need to be communicating with our legislators about the needs of the school district and what the legislature can do to help (or, in some cases, minimize the damage).  With the state facing multi-billion dollar deficits in the next two years, the chances for additional state aid are slim at best.  However, it gave us a chance to share with these legislators some of the progress we are making as a school district, our current initiatives and our current challenges that we hope they could address.

We focused on three areas of challenge - fiscal, Department of Children and Families (foster children put a strain on our resources), and Residency (we are constantly working to remove students who do not legally reside in Bloomfield).  After our presentation the legislators spoke, and then a discussion ensued among the entire group.  It was an hour and a half well spent.

The legislators each pledged to do everything in their power not to cut Education Cost Sharing to the local districts, as this simply moves the tax burden from the state to the towns.  Naturally, this will be easier said than done.  It also sounded like some tax hikes are definitely in the cards for this session, even though the governor has stated that cutting expenses in state government is the answer.  Sounded to me like it will be a combination of both.

I was happy to see Steve Goode from the Hartford Courant in attendance.  The Courant has drastically cut back on its local coverage and he managed to get permission from his editor to cover this story.  I hope it will run soon so more citizens will realize that Bloomfield is doing everything it can to be pro-active in this very challenging environment.

 

Catching up after a week of vacation:

Nothing like getting right back into early morning weather decisions - the "black ice" caught us this morning and necessitated a 90-minute delay.  We needed some time to let the sun do its thing and we were good to go.  Let's hope it doesn't warm up, then re-freeze and give us an instant replay for tomorrow.

The first two weeks in January are dedicated almost exclusively to reviewing every last bit of the 2009-2010 budget proposal that is due to the Board of Education on the evening of February 10.  The principals and directors submitted their budgets in December and our business manager, Doreen Munsell, has been piecing the entire puzzle together for a "first draft" look that begins tomorrow.  We sit down with each administrator for about two hours (minimum) and scrutinize every single line item, every position, every expense in their budget requests.  (For the administrators submitting budgets us, root canal is preferable.)  For any one administrator, it's a few hours of "pain."  For the three of us (myself, Ms. Munsell and Assistant Superintendent Robert Buganski), it's two weeks of scrutinizing every expense to see what can be saved while still preserving our educational programming.

Our goal in budget development is to bring in a fiscally responsible budget that maintains or enhances our educational program.  We know in these economic times that any budget increase will be scrutinized like never before.  Our budget document, which we will post on our web site after the February 10 Board meeting, is a wealth of information about where we spend our resources and why.  There's a reason our budget book wins a state-wide award every year.  On February 19, we invite public comment on the proposed budget, and then the Board usually votes that night to approve a budget.  At that point it moves to the Town Council for action, which usually does not take place until April.

With a probably loss of some state aid, the town's ability to pay will be stretched further.  The legislature is about to convene for the state budget, but we will not know what damage it will do until well after the town has set its budget for the year.  In an ideal world, the legislature would pass the state's budget before the towns need to pass theirs.  However, at best the legislature passes its budget in early June (sometimes later in "special" session), and Bloomfield's budget is approved in early May.  This timetable leaves the town in a precarious position of authorizing a budget without knowing what the cuts to state aid will be.

So, it's into the budget cocoon, so to speak.  Including the ones I did when I was an assistant superintendent, this is my 20^th year of developing budgets.

 

 

Well, as advertised, the weather has wrecked havoc on superintendent sleep patterns and school opening for the past two school days.  The most difficult call was actually on Friday, when the forecast for late morning snow meant that we needed to call off school based on a forecast, not actual snow.  I'm sure many of us wrestled with the idea of getting in a half day and doing an early dismissal, but the timing of the storm and the severity with which it was expected to come made that a dicey proposition at best.  Generally speaking, when in doubt, you play it safe.

Believe me, as late morning rolled around and there were no snow flakes in the air, I was a little nervous.  It has happened before:  you call school based on a forecast, and that forecast turns out to be wrong.  This time, however, the heavy snow came in as scheduled, just as the buses would have been out delivering kids home for an early dismissal.

This morning many districts had a 90-minute delay.  The icy conditions on both the roads and sidewalks made it a prudent move.  Some people ask - why 90 minutes?  The answer is that, often, 60 minutes is not enough and 2 hours seems like a "why bother with school?" moment.  There are times when either of these choices will happen but right now most of us have settled into 90 minutes as the preferred delay time.

 

A variety of topics:

Well, winter weather season is here as we had our first late opening of the season.  Because of the icy conditions we decided to open 90 minutes late.  That appeared to be the norm in our part of Connecticut and it seemed to work out fine.  In addition to our usual method of getting the word out on radio and television, we initiated a new automated calling system to all parents and staff.  I record a message and then it is sent at a predetermined time to all of the contacts we have on file.  Staff received their call at 6:00 am and parents at 6:30 am.  I'm still not sure if these are the right times for these messages and we are seeking feedback on it.

One consideration is that we don't want to call people too early, but since many high school teachers and students are getting ready by 6:00 am, calling too late would not be helpful, either.  On the other hand, our elementary schools don't start until 8:50 am.  We're still working on it, but the feedback so far is that people appreciate the service.  The earliest place to find the announcement is on the TV stations; I call them first and the announcements are posted almost immediately.  I try to make decisions as early as possible, but realistically 5:15 am is going to be the earliest you'll see it.  (This is the time of year you see superintendents across the state with bags under their eyes.  We do concerts and meetings at night and then get up at 4:30 am to deal with weather.)

I will continue my practice from last winter of writing an explanation for any weather-related delay, dismissal or closing on this blog.

Speaking of concerts we've had a great concert season.  My hat is off to all the teachers and students who have made this the best concert season I can recall.  Last night the high school band and chorus were marvelous.  An extra special treat was the "Bloomfield Musicmakers," a local senior citizen chorus, performing with our students for the grand finale.  I also would like to particularly make note of the work of Shanna Schreck.  This year, Ms. Schreck is conducting both choruses at Arace (Intermediate and Middle Schools) plus the high school.  She had performances on three consecutive nights - and all went very well.

On Monday night I attended a meeting of parents in West Hartford whose children have been selected in the lottery to attend our Wintonbury Early Childhood Magnet School (www.wintonburymagnet.org) this fall.  We had about 40 parents and other family members in attendance.  Jenna Tenore, the principal, engaged in a Q & A with the group for over an hour and it was great to feel the enthusiasm of the parents in the room (and of some of their children!).  This project is incredibly exciting to me, but it's very energizing to see the parents as excited as we are.  Ms. Tenore has conducted an information session in each of our partner towns (Simsbury, East Granby, Granby, Avon) and we are delighted with the response.  Completed applications are due January 16 or names from the waiting list will be given those slots.  We are taking applications for the waiting list for Pre-K, but are considering adding kindergarten as well this coming year, and applications are available on-line for kindergarten.

Happy birthday to my younger daughter, who turned 6 yesterday.  And happy 53^rd anniversary to my parents, married today in 1955!

Quick update -- my daughter was accepted at Miami of Ohio, her Early Decision choice.  The college search is over.  More at another time....

 

Updating a few items:

Since my last post on Educational Cost Sharing (ECS), the State Board of Education reluctantly endorsed a plan to shave approximately 10 percent of its budget as requested by the Office of Policy and Management (OPM).  A simulation of the proposed impact of these cuts reveals that Bloomfield would lose approximately $660,000 of the $5.4 million it receives under this grant in the current fiscal year.  In the last post I estimated that the cut would be $540,000 (that is, ten percent of $5.4 million).

One piece about ECS - that money does not flow directly to the school district.  It flows to the town as revenue.  Two years ago, the state made a conscious effort to increase ECS payments - in fact, termed the increases ‘historic' aid to education.  I think if you go back far enough in this blog you will find my frustration around the fact that this ‘historic' aid did not, in fact, reach local school districts.  The towns simply kept the extra dollars to lower mill rates.  Then the state started asking local school districts to foot additional magnet school expenses through increased tuition - justifying it because we had just ‘received' all this extra ECS money.  Hence, we saw no actual increase in funding from an increase in ECS and inherited substantially higher magnet school tuition bills.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.  ECS will be cut - but will towns "absorb" this loss the way they "absorbed" the increase two years ago?  Of course not!  You get the picture?  When ECS goes up, we don't see it; when ECS goes down, we eat the difference.  (And you wonder why superintendents in this area are retiring at a rapid pace and no one is exactly lining up for the jobs.)

Next update - college.  We still haven't heard from Miami of Ohio, the Early Decision choice.  That will come Monday by email.  However, good news - my daughter was accepted at two other colleges, one with admission to an Honors program (Colby Sawyer) that she did not know existed or that she even applied to (plus, a substantial tuition reduction, which interests Dad a lot!).  Ohio Wesleyan also accepted her, stating that "merit" awards will be out next week.  You should have seen the joy in her eyes, knowing that "somebody wants me!"

Another college in Ohio called her to say that they loved her essay and they wanted to interview her in Connecticut.  (We had visited there but we went on a Saturday and she did not interview.)  My daughter has set up the interview (at a local Starbucks, of all places) tomorrow

 

Back from the Thanksgiving break, and the news about the state's economy continues to worsen.  The state is facing a $300 million deficit in the current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2009; things look much bleaker for the next three fiscal years.  Just before Thanksgiving the legislature convened to try to close the current year gap and barely made a dent.

This financial crisis will have major implications for public schools across Connecticut, particularly those that rely heavily on state aid for any significant portion of their operating budgets.  Urban districts rely most on state aid and are at the greatest risk.  At a recent meeting or urban superintendents, several suggested that the only way they could make ends meet in future budgets was to shorten the school year below the state-mandated 180 days and furlough all employees.  The superintendent in Bristol wrote a very pointed letter in the Hartford Courant requesting relief from some unfunded state mandates.

Every year we deal with trying to craft a fiscally responsible budget.  We are beginning that process now and my recommended budget will be presented to the Board of Education in early February.  Some districts, however, have much earlier timelines and so news of their budget woes are surfacing now.

In a nutshell, here's how the state's budget problems will affect us:

The largest funding stream from the State to local education budgets is called the Education Cost Sharing Grant (ECS).  If the State Department of Education has to cut its expenditure by, say, 10 percent, it cannot achieve those savings with touching ECS.  If ECS is reduced, then the towns have less money to pay for education.  That means either 1) a tax increase in local property tax to make up for the difference or 2) cuts in local school budgets to absorb the increase.

In Bloomfield, ECS is about $5.4 million.  That is about 12 percent of our budget.  If the state cuts ECS by 10 percent, that's a $540,000 hole in the town's revenue.  Given that the taxpayers in Bloomfield are unlikely to want to pay more to offset this cut, chances are this decrease will be passed through to the school district.  To effect a $540,000 savings, I need to cut the equivalent of 9 teaching positions.  Imagine if I'm a town that relies on ECS for 50 percent of one's budget!  You can see why urban districts are worried.

There are other state grants that we rely on to offset our expenses.  For example, some special education students require costly out-of-district placements.  The state pays a portion of these placement costs according to a (very complex) formula that only a state bureaucrat could love.  If this formula gets "adjusted" or "capped" (fancy term for lowering the reimbursement to us), then we have to pay the difference.  We receive about $400,000 in that reimbursement annually.  There's magnet school reimbursement and a host of other grants, all in jeopardy.

There's more, but you get the picture.  The state's budget woes flow downhill - directly to the local cities and towns, and to educational services.  For those of us in public education, the last thing we want to do is reduce our educational services for children.  However, taxpayers may not be able to afford everything we are doing now, however warranted.  Cutting programs or increasing class size is no fun, when you know that the needs of our kids are still there.  I am not looking forward to this budget season.

I fully expect the legislature to balance its books on the backs of the local towns, and these backs are weakening quickly.

 

For those of you wondering what's happening with my daughter's college search - this topic has generated more interest from blog readers than any other - I haven't forgotten about it.  It's just that, right now, we're just in a bit of a lull as we await the first round of decisions.

 

Not that there isn't any drama.

 

First, there is always the worry about "did they get everything?"  It reminds me a bit of applying for jobs, where you have to get letters of recommendation, college transcripts and so forth sent to prospective employers.  The applicant - my daughter, in this case - does not control the flow of all the required documents to the colleges.  For instance, we are dependent on the high school (Waterford High School) to send the high school transcripts by the deadline to the colleges.  They also have to send first quarter grades.  In most cases, the volume is overwhelming as kids have a habit of requesting these things at the last minute and there is usually one overworked secretary trying to get these out.  So we've received a few notices from colleges that ‘they have everything but your transcript' - and we wonder about going in to the guidance office and politely checking but recognizing that it's completely out of our control.   Then we're trying to figure out if it's OK if the transcript comes in late, but how can a college disqualify you from consideration if it's not your fault?

 

You get the picture.  You over think these things.  (I have a habit of doing that anyway and I think my daughter inherited that particular gene from dad.)  We already had one bit of panic when Miami of Ohio (first choice, Early Decision) had not received the SAT scores from the College Board.  That cost a bunch of extra bucks to get them sent overnight.

 

We're also into second-guessing ourselves now.  Should she have applied Early Decision (meaning that if she gets in, she must go there), or just Early Action (as she did to most colleges)?  Are your chances hurt or helped by applying Early Decision?  We didn't use a college consultant (as some of her friends did) or get much help from the high school guidance office (with 275 seniors and 1 counselor you get the picture), so we started poking around on-line and reading the advice from "experts."  Naturally, all the advice was contradictory so that wasn't of much help - not that we could have changed our strategy anyway.

 

We're also counting days until December 15, when we are supposed to hear from Miami of Ohio.  It's probably the first we'll hear from but another top choice (Ithaca) has "rolling admissions" so we may hear from them even sooner (but, maybe not if they are still awaiting that elusive transcript and first quarter grades).  Others have December 1 deadlines so we probably wouldn't hear from them until early January.  And there are still others on her "list" to which she has not yet applied because the deadline is in January.

 

We try to block the constant thinking about college admissions out of our minds, but it appears everywhere.   Just the other day I was at our Big Picture High School in Bloomfield, and a senior girl was talking to me about where she was applying to college and why (she had really thought this through), and I asked her why she hadn't applied Early Action to any college.  She didn't answer, but another student piped in, "I think you have a better chance for financial aid if you don't apply early."  Great.

 

At the state conference that I discussed in Friday's post I listened to a speech from the president of the University of Hartford, Dr. Walter Harrison.  He was the featured dinner speaker and was discussing Connecticut's (now delayed) plan to beef up high school graduation requirements and increase state testing.  In his comments he stated that he was opposed to more standardized testing as an improvement strategy, in part because colleges have found that SAT scores (as an example) were not great predictors of success -- grades in high school were much more reliable measures.  I was heartened to hear this since my daughter has much better grades than her SAT scores would indicate.

 

I know Dr. Harrison because the University of Hartford partners with us in so many ventures, so I went up to him and asked him about these remarks.  Aren't you worried about your U.S. News and World Report rankings if you let students in with good grades but mediocre SAT scores?  We're actually thinking about going "test optional," he said.  (My daughter has applied to one of these schools - you do not have to send them your SAT scores.)  I was feeling better again until someone in the back piped up, "Well, some schools won't even look at you unless you have 1200 on the SATs because they are trying to move up in the rankings."  (Good feelings are fleeting things.)

 

So, like lots of parents, we nervously await the mysterious decision-making process of a variety of colleges.  Oh, you know what else we're thinking about?  What funds I had set aside for my daughter's college education have just been cut in half in the recent stock market crash, how am I going to pay for this?  (To be continued....)

 

A week ago I was privileged to have presented at a state-wide conference of superintendents and school board members.  The title of the presentation was "New Ways of Communicating in an Electronic Age."  For those of you who attended the workshop, and heard about this blog for the first time, welcome.

 

You never know how many people are going to come to any one workshop at this conference, as several are going on at the same time.  It seemed like there were at least 60 people in this workshop, and people seemed very interested in the different ways that we, in Bloomfield, have attempted to communicate.  (Very shortly, the Power Point presentation that I used at the workshop will be up on this website - technical difficulties.)

 

While I spent some time talking about our use of radio sponsorship and television advertising, the most discussion focused on the blog.  I think it generated interest for several reasons.  First, it's relatively easy to start (although, as I know too well, not as easy to keep up with).  Second, it is very low dollar (but not time) cost.  Districts that have web software now probably have the capability without even realizing it.  Other forms of communication have price tags that are higher in terms of dollars, which are (to say the least) difficult to come by these days.

 

People asked a lot of good questions about the blog - how much time it takes, how you set it up, how people can post on the blog and so forth.  One thing I always worry about when I'm asked to make presentations is that school board members will go back from these sessions and insist that their superintendent start doing something I suggested in the workshop.  As with any idea, it's not for everyone.  I even started off by saying, "Please do not go back to your district and tell your superintendent to start a blog."  (Superintendents in attendance can fend for themselves, but sometimes board members come and the superintendent is going to another session at the conference.)

 

I issued the same caveat when the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education asked me to talk about communicating your budget.  We have some good ways of doing this in Bloomfield but you hardly want your colleagues to hear, "Dave Title in Bloomfield does it this way.  So should you."  It's nice to be asked to share your ideas, and I learn as much from these workshops as I give.

 

Next week is a short week here - only two days for everyone, including me.  The school district is closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  We used to have a half-day of school on Wednesday before Thanksgiving (thus saving a day at the end of the year in June), but one year we had a snow day on that Wednesday and everyone loved it so much, they wanted to take it off every year.  It means another day of school in June but families really appreciate the extra travel time around Thanksgiving.

 

On Monday and Tuesday this week we spent two intense days examining every facet of the district's Strategic Plan to determine whether we need to make any changes for good cause.  The Plan, adopted in 2006, spans five years (2006-2011) and is the guiding force for all change initiatives within the school district.  (You can read the entire Plan elsewhere on our website.)

 

The process of creating, adopting and implementing a Strategic Plan is different in Bloomfield than in many other places.  For one thing, we involve representation from all facets of the community in its development, prior to Board of Education approval.  That is, the Planning Team consists of teachers, administrators, Board members, parents, citizens and others (including me).  We use an outside facilitator to guide the entire group to full agreement on every aspect of the Plan.

 

We are in the third year of implementing our Plan.  The Planning Team reconvened to see what progress had been made to date on achieving the Objectives (long-term measurable goals) and Strategies (change efforts designed to meet the Objectives).  For example, one Objective is to have 100 percent of students achieve Proficient or better on standardized tests.  One Strategy is to expand partnerships with the community.  The Planning Team examined every part of the Plan to decide whether or not we should continue to follow the existing Plan or make any mid-course corrections.

 

We looked at all of the internal and external events that have occurred since the Plan's adoption in 2006 and whether that meant we needed to make changes to our Plan.  We looked at internal and external factors that would likely influence our ability to meet our Mission and Objectives going forward.  As with the original Plan, no changes would be recommended unless all members of the Planning Team agreed to them.

 

The good news is that we are making good progress on all aspects of our Plan.  Unlike most plans, this one is actually being implemented.  Administrators charged with implementing Action Plans described how implementation was going.   (Action Plans are one-year change efforts.  There are 40 in the Plan over the five-year period.)  Some implementation went very smoothly; some had hurdles that needed to be overcome.

 

The team is recommending a few small changes to the Plan and also will be redesigning one Strategy in light of a new state mandate.  We are strengthening the presence of families in the Strategic Plan, and we are going to be working to align two change initiatives (Character Education, Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support).  Otherwise, the Planning Team felt like we were making good progress and the message is, "keep going."

 

Once the Planning Team's recommendations are complete, they will go the Board of Education for approval, probably in May or June.

 

I would like to thank all of the Planning Team members for their dedication to the Bloomfield schools.  Several citizens gave up two days of work and/or family to spend two long days to help the Bloomfield schools.  Everyone worked late into the night on Monday night, well beyond the call of duty.  Without this broad-based commitment, our Plan would be significantly weakened.  It is, in the end, my job to make this all work, but trying to do it alone is, as they say, a fool's errand.