Comments on: CSD in Discussion with City To Buy Beacon Hill For Potential Central Office Location

By: Peggy Merriss

Peggy Merriss — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:36:04 +0000

Good Afternoon –

There will be a joint work session of the Board of Education and the City Commission on Monday, April 16th before the regular City Commission Meeting to discuss potential changes to the Beacon Master Plan that involve the possibility of the City Schools of Decatur acquiring part of the project for their use. Police, municipal court and active living activities would remain on the site as well as a gymnasium.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:23:36 +0000

Re administration: I think there was a rise in administrative positions after the consolidation of 2004. Some of it was at Central Office, but some of it was at the schools which were now larger and needed more support, e.g. an asst. principal at the 4/5 and instructional coaches at all the elementary schools. Some of those who had supported the consolidation for fiscal reasons lost faith in it as they saw the cost of personnel going up. But more recently, it seems that there’s been real belt-tightening at Central Office and less admin positions, at least that’s what I hear from folks who I know and trust. And I notice a lot less parking on the lawn! The hard, hard question is how to continue to ensure high quality of instructiion for students at the same as rising enrollment but decreased administrative and classroom resources. My personal feeling is that we need to be very efficient about what new programs, initiatives, new ideas we roll out and not overwhelm our busy staff and teachers. Sometimes improving the quality of an existing sound program is the better choice than struggling through a 5-year transition to something that sounds great in meetings and reports, builds resumes, but only works for students and teachers if fully implemented with fidelity to evidence-based methods. Five years is more than the entire high school or elementary school career of a student who is a guinea pig if implementation is not efficient and thorough.

By: sarahph

sarahph — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:00:16 +0000

Fifi, you answered a lot of my questions at the very same time that I was typing them. You must be psychic!

By: sarahph

sarahph — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:57:51 +0000

So, seems like we could almost entirely get rid of buses at the K-5 level if we went back to a K-5 configuration, no? Are there other savings that the K-3/4-5 model gives us that are so large that they negate bus costs? We will be operating 6 school regardless of how they are configured, right?

Are the social/educational advantages to split grades so beneficial that they outweigh the advantages of having extra money that we could save on transportation? Would the K-5 configuration simply not work b/c our enrollment fluctuates too much? What is unique about Decatur (currently… not back in the day when our schools were segregated) that makes it unworkable to have longer grade spans?

I really am just curious, not necessarily advocating for K-5. In fact, by the time any such reconfiguration came about, all of my kids will be well beyond K-5 so it makes no difference to me personally… other than as a taxpayer. I’d just like to see the most efficient grade configuration possible given our circumstances.. the one that allows for the most money to be made available to the classrooms.

By: fifi

fifi — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:49:10 +0000

Dr Love did favor consolidation of schools although I don’t recall her ever outlining a specific plan detailing which school(s) would close/merge.

For both superintendents, I think the issue you mention about operating funds was a driving force behind consolidation plans. As I understand it, the state funding formula for classroom operating funds favors the county and regional districts with large schools. CSD schools are too small to qualify for the maximum state funding for classroom operating funds .

I think it works that small systems who can’t meet the big school sizes get the most from the state funding formulas when all students in a given grade are in the same school. That was the rationale behind creation of the 4/5 . CSD can get maximum classroom funds for grades 4 – 12 because all students in those grades are together in the same building. When state classroom max sizes are met, the state will fund another classroom.

I believe the CSD K-3s are still too small to get that benefit. When one school reaches the max size in a given grade, the state expects the district to shift students to another school that is not maxed out at that grade level rather than giving more funds to open a new classroom. That means CSD must fund the entire cost if a new classroom is created.

I do wonder how the funding formulas work for administrative costs. I question why the CSD administration continued to grow as the budget got tighter and tighter. Maybe this too has to do with available non local funds.