"Public School Reality during the “Great Recession”

"Public School Reality during the “Great Recession”

Currently, it is a continuing challenge to many public school superintendents nationally and in the State of Arizona during this “Great Recession” According to our state budget office, it has seen in 4 years the loss of over $877 million from Arizona public schools. Added to this is the continued ignorance and fiction that many well-meaning community members and legislators operate under how school funding can be applied.

Computers, software, textbooks and major facility projects may only be purchased through “capital” dollars designated to “only” be used in this manner. “Maintenance & Operations” dollars for teachers and support staff salaries has been dramatically reduced during this time period. For Fountain Hills Unified SD “capital” dollars for computer technology/and support software is one affordable “capital” alternative to replace teachers lost due to continuous cuts. This is a financial reality when 43% of the state budget goes toward education. It is also an educational reality as our young learners of today will be the digital learners and citizens of the 21st century.

We value our teachers as our greatest resource, but 75% of the budget is in personnel costs. This year FHUSD lost $800,000 due to the loss of $220 per student from our state student formula. Also, our K-3 elementary class sizes including kindergarten (KG) has moved from 19-24 to 27-29. With the loss of state supported full day kindergarten funding ($330,000 locally), our local K-3 override allowed us to maintain the program but increased KG-grade 3 class sizes. Valley districts choosing to fund only half-day KG or charge full day fees saw their students flock to neighboring full day districts. Our KG enrollment is 30 above last year but our class sizes have increased 6-7 students per classroom. Finally, the state appears to be $1.5 billion short for the fiscal year which could lead to further mid-year cuts.

My hope is the federal teacher jobs legislation passed last week will soon allow FHUSD to bring back a number of teachers focusing on our elementary grade levels. This will be dependent upon our state leaders designating the federal money as regular basic education dollars and not tied specifically to Title I schools. My other hope is community members and legislators will pause in stomping public education for a schoolhouse that no longer exists or convenient political gain during an election year. Instead, let us realize public education is the investment for the many and honor our educational professionals that are ‘the gardeners of young souls.” By the way this superintendent and his dedicated staff like a good challenge

New School Year Brings More Learning Opportunities

The 2010-11 school year offers a great opportunity for Fountain Hills Unified School District intiatives to enhance student learning.

First of all our entire school district will be trained in a statewide benchmark system that will allow us to assess our students in "real time" on the state standards and change our instruction to meet identified gaps. Called ATI Galileo we implemented it last year establishing a year of data to provide our teachers specific data on areas of the AZ standards. Early this fall they will all receive training on using this same tool to create course work and formative assessments for classroom instruction. In short, we will know our student needs during the school year and make adjusments during the year to support successful state AIMS assessment scores.

Secondly, we are moving toward a 24/7 school district adding this year assistive technology that students can access at school and at home. High school faculty will provide several sections of onliine courses done on a "Moodle" platform. Students in class and at home will be able to access online curriculum, course notes and texts in addition to having on going conversations with classmates and the instructor. At the elementary level we are adding iTouches to promote reading fluency and engaging applications. Finally in grades 3-8 and eventually K-2 we have assistive software that will offer students mulitiple opportunities for enrichment both in the classroom and at home. This implementation will start in early October.

Today's public schools must continue to be "professional learning environments seeking continuous improvement." FHUSD will continue to strive for excellence with our latest initiatives.

Parents Can Enhance Brain Development with Reading

I recently returned from a Brain Research Summit that reviewed over the course of three days brain growth and development. Parents of young children can greatly enhance their child's development by creating the following practices regularly in their home:

1. Read orally to children from birth on a daily basis. The sounds heard during reading develops brain processes eventually builidng into memory, attention and sequencing development. Only 50% of all infants are routinely read to by their parents. Literally, the oral language can drive the brain's "architecture" within.
2. Words need to be spoken regularly within the household. Infants hearing oral language develop the same processes seen in being read to on a regular basis. Noisey toys do not take the place of healthy oral interaction and positive play.
3. Households with higher number of words heard per hour also create more affirmations for the infant than prohibitions. It is a more positive environment for language development and is noticeably lower in households with fewer words spoken hourly. This appears to be driven by socio-economic factors (SES) with higher SES homes having more words with more affirmations on an hourly basis. As SES decreases words are less with more prohibitions than affirmations on an hourly basis.
4. Children lacking early birth - age 5 brain development can have a "gap" that builds to over five years by the age of fifteen - called "auditory processing disorder" that can be mistaken for ADHD. This becomes even more apparent in school classrooms as over 80% of instruction is "oral" language.
5. Students establishing early reading fluency with comprehension will read up to 65 minutes a day (4,358,000 words per year) a year compared to the students in the 30th percentile averaging 1.8 minutes a day reading (106,000 words per year). Increasing by only 8 minutes a day will take student to 70 percentile (622,000 words per year).

Generally, as reading fluency strengthens so will student accuracy and comprehension of materials read. Fluency becomes a strong predictor of student performance.

Fountain Hills HS Class of 2010

The Fountain Hills High School "Class of 2010" completed Commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 28th at Fountain Hills Park. As with all of our graduating classes, they exemplified how an individual and a group of young students can achieve and build their future within a public school system.

With students born in 32 states, this class had 15 students graduate with a "Diploma of Highest Distinction" (3.75 GPA with at least 5 Advance Placement courses in 3 content areas) and 32 graduate with a "Diploma with Honors" (3.5 GPA with a minimum of 5 AP courses) among its 176 graduates. They received scholarship offers for over $3 million dollars to attend University of California Berkeley, the 3 Arizona University Honors Colleges, Missouri, Purdue, Notre Dame, Boston College, West Virginia, and Azusa Pacific to name just a few destinations. A combined 64 will attend Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University next school year.

On Monday, May 31st, I attended the Fountain Hills annual Memorial Day Ceremony held at the Veterans Memorial Park. The keynote speaker, Carlos Hadaway, spoke to the need for Patriotism to be found in our country and schools. In our FHUSD school system, the U.S. Constitution booklet is provided for our middle school 7th and 8th graders as part of their U.S. History curriculum. Our McDowell Mountain ES annually invites veterans to speak at Veteran's Day Assemblies having the Joe Foss Veterans' group and Scottsdale City Councilman Robert Littlefield speak over the past two years on the importance for patriotism. The Constitution and our government is further reinforced in our junior mandated U.S. History course and again as a senior graduation requirement in the semester Government course. All students daily start the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Public schools are one of the best examples on why our country will never lose their want or need for patriotism. For they serve and strengthen each other as they educate and honor all students that choose to live for the American Dream. A dream that has no boundaries, no barriers and offers hope for the future seen daily in America's public schools.

The Lessons of Proposition 100

As a public school superintendent I have been frustrated with the lack of progress in dealing with sustainable education funding for the State of Arizona. However, the passage of Proposition 100 does give me pause to see a clear statement made by the voters of our great state. On several fronts the 64% "Yes" vote speaks to the following:
1. Despite the Legislative lack of leadership and consistent "non starter" behavior to finding workable and structual revenue solutions, the people understand the need for a quality education program regardless of the platform: higher education, public school, charter, home school and on-line options.
2. Secondly, the people clearly understand, that even in the toughest of economic times, education must be seen as a priority from a bi-partisan point of view avoiding the idealogy that creates on going lose-lose options for students and their communities.
3. Finally, the people understand that part of the return for the great State of Arizona will come by further protecting home prices with great schools. I have yet to meet a family not move into Fountain Hills Unified SD that did not spend a great deal of time studying our school system for their children's future.
This sales tax increase has a 3 year limitation that clearly needs to be honored for all the voters regardless of their voting choice. This vote gives Arizona education hope and needed revenue for the near future. We need to honor it with the effort demonstrated by the people's vote in this most difficult of times.

Legislature and School Funding at Dangerous Crossroads

The Arizona Legislature has had a difficult task balancing large budget revenue shortfalls with finding new revenue sources and choosing programs for reductions. 43% of the state budget goes to school funding (public schools, charter schools, higher education) that also includes $55 million presently used for private school vouchers. The private school tax credit vouchers were extended to April 15th by the Legislature keeping public school and charter school tax credits at the present December 31st cut-off date. The stated belief is that the more public school/charter school students that go into private schools, the more money the state can save in public school funding.

With the legislature ending this week FHUSD will lose about $928,000 before the results of the May 18th 1% Sales Tax Proposition. This is the third straight year of school funding cuts including mid-year cuts implemented when revenue projections fell short. If Proposition 100 fails at the ballot box FHUSD will need to cut $1.7 million.

One very important aspect of the budget not being publicized due to the over emphasis on the current cuts and September 18th is two November 2010 ballot measures to help solve the 2012 budget. The two measures are the state recovering voter protected funds from the "First Things First" Birth to Age 4 support funds ($380 million) and the State Land Conservation Fund ($120 million). These funds are presently part of the Legislative plan to solve the 2012 budget deficit that will most likely rival this year's shortfalls. Without these funds it is highly likely the state will again have to make mid-year cuts which creates major problems for schools.
By contract law school districts must provide a full-year contract for certified (teaching) staff that must be honored for the entire year. A $500 milliion shortfall does not allow school districts any options for cutting staff at mid-year to face likely further budget cuts. Most districts use 75-79% of their budgets based on personnel costs. It would be next to impossible for schools to make any substantial cuts in the event the legislature again sought to cut school funding due to revenue shortfalls.

In essence the Legislature's continued emphasis on gimmicks in place of restruturing a fundamentally flawed system overly based on consumption is leading them down a path toward a game of Russian Roulette. They have now let another session go by without any fundamental change in the tax system. They are now dependent upon the voters for Proposition 100 and the two November measures to save the 2012 budget. In the meantime, education and social services continue to carry the burden for a failure to lead and to act in time when real leadership is needed within a sustained bi-partisan effort.

May 18th Sales Tax and Education

Proposition 100 asks for a temporary 1% sales tax for the next 3 years affecting future local and state education, police and fire protection services. It will automatically repeal on May 31, 2013. It will devote 2/3 to generating revenues for "maintaining" present education funding and 1/3 to health and human services and public safety. We will place a FHUSD Proposition 100 "fact sheet" on our district website (www.fhusd.org) by March 30th and for distribution during a School Board budget workshop that same day (5:30 a.m.). We will also make these available at soon to be scheduled evening building meetings with staff and parents.

Regardless of the outcome for the Proposition 100 vote, all public school systems in the State of Arizona will see substantial cuts to their funding including full day Kindergarten funding and soft capital funds. Maintenance & operations funds will also be cut affecting programs, extracurricular activities and increasing class sizes. On March 30th we unveil a "Budget A" based on current Legislative cuts to education and a "Budget B" based on the unsuccessful passage of Proposition 100.

Since the 2008-2009 school year FHUSD has had the following budget reductions:
$294,000 - 2008-09
$370,000 - 2009-10
$952,000 - 2010-11 (Budget A)
$1,700,000 - 2010-11 (Budget B - Prop. 100 voted down)

We will continue to communicate information as needed through our website, building meetings, this blog and the media. I encourage you to call me directly (480)664-5010 or e-mail bmyhr@fhusd.org if you have any questions.