City Council Probes School Board Over Fiscal Matters
At joint work session Wednesday night, council seeks answers to school system's money situation.
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“Show me the money” was as much a recurring theme as “just where did that money go” at the Wednesday night work session between City Council and the School Board.
The school system recently has been under fire for mismanagement of funds, and that permeated the discussion throughout the two-hour meeting at George Washington Middle School.
Councilman Frank Fannon questioned the efficacy of the school system possibly expanding its pre-kindergarten program when Alexandria City Public Schools already has financial and space constraints. The city currently has a wait list of about 95 4-year-olds for the pre-K program.
“Every time we turn around, there’s a new initiative that's happening,” he said, mentioning that he recently took seven teachers out to lunch to hear their concerns. Teachers want a focus on putting more things in the classroom and some basics rather than introducing new plans, according to Fannon. “There’s too many initiatives coming down. … I don’t have kids, and I’m not in special education. This is my global view,” he said.
Board Vice Chairwoman Helen Morris pointed out that there are no new initiatives in the proposed budget, but extensions of programs that began as part of a three-year plan.
Councilman Rob Krupicka came to the school system’s defense and explained that ACPS is playing catch-up to many other neighboring school districts. “Montgomery County has been doing things for years that Alexandria is trying to implement now” such as preschool and new curriculum, he said.
“If we don’t add to the list, we’re just implementing,” said Krupicka, acknowledging that implementation can be frustrating.
Fannon pointed out that 12 percent of Alexandria households have kids in the schools, but ACPS is 32 percent of the city’s budget.
“This council has to have confidence in how this money is being spent,” he said.
The participants also brought up the recently prickly issue of sheltered annuities given to senior-level ACPS staff.
“Some board members were not aware of these annuities,” Fannon said, adding that it’s a problem when the School Board “doesn’t know where the money is going and how it’s happening.”
The Education Association of Alexandria recently posted on its website senior ACPS staff salaries. The Freedom of Information Act request revealed that many of them receive sizeable annuities. For example, Deputy Superintendent Margaret Byess has an annual salary of $167,000 and receives a sheltered annuity of $20,000, according to the information posted.
School Board member Arthur Peabody said current budgets have received commendations from accredited bodies and the last audit conducted by a third party was “completely clean, no deficiencies. … I don’t think you’ll catch every glitch.”
However, Peabody did express concern with the salaries of the superintendent’s top staff. “We hold him responsible for how he runs the school system,” he said.
Fannon said the city had suffered from too many incidents of “rogue” city employees. “If a homeowner is writing us a check for $6,600 every year for a single family home and they don't have any kids, they want to know what they’re getting,” he said.
A statement from Superintendent Morton Sherman was read in his absence as he recovers from hip replacement surgery. In it, Sherman said he shares the frustration expressed by City Council. He expects a final audit report on the mismanaged budget next week, which will be shared with the board March 8 and released to the community March 9.
Tiffany S.
2:58 pm on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Maybe the Commonwealth Attorney should be a third party looking into how ACPS is spending city education dollars? And Mr. Krupicka would benefit from spending a few days within all of the schools in ACPS and talking to teachers on every level before going out on a limb in defense of the "catching up" of ACPS.
Rob Krupicka
4:48 pm on Thursday, March 1, 2012
This story twisted a few things together. The school CIP issue is a serious one that still needs to be resolved. And the school board has to manage its fiscal transparency as does the Council. But I am in city schools every week. I interact with schools and teachers all over the state monthly. Alexandria should be proud of its strong teachers. There are also places we can improve. Curriculum, early childhood education, special ed, the tools (like student data) we give our teachers to help them do their jobs, having more ESL certified teachers, etc. I could go on. It is a lot of work. The way we used to do things was not producing the results for all kids that they deserve. And because of great teachers we are seeing signs of progress throughout the system with improved student achievement. I know not everything is perfect. As a parent, I have criticisms of the speed and way changes have occurred. I also know it took Montgomery County ten years to implement the changes that made it one of the best systems in the Country. Arlington has seen huge improvements in achievement gaps after years of work. Mr. Fannon advocates school budget cuts, against teacher pay and pre-k spending every year. I'm proud our teachers are amongst the best paid in the region and that we are working to give them the tools and support they need. I'm confident pre-k is a proven tool to help kids succeed. I'm happy to talk more: Rob.Krupicka@alexandriava.gov
Janet Karls
8:14 pm on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Mr. Krupicka is right, the CIP issue is serious but it is only one of the many serious issues which must be addressed immediately so citizens of our city can have confidence in CIty leadership. Alexandria has been changing, and then changing, and then changing again the way they have been doing things in the schools. That has just been in the last few years since the new Superintendent took the reigns. Mr. Krupicka, what have been the results? Which of the various changes have produced those results? Using a tool you cited, student data (by that you are most likely referring the snapshot results on standardized testing) what is the state of affairs for our school district? Do these results support the significant spending in administration for a school district of our size? Regardless of whether you are for this or that initiative, pushing more and more money into a school system which now has a history of questionable finances is just not good policy.
Rob Krupicka
7:46 am on Friday, March 2, 2012
Janet -- good student data is a lot less about standardized tests than it is about tracking and analyzing the evaluations teachers do every day to monitor the progress of their students. Alexandria does not have systems to do this as well as we should, but it is under development and I'd argue very needed as I've seen other districts do great things with smart use of data. That said, we are seeing math scores go up. We are seeing higher participation in advanced math classes and Advanced Placement tests. Those are positive signs. And I expect more with the new curriculum. And I'm also hearing great things about the progress in the middle schools. School reforms take time to do well. It isn't reasonable to expect all things to change overnight. Teachers need time and support to learn and implement the new systems. The good news is the schools are focusing on implementing their plans instead of adding new programs. That is how it should be for a while now. We have to do the hard day to day work that makes a difference. Costs per student have come down over the last few years. Most of the money the schools gets pays for teachers and small class sizes. I think those investments will pay off for the students. And the community will gain as our schools are recognized as regional leaders.
Priscilla Z. Goodwin
10:41 am on Friday, March 2, 2012
I agree with everything Rob said and will only add that due to the leadership of Principal Suzanne Maxey, a lot of hard hard work by TC staff, with the support of the superintendent and school board, in one year TC's test scores went from the bottom 5% of the state to the top 50% of the state.
John Stils
8:25 pm on Friday, March 2, 2012
Mr. Krupicka, there are a few items in your post which should be addressed. First, I believe you have been misinformed about the "progress" in Alexandria's schools. While math scores and student enrollment in specific courses have increased, other subject areas in the district have suffered. Reading, writing, and history scores across the district have decreased. Science scores have been flat. Since you mentioned hearing "great things about the progress in the middle schools," let's examine that "progress." GW1: declines in reading, writing, history, and science scores. GW2: declines in reading, history, and science scores. Switch over the the West side and the "progress" is even more troubling. Hammond: decline in reading, math (66% pass rate), writing, and history scores. Hammond2: decline in writing, history, science, and math (64% pass rate) scores. Hammond3: decline in science, math (65% pass rate), writing, and history scores. The Superintendent said a while back that the school system would be judged based on the performance of schools like Jefferson Houston. Jefferson Houston pass rates: English 67%, Math 62%, Science 51%, Writing 51%, History 38%. Second, the new "curriculum" rolled out in ACPS is a retooling of the Virginia SOLs. It is a mix of the old pacing guide and Bloom's Taxonomy. Third, most of the budget pays for salaries, not teachers. This includes huge administrative salaries for the size of the district. This is not regional leadership.
jojo
9:07 am on Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Someone needs to explain why administrative salaries are so high in a city that is cutting days and salaries for rank-and-file employees.
Mort Shares our frustration...except when it comes to salary. His car allowance is almost half a starting teacher's paycheck. Pay for a car out of your own huge salary, jerk.