Newsletter

If you’ve been following the local news over the past few months it will come as no surprise that the school district is facing difficult budget decisions this year. The School Committee devoted much of its meeting time this fall to the budget situation, discussed it in a joint meeting with the Town Council, and held its first budget workshop in December to continue public information and dialogue. In short, the school district is facing a sizeable budget shortfall in 2005-06 (the next budget year) due to several factors:

· An additional million dollar contribution to the state’s retirement fund;

· An increase in budgeted charter school tuition of $725,000; and,

· Lingering effects from last year’s $1.2 million budget cut, including the use of undesignated funds to offset the reduction.

· The decreasing share of the budget supported by state aid, which has increased by only 1.7% since 2002-03 while property tax increases are capped.

While facing these budget issues, the district is also seeing its enrollment decline. The drop in the number of students will force the district to become more efficient in how it organizes itself, and these organizational issues arise in the budget discussion. The challenge before the district is to maintain South Kingstown’s high quality of education and student performance while becoming more efficient.

This article: (1) reviews the issues faced by the district; (2) outlines the process and timeline the School Committee will use; and, (3) asks for your feedback on several key points.

Issues Faced

A projection of the current budget into 2005-06 with the factors described above showed the district to face a possible budget shortfall of between two and four million dollars. Given that magnitude, it is essential that the schools not just roll the current budget forward, but look for significant ways to shrink the gap, including strategies that reduce the budget while maintaining educational quality. That means becoming more efficient.

A major topic of discussion in the budget meetings to date has been about student placement, particularly in elementary schools. The drop in enrollment (see related article) combined with our student assignment by neighborhood school, has made us both less efficient and equitable. For example, we currently fill 80% of the available seats in our elementary classrooms with an average class size of 20. However, this placement efficiency ranges from a low of 72% at South Road, our smallest elementary school, to 90% at Peace Dale, our largest. Similarly, while averaging 20, individual class sizes range from 12 to 27 and school averages from 18 to 23. This has caused the district to consider ways to address declining enrollment, placement efficiency, and class size equity. Among the options discussed are redistricting schools, spot redistricting (changing only selected students or areas), closing an elementary school, and combinations of these.

In the middle schools, these decisions are not so immediately pressing, but over the next three to four years, the structure of the middle schools will need to be changed. The one immediate middle school issue relates to next year’s sixth grade. Incoming sixth graders in 2004-05 were imbalanced between Broad Rock (150) and Curtis Corner (170). For that reason, BRMS has six sections while CCMS has seven. In 2005-06 there will again be 320 incoming sixth graders, but evenly split between the two schools, making the current organization ineffective. The primary option under consideration is to transfer 10 students to CCMS, supporting the current team alignment. In 2006-07 there will again be an even split based on current assignment, but with fewer students, allowing a configuration of six sections in each school.

A complete analysis of the organizational issues and options facing the district can be found on the district web site, skschools.net, in the publications section.

Unless the district is able to become more efficient, the obvious way to reduce the budget is to eliminate programs that are now in place. A preliminary list of those programs, what is called the “horror list” was part of the budget presentation made at School Committee meetings, and can also be found at the district web site under “2005-06 Budget Presentation.” The goal of the district is to avoid this list, because it will erode the quality of the education provided.

What Happens Now?

The School Committee has two budget workshops scheduled in January, the 12^th and the 18^th. Both begin at 7:00 in the High School Library, and are expected to be televised. At the meetings, the issues on which decisions must be made will be reviewed and the public will have an opportunity to provide comment and ask questions. The budget discussion will also continue at the the School Committee’s January meetings (the 11^th and 25^th), and the School Committee is scheduled to adopt a budget at its February 8 meeting.

After the School Committee adopts a budget, it goes to the Town Manager, who recommends a budget to the Town Council. The Town Council’s adopted budget goes before the voters at the annual Financial Town Meeting.

Your Feedback

The School Committee would like to hear from you to help it in making its difficult budget decisions. The survey questions in the box below are designed to focus attention on key issues. You can respond to the survey in one of two ways.

· Write your answers on paper and send it in. You can send it to school with your child in an envelope marked “Budget Survey,” drop it off at any school, or mail it to the district office at 153 School Street, Wakefield

· Email your response to sksurvey@mail.ri.net

South Kingstown’s work with the Institute for Learning now includes training for middle and high school teachers in Disciplinary Literacy. At first glance, the term Disciplinary Literacy would seem to refer to content reading. The work, however, goes far deeper. Teachers meet monthly by content area to discuss the big ideas and driving questions in their subject and then focus on the best ways to enable all students to inquire, investigate, think, read, write, talk and learn in that discipline. They meet to discuss what it means to be a historian or a scientist and how that mindset can be conveyed to students in the classroom setting. For teachers Disciplinary Literacy provides a focus on instruction that will enable all students to engage in rigorous work.

For students Disciplinary Literacy expands learning. The model, called learning on the diagonal, refers to the need for all learners to develop knowledge in two dimensions. The first is the focus on what students need to know in a discipline – the core concepts. The second provides students with ways to investigate, reason, communicate, and problem solve. Learning on the diagonal might look different in different classes. For example, in a social studies class, the teacher might discuss what it means to be an American and how this identity has changed and evolved throughout our history. Students then would begin to “unpack” these ideas and examine a wide range of sources to support or refute a historical argument. In math, teachers would examine ways in which students would learn to make sense of mathematics by applying and adapting a range of problem solving strategies. Students would then develop a toolkit of mathematical concepts and strategies upon which to draw. In science students will think and act as scientists do. By establishing a learning community within the classroom, all students will share ideas, questions, data, arguments, and justifications. In English classes students will examine the link between reading and writing and how they reinforce one another.

Finally, Disciplinary Literacy impacts at the district level as well. To continue, we must provide both support and structure. Our partnership with the Institute for Learning meets those needs and has enriched teaching and learning in our district. It is the support that will enable our learning community to continue to improve.

Enrollment Projections

Our public schools are enrolling fewer students, and, if that trend continues, will return to enrollment levels of the mid 1990’s in two years. District enrollment peaked in 1999-2000 with 4385 students, and 4072 are currently enrolled.

The bulk of the decline in recent years has been in the elementary grades, which are down more than 250 students from the peak. The decline is now beginning to enter the middle schools, which will drop 250 students over the next five years.

The high school is just peaking now, and its enrollment will level off and then drop at the end of the decade. It will not lose 250 students until 2011. This year also saw a decline in pupils enrolled in private and parochial schools. Again, these are projections of current trends and, if the trends change, so will the enrollment projections. A report on district enrollments is available at skschools.net.

Test Results – Student Performance Continues to Improve

South Kingstown student test scores continued their rise in the 2004 results, however, a coding error affected one school’s and the district’s overall classification. Overall, the news was good for South Kingstown: five of the districts eight schools improved their classification, two remained High Performing, and one dropped due to the aforementioned coding error. District scores rose in each grade level in language arts and mathematics, as seen in the table below.

	ELA			Math
	2003	2004	Gain		2003	2004	Gain
Grade 4	76.0	79.9	3.9		54.0	63.8	9.8
Grade 8	57.5	67.6	10.1		52.9	60.0	7.1
Grade 11	61.1	67.7	6.6		50.8	60.0	9.2

In fourth grade, all schools and subgroups met state performance standards. Matunuck and Peace Dale moved from High Performing/Sustaining to High Performing/Improving because, while meeting the 2011 standard again, scores improved in both mathematics and ELA. South Road improved to High Performing/Improving because its mathematics scores also now exceed the 2011 standard and is now commensurate with that of other elementary schools in the district, all of which exceed the 2011 requirement. South Road and West Kingston were named Regents Commended Schools due to their improvement two years in a row. This is the first time South Kingstown has had commended schools.

In eighth grade, Curtis Corner is now High Performing and Improving. Broad Rock changed from High Performing/Improving to In Need of Improvement/Insufficient Progress due to a coding error unrelated to student test achievement. Several IEP students were coded as having the ELA test directions and questions read to them, even though only the directions were read to the students. As a result, the test scores were not counted for these students. This caused the school to fail to meet the ELA target for students with an IEP, changing the school’s and district’s classification.

In eleventh grade, the High School met the 2011 standard in ELA and Mathematics, and all subgroups met the ELA and Mathematics standards. The school was categorized as Moderately Performing/ Improving, a change from last year’s In Need of Improvement/Insufficient Progress.

To receive South Kingstown’s school and district report cards do any of the following -

* Go to www.ridoe.net * Call 792-9681 ext. 6 and ask that one be mailed to you

* Ask for a copy at any school * Put your name and address below and send it to any school for a copy to be mailed to you

NAME

ADDRESS

CCMS Principal Receives Award

Earlier this year the Rhode Island Association of School Principals named Curtis Corner Middle School Principal Michele Humbyrd Rhode Island’s Outstanding First Year Principal. Following nomination by the school district, her application was reviewed along with all others by the Principal’s Association. Site visits were conducted at the schools of the finalists, and, afterward, Principal Humbyrd received the award. Fittingly, the award came about just about the same time Curtis Corner Middle School was upgraded under the state’s school classification system to High Performing and Improving, the highest category.

Teachers Contract – Settlement Covers Through 2007-08

The new collective bargaining agreement between the School Committee and the teachers’ union (NEA/SK) was ratified by both parties on December 20. The agreement comes after nearly a year of negotiations and four months of mediation. Below are the main elements of the agreement. The School Committee believes that the contract settlement is a fair one that takes into account the interests of both the school district and the teachers. It provides fair compensation for teachers, savings in health care for the school district, and, most importantly, steps that provide for the district to move forward educationally.

There are two separate agreements:

A one year extension for 2004-05 with a 1.5% general wage increase.
A three year contract covering 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08.

The contract provides for expanded and redesigned professional development for teachers aligned with our implementation of the Principles of Learning and the Institute for Learning (see related article on Disciplinary Literacy), our effort to bring instructional consistency across schools and grades, and builds into the work year for teachers support for curriculum development and implementation.

The contract extends the school day for students so that we meet the extended school day requirements of the Board of Regents. All students in grades 1 through 12 will have 330 minutes of instructional time daily. In September, elementary students will see their school day increase by 20 minutes and middle school students by 12 minutes. The high school day will increase by 13 minutes in 2007-08. The contract also addresses changes associated with the Board of Regents regulations for high schools, most notably in the creation of a student advisory. The advisory will replace homeroom in September and will provide a system where every student is assigned a responsible adult who is knowledgeable about that student and tracks his or her progress.

As part of the contract settlement, teachers agreed to co share a portion of their health care premium as well as to make changes in plan coverage that will save the district additional health care expenses. The premium co share is based on the principle, also emerging in the private sector, that the greater your earnings, the greater share of the premium you pay. For that reason, the co share is set at 3% for starting teachers and rises to 6% for teachers at the top of the scale. Because most teachers are at the top of the scale, the effective net premium co share for the district is 5.4%. This is consistent with other teacher co shares throughout the state and with what the Governor has proposed and implemented for some state employees.

Health care changes will save the district over $200,000 in 2005-06 and increasing amounts in future years. Savings come from the premium co share and plan changes that reduce costs by 2.9% for Classic plans and 0.9% for Coast to Coast plans have an annualized savings of $62,757. The School Committee did not achieve its goal of eliminating exclusivity from the contract.

The general wage increase totals 12.75 percent over the four years covered by both agreements (1.5% in the extension, 3.75%, 3.75%, 3.75%), an average of just under 3.2% per year. The 1.5% in the extension year allows the school committee to work within its budget, including the $1.2 million reduction. The average increase over the life of the contract is commensurate with general wage increases given to teachers across the state. The School Committee believes that South Kingstown teachers should be paid a fair wage, competitive with other Rhode Island teachers, and the contract reflects that belief.

Additional details about the settlement are available at skschools.net, and as soon as the contract is complete you’ll be able to find it on the district’s web site - skschools.net.