Board of Education

Thank you for following our live blog of the June Board of Education Meeting for Atlanta Public Schools.

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The meeting will begin soon.

2:10 – Meeting called to order

PRESENTATIONS:

Chuck Burbridge, CFO
We have revised our estimate of revenues which shows an increase in our ending balance to 70.5M.  On a monthly basis we’ve been seeing strength in property taxes, which includes tax on automobiles.  We mentioned earlier in the year that there were changes in how we taxed autos in GA.  Starting in May we’ve seen strength in the auto tax as well as regular property tax. There is also strength in the real-estate transfer tax as properties are selling.  We raised the estimate of revenue slightly because of this.  We still have activity in July and we will close the books in August.  The risk on the revenue side is upward and we think there may be another 2M out there.

Note: Slide currently projected on screen shows FY13 July Forecast for change in fund balance at ($10.4).

Click here for the financial forecast presentation

Larry Hoskins, COO
Mr. Hoskins will give a SPLOST IV presentation today.

Click here for the SPLOST IV presentation 

To date, under SPLOST IV, APS has collected $73.2M which is 94.5% of projected receipts.

Mary Lin ES: Construction status is contingent upon a four party (COA, APS, GDOT & Freedom Park Conservancy) easement agreement.  This conversation has been taking place for 3 months.  Until we are able to come to an agreement, our permitting is being help up until an agreement is reached.  Architect selection for Young, Long and Brown will be done in the next 60-90 days.  Next step for Bunche Middle is construction management selection.  Construction will begin winter of 2013.  Inman MS relief project, we are still exploring different options and we hope to get that position to the board as soon as possible.

Status of Kennedy & Parks is TBD.  Sutton MS is being relocated this summer to the current NAHS and additional furniture is needed for increase in population. That project will be finished in next 2 weeks.

Note: Next slide shows new building image for proposed new Mary Lin ES building.  Next up is a high level mark up of Sylvan Hills MS.  Mock up of Rivers ES  & Spark ES are next new building images shown in presentation.

Q&A:

Butler-Burks: I am concerned that there are some projects below the red line that were a part of SPLOST III.

Hoskins: Absolutely, we are aware that there are things that need to be done to these schools, sub-systems and upgrades and those will move forward under a different area of SPLOST funding for upgrading.

Muhammad: I don’t see anything in here (presentation) about the Hope-Hill playground.  I don’t know if that is going to fall under SPLOST.

Hoskins: Our challenge with a playground for Hope-Hill is that we don’t have the land currently adjacent or around that particular building to construct a playground.  We’ve been in conversation with the city about land they own behind the school and we are hopeful that the Commissioner of Parks&Recs will allow us to use an identified piece of land.  To the funding piece, the funding for the playground, although it is not identified in the grand scheme of things, its a smaller amount of money and we would look to fund that by partnering with partners such as KaBoom.

Muhammad:  Is that something we are trying to address during this year?

Hoskins: We actually started to address it with the conversations with the city this past year.

Muhammad: Do we have a timeline? It has been going on for quite some time.

Hoskins: We can only move as fast as the people that own the land.  We are very aggressive with this and the city shares our concern.  I am hopeful that we will be able to work this out in the coming months.

Muhammand:  And another is the old Howard building. It has been sitting there forever and never seems to get on this list.  Can we expect that we will do something with the old Howard building?

Hoskins: As you know the Howard building is one of several sites being considered for relief for Inman Middle School.  If Howard is the site for Inman’s relief, then the building will be taken care of at that time.  If we decide Howard will not be the site, then we are planning to do some demolition and bring that building down.  As you are aware there is some historical significance as it relates to that building and we are in conversations with the appropriate people and as we get further down the line we will come back to the BOE with recommendations on that particular site.  It is in here (presentation) indirectly, under Inman relief.  But if we move in a different direction, then we would be looking at demoing the structure.

Muhammad:  Because of the building being a historic one, I hope there would be some conversations about using that building in case it is not used as an Inman relief site.

Kinnane:  You’re not really saying that we would demo the entire Howard site?

Supt. Davis: We’re saying we would not leave it there in its present condition.

Kinnane:  The question is, the timing.  We started out saying that a solution for Inman would be found in the year that has ended and implemented in the upcoming year and nothing has changed with the dire situation of overcrowding.

Davis: We certainly recognize that.  The entire leadership team met half the day on Friday and we are waiting to have one more meeting.  We should be ready to go with a recommendation after the next meeting.

Kinnane: The next question, in regards to Mary Lin, we are still expecting that to move forward within a short time?  From the timing of going forward with the project?

Hoskins: We are still planning on moving forward this summer, but permitting is contingent upon the easement that is necessary.  We are meeting with the players again and are hopeful that we will be able to document the agreement.

Kinnane: When you talked about the 95% of the projected 80%…

Hoskins: We actually estimated, based on our history, we estimated that we would receive 80% of the authorization.  We are on target, realizing 95% of the 80%.  If you compare what we are receiving now to a year ago, it appears that we are slightly above.  It appears that the economy is turning around.

Meister: Can you explain our obligation with WPBA.

Hoskins: WPBA, the APS does own the radio and television station and AETC is hired by the district to manage the operations.  It is a district resource.  Prior to the last negotiation with AETC we made agreements for upgrades to the facility.

Meister: It is my understanding that the field house at E.Rivers is remaining?

Hoskins: Yes

Meister: And the gym?

Hoskins: We cannot save any of the existing structures because of structural issues we are now encountering.

Amos: Around Brown, Kennedy and Parks, not knowing the level of planning so far – let’s make sure we have a fully laid out plan moving forward that this money is put to best use.

Muhammad:  I’d like to go back to King MS.  It looks like $6M is allocated for the pool renovation.  I thought we were not using the pool?

Hoskins:  This allocation was to be used to bring the pool back up to the level where it can be utilized.  I know some things have changed and we will have some internal conversations around whether that is what we want to do.  At the time this list was put together that was something we wanted to do.  It is my understanding that our kids are using the pool as well.

Muhammad: I thought it was under the recreation dept. for the city.

Hoskins:  They do use the pool, but the pool is able to be used by our students as well.

Muhammad: We have a swim instructor?

Butler-Burks: The city did pay quite a bit of money to get the pool back up to specifications and the city does provide swim instruction to students everyday as a part of their PE classes.  There are swim lessons daily provided by licensed instructors with the city.

Muhammad:  Thank you for sharing that.

Kinnane asks about the upgrade to athletic fields.

Hoskins: That work is under a separate category of SPLOST funding.  The construction and renovation category of our SPLOST plan is the only one receiving funding at this particular time, due to the way the money comes in from a cash flow perspective.  Over the course of the next year as that money starts to come in, we will start prorating portions to other parts of the SPLOST.  Then we will move forward with work at athletic fields.

END OF PRESENTATIONS

Consent Agenda

2.01

THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORTS:

At the June 5, 2013 meeting of the board’s policy review committee, the committee recommended to the board a revision to policy DC for its consideration. The revision changes the legal level of control of the budget.

Since the revision was accepted for first reading, members of the policy review committee considered comparative research regarding peer school district policies and the preference of the administration. Changes to the recommended policy revisions are noted in red and yellow. These changes clarify the policy language; set the threshold for board approval of budget transfers at five (5) percent of a division’s total budget or $1 million, whichever is less; and provide for emergency budget transfers.

RECOMMENDATION:

The policy review committee recommends that the board accept the revision to policy DC for final approval.

REASON:

To require board approval for transfers of appropriations between divisions and within division budgets with certain limits.

Butler Burks: I’m just seeing 5% for the first time.  I’m trying to figure out who gave the authority of who gave the ok to change it from 2% to 5%.

YJohnson: (response inaudible)

English: (question inaudible)

Davis: 2% to some divisions is like $100k.  When we are trying to balance budgets or take emergency action, one example was last year with walk zones, we had to immediately spend $1.9M and we made that decision in response to the board and we had no idea where we would find the money and it took us a while to work thru that.

Kinnane: Back to the 2 or 5%, this is coming for final approval.  You’re saying they went back and looked at other systems, that’s why it went from 2 to 5?

YJohnson:  It was my understanding that these are just placeholders and we wanted to get something on the table.  It is my understanding that even at the end of the last budget commission meeting that conversations have been being held and when you combine with what has been presented and best practices (sent to us via email)…for instance some districts have 10% of the budget…given some concerns that our meetings are not transactional…we asked them to do the background work, bring back this to us and then we would present to this Board.  They are bringing it to have a conversation here.

Davis:  This has no impact on the larger budgets like C&I or Operations.  What it means is that you get a $100k expenditure to look at on our smaller budgets.

Muhammad:  It sounds like Ms. Johnson, your thought is that it would come to the board for a discussion.  But this is a final read, ready for us to vote, but it sounds like there seem to be questions around this.

YJohnson:  There was always concern raised to even bring it to the policy committee.  I also understand that we want to complete this process as quickly as possible. At the policy committee we wanted to fast-track this with an understanding that all the other work would be done in-between.

Muhammad:  And how was that work supposed be done in-between?

YJohnson:  Yes, there was an owner, Dr. Grant is  the owner.  We changed the policy last year.

Butler-Burks: The other districts we looked at, not knowing how there budgets are broken down…5% in one district may be 2% in ours.  But for reading something that happened to be in a folder today, I’m not sure how many people would have recognized that this number was changed from the last time today.  This is not the number that was there at 9:00 this morning.  At some point I’m not sure how it would be communicated.

YJohnson:  I thought it was being communicated now.

McDaniel: In the policy committee meeting  we decided to have that conversation here. (remainder of conversation inaudible)

Butler-Burks: Or we can take it back to where it was at 2%, then take it back to the policy committee.  Everyone who last saw it, it was at 2%.  I’m recommending that we approve 2%, unless there is some information now that we compare ourselves to other districts.

Davis: We can give you more information, but I do want to remind you that the million dollar number is still in effect.

YJohnson: I was wondering if people had a chance to see this summary.  I don’t know if we asked them to do anything other than provide what is best practices.  To give us the landscape.  It looks like at 5% we are in the middle. Marietta/Dekalb/Paulding are at 10%.

Muhammad: Ms. Johnson, you mentioned a couple of times that you thought those conversations were being had…who are those people with which the conversations….

YJohnson: The 2% was thrown out, whether this makes sense for our district.  Then best practices, then determine what our meetings would look like.  It was always my understanding that staff, leadership, with Dr. Grant would be presented to us.  I don’t want to put Dr. Grant on the spot and its my understanding that they have been doing the behind the scenes to come up with those conversation pieces today.

Muhammad:  Was there a presentation at the committee of the whole?

McDaniel: Typically we would have, but we are trying to expedite this.  We wanted this decision made by the July 1 meeting (in line with the budget cycle), which is why we are having this conversation today.

2.02

THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORTS:

Monetary savings can be realized with the settlement of this workers’ compensation claim versus ongoing workers’ compensation costs.

2.03

THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORTS:

Personnel Actions (Gains, Losses, Promotions, Appointments, Creations, Reclassifications and Abolishments)

Butler-Burks: As has been reported back to me by community members who served on the panel, that the process (principal appointments) were conducted differently in the past.  I wanted to officially, go on the record to say, that I have received concerns and expressed concerns to the administration as they have been expressed to me.

Davis:  I do want to respond, in terms of not receiving a call.  We have had that problem in the past.  As we look at the process, those posting to board docs are not the same as those making the call and we have now changed to process so that HR is now making the contact instead of C&I.

Muhmmad:  You say you’ve changed the process…

Davis:  The process is now that they (appointments) will be posted to Board documents by HR and they will contact the board member.  What was happening in the past is that C&I was notifying to board member, but C&I doesn’t require when it gets posted on board docs and the coordination has not worked to the satisfaction of anyone.  Moving forward, HR will take responsibility at a senior level.

Muhammad:  Are you saying before the position is posted or before the person is offered the position?  Or the board member will be notified….

Davis:  The board will be informed before the person is identified on board docs.

Muhammad:  I’ve never really heard until after a person has been selected.

Davis:  Yes, the person will be selected, brought forward in gains and losses.  What we’ve tried to do is as a courtesy, notify board members before it is posted online to board docs.  Now we want one entity to post it and make the notification in advance.

Robust conversation continues about principal selection process.  Final decision is that BOE will conduct a work session surrounding the process of using community panels in these selections.

3.o1

THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORTS:

The School Detectives Unit is an official specialized unit within the City of Atlanta Police Department with the primary responsibility of addressing public safety issues at APS middle schools, high schools and other property owned by the district. Officers work with Atlanta Public Schools Security personnel and community agencies individually and cooperatively, in the detection and elimination of unlawful, or harmful conditions, traffic hazards, or other conditions which could endanger the safety and welfare of students and staff. These services are provided on a contract basis by the Atlanta Police Department School Detectives Section with a force comprised of 1 major, 1 lieutenant, 7 sergeants, 5 investigators and 59 officers.The  Atlanta Police Department has primary jurisdiction in the city of Atlanta and is therefore considered a single source.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the superintendent be authorized to enter into an agreement with the city of Atlanta to provide physical security, investigative and twenty-four hour alarm response services. This agreement shall be for one (1) year with four (4) one-year available options to be exercised at the discretion of the superintendent

REASON:

To provide security support services.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:

The estimated annual cost of this agreement is $5,558,457.

FUNDING SOURCE:

Funds are available in general fund account number 100-6520-5950.

Muhammad:  I am so pleased to see this. What is the policy around when we approved an in-house police department or our unit within APS…I would like to revisit that or see the policy around that.  I would like to see the policy around this from this board or the board before or before that.

Davis: There are going to be full time APD officers instead of the part-time SRO.

Hoskins: In the early 90’s is when the board authorized an internal police force within the district.  The regulatory or governing post organization which oversees law enforcement, recognized APS as an official policing body as well. Officers are post certified and have arrest powers.

3.02

THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORTS:

The board authorized the superintendent to enter into an agreement with the city of Atlanta to provide security support services in June 2012.  The original action item (Report No. 11/12-1163) authorized expenditures of $1,657,590.  Eight additional officers were negotiated and assigned to the unit, effective July 1, 2012.  Costs associated with the service increased based on the addition of the eight (8) officers and the fluctuation in per officer compensation rates; associated with officers rotating in and out of the School Detective Unit; therefore the additional cost of adding eight additional officers and the fluctuation of per officer salaries caused an increase that exceeded the budgeted allocation for the FY 13 by $133,000.  The district requests that the board ratify prior purchases of $133,000.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the Atlanta Board of Education amend Report No. 11/12-1163 to ratify excess expenditures of $133,000 in FY 13.

REASON:

To provide security support services

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:

The total annual cost of this agreement shall not exceed $1,790,590.

FUNDING SOURCE:

Funds are available in general fund account number 100-6520-5950.

Kinnane: Does that mean that the officers that are now part-time, going forward, they will be full time status?

Davis: This will be phased in over time.  We have developed protocols around the selection of the officers.  They will not be pulled out, lets say the Vice President comes to town, they will not be pulled out of our schools.  Those who are employed by us now may or may not continue as we use part time officers.

3.03

THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORTS:

The Atlanta Board of Education Policy JBCBA provides that children who are non-residents may attend Atlanta Public Schools upon the payment of tuition provided that a non-resident student does not displace resident student.  The per pupil tuition rates recommended for the 2013-2014 school year are:

General Education:  $10,228

Special Education:  $14,069 plus costs for additional services based on individual needs

Evening High School:  $755 per class (Non-resident), $196 per class (Resident over age 21), Free (Resident aged 16-21)

These rates reflect the current year estimated local cost per student.

RECOMMENDATION:

The board should approve the recommended tuition rates for 2013-2014.

REASON:

This offsets the cost of out-of-district students who attend Atlanta Public Schools

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:

N/A

FUNDING SOURCE:

N/A

Click here to view the remainder of tonight’s consent agenda.

Conversation currently taking place around Board resolution requesting class size exemptions for 2013-2014.

Superintendent asks that teacher allocations be used to address areas/schools with the most need.

YJohnson: My motion is that we adopt the resolution that allows for +5 waiver and allows superintendent to make recommendations for allocations needed.

Seconded by Mr. Johnson.

Kinnane: Mr. Davis I think the frustration about this whole discussion is that (inaudible)

Davis:  Educational logic was given to you for the first 14 teachers added, then 26 teachers added.  No explanation given for the 40.  For every teacher (before the 40) that was added, there was logic for that.  I’ve put forth a long list of ugly decisions to be made to make these (the 40) to make this affordable.  Those were not accepted (by the board).  If you want them, you have to pay for them.  We cannot continue kicking the can down the road.  If we had made the tough decisions you would have all the money you could have needed and less concern and stress.  If you want to argue whether it should be literacy vs math, then we will bring in experts with data to help us reach the decision on where these teachers should be allocated.

Butler-Burks: At the budget meeting prior to the one where we went thru every single school….I’m not sure based on all the conversations anyone would have thought that we were looking at anything other than adding teachers.  We asked about needing additional dollars and asked the administration to find dollars for those teachers. I just want to be clear, in everything we have ever asked for cuts for, it was for teachers.  We only discussed teachers and class sizes in the budget commission meetings.

Davis:  I’m not sure about the sequence there…I think we were always struggling with numbers/cuts for past requests, not in advance.  It was not in advance, it was after the fact.

Butler-Burks: We had come to a final teacher number before you came to the 1.3M.  We had already gotten to the number of teachers before we got to the 1.3M.  What I don’t want is you putting information out that we were not seeking to add teachers.

Davis: First time we heard 40 was in that meeting.  Every time we put the budget into balance, you brought it out of balance.

More discussion taking place on class size allocation and clarification of motion currently on the floor.

Burks: Do we have anything that shows what the average class size would be at +4?

Davis:  It won’t change anything at the high school level b/c that caps at +3.  Changes would be at MS and ES by adding about 45 teachers into those two groups.

Burks: I’m asking, based on the other two options on the table, what does it look like at +4?

Davis:  The 40 were allocated to achieve that objective, the 40 would now be allocated to achieve an educational objective.  In terms of going to +4, to do those calculations will take a little longer than 5 minutes.

McDaniel:  I would like to take a break so that Mr.Davis can do that math before we take a vote.

5:25

McDaniel updates group on Superintendent Search committee work. Members have received summary of community meetings with goal of having search committee present a profile today.  Committee unfortunately is not prepared to do so today.

Board is now in Executive Session.

6:39pm

Community meeting is now beginning.

First two speakers speak in favor the of the international exchange program.  Learn more about their cause here: https://www.change.org/petitions/aps-superintendent-davis-please-allow-international-exchange-students-into-grady-hs-and-all-aps-schools?utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Speaker: Washington Early College student currently speaking – I notice that you are trying to get rid of all of the schools by the middle of next school year.  It is forcing us to make decisions on what school to go to.  Please let my class finish out, don’t just get rid of the school.  I’m only a sophomore and I’ve already gone to college this summer.  (Learn more about the Move On When Ready program available to all APS high school students http://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/CTAE/Documents/CollegeCreditNow-DE.pdf)

Next speaker speaks about Grady High School overcrowding and the fraudulent address issue.  Says that as you expand Lin, Centennial and others Grady becomes even more overcrowded.  Asks that the district solve the overcrowding issue soon.

Speaker: I wanted to come up and briefly thank you all for the work that went into the budget passed last Thursday.  In the end, we didn’t get everything we wanted but I do think the budget moved us towards the goal we wanted.  Ms. Butler-Burks did an impressive job of leading the budget commission.  I think we are going to really miss your service next year and I want to say think you.

Next, a Washington High School parent express concern over the school continuing to operate as 3 separate schools.  He is followed by a Washington High School teacher who asks the Board of Education to make a decision about whether the campus will be 3 schools or 1 school next year.  Says that the uncertainty is causing a lot of tension with the school.  Asks that it is not done in January, please do it in August, whenever if the board decides to move towards one school.

Speaker:  Good evening, I’ve been a teacher for 9 years, 7 in small schools.  I am a believer in small schools.  Last school year was my first year at Washington and I had the privilege of working with a principal whose leadership fostered student success.  The back and forth conversation between small schools vs comprehensive schools has created an environment of limbo.  Any attempt to change the school for this August, would be rushed and not beneficial.  We all want a win-win for our students and teachers.  The conversation does need to begin now so that we can come up with fair and equitable solutions.  The discourse needs to move from being emotional to strategic.

West-End neighbor who lives near Brown Middle school  expresses concern about the area.  Speaks on behalf of the “Kids First” organization.  A second Kids First member says thank you for making the decision to close Kennedy Middle School. Asks for “radical movement” and ongoing “high maintenance.”

Speaker:  I love young people and the possibilities that exist with them.  It disturbs me when I look thru their eyes and I see the emptiness from not having a positive influence at school.  The one place where we can make a serious impact is in the schools.  It’s a simple formula.  When a child comes from school excited, not only in elementary but middle and high school, parents will say “I need to check that out.”  Instead what they are being confronted with is suspensions, children behind…if that’s the first experience with the school, that’s a tough wall to climb.  We are having a tough time with the suspension rates, especially among black children.   What do kids do when they are suspended from school?  They hang around the school until school is out.

Harper-Archer advocate and partner thanks APS administrators and Board member Burks for their support of students in the Collier Heights area.

Washington High School orchestra teacher, new to the school, says that the small school model was not conducive to learning.  Washington lacked resources to educate the students, so he found outside partners to help him.

Speaker: As we listened to a 3 hour conversation about class size, I know that in 2009 before Davis got here, the demographic study started.  I sat in on meetings and listened to parents talk about why they didn’t want to attend certain schools with certain students.  The rest of the students will be ok when we take care of the least of these.

Speaker: Booker T. Washington High School,, now known as the rumble in the jungle.  It equals failing schools, 2 out of 3 with early college only earning a B on the recent report card. Every stakeholder has a vested interest in individual students but it is your job to have a vested interest in all students.  How do we have top ranking students who can’t score a 1500 on the SAT?  Everyone wants their child to be top ranking, but what good is top ranking when you can’t compete with other students throughout the nation?

Next speaker also talks about bringing the exchange program back to the district.

Atlanta Classical Academy spokesperson speaks to the BOE and expresses his desire to partner with APS and continue to approve their application.  Thanks district for thoughtful feedback on their application.

Speaker:  Out of 80 students, 60 are reading below level (Washington High).  I’ve offered to buy locks for the archives at Washington and the principal told me “we got it.”  I love that school.  We don’t have bad kids, we’ve got bored kids and we just need to give them something to do.

Speaker:  I am here with questions and concerns.  As you can see the question of small schools vs one school is volatile.  Our concerns about rankings, scholarships, letters of recommendation…failure to make a decision is causing confusion.  Our students don’t know what they are going into and we need as parents to be secure in the decisions being made.

A second representative from Atlanta Classical Academy introduces members of their board.  The school would be open to all APS students with a transportation budget.  Based off of schools such as Ridgeview Classical, recently ranked 4th by U.S. News. Speaker thanks Ms. Meister for her support,along with the rest of the board.

Mays cluster parent speaks about the life changing experiences her children had in Japan due to the International Exchange Program.  Also reminds BOE that APS successfully educated students before small schools.

Speaker: I thank you all for all of the work that you do.  I am here in support of one principal, one school and small learning centers at Booker T. Washington High School.  I am really an advocate for educating all children, and what we’ve seen, the facts are in…we didn’t do good.  We are asking you…we’ve got to do a good job for everybody.  I appreciate the hard work you do, now dig in and do it a little harder.

End of Public Comment

7:38pm

The committee of the whole meeting will now continue.  First up is an update on the class size resolution.

Superintendent Davis explains possible reconfiguration of teacher allocations.  Note: This is a new handout.  We hope to have it posted to this blog by tomorrow morning.

YJohnson: My question relates to the budget, so either scenario works and is consistent?

Davis: Yes

Burks: Where do we know how many teachers each school would be losing?

Davis: You have on your sheet you were going to attach, the core teachers from February, whichever were at +5, you would compare to +4.

Burks:  For information and decision making purposes I think we would  need to know that.  This actually takes teachers away from the south side in comparison to where we had them.  I’m still looking at two single gender high schools that only offered (inaudible grade) one science class…

McDaniel:  If I look at BEST Academy…

Davis:  The High School there is no change at BEST

Burks:  But if you look at CSK

Davis:  There is no change in CSK with the last 40 you put in.  This chart shows just the disposition of the last 40.  NOthing was put into BEST or CSK.

Burks:  This takes away…

Davis:  I’m looking at the chart to be attached to the resolution and there is no change to BEST or CSK.  The changes are in the …

Burks:  BEST gains 2 teachers…

Davis:  But they didn’t come from the last 40.

Burks:  So can we use Douglass?

Davis:  The chart you’re looking at has 3 possible sources of change, the basic +5, the addition of the first 40 teachers and the addition of the last 40 teachers.  The only thing I’ve addressed here is what I would do with the last 40 and that does not impact Douglass, BEST or CSK.  Those schools are not impacted by the change in this 40.

Burks:  If this number here…

Davis:  Yes, that’s a total of 40…

Burks:  Give me an example of here and what it means from here.  The chart we’ve been looking at since Thursday.

McDaniel:  Look at M. Jackson.

Burks:  This sheet shows that Jackson would gain 4 teachers.

Davis:  Yes.

Burks:  And under this scenario they would gain 3?

Davis: Yes.

McDaniel explains the allocations for Jackson.

Burks:  So how do I tell the difference between looking at that sheet and this sheet?

Davis:  That sheet has not been integrated yet into this sheet.

Burks:  So where BEST would have gained 2, it’s not impacted at all.

McDaniel:  It still gains 2.

Davis:  BEST was slated to gain 2 under a +5 scenario and that won’t change under a +4 scenario.  Nothing was added in first group of teachers or second group of teachers.

Davis goes thru each allocation.

Davis:  This only addresses the 40 teachers added last week.

Burks:  How do we get something, a column that is not so confusing.  That shows overall if a school is gaining or losing.

Davis:  I can re-run this total sheet at a +5.  I couldn’t run it between meetings.

Burks:  My question is centered around bottom line, what are schools losing and what does class size look like.  If we are going to compare apples to apples…

Davis:  There will be nothing more than a one student change.

McDaniel:  Do we have the capability to do that tonight.

Finance submits a new spreadsheet. (applause for the district CFO)

Davis:  Avg class size before this change, ES, was 22.8 and it is now 22.8.  MS is now lower at 28.0.  Avg HS class was 27..6, avg is now higher but below 30 at 29.6.  None get to 34, some get close.

Burks:  So the high schools that were high are still high, like Mays.

Davis:  We might need to make an adjustment down from that.  The max for high schools, however is 35 with the +3.

Burks:  You have two that are mighty close.

Kinanne:  24/30/30 was to allow some extra resources in schools so they could free up and target other areas.  You’ve got to have the ability to work with manageable class sizes to do some of those things. So where are the exrtra 40.  I understand we have academic needs, but were we only looking at academic needs because we have some small class sizes….I think, if this was done, if we had said we can dedicate a certain number of teachers and we couldn’t get all schools down to a certain class sizes…this doesn’t seem like it’s doing that.

Davis:  This targets needs independent of class sizes with the understanding that the class sizes will not go above your waiver.  We did not take into account 24/30 or 30.

Kinnane:  We acknowledge that we don’t want any class in this district above a certain number on average, correct?

Davis:  We have taken the stance that we need to address the academic issues before we address class sizes.  What you have to find acceptable or not acceptable are those max class sizes.  If by definition our max planning is at +4, that’s where we would have to be as a max to start and any teachers you add takes down that number.  We have enough teachers now to do a +4 waiver and then have others to allocate.

Kinnane:  I don’t think that was ever separate from what we were trying to do.  Principals know where the deficits are in their schools.

Davis:  I think the only difference is that when you say they recognize their challenges and will address them, all we’re saying is that we’re giving them more resources to address those challenges.

Kinnane:  We could have situations that are really small or really large and could turn into academic problems.

Davis:  Going to a +4 for planning will force your number down, on average.  It will force everyone’s number down except HS’s because they are not impacted by +4 or +5.  If you look at the two-toned sheet, the +5 is the same as on this yellow sheet, however that would go up if you adopted a +4 instead of +5.  If you adopted a +4 we would be putting 32 teachers into elementary schools plus 5 more para’s and you can see where, by following the column on the sheet.

Burks:  I need help with my babies at Scott Elementary School.  They are one of the highest in free and reduced lunch.  I am trying to figure out how did we use the 3rd grade piece…I just look at this school, knowing what their needs are and they still have the second largest class size.

Davis:  When you did the planning, they were to earn __ teachers at +5.  When you did the extra,, that takes them to 15 vs 17.  But in terms of 355 kids that earns you 14 teachers.

Burks:  But they are losing 3.

Davis:  When we did the budget I explained that we had 16M worth of excess teachers.

Burks:  Did we only look at 3rd grad reading?  When it was first presented we were looking at math.

Davis:  The last 40 you just got, tries to address reading, with the assumption that I cannot address it everywhere.

Burks:  Are we allotting 2 teachers in MS for math?

Davis:  It depends on whether you have a teacher in column B, that teacher was designed to address math in 3rd, 6th and 9th grade.  Again we, in the second 40, in elementary school, we address reading.  In middle school we addressed math, but 6th grade math because we have big time math problems moving from MS to HS.

Burks: You said you looked at 6th grade math in the first and second group of teachers.  Does that mean you earn 2 teachers?

Davis:  A school could, if they need it, use the second allocation in math.

Burks:  Somebody help me understand.  If the first column is 3rd, 6th, 9th grade math and the second column is 6th grade math.  If I added up the columns all middle schools would earn 2 6th grade math teachers.

Davis: The only middle schools that got teachers under column B were BEST, Brown, Inman…there were 11 middle school teachers.  Not all of the teachers were in 3rd, 6th, 9th, some were for basic support, as is the case with Inman.  Some could be earned in support roles in the larger schools.  Column B contains a distribution of 24 teachers primarily based on 3rd, 6th and 9th grade math.  There are 14 in non-title schools.

Burks:  If either column, B or B2 is around 3rd, 6th, 9th grade math, Bunche MS would have a number in column B2.

Davis:  You are assuming that when we did column B we had tons more teachers. We had 26.  You’re allocating 26 teachers to over 70 sites.  B is based on 3rd/6th/9th, but we are only allocating 26 teachers.  That generally means only 26 schools.  Not all of the schools.

Burks:  We need to make sure in our talking points that the first allocation is not based on 3rd/6th/9th grade math.  We cannot say we allocated first set on 3/6/9 if we look at this sheet.

Davis:  When we ran the numbers for the 26, now 24, we did it based on 3rd/6th/9th math scores.

Burks:  Maybe what is missing is the math cutoff score.

Davis:  We obviously did it based on lowest scores first.

Burks:  That would help because we don’t have the score for the 24.

McDaniel:  All of that is reflected in this spreadsheet so the motion made by Ms. Johnson will have this sheet attached.

Burks:  Can I ask that we attach the 24 with their scores.

YJohnson:  Is that the administrations information we are attaching in terms of allocation.

Davis: Yes

English:  If we attach this and the allocations come back differently, which they will….

McDaniel:  This is a guide…

Davis:  We can come back with this sheet after the first 2-3 weeks and tell you what has happened.  We should have placed teachers by that time.  Then if there are shifts in the first weeks we can tell you that.  Then there will be minor shifts in October.

English:  I don’t want it to be a situation where we have teachers in front of empty classrooms and you have to come back to talk to us about moving them.

McDaniel:  There are 3 options.  Ms. Johnson has put a motion on the floor with the +5 waiver, with attachments to be used as guides to get to where teachers will be distributed, recognizing that there could be changes and that you would bring changes back to us.

Davis:  What you should expect to see is column see, what we planned to allocate vs what the actual allocation was.

McDaniel: If this passes, we move forward.  If it fails, we have two other options we will take up.

Davis explains that on top of these teachers, there will also be Title teachers.

Davis:  There will be controls as well, 32 schools we are looking at and see whether this kind of intervention, teachers putting in to do this type of intervention with high needs groups makes a difference.  There will be more teachers than you see here because there will be Title teachers at all but 6 schools.

Kinnane talks about unacceptably large class sizes. Davis reminds that size is defined in the waiver.

Burks:  Can we talk about +4

Davis:  If you went to +4, we would allocate the extra teachers differently because we have fewer teachers.

Motion carries.

Board now discussing second resolution on the budget.

Resolution passes.

Committee of the Whole has now ended. Legislative meeting will begin shortly.

Note:  Our Legislative Meetings are televised on Comcast channel 22. Please tune in beginning tomorrow to see the full broadcast.

9:00pm – Legislative Meeting now beginning.  Board Chair, Reuben McDaniel, gives opening remarks.

Good evening to everyone here and in our viewing audience. Thank you for joining us for the Atlanta Board of Education’s July 2013 legislative meeting.

Project GRAD

Let me start by congratulating the nearly 300 students who participated in the Project GRAD Summer Institute. The Project GRAD Summer Institute is different from APS’ summer academy that Superintendent Davis will summarize in a moment.

During the Project GRAD Summer Institute, students are exposed to the rigors and realities of college life by attending classes at one of seven local universities – including Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Emory, Georgia State and Morehouse. The summer experience allows students to satisfy part of the requirements for earning a Brumley-GRAD Scholarship when they graduate from high school.

We commend students, their teachers and our community partners for all of their hard work at the Project GRAD Summer Institute.

Summer Activity Across APS

Summer is actually a busy time for the school system. Taking place are summer school for students and professional development for employees. In addition, there’s planning for the upcoming school year. Of course, there are budget meetings and discussions. And I understand that community meetings are being planned to help determine the best use for schools that are no longer in use by the school district.

On behalf of my colleagues on the board, I’d like to commend the employees of Atlanta Public Schools for their efforts over the summer. We certainly appreciate your work all year round to take care of students and schools.

Enrollment/Registration and Open House

Lastly, I have two sets of dates that are important for parents to remember:

• First, July 8 through July 12^th is the period for parents to enroll their children in school for the 2014 school year. I know Superintendent Davis will go over the new process this year, but I want to reiterate that the school system now has a summer centralized enrollment and registration center, located at the Capitol View facility. We want to make sure every child is counted for school and ready to learn.

• Second, August 5^th is the day of the school system’s open house activities. The districtwide open house is another practice that is new this year. Every Atlanta public school will hold an open house on the same day at different times. We encourage parents and partners to check with their local school to find out the time that open house is taking place.

Again, thank you to everyone for joining us this evening. We look forward to a successful start to the school year. Now, we’ll hear from the superintendent.

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