Trying to Balance a Budget without Money

As I am sure everyone is aware, we are in the midst of very difficult times. We are trying to balance our budget with the help of our Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) and any other help that we can find. The fact is that we made “reasonable” reductions several years ago and are ONLY left with “unreasonable” options/reductions. NO one likes or supports what we are engaged with at this point. It does and will affect our primary mission with our students. However, in the midst of all this it gets pretty confusing and requires a clear understanding of accounting.

As part of our discussions, you will see on page 16 (and footnote 10 on pg 43) of our audit that we have a fund balance of $72 million. Remembering that accounting principles require us to show left over money in one year (fund balance) before it is used / budgeted in the subsequent year – can be confusing. In fact, we have often talked about “one-time” and federal stimulus funds – which more technically might be called “fund balance” or a portion thereof.

So as a result, we do NOT have $72 million available, since it is essentially spent in the current year and has been budgeted since this past spring for this school year. Or it is part of the state and federal requirements for reserves, etc. The point is that we do have almost $11 million that is in that fund balance that CAN (and we would recommend) be used to resolve our coming budget deficit in 2010-11. In fact, the BAC has been discussing this issue and will give it further consideration this week at their meeting.

We are looking at ALL resources, including our fund balance, to resolve our budget deficit that has been passed to us by those in Sacramento. However, even on our best day, we are well short of the mark and have NO choice but to affect every portion of our operations. As I said at the beginning and have stated before we do NOT like this situation but we cannot avoid making choices to keep this District solvent and maintain the trust and integrity with our community.

Amber Carrow -- California State Teacher of the Year

It was my immense pleasure to attend the STATE celebration of one of our great teachers, Amber Carrow (Chemawa Middle School), along with her principal, Sean Curtin and Riverside County Superintendent Kenn Young. As you know Amber is one of five California State Teacher of the Year honorees. She was honored in a State recognition last night in Sacramento along with the other four teachers. Supporting Amber were two of her colleagues, Michelle Birchak and Joanna Burgess from Chemawa (as I understand it a number of her other colleagues also wanted to be there). Of course, she was also supported by her family and friends.

When it was her opportunity (which was first) Amber gave a short speech regarding the jewels in the Jewelry Department at Nordstrom Department Store. I am working on getting a podcast set up with her speech and will produce it here when it becomes available. Until then I have included a few pictures of Amber and the event.

As Amber is recognized, we should understand that she is not just representing herself but her teaching colleagues from across the Riverside Unified School District. As one is recognized, many are recognized. Congratulations AMBER and thank you to the many teachers and staff members that make it happen every day for our students. Riverside should be proud.

California and Federal funding

California’s application Race to the Top (RTTT) is “in the mail” to Washington, D.C. – which is no surprise. For varied reasons, some districts have and some districts have not signed on to what, at this point, is an unclear but real commitment (i.e., a blank check on district obligations). While many of us would/do support reform of our public education system, I am not sure that RTTT has any promise to get it done.

It will be interesting to see the reaction of the feds to California’s RTTT application. On a national scale, I don’t hear California being mentioned as a likely recipient of RTTT funds – which actually makes sense. If the feds are watching they will see that California has used stimulus (ARRA) funds not to enhance things but to essentially “backfill” state deficits – the net effect being that ARRA has “bailed” the state out not local school districts, local communities, or local people. At the same time, there continues to be evidence that, by any measure, California has one of the lowest commitments of per student funding of any state in the nation (hardly a resounding statement of commitment to educational reform). The other part of this state discussion is already moved off to the 2nd round of RTTT funding (this spring?) – “maybe we will qualify for that.”

The Governor is in a tough spot. He is in his final months of office, and he has not been particularly successful at bringing disparate groups together for commonly supported solutions. Through an “accounting trick” the Governor is promising to “protect” educational funding while reducing the same funding by $250 per student ($11 million to us). What makes us think that we will even have an authentic, balanced 2010-11 budget BEFORE he leaves office as Governor? In a totally incongruous environment -- At the Gubernatorial appointed State Board of Education (SBE) meeting that is asking what “program improvement” school districts are doing to improve and reform the school system – local school district Superintendents are saying, “I am here today to report to SBE, but going home this afternoon to legally balance our budget and layoff staff.”

I don’t know about you, but as I look at all of this from a federal RTTT perspective, I wonder “how in the world” that we would ever expect the feds to make that kind of commitment and investment in California. I suspect that until we begin to show signs and take initiative in California of getting our own house in order, the feds will be slow to sign on to assist us.

The World In Which We Live is Different than the Last Century

I am most interested in the tragedy that has occurred in Haiti -- along with most of the rest of you. However, what I find incredible is how quick things occur and how "close" we have become on this planet. The tragic 7.0 earthquake occur ed in Haiti last Tuesday at 1:53 pm (PST). Within 40 minutes the first Wikipedia site and entry was up and running -- and the Internet was "telling the story." In the next 24 hours there were 800 additions or edits to that same story -- and I won't bore you with the huge number of page loads. As major electronic media outlets began to get the story and tried to report on it -- without reporters in the field -- they provided "unconfirmed reports" that were pictures provided on Twitter pics. As Americans and others were in Haiti and tried to communicate with their family and friends -- and the phones, etc. were out -- the medium of choice was Facebook. And inside 72 hours of the event, I had a Time magazine delivered via US Mail to my home that began telling the story from that perspective.

Amazing communication with incredible timeliness. The challenge for us, as we observe all of this, is to begin to think about our communication and timeliness in schools. Our business fundamentally is about communication of information and its timeliness. How do we change things so that we can provide the same type of connection to our students, constituents and the world? What is your view?

"Protection" of Education

The Governor has promised our "protection" at the beginning of this month in his annual address. For that we are thankful -- I think. Upon closer inspection of the actual budget proposal we see less money to the tune of about $250 per student. That adds up to a loss for us in RUSD of about $10 million. While those in Sacramento would argue this is not a cut -- they just took an one-time reduction and turned it into a reoccurring reduction -- from my perspective it sure feels like a substantial budget reduction that will directly effect our students. Additionally, they are prescribing a small "negative COLA" that results in a loss of another million or so -- "a million here a million there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." These effects move our RUSD current $37 million deficit for 2010-11 to close to a $50 million deficit.

I am not in Sacramento (thank goodness), but we need our Governor and Legislators to "get real" about the state budget and the economy of this state. My concern is both this current budget and what is happening to educational funding. But beyond all of that (which some could argue is self-serving), what is Sacramento's plan for our economy and economic health in a global marketplace. I feel no less concerned when others are sharing the same concern.

Giving $$ Away

As usual, a GREAT event Thursday night as our Riverside education foundation (REEF) gave away over $115,000 in the form of 143 teacher grants -- in less than 1 hour. In addition, there are opportunities for 2 of our teachers to apply for and participate in EarthWatch -- what a tremendous opportunity. On of our prior EarthWatch winners/participants is Amber Carrow who was named as this year's California Teacher of the Year.
As is usual our foundation and community as a whole has stepped forward in difficult times to make things great for our students. As Brian Jaramillo, REEF Vice President, said, "each grant is a seed -- and now we will watch it grow." Great job REEF! You can find them on the web at: http://www.riversideschoolsrule.org/

Mobile platforms in the 21st century learning environment

Frequently, I have people ask me -- what do you think schools will "look like" in the 21st century? The reality is that I don't know -- but I think we have possible clues and insights into some of the possibilities if we continue to be curious and look around.

Recently, I stumbled upon one example/view of one way it could "look." A Texas university, Abilene Christian University (ACU) has launched an initiative to integrate various tools into their learning environment. They have various kinds of information available on their website. However, they also have an interesting 17-18 minute video available that more or less follows the orientation of an incoming freshman to ACU -- if you can put the Apple commercial aside. They have also tried to articulate the changes and differences between the learning and environment with have known in the 20th century with that they anticipate and "see" in the 21st.

While I am not sure that the ACU solution applies to all of us, I can see many of our high schools (and even middle schools) in the future having interconnected systems and applications similar to those demonstrated at ACU.

So what is your best guess?

Shifting Decades

At the shift of the decade from the 00 series to the twenty 10 series, it is an interesting time to look at where we have come from (2000-2010) and project (guess) where we might be going to (2010-2020). Thinking back to 2000, we must realize that probably MOST, if not all, of our students can’t really remember the time before 2000. For those of us “of age,” I can remember 2000, but barely. Wasn't that when we were supposed to store up food and worry about our computers due to “Y2K” – remember? At the start of the 2000 decade we had:

• A total lack of what we now call NCLB, Standards, AYP, PI, and the associated alphabet soup.
• A cell phone that looked and sounded a lot more like a phone than a computer.
• After a “naming” controversy King HS was established and had a total student population of only 850 freshman and sophomores.
• We visited Twin Towers in NYC and there was no such thing as nine eleven.
• The music industry was concerned about a new Internet option available – Napster ...AND iPod and iTunes did not exist.
• There was no such thing as Promethean Boards in the classrooms of RUSD.
• Bill Clinton was the President and Grey Davis was the Governor of California.
• Budgeting was something that we did annually as a school district, but it was “no big deal.”
• There was a Presidential election and we had trouble determining who actually won – guess each chad (vote) counts.
• We did not have a Beatty, Lake Matthews, Kennedy, Rivera, and Twain Elementary Schools.
• What do you remember about the “last century?”

So what might the next decade (2010-2020) look like; specifically with education in mind? Well here are some of my “guesses”:

• “Computers” will be obsolete as they are entirely mobile. Similar to the existing “smart phones” and possibly the forth coming Apple “iTablet,” the Intelligent Papers device currently in use at Arlington High School or similar technology.
• In the classroom demonstration of competence would be the indication of completion not time present in the classroom (like semesters, years, etc.).
• I should be reviewing the last 10 years of our collective accomplishments and the outstanding performance of our students and School District, and considering what a potential retirement (career change) might look like.
• Textbooks of the paper variety and arguably print-based books of any type will be essentially gone or in serious retrograde. They will all be digitized but probably in ways and with tones that we haven’t thought of yet.
• I would see a modularization of secondary education where there are fewer and fewer students that are solely educated a single site but gain a collection of courses and instruction from multiple sources (some digital).
• Transparency of student data in secure sites/processes to parents. Parents will have and expect full access to their student's performance at all times and all circumstances.

So now you know MY guesses. What are your guesses?

State of the Budget

As you probably know, the Governor has released his January proposal for the state budget this past Friday. The process takes several steps which will next require a budgetary analysis by the Legislative Analyst Office (non-partisan) and then the Governor’s May Revise. The May Revise will then be acted on at some point by the Legislature in their version of the budget. So we have just begun the process.

Our Governor is a “lame duck” as he will be "termed out" this time next year. His proposal is certainly optimistic including the notion that he will “protect” us in education – sounds good to me. However, there is little sense that he will be able to deliver on his promise. First, he is counting on the feds bailing him and us out – not likely. Second, as we heard on Friday from Assemblyman Nestande and State Superintendent of Public Instruction O’Connell – we will not undergo any “mid-year” reductions per the Governor’s budget (the unstated issue is that it is predictable that we will have a 2010-11 reduction). Third, this budget is based on lots of assumptions – many of which we question already. Fourth, there are other people and agencies involved that will surely think that they should NOT suffer the full burden of reductions without the participation of public education.

The Press Enterprise had a germane set of articles on Saturday explaining their perspective on the Governor’s budget – first on the front page and then in the editorial section. Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee whom you may or may not agree with – but Dan has a 30 year longitudinal view of Sacramento and the Legislature – as he has been a columnist and observer that long. He had two relevant columns this week: one on the state of the California economy and a second on the budget proposal from the Governor – I believe both are instructive.

Bottomline, while we are faced with balancing the RUSD budget with all the known information – including no reductions from the state, we need to also prepare ourselves for the coming (though unstated) reduction in the spring and summer. Sorry for this news.

State of the State

Well the Governor has spoken – kinda’ – and he has said that education will be protected and will not take any more cuts. Good news on our parts. But wait a minute; already there are folks in the Sacramento halls and elsewhere saying that is a great idea but not a likely scenario. While I FULLY appreciate the effort and direction of the Governor, it will be tough at best – given the lack of resources. Bottomline, you can’t give what you don’t have. Our sources have been telling us for some time that the Governor’s budget (which should be released today) will not impact or have minimal impact on education – BUT that the May Revise, and realities in the spring and summer will be quite different. Longtime Sacramento political observer Dan Walters says that education will be protected in this budget – “when pigs fly.” We remain hopeful, but very cautious of what might be ahead.

On a different note it seems that Race to the Top legislation has been passed. It will be interesting to see how many districts actually sign the MOU – though from the Press Enterprise yesterday it seems more likely that even those that signed “intent” will be reluctant to move to the MOU. I do hear that Florida, Colorado, and now Louisiana are states that will be a shoo-in in this national process. I have not heard California being mentioned. Should be an interesting January.

So How Did It Go?

So here we are at the State Board of Education (SBE) at 9 a.m. as requested …on time and ready to go …but wait there are lots of other items on the agenda …and a room full of people. The “other” discussion is interesting. The parts that I find interesting are:

1. The statements and interaction of the State Board members
2. Lots of discussion about federal requirement and initiatives …and whether or how we as a state will comply with the situation
3. There was a clear discussion on the part of some of the members about poor performing or long-term lack of progress with some schools. The comments were about how we will “punish” (their word not mine) those schools.
4. Most interesting was essentially the debate over operating based on funding options or issues of principle.
5. A lengthy discussion about whether we do or don’t identify students from a racial, ethnic perspective. Overall the SBE balked, and does not want to go there with the feds.
6. We also heard about AMAO changes, API formula changes, etc.

Finally at 1:30 p.m. we get to our item #19, and the Board starts with a discussion of modified language for the Option #6 sanction proposal from CDE. At about 2:15 we presented our material, though interestingly we were never told of any time limitations until we arrived at this particular item. At that time, we were told that we had 5 minutes to present with questions following for the SBE. All seemed to go well and there was a good response from the SBE. After some others presented and more SBE discussion, there was a final decision of assigning “option #6” (which essentially equates to a mandated curriculum change) to RUSD. Of some interest SBE did assign some much more severe sanctions to other school district.

Again if you are interested in our full report, you can find it at our website or at: http://instructionalservices.rusd.k12.ca.us/rusd_state_board_report.htm