Thursday, November 17, 2011

Board launches 2012-13 budget process


The November meeting of the Board of Education launched the 2012-13 budget process. Assistant Superintendent Dan Carlin presented the latest enrollment projections, showing that the K-12 population is holding steady. In addition, Mr. Carlin reviewed what we know about fixed costs and reviewed the implications of the new tax cap, which limits school levy growth to 2% or the annual increase in the CPI, whichever is less. Certain expenditures are exempt from the cap, such as capital projects, and local communities may override the cap with 60% voter approval.  Mr. Carlin's presentation can be found here.

The Superintendent's budget will be presented at a workshop on February 4.

Board supports Middle School, encourages broader range of HS electives

At the November Board meeting, Superintendent David Quattrone summarized the results of two long-range planning workshops held this fall.  One question concerned the cost/benefit of consolidating schools: Would consolidating the district into two schools yield significant cost savings without impairing educational quality?

The Board has reached a consensus that the answer is no. The typical savings that come from a school consolidation -- closing a building -- do not apply in Bronxville.In addition, administrative savings would also be relatively small. Whatever the grade configuration, the District needs to have in place the leadership and management resources needed to fulfill the increasing demands of teacher supervision and evaluation, student development, and parent communication and involvement. The marginal savings accrued by consolidation would be offset by the negative impact on other goals and objectives.

In affirming the continuing value of programs and services aimed at the specific academic and developmental needs of early adolescents, the Board also reinforced the importance of using advisory programs and grade level teams to advance the social development goals established by the Board, including extending the Elementary Character Counts program to the Middle School years. With Middle School off the table as a possible budget reduction, the way is cleared for more attention to this kind of program improvement.  In the public commentary section of the Board meeting, BTA President and Middle School teacher David Katz thanked the Board for its support.

The Board also expressed interest in broadening and enriching the High School curriculum. Earlier in the fall Terry Barton, Principal, spoke about unmet interests and potential new courses, such as television production. At the November meeting David Brashear also cited the absence of computer science and programming courses, and Denise Tormey expressed her hope that any new electives would benefit the maximum number of students. Mr. Barton will present the 2012-13 Course of Study Guide for review at the December meeting.

Update on Curriculum and Assessment

State requirements will bring higher academic standards and a new generation of standardized assessments to Bronxville. New York, like forty-four other states, has adopted the Common Core State Standards. These standards establish concepts, skills, and learning progressions that define "college readiness." For direct access to those standards, go here.

As a next step, multi-state partnerships are developing new standardized tests to measure progress toward college readiness. In the past, New York's assessments focus on the numbers of students at or above proficiency. The new assessments will describe the year-to-year gains that each student makes in English language arts and mathematics. This is called the "value-added" approach, and the results can shed light on student achievement, teacher contributions to learning, and overall school effectiveness. New York is part of a multi-state consortium, PARCC, that is designing and field testing these new instruments.

These standards and related assessments are in the early stages of development, but like other districts, Bronxville will need to prepare for full implementation. Some of the local implications include
  • Aligning curriculum with the new standards;
  • Preparing local assessments that match the standards;
  • Carrying out professional development about the new standards and assessments;
  • Managing the data (including data collection, analysis, and installing the hardware and network capacities to administer on-line testing).
Superintendent David Quattrone's presentation on these matters, including links to several useful resources, can be found here.