. . . There are a lot of good things going on which would be great to highlight . . .
. . . people throughout the district tell me that school behavior/school climate is a huge issue for them and their kids and a major reason why many of them leave . . .
School Committee and others*
School budget thoughts
* Nancy Walser, Michelle Sprengnether, Alfred Fantini, Joseph Grassi, Richard Harding, Patty Nolan, Ken Reeves, Luc Schuster, Marilyn Bradshaw, John Clifford, City Council,
Dr. Thomas Fowler-Finn, Bob Healy
Dear Fellow City Officials:
Following up on Ms. Walser's email to Michelle, I'd appreciate getting the copy of the staffing info to which Ms. Walser referred. And following up from our recent roundtable, I'd also like to see back-up documentation discussing how we got to the 92% of CRLS grads going on to college that I've got in my notes. It's an exciting statistic, but it seems awfully high to me and I'd like to be able to explain it to people who ask me about it. Finally, I'd like to see the KG enrollment numbers. I understood Dr.
Fowler-Finn to say that the Montessori program was the number one requested KG, but I'd be better able to understand what that means in the context of the other KG programs. For example, if the Baldwin has only 15 open seats (to pick a number out of the air) for the 07/08 SY and the Montessori, because it has no junior KG (which may or may not be true, I don't know) in place, has 30, then I'd expect it to have more number ones simply because of availability. Not that that doesn't mean people aren't excited about it, but I'd like to see the numbers to put it all in context.
While I'm on the subject of the budget, I'll flesh out my remarks from Tuesday night a little bit. For all of us creativity is going to be increasingly important as budgets get tighter and needs continue to grow. I'd like to see a budget that tells a detailed story about our public schools. There are a lot of good things going on which would be great to highlight (maybe even throw pictures in the budget document and videos on the CPS website), but also we have a lot of hurdles to jump and I'd like the budget to discuss both of those things. How many kids, what they're like, are they at risk of obesity, where do they live, how do they get to school, where do they go after school, where do they go after they leave CPS, how are they doing, what kind of programs we are offering, why and where. Basically, if the school department has data, I'd like to see it worked into the story of our public schools. Not just as a bunch of tables and graphs, though, but as an analytical discussion of where we've been, where we are and where we're going.
I think the City's budget is a very good example of the sort of story I'm looking for. In particular, I would like to see a budget that gives me a better picture of:
1. How we are furthering literacy and numeracy, especially in the subgroups that are not performing as well in these categories.
2. How we are going to do a better job of getting people- not just parents but regular citizens- into the visual and performing arts programs to see just how good they are. I really believe that a lot more people would be excited about our public school system if they saw some of the great things we offer, but somehow we're not doing a good enough job of pushing that information out there and bringing those people in.
3. A detailed explanation of why we have the staffing levels we have and what those levels get our kids.
4. How we are creating a system-wide school behavior improvement program. I only know what people tell me, and people throughout the district tell me that school behavior/school climate is a huge issue for them and their kids and a major reason why many of them leave.
I know that this is an awful lot to ask for and I'm happy to meet with anyone to discuss my thoughts and to learn yours. I also think it would be great for school officials to let the Manager and the City Council know what it is you'd like to see us budgeting for independent of the schools, as many of the City's programs have, or could have, an impact on how well our kids are succeeding in school. How well our schools are doing is a reflection not just on the schools but on the rest of the City as well.
In particular, I'd like to figure out, and I'd like the City's budget to show, a way to do a better job reaching kids 0-3, and their families, to consistently encourage literacy right from the start. As the Mayor has said recently, playing catch up is much tougher if you start out as far behind as some of our kids do.
My home number is 617-354-8353, work is 978-796-2512 and email is Craig@CraigKelley.org.
Thanks a lot to all of you for taking my thoughts into consideration during the budget process.