|
castoncomets.org |
|
Bylaws, Policies & Administrative Guidelines |
Indiana School Consolidation
Introduction (9/13/08) - Consideration of school consolidation in Indiana is beginning to emerge as a "hot topic," thus, a special web page has been created specifically on this. Proponents of consolidation view it as a means of reducing administrative overhead costs. This topic was brought into sharper focus when it was included as one of the twenty-seven recommendations in the Kernan-Shepard Report, "Streamlining Local Government: We've Got To Stop Governing Like This."
However, there were developments occurring around the state even prior to the above Report being released. Since then there have been more. One of the most recent developments occurred last month with the release of the White County (i.e. Frontier, North White, Tri-County and Twin Lakes) Consolidation Study, a 137 page report. The Lafayette Journal and Courier reported on this August 27th and September 12th. Additional developments regarding school consolidation will be published in the weeks to come. Mitch Daniels Wants School Districts Consolidated (Howey Politics, 10/7/08) - "...Daniels said he intends in the next legislative session to 'move out of the 19th Century and into the 21st Century' by seeking to pass 24 of the 27 Kernan-Shepard Commission recommendations (including #11 above) still on the table. Three were passed in 2008 by the legislature..." (more) IU Study Doubts That School Consolidation Will Lead To Improved Achievement And Meaningful Financial Benefits Consistently Generated (IU, 10/16/08) - "School consolidation does not appear to improve student achievement, according to a new report by Indiana University researchers. Neither are meaningful financial benefits consistently generated from consolidation..." (more) Gov. Daniels Says Forced School Consolidation Not On His Agenda (11/17/08) - After Gov. Daniels' staff had visited with the school superintendent of a southwestern Indiana school system as well as with several of the superintendent's colleagues Daniels followed up with a letter to the superintendent. The letter, dated October 9, 2008, says in part, "I have said there is no 'magic number' of students when it comes to considering consolidation of small school corporations. Nor will I make forced consolidation part of my agenda. I do believe that all efforts up to and including consolidation should be considered when it comes to offering a rich curriculum and giving community members the maximum value for their tax dollar." Which Lawmaker's Agenda Includes Forced School Consolidation? (11/19/08) - Forced school consolidation for some school systems may not be on Governor Daniels' agenda (at least his "public" agenda), however, that doesn't preclude it being on some lawmakers' agenda. In fact the Louisville Courier-Journal predicted this in its November 17th article. "Also, lawmakers are expected to consider proposals to consolidate some local government offices, eliminate township government completely and force some school consolidations." However, the article says a bit of caution was encouraged by State Senator Vi Simpson. "Simpson – who takes over the Senate Democratic caucus from Sen. Richard Young of Milltown – warned Gov. Mitch Daniels and chamber officials not to try to go too far in consolidating local governments and schools. 'There may be a few things we can agree on and get done,' she said. 'But don’t bite off more than you chew.'" (more) From
1,008 Township Assessors To 13 = CONSOLIDATION; Next: Schools Are In The
Crosshairs (11/26/08) - The Ft. Wayne Journal
Gazette published "Lawmaking Preview: Legislature's Upcoming Session Will
Be Eventful" in its November 23, 2008 edition. The following is from that
article. For the entire article click
here.
Possibility? Merging Services With Other School Districts (retitled, The Rochester Sentinel,
12/3/08)
- The following article, written by Deb Howe, Rochester School
Superintendent, appeared in The Rochester Sentinel on November 29, 2008.
(Related actions by Caston School Board will be found here
and here.)
(The following is reprinted from the December 20, 2008 Indianapolis Star and includes Daniels' recommendation that school systems with less than 1,000 students, such as Caston, be forced to consolidate. Pertinent info in this article about school consolidation is here and here and here.) Daniels to push for local
government reforms Indiana's county commissioners would be dumped in favor of a single county czar, hundreds of other elected officials would be eliminated and the state's smallest school districts would be forced to consolidate under government reform proposals Gov. Mitch Daniels endorsed Friday. Just as quickly as Daniels rattled through many of his 20 recommendations to change the structure of local government, the opposition was lining up to fight what the governor called "a set of changes that are long overdue in Indiana." County officials said they don't want to give up their elected positions. School boards stressed that they oppose forced consolidation. And House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer said the General Assembly has more pressing matters to consider next year than "an academic's view of how government should operate, without any consideration given to whether such ideas are practical, or even feasible, in the real world." Most of the proposals were based on recommendations made a year ago by the Commission on Local Government Reform, a panel Daniels appointed. It was chaired by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard. Daniels listed four of the recommendations as his top priorities. They are: Establishing a single, elected county executive to replace the current three- commissioner approach while giving county councils full legislative authority. Eliminating the elected positions of county recorder, treasurer, assessor, surveyor and coroner and placing the county executive in charge of appointing those positions. County sheriff, clerk and auditor would remain elected positions. Eliminating township government and transferring all of those responsibilities to the county executive. Forcing school districts with fewer than 1,000 students to combine their central office operations with another district, unless they already are a countywide district. After such consolidation, no high school may be closed for at least five years. "We are an outlier among the states," Daniels said. "We have more of almost everything -- taxing units, subdivisions and politicians. It's more than we need, more than taxpayers can get service for and certainly more than we should be paying for." Daniels said he will push the recommendations in three to five bills in the 2009 legislative session. Bauer, D-South Bend, said lawmakers would be better off focusing on passing the state's budget during a time of declining revenue, finding ways to slow Indiana's growing unemployment and helping the 80,000 Hoosiers who have lost jobs in the past year. "Helping them out should be a priority for state government in tough economic times. These people are asking me, 'What are you going to do to help?' " Bauer said. "They are not asking me, 'When are you going to get rid of township government?' " Daniels argued otherwise. "They have that exactly backwards," he said. "It is because resources are going to be so tight that we cannot afford not to take the changes that will protect taxpayers and improve the quality of services for the citizens of our state. Now is exactly the time." Cutting commissioners One of the top changes Daniels will push for is eliminating the system of three county commissioners in favor of one county executive. "There are not three CEOs in any company I know. There are not three commanding generals of any army I know. There are not three governors," Daniels said. "A single, accountable executive, I think, is the starting point for many of the other reforms that would help." David Bottorff, executive director of the Indiana Association of Counties, said his group is opposed to the idea. "We think the three-commissioner system works well, because it offers greater input from the public and a greater diversity of backgrounds to build a consensus at the executive level. There isn't just one person making the decisions." Township government Daniels also pressed for doing away with the state's 1,008 township governments, each of which has a board and a trustee. "The level of government we call townships has outlived its day. It was perhaps well-suited 150, 160 years ago to a small, frontier state, but not to today," he said. "There are 31 states that do without them altogether, and there are only a handful of states that have more units of government than we do. "It is really time to center on the county as the proper unit of government for those local services." Under his proposals, Daniels also would have the county executive appoint the recorder, treasurer, assessor, surveyor and coroner -- positions that currently are elected. In this recommendation, the governor did not go as far as the Kernan-Shepard commission, which also recommended that sheriffs, clerks and auditors be appointed instead of elected. The state's townships and counties are sure to fight this recommendation, too. Bottorff said electing these positions "allows local citizens to choose who is going to carry out that state law for them." School consolidations The original Kernan-Shepard report recommended that school districts with fewer than 2,000 students should be forced to consolidate. Daniels dropped that number to 1,000 and said the focus should be on combining the central office operations of school districts. Daniels said he didn't want to eliminate schools, just "overhead and the back office." "In the interest of our children, we have too many school bureaucracies in this state, and there is simply no arguing for some below a certain size," he said. "We do not need to be spending money on superintendents and assistants and a whole array of administrative services that easily could be done at a higher level." The result, he argued, would be more dollars going directly to the classroom. Frank Bush, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, wasn't convinced. "The only thing he's really doing is eliminating a school board and a superintendent, which isn't a high-efficiency kind of move because the expenditures related to those two entities basically are minuscule," Bush said. "But if you leave the buildings in place, you're still going to have to operate them and you're still going to need the administrative services in place." Support and opposition alike While the interest groups directly affected by the proposals pledged their opposition Friday, many others expressed support, including the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, Professional Firefighters' Union of Indiana, Indiana Association of Realtors and members of the Commission of Local Government Reform. Still, Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear, who serves as executive director of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, predicted Daniels would face tough sledding on many of his proposals, especially school consolidation. "I think he's right about the schools, but it's a gutsy move on his part. It's political suicide, because everyone loves their school district," said Ditslear, a former school board member. "It will be challenged, but I think all of this is going to be challenged." Perhaps the biggest challenge will come from state lawmakers, many of whom have either previously held the elected positions Daniels wants to eliminate or are close to officials who still do. "It may be a problem," Daniels acknowledged. "But I really believe better government will prevail over old friendships." Additional Facts Topping the listA commission appointed by Daniels last year proposed 27 changes aimed at
streamlining Indiana government. Daniels has made some changes to the list and
is now stressing several items as the most significant. They include: All School Systems With Less Than 1,000 Students Achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP; No Child Left Behind) (1/30/09) - Beginning with the 2002-03 school year, The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has required schools to show annual improvements in the academic achievement of the overall student population and of identified student subgroups within the general population, including economic background, race and ethnicity, limited English proficiency and special education. AYP designations for Indiana school corporations and schools are determined by student achievement and participation rates on the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus (ISTEP+) in English/language arts and mathematics; student attendance rates (for elementary and middle schools); and high school graduation rates (for high schools). Under NCLB, schools must make AYP in all student groups in order to meet AYP. The goal of NCLB is for all students to achieve proficiency in English/language arts and mathematics by 2014. (more AYP) The first table (green highlight) in the next article lists the 48 school systems with less than 1,000 students. All 48 systems made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2007, the most recent information reported on the DOE website. AYP info can be accessed by clicking on the system name in the table and then "AYP Results." Dewey Township Schools AYP results are here. School System Size Does Not Determine Ratio Of “Classroom Dollars” To Total Educational Funding (Russ Phillips, 1/20/09) As I explain below I believe Governor Daniels has made only a superficial review of data that causes him to recommend the consolidation of smaller school systems. Furthermore, a serious and complex matter such as this requires a thorough review of a multitude of factors that should be taken into consideration. Governor Daniels is pushing for mandatory consolidation of school systems with less than 1,000 students and is doing so for two major reasons. In his State of the State Address he mentioned the need “to begin spending the education dollar more efficiently” and that he considers it “totally unacceptable” that only 61 cents of every education dollar (61%) is spent in the classroom and that he wants “to move tax dollars out of the back office and into the classroom.” Daniels bases the 61 cents on the “Student Instructional Expenditure Report for 2006-07 School Year” that was issued by the Office of Management & Budget. Links to individual school corporation results are here. An abbreviated version of the Report with summary information on each school system is available here. The Entire Report may be found here (Note: very large file - 26MB/1258 pages). Daniels says that consolidation will result in students having the opportunity for more advanced placement courses as well as advanced science/math and foreign language courses. However, it should be noted that research indicates, “Consolidation has no proven positive impact on student achievement and may negatively impact student achievement.” The Governor’s contention that smaller school systems use dollars less efficiently in terms of getting dollars to the classroom is flawed (see tables below) and incorrect. In the above referenced Report school expenditures are reported in one of four categories:
1) Student academic achievement expenditures – examples include
teacher
2) Student instructional support expenditures – guidance
counselors, nurses,
3) Overhead and operational expenditures – legal services,
business support,
4) Nonoperational expenditures – school construction, debt,
interest, NOTE:
“Student Instructional Expenditures” were defined in the Report as
the sum of expenditures under Category 1 and Category 2. In
the table below, highlighted in green, are the 48 school systems with less than
1,000 students of which all except 12 meet or exceed the statewide average of
61% of educational dollars being for “student instructional expenditures.”
Of these 12 only three are less than 55%. (The “55%” was selected
arbitrarily.)
The following table, highlighted in yellow, lists 34 systems with more than 1,000 students (except charter schools and Community Montessori Inc) and a “student instructional expenditure” ratio of less than 55%.
|
|