The attached update on development of the 8-period hybrid schedule change provides updated information on the development of the schedule design team, its goals, immediate items to be addressed, and how this all fits into the regular scheduling timeline for middle schools and high schools.

Reminder:  The Public Hearing on the County Executive's
Recommended Budget will be held
Wednesday, March 3 at 6:00 pm
Lane Auditorium, County Office Building  

Sign in sheets for speakers available at 5:00 pm
(will be on a table at the front right of the auditorium)
Carpool if at all possible; only 300 parking spaces at ACOB
Parent Council will provide snacks and water, Room 246.

Much information has been distributed about the BOS Public Hearing on March 3rd — both by Parent Council and by individual parents — that contains either information that has changed or was wrong. Please send this to anyone considering attending and /or speaking at the hearing.

Telephone queries to the BOS office today confirmed the following:

The sign-up sheets for speakers will be released at 5:00 pm. Five o’clock, not 4:00. The BOS office anticipates a line waiting for the sheets to be put out.

They will be placed on a table in the front right of the auditorium — same place as the sign in for the School Board public hearing and same as in previous years.

People wishing to sign up may sign only one name, not two.

While the entire auditorium will be opened, including the balcony, the BOS office anticipates enough people that they are currently planning to provide seating in the Lobby, Room 235 (just off the lobby), and Room 241 (just past the lobby, further down the hall). While audio streams from the auditorium to Room 235, it doesn’t to the other two spaces. They are currently working on providing audio to those spaces.

Anticipate large crowds in all areas near the auditorium. Please consider carpooling with other parents from your school community or neighborhood.

Parent Council will be providing veggies, pizza, cookies and water in Room 246 (go past the Auditorium, all the way down the hall, and turn right). Our recommendation is that you find a seat first, then come get a snack.

On presenting the strongest possible support for ACPS.

Parent Council has received consistent advice from a number of people close to this Board of Supervisors, relating the following:

1. BOS members who ran for office on a platform in support of education must be reminded of their stated position.
2. This BOS is pro-business, pro-economic development. During their first meeting of the year, the BOS passed a resolution in favor of economic development. Concerns about economic development in the county are at the top of their priority list. They are likely to be more responsive to presentations that acknowledge that.
3. While emails are important, of far more importance is the sheer numbers that turn out for the hearings, stand up in support of their issues, and stay until the very end.
4. Finally, students speaking concisely, eloquently, “non-whiningly” and to the issue can have an incredible impact.  
   

Many families in the western feeder pattern will recognize Carmen Garcia’s name. Her children are enrolled at Henley and Western and she was President of the PTO for Murray Elementary last year. Carmen, her husband, Alfredo, and their family are all in Spain for this semester, while Alfredo is on sabbatical from UVA.

With a strong commitment to supporting Albemarle County Public Schools, Carmen has maintained her engagement with school issues from Madrid, following the schools’ e-newsletters, corresponding with friends, reading Daily Progress stories on line, and sending questions and support emails to our public officials.

She won’t be able to make the March 3rd BOS public hearing, but she has contributed the following petition, which is gaining wide support. If you are interested, please sign this petition requesting the Board of Supervisors to fully fund the School's budget:

She has asked if this could be distributed via Parent Council and provided permission for forwarding via personal emails and school e-newsletters hoping to reach the greatest amount of active citizens and move the issue forward.

The Albemarle County Public Schools budget-making process is incredibly fluid with changes occurring on an almost daily basis. Much has changed from Dr. Moran’s initial Superintendent’s funding request on January 20th to where the school budget stands today, one day before we will see the Albemarle County proposed budget.

Here’s a brief look at how to track current information from ACPS and, also, some interesting background information:

ACPS Budget Page

The ACPS website budget page provides a link to budget documents and feedback opportunities. The budget page is updated with new information on a regular basis. Select 2010-2011 Funding Request, the list downloadable files has been updated each time new information is available. Select files by date to see most current. "At-A-Glance" or "Summary" documents may be the most helpful; "Complete" documents, whether the Superintendent's or the School Board's funding request, may number in the hundreds of pages.

Further Information

School Board member Brian Wheeler has prepared very useful information on his SchoolMatters blog. Look for these posts:

Albemarle County Public Schools budget is now facing catastrophic cuts, which offers a spreadsheet analyzing the impact of various tax rate increases on the median AC home value, plus a place to plug in your own 2009 and 2010 assessments to see what various tax rate increases might cost your household.

School Board approves $145.2 million funding request; Needs another $8.8 million in revenues to avoid Tier 2 & 3 cuts, provides a budget analysis spreadsheet to identify just what cuts are in the funding request and what cuts under consideration remain in tier 2 and 3 (and in the $8.8mm shortfall).

Crozet realtor Jim Duncan looked closely at the correlation between property values and quality schools on his RealCrozetVA blog: http://www.realcrozetva.com/

Look for this post:  Crozet Housing Prices and School Quality

Finally, ACPS Parent Council distributes news in a variety of ways, including posts to this website and via PC News List (sign up available here).

Frequently Asked Questions:

In response to the numerous questions related to the 4 x 4 schedule and how it might be modified and implemented in Albemarle County Public Schools, ACPS has posted a series of FAQs. While parents will likely have questions specific to their own children's schedules, these can provide a starting point for information.

They can be found here or downloaded in pdf forum under Attachments below.

Myths About 4 X 4:

Also in response to a variety of communications relayed since this schedule change was proposed, ACPS has prepared a document attempting to allay concerns. Myths about 4x4 can be read here or downloaded in Word .doc form under Attachments below.

The attached pdf may help answer questions -- and help parents and students prepare more specific questions -- related to modified, or hybrid, four by four block scheduling proposed by ACPS. Dr. Rettig is a Professor Emeritus at JMU and a recognized national authority on high school and middle school scheduling. (As an aside, his children attended ACPS in the western district.)

Please note there are 123 slides in this presentation; slides in the 30-40 range show a number of variations of the hybrid four by four schedules.

Those parents and students wishing to dive more deeply into the research, can read more at the School Scheduling Associates website found here.

The ACPS administration is concerned that incorrect third- and fourth-hand information is circulating related to the proposed change to high school and middle school schedules. They have proposed that Parent Council as an independent organization, put together and post a list of FAQs related to this proposal here.

Since an important part of Parent Council's responsibility is to try to keep factual information flowing, we would like your assistance in preparing these FAQs.

Could you please send Parent Council any questions you personally have, any questions you’ve received from parents in your school community, or any concerns related to the modified or hybrid four by four block schedule?

Again, I will emphasize that our mission is to help inform parents of the facts related to school policy and to help inform administration of the questions and concerns of parents. We cannot provide solutions to the concerns, but we can hope to clarify information.

Background:

• The first line item in the third tier of budget cuts (those originally considered for 2011-12, but now under consideration for 2010-11),  reads as follows: “8 Period Day for MS & HS.” A possible $838,000 could be saved by implementing this change.
• On Thursday, February 11th, ACPS administration presented information on implementing a modified four by four block schedule to division Principals during the day and to the School Board at their regular meeting that same night. This schedule could help mitigate loss of teachers due to increased class size.
• You can view the powerpoint presentation at http://esb.k12albemarle.org/ .  Select Feb 11 from the calendar, select item 8.4 FY 2010/11 Budget Worksession from the agenda. See the file attachment for downloading.
• While some classes would be offered on a semester basis (Spanish I would be one semester long, for example), others, such as AP courses and arts courses could be offered on a year long basis. Example schedules are provided in the powerpoint.
• Given scheduling planning for MS & HS, if this is to implemented for August 2010, it would need to be implemented almost immediately.

As you are probably aware, the budget picture for next fiscal year, 2010-11, has gotten considerably more grim as a result of changes taking place at the state level that will result in substantially fewer dollars to Albemarle County Public Schools next year. Below are some one-page fact sheets and narrative summaries of the reductions under consideration, as well as two issues pending at the state level (implementing the changes to the Composite Index and Del. Bell’s amendment to take the revenue sharing payment into account in state funding allocations to Albemarle). Please review these items to familiarize yourself with these issues and the affect of these cuts on the School Division for next year.

Click HERE for the Fact Sheet summarizing the reductions under consideration by Albemarle County Public Schools to meet the projected revenue shortfalls, including numbers of personnel.
 
Click HERE  for the Fact Sheet on Delegate Bell’s Budget Amendment regarding changing Albemarle County’s revenue figures used in the state’s Composite Index calculation to reflect the Revenue Sharing Agreement payment and result in more state funding to ACPS.
 
Click HERE  for the Fact Sheet on the Impact to Albemarle County Schools due to Implementing the Composite Index Changes in 2010-11.
 
Click HERE  to review the $5.3 million reductions already included in the Superintendent’s Funding Request [includes line item amounts]
 
Click HERE  to review the $8.4 million in additional reductions under consideration to meet revenue projections. [includes line item amounts]

Board of Supervisors:
All of them: bos@albemarle.org
Ann Mallek, White Hall : amallek@albemarle.org
Dennis Rooker, Jack Jouett: drooker@albemarle.org
Rodney Thomas, Rio: rthomas@albemarle.org
Ken Boyd, Rivanna: kboyd@albemarle.org
Duane Snow, Samuel Miller: dsnow@albemarle.org
Lindsay Dorrier, Scottsville: ldorrier@albemarle.org

Every one penny added to the current tax rate equals about $1 million in revenues for ACPS. The School Division faces an approximate $4 million shortfall in local revenue at current tax rate, due to suppressed housing assessments. $1 million equates to about 14 teachers salaries and benefits. An "equalized tax rate" that would bring in the same amount of revenue as the current year, with the lower housing assessments and without raising the actual dollars (taxes) paid by each homeowner would be 76.2 cents. That reduces by half the local shortfall to schools, from about $4 million less to about $2 million less.

General Assembly:
Northern Albemarle, Rob Bell, delrbell@house.virginia.gov
Urban Albemarle & Charlottesville, David Toscano, DelDToscano@house.virginia.gov
Southern Albemarle, Watkins Abbitt, DelWAbbitt@house.virginia.gov
Western Albemarle, Steve Landes, DelSLandes@house.virginia.gov

State Senate: Creigh Deeds, district25@senate.virginia.gov,
                    Emmett Hanger, district24@senate.virginia.gov

To help ACPS we lobby for the following:
1. Delay the implementation of the Composite Index changes until 2011-2012 so that the 97 localities, including Albemarle, may absorb their reductions over 2 years, resulting in fewer teachers and school division employees losing their jobs in 2010-11. (Implementing next year results in $5.2 million less for ACPS).
2. Maintain the Triennial census as the accurate calculation of student enrollment in public school localities. Abolishing the triennial census adversely affects localities with fluctuating resident populations, such as college towns and towns with military installations. (the change results in about $1 million less in state funds for ACPS).
3. Support Del. Bell's Budget Amendment to ensure that Albemarle's actual revenues are used in the state's Composite Index funding formula. The current formula overstates Albemarle's revenues by ~$18 million, the amount of the revenue sharing payment sent to Charlottesville every year. This results in less state funding for Albemarle Public Schools. Approving the amendment returns $2.6 million to ACPS.

Members of the House Appropriations Committee Considering Del. Bell's Amendment:
DelBTata@house.virginia.gov,
DelKCox@house.virginia.gov,
DelSLingamfelter@house.virginia.gov
DelCPoindexter@house.virginia.gov,
DelWAbbitt@house.virginia.gov,
 DelJScott@house.virginia.gov,
 DelMBaCote@house.virginia.gov,
 
Support Del. Bell's Budget Amendment to ensure that Albemarle's actual revenues are used in the state's Composite Index funding formula. The current formula overstates Albemarle's revenues by ~$18 million, the amount of the revenue sharing payment sent to Charlottesville every year. This results in less state funding for Albemarle Public Schools. Approving the amendment returns $2.6 million to ACPS and corrects the math error in the formula.

Maury Brown
Communications Coordinator
Albemarle County Public Schools
401 McIntire Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
(434) 972-4049
mbrown4@k12albemarle.org

Albemarle County schools face an additional $4-5 million in cuts today as Gov. McDonnell has rejected former Gov. Kaine’s freeze to the new composite index.
This makes it more important than ever that we encourage parents to show up for the March 3rd AC Board of Supervisors public hearing and speak in support of our schools.

Details here:
The Washington Post reported on Feb. 8th that Gov. McDonnell will reverse former Gov. Kaine’s proposed one year freeze to the new composite index, adversely impacting Albemarle County and 96 other VA school divisions and providing increased funds to Loudoun, Prince William, and Fairfax counties.
 
This note from Dr. Moran summarizes the impact:

In the event that you have not heard, Governor McDonnell has decided to go with the projected composite index for the next two years rather than stay with the Kaine plan to freeze current composite index as it exists this year. The impact of this will be catastrophic on our revenues adding a minimum of another $4-5 M in cuts for 10-11 with additional reductions still to come due to $2B shortfall in state revenues and triennial sales tax shifts. Our Board certainly will be analyzing not just tier II recommendations but also projections in reductions or cuts for 2011-12 which are in the year 2 planning budget proposals. 

What this means for ACPS:

• Major cuts already submitted for the budget must now be almost doubled.
• All classroom sizes will likely be increased; emergency staffing (which has helped alleviate large classrooms in the past) has also been cut.
• ACPS staffing beyond that required by the state (elementary music, art, PE; gifted; guidance; support, etc.) may need to be cut to state standards.
  

If you need any further information, please contact your parent council rep.

Further specifics can be found here:

Link to WaPo article: McDonnell directing more education money to N. Va.

Link to related WaPo blog posting: Northern Virginia leaders cheer McDonnell’s school funding decision.
 
Budget specifics:
Section A, the Overview of the 2010-2011 proposed budget can be found here
Pages A-39 to 42 details $5.3 million in planned cuts. These include:
No salary increases of any kind for any employees; Increase class size by one student, grades 4-12; 10% cuts across all departments; major cuts to learning resources, transportation, professional development; fees for sports participation; cuts positions in central office and support services.
 
Page A-43 outlines a second tier of cuts, totaling $3.5 million. Not included in the 2010-11 budget, these most likely will be required now. These include:
Increase class size by one student, grades K-3; shared principals between two pairs of elementary schools; cuts by 50% school resource officers; cuts to school calendar (either by number of days or furlough).
 
Page A-55 to A-57 outlines another $4.8 million in cuts projected for 2011-2012; some of these cuts may be required in the coming year. These include:
Restructuring HS schedule to add another class period; redistricting middle schools and high schools; eliminating elementary art, music and PE staffing over state requirements; cuts to gifted staff; cuts to guidance; additional  operational cuts overall, and much more.