Howard County Operating Budget Review Committee met June 12.
Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:
Approval of agenda and minutes– Debbie Engle
• Motion by T. Mallo second by D. Engle to approve agenda, motion approved.
• Motion by D. Engle, second by T. Mallo to approve meeting minutes of June 5, 2018, motion approved.
Revisions to final report: Committee reviewed, edited and voted on the following sections for the year end presentation to the BOE on June 21, 2018.
Revenue:
General Statement: The OBRC recognizes the need for all programs to be structured in a way that makes them as efficient as possible, while demonstrating through performance measures and best practices that the outcomes of those programs have the appropriate positive impact.
In examining multiple areas of the budget over the past two cycles, the OBRC believes that there is room for improvement in those efficiencies and their impact. The OBRC has also come to realize that the current deficit situation cannot be completely solved within the context of program cuts, program reorganization, or the freezing of all new initiatives that may provide positive impact to our students and community.
County government should recognize the efforts being made by many groups to improve the budget efficiencies of the school system while noting that additional funding from government sources must be a priority to insure the best result for all stakeholders involved.
Therefore, the OBRC recognizes that the county and its elected officials will need to take on the responsibility for improving the funding needed to keep HCPSS moving in a positive direction as one of the premier systems in the nation.
Motion by D. Sheridan, second by T. Mallo to approve above General Statement as written. Motion passed
Section 1) To Increase Revenue
Simply stated, Howard County is underfunding the HCPSS budget. The consequences of this underfunding are larger class size, deferred cost-saving investments, turnover of faculty and staff, reduced morale and declining reputation of our school system. We believe that this approach will have a negative impact on our students, who only go through our system once. It also will have other negative consequences for our community. The current deficit situation cannot be completely solved by program cuts, program reorganization, or the freezing of all new initiatives.
The OBRC recommends that the BOE and HCPSS annually make a persuasive, compelling and exceedingly public case for adequate revenue based on data driven best practices. A ‘Maintenance of Effort’ approach to budgeting will not be adequate to support required innovations within HCPSS.
a) The OBRC calls on the BOE to advocate to the Howard County Government to increase its revenue streams so that it can effectively support HCPSS to the level expected by its citizens.
b) The OBRC believes the current new development and resale impact fees do not generate sufficient revenue to cover the additional education cost. The OBRC calls on the BOE to request an immediate increase in these fees from the Howard County Delegation to levels similar to surrounding counties.
c) The OBRC calls on the HCPSS administration to aggressively increase grant writing efforts.
d) The OBRC asks the HCPSS leadership to refocus the Bright Minds Foundation to produce income for the schools at least equal to similar foundations nationally.
e) The OBRC also recommends looking at efforts for generating revenue for specific programs that are tangential to the core mission of our schools.
Motion by T. Mallo, second by T. Dennison to approve first paragraph in Section 1 - To Increase Revenue as written. Motion passed
Motion by N. Turner, second by D. Engle to approve second paragraph in Section 1 - To Increase Revenue as written. Motion passed
Motion by D. Engle, second by T. Dennison to approve “a” through “e” in Section 1 - To Increase Revenue as written. Motion passed
Academics – School Improvement, Curricular Programs, and Accountability
Section 11) The OBRC strongly recommends HCPSS develop and implement a comprehensive, measurable strategic plan that incorporates digital learning instructional offerings fully into the overall HCPSS curriculum. HCPSS lags behind other school systems in Maryland as well as around the country in the implementation of digital learning. With the exception of a relatively small number of course offerings, HCPSS has failed to leverage the potential of digital learning to increase both the variety and flexibility of courses, as well as to reduce the associated cost of instructional delivery.
Other systems are using digital learning to offer more flexibility to home and hospital students, as well as those serving suspensions. Other systems are using digital learning to reduce the impact of snow days and other school closures. Other systems are using digital learning to increase the variety of courses offered by combining students from multiple schools. This has the additional advantage of ensuring that all students at all schools have access to the same robust set of course offerings. HCPSS must invest to do the same.
A common objection to digital learning is that it is not as effective as traditional classroom instruction. The problem is that budget realities are going to place increased pressure to eliminate many of the optional courses that enroll small numbers of students at each school. The question to ask of digital learning is not whether it compares to classroom instruction – but rather is it better than entirely eliminating an offering altogether.
Motion by N. Turner, second by D. Sheridan to approve above Academics – School Improvement, Curricular Programs, and Accountability Section 11 as written. Motion passed.
Section 12) The OBRC recommends that dual enrollment be piloted and evaluated based on its academic potential, and not leveraged as a mechanism to address school over-crowding.
Dual enrollment has been implemented throughout the country, and the general evaluation appears to be positive. For example, students who enroll in community colleges were 2.5 times more likely to achieve an Associate’s Degree in 2 years if they had participated in a dual enrollment program in high school. (https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/high-school-dual-enrollment-college) The success of dual enrollment shows significant variance by state – and so the OBRC concurs with the decision by HCPSS to pilot the effort before deciding on a model to implement system-wide. In the event the pilot is successful, HCPSS should develop and implement a plan to offer dual enrollment throughout the county. If this pilot proves to be successful, then the partnership between HCPSS and HCC needs to be funded equitably from each organization’s budget.
Using dual enrollment – or JumpStart – as a voluntary mechanism for re-districting adds significant cost (for transportation) and complicates what may become a worthwhile program to be offered at all high schools. It is unfortunate that HCPSS initiated this effort for the 2018-19 school year – and it will certainly make it challenging to ‘unroll’ this as students who enter the program in 2018-19 should have the opportunity to continue it through high school. At the same time, we would recommend a plan be developed now to address this for the 2019-20 school year and beyond.
Motion by L. Ramey, second by T. Mallo to approve Academics – School Improvement, Curricular Programs, and Accountability Section 12 as written. Motion passed.
Motion by J. Bodensiek, second by S. Duclos to move the following statement to the beginning of the presentation: We strongly urge the Board of Education to take steps to change “the culture of the business operations” of our schools. We call for the Board to require that HCPSS develop a five-year budget that includes measurable quarterly and annual goals. To that end, the Board should be fully and substantially engaged in the development of the long-range strategic plan and these recommendations should be part of that engagement. Motion passed.
Operations:
13) With a deferred maintenance deficit of a half billion dollars, the Board should undertake a major review of deferred maintenance report in order to understand process and procedures. Reconstitute the Facilities and Maintenance committee and charge the committee with providing recommendations to the Superintendent on the state of deferred maintenance and the school system’s most critical maintenance needs so that decisions can be made strategically, and our buildings do not further decline. Building Services should develop a plan with specific objectives and measures for items such as:
a) Custodial ratios - Formulas for staffing custodial needs to be revisited and better aligned to best practices. Along with square footage, new schools with specialized lighting, educational outdoor space/courtyards should be considered in the staffing allocations.
b) Percentage of lighting (i.e.: LED or special lighting) - Revisit LED lighting and other cost savings and leverage BG&E rebates and incentives.
c) Outdoor educational spaces
d) Courtyard safety and standards for those educational spaces
e) Employee safety and preventative measures to protect our employees and keep Workers’ Compensation claims to a minimum
f) Contracted versus in-house cost benefit analysis
Motion by D. Engle second by D. Sheridan to approve the above Operations section. Motion passed. (The next OBRC may wish to consider additional strategic operational considerations.)
Motion by L. Ramey, second by N. Turner to remove the “highlights” from the document to be presented to the BOE. Motion passed.
Motion by J. Bodensiek, second by T. Dennison to move the document and allow alignment/formatting changes as needed by the presenters, keeping the intent of the document intact. Motion passed.
Next steps:
• OBRC will attend the June 21, 2018 BOE meeting @ 5:45PM and give their year-end report at that time.
Meeting adjourned 11:07 am
https://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/hcpssmd/Board.nsf/files/B23KRA5313DA/$file/06%2012%202018%20OBRC%20Minutes%20Approved.pdf
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