School funding discussion — please add your comments

Recently in The Washington Post, there was an article discussing the increased support of school funding by PTAs. At Forest Knolls ES, our PTA does many great things to promote community involvement and funding of equipment and resources to support teaching and learning. We look forward to your thoughts on how our current PTA priorities and efforts relate to some of the issues raised in this article:

D.C. area schools turn to parents for more funding as budgets are squeezed – Washington Post

We look forward to your thoughts and dialogue about this topic – please add a comment on this post!

Bill McGrath, John Acosta, Nate Conroy and Uli Nasshan
PTA Executive Board

April 10th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Advocacy

More Info about State Law Requiring Counties to Maintain Funding Levels

At the March 6 PTA meeting, parents and school system leaders talked about how the State of Maryland’s Maintenance of Effort rules can impact student learning in our school.

A link to a article by the MD State Teacher’s Association on this topic is here: MOE White Paper

Information on the Montgomery County PTA’s position on this law is at this link: MOE White Paper

As always, if you have other articles or resources presenting different views on a topic, please send them to me at president@fkespta.org

Take great care,
Bill McGrath

President

March 10th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: Advocacy

Montgomery County PTA Position on State Plan to Shift Costs for Teachers’ Pensions to County

How much funding will Forest Knolls get next year? Two county officials – Dr. Marshall Spatz, the director of the Department of Management, Budget and Planning, and Ms. Bronda Mills, the school Community Superintendent for our area  –  came to our March 6 PTA meeting to try to answer our questions about the budget process.
One of the big questions that is still unanswered is whether the state will cut its contribution to teachers’ pensions next year and shift those costs to Montgomery County. Right now, the state pays for all of the employer costs of funding teachers’ pensions. State legislators are about to decide whether to go along with Gov. Martin O’Malley’s plan to fill a budget gap by cutting the state contribution to teachers’ pensions. That could hurt funding for our schools. Montgomery County school officials told The Washington Post that if that passes, they would have to make up the lost revenue by cutting 600 teachers and increasing class sizes throughout the county.
The Montgomery County PTA is fighting the state cuts to teachers’ retirement plans. They are asking people who disagree with the proposed change to sign a petition against it. The petition will go to Gov. O’Malley and state legislative leaders.
If the state legislators do cut their funding for teachers’ pensions, then the county will have to pay about $40 million more in retirement costs than county officials planned. That’s almost as much as the entire $46 million increase that the county has proposed for our school system next year.
If you’re interested in signing the petition, it is online here: http://www.change.org/petitions/no-pension-shift. You can read the text of the letter at that website. (It says in part, “We implore you as a County, Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations community and parents to look for other solutions to the pension problem that does not involve shifting even greater financial burdens onto our counties.”)
Gov. O’Malley acknowledged his proposal is ”controversial” when he introduced it as part of his budget this year. (Details of the budget are here, on p. 10: http://dbm.maryland.gov/agencies/operbudget/Documents/2013/FY2013BudgetHighlights.pdf and his remarks are here, also on p. 10: http://www.governor.maryland.gov/documents/FY2013BudgetPresentation.pdf)
The good news is that if the governor’s plan doesn’t go through, tentative estimates from county officials project that Forest Knolls will not lose any teaching positions next year.
March 7th, 2012 | Category: Advocacy

Next Year’s Proposed School Budget

Superintendent Joshua P. Starr released his proposal for next year’s budget last week. The $2.13 billion Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2013, which starts on July 1, includes a 2 percent increase ($41.4 million) over the current budget. School officials said this is the smallest requested increase in the past 12 years.

The county executive will act on the recommendation in March.

Check out this website to see a video of Dr. Starr announcing his proposal for next year’s budget:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget

The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations had the following reaction:

Kristin Trible, President of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (MCCPTA), reacted today to the proposed FY 2013 Operating Budget announced by Superintendent Joshua P. Starr:  “Recognizing the continued fiscal constraints under which we are operating, Dr. Starr’s proposed budget is good for students, employees, and schools, and good for Montgomery County. The proposed budget protects the classroom from further cuts with no reductions to school-based staff.

Our parents appreciate the Superintendent’s focus on optimizing resources for community engagement, meaningful intervention for underachieving students, and professional development.  As the demographics in our county continue to change, these priorities are all the more important.

This budget also contains $8.1 million in efficiencies and reductions, on top of the $430 million in reductions made since FY 2009. During this same period of time, student enrollment has increased dramatically, and the percentages of students living at, or near poverty and needing language services have surged to unprecedented levels in our county. The combination of cuts and heightened needs is not sustainable.

Our concern remains that, despite these many challenges, this budget holds the local per pupil funding level at the reduced level set by the Council earlier this year. We hope, next year, to move beyond this low watermark and see effective supports for our students fully funded.

The ultimate goal for our county is to eliminate the predictability of student outcomes by race, ethnicity or socioeconomic factors, and to provide a challenging, 21st century education to each and every child.  We appreciate the Superintendent’s measured consideration of existing resources to achieve these goals.  As such, MCCPTA supports this budget, and urges the County Executive and County Council to actively embrace and fully fund this budget.”

 

Jean Schlesinger

MCCPTA Operating Budget Chair
jeanschlesinger@verizon.net


 Kristin Trible
 MCCPTA President
president@mccpta.com
301-346-3463

December 16th, 2011 | Tags: | Category: Advocacy

Superintendent’s recommendations possibly impacting Forest Knolls

In the November PTA meeting, Principal Don Masline described possible impact of the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2013 Capital Budget and FY 2013–2018 Capital Improvements Program (PDF) on Forest Knolls.

Please note the information related to Forest Knolls:

“Planning Issue: Enrollment at Arcola Elementary School, Forest Knolls, and Sargent Shriver elementary schools is projected to exceed the capacity of the schools throughout the six-year CIP period. Arcola and Sargent Shriver elementary schools are located on sites with limited areas to build. Because of the enrollment growth in these three schools, *the school system will be analyzing several schools in the vicinity during the 2011–2012 school year to address the overutilization of Arcola, Forest Knolls, and Sargent Shriver elementary schools.*

These schools include Brookhaven, Highland, and Kemp Mill elementary schools. The study also will assess whether additions can be built at Sargent Shriver and Forest Knolls elementary schools. Once schools are identified for possible addition projects, feasibility studies will be conducted during the 2012–2013 school year.”

Bill McGrath
FKES PTA President

November 11th, 2011 | Tags: | Category: Advocacy
 
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