The following excerpted statements are from a public hearing on the MCPS operating budget held by the County Council on Monday, April 8. The public hearing will be repeated on County Cable Montgomery (Channel 6) on Thursday, April 8 at 8 p.m.
<lst>"We urge you to fully fund this budget, which has already been pared down $35 million …
"We are particularly concerned about the delays in reducing the number of oversize classes; special education improvements and related staff increases; ESOL improvements; increasing the numbers of counselors, psychologists and pupil personnel workers; increasing access to technology and technology staff; and, lastly, increasing the number of school security staff.
"We request an increase in the number of staff development personnel at the high school level and in the number of staff development substitute teachers, as proposed by Dr. Weast, to maintain workforce excellence …
"The delay in the initiative to reduce the number of oversize classes in elementary and secondary schools makes it imperative that the number of instructional assistants be increased. Instructional assistants are also needed to provide the necessary support for the growing number of ESOL and at risk students enrolled in our schools.
"As the delivery of special education services has moved toward the inclusion model, our schools must receive more staffing for special education …
“All of our cluster schools, with the exception of Churchill High School, are in need of modernization. With the current CIP recommendation regarding modernizations, our current students will never benefit from attending a modernized elementary or middle school.”
<1b>—Laura Siegel
Churchill Cluster
"I want to confess something after having spent nearly 20 years of advocacy for the PTSA.
"I love the work and believe in the importance of the PTSA, but I am frustrated that we still have so little real information to go on — as parents, teachers and policy makers — when looking at the operating budget.
"I still cannot adequately assess the schools in my cluster and how they compare with others in my area and throughout the Montgomery County Public School system. There really is little performance budgeting information that can be used to make comparisons, to see how various line items and spending items compare from school to school or between schools in a region or cluster.
"We do not have performance budget and detailed school-by-school data on various expenditure, school staffing and resource allocation issues that would help us make valid comparisons. And without this sort of data, it is, in all honesty, very difficult to me to make my own assessments of what funding levels we need in our cluster."
<1b>—Link Hoewing
Poolesville Cluster
<lst>"The Wootton community restates its view that this county does not have needy schools but rather it has needy children. As a result of county housing policy, these children can be found in each and every cluster.
“We are not a Title I set of schools but we now have a substantial increase in students who are entitled to Title I services. We understand it is easier to administer programs based on geographic areas and the designation of schools as being "red or green", i.e., "needy or not needy." But the unintended result is that needy kids who attend schools not designated as "needy" are deprived of the services made available to similarly impacted children who live in areas or schools that are designated as "needy."
“If resources are to be made available to needy children, and we believe that they should be, then resources should be based on a child's need — not the school's address.
"We must caution against a one size fits all approach to meeting the educational needs of our students. As you consider the budget, please remember that our principals and teachers working with students and parents in any given community must have the freedom to be innovative. For example, our cluster school principals have demonstrated instructional leadership and innovation by developing a curriculum plan that responded to the educational concerns expressed by our community. You never know where a great idea or program will pop up.”
<1b>—Gigi Godwin
Wootton High School Cluster
<lst>"I am here tonight to support the Board of Education's proposed Operating Budget and to endorse the county executive's recommendations to fully fund it. Yet, we must all recognize that even "fully funding" the MCPS budget as proposed does not fully fund all our children's needs.
“Recall that the original plan for FY2003 called for a total of 17.6 million of ongoing initiatives which were deemed crucial to school improvement such as reduction of oversize classes in elementary and secondary schools including 46.5 positions at a cost of $2.1 million; improvements in bilingual counseling and parent outreach for ESOL students; increase of counselors, psychologists and pupil personnel workers including 37.5 positions at a cost of $2.3 million; and finally, improvements in access to technology in the classroom at a cost of $2.1 million. Though humbled by the competing concerns for county funds, I urge you to consider the adverse impact of this reduced budget on our schools.
"I echo MCCPTA's call for an increase in resources for ESOL/special education students. Even the additional funding under the modified Thornton plan will not fully meet these students' crisis needs.
"The mental health of our students is of the highest priority. At a minimum, we urge you to recognize the desperate need to provide our guidance counselors with additional administrative support and administrative relief. In our schools today, a counselor's job is consumed by administrative tasks.
“The volume of these administrative burdens leaves our counselors with little time to be proactive. If today, we cannot afford to hire additional counselors, let us at least hire additional support staff to assist in the preparation and dissemination of the myriad paperwork."
<1b>—Shirley Brandman
Whitman Cluster
<lst>When my husband and I were first married, I earned a living while he attended school as a full-time student. We found ourselves making many decisions regarding financial priorities. Should we buy a new chair or save the money toward a down payment on a house and try to get a little more life out of the old hand-me-down chair from my grandparents?
“Later we had children and began teaching them to make the same kind of decisions about financial priorities. Do you want 10 outfits from the discount stores or two or three from the higher priced "cool" stores?
“And we've entrusted you, our County Council, to set financial priorities for the county as a whole.
“We know this is a difficult task, requiring the balancing of the needs of all segments of our populations. It's made even more difficult this year due to the decrease in available funds. But we are watching you in hope that you keep in mind the importance of maintaining a high quality school system that attracts the residents and businesses that provide the economic base our county depends on."
<1b>—Shelley Miller
Walter Johnson Cluster
<lst>"This year's Operating Budget is particularly important to us in light of the sacrifices our communities will endure due to the Capital Improvement delays already approved. Indeed, more than 50 percent of the demonstrated Capital Improvement Program needs in our schools have been eliminated or delayed in order to redirect those funds to the Operating Budget.
"Advocating for class size reduction has been and continues to be our first priority at MCCPTA. We think an important component of the recent success in our kindergarten classes is the 15:1 student-teacher ratio that has been imposed there. We are hopeful that the class size reduction effort continues to take place, especially in our middle and high schools. We remain concerned that this effort has not yet been successfully implemented for our ESOL and Special Education classes.
"We are disheartened to see that additional funds are not being requested for additional counselors, psychologists and pupil personnel workers. And we would like to see continued improvements in bilingual counseling and parent outreach for ESOL and Special Education students."
<1b>—Michelle Turner
MCCPTA president
<lst>"The loss of state funding and the downturn in the economy is what some have said should have led us to "starkly" reduce the budget for our county schools. I take issue with both premises of the decision. The downturn in the county's economy has not shown itself in the salary and wages portion of income tax receipts and the increase in property taxes. Those revenue changes and the decision by the state of Maryland to increase the state cigarette tax and to opt for expanded funding for education in the future renders moot many of our limited funding problems."
<1b>—Eugene Thirolf
Richard Montgomery Cluster
<lst>"Within our county, many children who have special needs and whose first language is not English could be denied equivalent services because they do not attend a school with a large concentration of high-needs children.
"If we are serious about closing the achievement gap, and providing a truly equal education for all of our children, we believe that the county must provide basic funding for each and every special-needs student in every cluster.
"Our cluster supports the Thornton Commission recommendation that MCPS provide every child with full-day kindergarten by the 2006-2007 school year.
"Our primary request for this Operating Budget cycle is that staffing at all of our schools be maintained at the current levels and that every effort be made to increase staffing at our schools where student needs are greatest. We must have enough teachers to keep our class sizes small and manageable."
<1b>—Alison Stansbury
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Cluster
"Together we represent the 570 principals, assistant principals, student support specialists and various central service administrators and supervisors of the Montgomery County Public Schools.
"The Board of Education's request reflects a responsible budget — a budget that recognizes that organizational restructuring and efficiencies will generate savings, but that fundamental costs associated with growth, core instructional initiatives supporting student achievement, and certain educational commitments must be maintained and funded.
"We continue to believe that meeting the needs of younger students and providing solid foundations for student learning and achievement in the early grades is fundamental to the success and achievements of students at the secondary level.
"As the school system moves to a year-round model of student learning (note the Extended School Year for special education students for the summer programs in 18 elementary, all middle schools and most high schools), we fully support the initiatives and supports to students but we also realize these supports will put more on the plates of administrators most of whom are overextended and often times overwhelmed already.
"It is essential to have an administrator in every building every workday throughout the year. The absence of assistant principals from the majority of our elementary schools and one middle school means that these schools operate with one administrator who must do everything.
"[A] priority need is a testing coordinator allocation at every school. Testing and accountability standards occupy an ever-increasing amount of time, effort, supervision and implementation."
<1b>—Dan Shea, president
MC Association of Administrative and Supervisory Personnel
Dawn Ellis, president
Secondary School Administrators Association
Michael Headman, co-president
Elementary School Administrators Association