"Attempted Fraud": Ex St Charles Board President gives Erwin memo to County Prosecutor, police

Erwin's Quest to Vest

Gaffney: “I didn’t write the memo...I just signed it.”

The post-Erwin fallout continues in WestChiTown as St Charles board member Jim Gaffney tries to distance himself from the now infamous "Erwin memo" that bears his signature.

His 'I didn't write it but I signed it' excuse is the lamest thing I've heard since Erwin's, 'I didn't present at the conference, but I signed off on it.'

What's next? 'I'm not the Queen of England, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night?'

One source close to district leadership in St Charles told KSN&C, in April, that several district personnel were aware of Erwin's efforts to pressure HR staff to add 85 sick days to her account starting in 2004 - a year early. Some have opined that such pressure may have played a role in the departure of a former HR chief in 2006.

The rumor was that after only a few weeks on the job, new HR director Tony Spahr started receiving significant pressure from Erwin - first orally - then, after he reviewed her contract, and refused to add the days - she gave him the memo Gaffney signed, and directed Spahr to add the days again.

Spahr sought legal advice and refused again. After that, Erwin told him that maybe he should start looking for work elsewhere - which he apparently did.

If the rumor is true - there ought to be a piece of paper out there - some kind of legal opinion from the board attorney Mike Duggan, written in mid February.
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This from AMELIA FLOOD at the Kane County Chronicle:

ST. CHARLES – Former District 303 school board President Bobbie Raehl has taken to police and county prosecutors a memo – signed by board member James Gaffney – that she says shows “behind-the-scenes business.”

“Personally, I feel it’s attempted fraud and it’s a violation of the Open Meetings Act,” Raehl said.

Gaffney denies writing the one-sentence memo that states that the school board agreed in 2004 to award nearly a year in sick days to its then-superintendent.

“I didn’t write the memo,” Gaffney said during a recess of Monday night’s school board meeting. “I just signed it.”

The board later approved a contract amendment to give 340 sick days to then-Superintendent Barbara Erwin. But that action was taken during a 2005 closed-session vote that was found to be in violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

The memo that was signed by Gaffney, Raehl said, showed he was trying to act on behalf of the board.“He was saying it was the board’s intent, and it was not,” Raehl insisted.

Gaffney explained that “the human resources guy” faxed him the memo.

The district’s former human resources director, Tony Spahr, said the document was not faxed by his department. He said he first received it from Erwin in her office in February.“I don’t know how she obtained it,” Spahr said. “I’d never received anything like it.”

The memo consists of a single sentence: “This is to affirm that the Board of Education, agreed in 2004, as part of her employment contract to award her 340 sick days at 85 days a year.”

It is signed, “Jim Gaffney, past president.”

Raehl said she learned of the memo in March. She confronted Gaffney about it during an executive session April 9, Raehl reported, but he would not acknowledge the memo.

Gaffney said the memo would have been on his personal letterhead if he had written it.“If you look back at the record, everything is on my personal letterhead,” Gaffney said Monday. “If I had written it, ... it would’ve been better written.”

He did not return phone calls Tuesday for comment on Raehl’s accusations.

On Monday night, Gaffney was called upon by resident Jeff Blankenship to explain the memo.“Like a bicycle that’s broken, you have to fix what’s broken,” Blankenship said.

Blankenship also asked Gaffney and board President Kathy Hewell to resign amid the controversy involving a contract extension the board awarded to Erwin.“Mrs. Hewell, Mr. Gaffney, you aren’t helping this board,” Blankenship said. “If we’re going to do what’s best for our children, some people have to leave.”

Gaffney would not comment Monday on the calls for his resignation or those asking for an explanation of his actions.“Everybody’s got their own opinions,” Gaffney said.

Hewell could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Timeline of events

February 2007 -– Tony Spahr, the former head of human resources at the district, is given a memo signed by Jim Gaffney asking that Superintendent Barbara Erwin be given 340 sick days retroactively.

March – Board President Bobbi Raehl becomes aware of the memo through the board’s attorney, Mike Duggan.

April 9 – Raehl alleges she confronted Gaffney in executive session about the memo and that he did not acknowledge it.

July 2 – The Kane County Chronicle requests the memo under the Freedom of Information Act.

Aug. 9 – Raehl meets with lawyers in the civil division of the State’s Attorney’s Office to discuss the memo.

Aug. 13 – Raehl and others call for an explanation of the memo during citizen comments at the school board meeting. Gaffney informs a Chronicle reporter that he did not write the memo, only signed it and that it was faxed to him for his signature by District 303’s human resources department.

Aug. 14 – Tony Spahr says that the fax did not come from his department and that the first time he saw the memo was when he was given it by Erwin in February.

Click here to see the signed memo

Click here to see the Chronicle's request for the memo

Photo by Travis Houghton at the Kane CountyChronicle.

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Gaffney says "the Human resources guy" sent it to him. Bull.

Apart from the fact that Tony Spahr had no motivation to do so, it would have constituted an illegal act, and he had previously refused to grant her the days, despite being threatened with termination...WHERE ARE THE FAX MACHINE MARKINGS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MEMO?

I don't know about your faxes...but mine all have a time stamps on them. Take a good look at the Chronicle's photo of the actual memo. No marks.

Did Gaffney mess up his story?

So who really wrote the memo? You can't rule out Gaffney. You can't rule out a couple of others either.

Three part series in the Richmond Register highlights school funding woes

Headed toward financial crisis

The problem: Higher costs, shortage of funds

By Bryan Marshall, Richmond Register:

(Editor’s note: This is the first story in a three-part series about funding issues in Madison County and other Kentucky school districts.)

After nearly $2 million in cuts in the 2007-08 tentative budget, it is no secret that the Madison County School District is in a financial crunch.

The budget approved in May had several staff reductions, including nine teaching positions, 10 full-time substitutes, four and a half teacher aides, 11 and a half special education teachers, six special education aides, one speech position and a technology position.Other cuts included 14 bus drivers and 10 bus aides, a reduction of bus purchases from 10 to five, about $300,000 reduction in technology purchases and an extended day for all district employees.The savings of the reductions were about $1.6 to 1.8 million, said Glenn Marshall, acting superintendent.

The reasoning for the cuts arose out of the need to replenish money from the capital outlay fund, which is used for building projects, that had been moved in the past few years to the general fund

We’ve got two issues,” Marshall said. “One is that we are having trouble meeting our budget today. We’re opening a new middle school in two or three years. That’s $1 million in additional operating costs. In order to do that, we have to have money left over at the end of each year now showing that we can operate it. We don’t have that.”“Those are the reasons we have to get capital outlay back in,” he said. “We want to build a vocational school, a new middle school, another elementary school and renovate Madison Southern High School. We can’t do that unless we get capital outlay back into the construction account.”

During the 2003-04 school year, $281,000 of capital outlay money was used in the general fund.That amount increased to $868,320, $901,080 and $929,610, respectively, in the subsequent three years.There is no capital outlay money in the general fund in the 2007-08 tentative budget.

Budget shortfall

In addition to the cost of fuel increasing from $230,000 to $580,000 per year over the past several years, several other factors have led to the budget shortfall.

The two biggest culprits are the decrease in state transportation funding and the increase of the amount the district pays into county retirement, Marshall said.While the state fully funded the cost of the district’s transportation several years ago, the amount needed to supplement state funds has increased since the 2004-05 school year.Transportation costs were 95.7 percent funded in 2004-05 by the state, leading to $153,658 in expenses for the district.The past two years have decreased further with 87.8 percent funded, creating a $464,919 shortage in 2005-06, and 81.3 percent funded, or a $807,076 shortfall in 2006-07.The district will have to pay about $843,000 for transportation during the 2007-08 school year because only 80.4 percent will be state funded.

Legislators commissioned a transportation study in the 2006 session of the General Assembly, said state Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, that will look at the transportation formula and how funding is distributed to districts. The study should be complete by January, he said.

“We’re going to do something, looking at both the total amount of transportation funds and the distribution formula for those funds, in 2008,” Moberly said.“Of course, another factor in that is that fuel cost has gone up greatly,” he said. “That’s been a factor with state police and the whole state fleet, as well as a big factor with local school districts.”

In Madison County, as well as other districts, transportation funding has been decreasing the past several years by the state, forcing local districts to have to pay more and more out of local funds, said Lisa Gross, press secretary for the Kentucky Department of Education’s Division of Communications. “The legislature appropriates funds for transportation, just as it does for other school funding, and that appropriation is based on a number of variables,” she said. “The appropriation also is tied to how much money the state has available for everything that is funded through state monies, not just public schools. This agency supports full funding of the transportation component of the (state funding) formula.“The overall funding has not decreased, it has remained flat, however,” she said. “

Individual districts may see less funding in a given year than previously, and the reasons for that will vary with the district.”The rising costs of fuel need to looked at when determining how transportation is funded for districts, said state Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond.“We’re going to have to take into account that we live in an era where we are probably at $2.50 and $3 a gallon gas range and may never see it lower than that until there is stability in the Middle East and we find some alternate fuel sources,” he said. “We’re going to have to assess the amount of money school districts are receiving.”

Pension problems

The percentage that the school district has to pay into county retirement also has more than doubled since 2003-04 when it was 7.34 percent or $470,469.In the following three years, the percentages increased to 8.48 percent ($596,598), 10.98 percent ($833,672) and 13.19 percent ($1,080,469), respectively.The district will be paying 16.17 percent, or $1,404,518, during the 2007-08 school year with the amount projected to jump to more than 28 percent by 2011-12.

“We have to solve the pension issue,” Moberly said. “One of the big, unanticipated costs that districts all across the state are dealing with are their employer contributions in the pension system. The biggest hit is on their classified employees, not their teachers or certified employees, who are not in the teacher retirement system, but in the state retirement system. The employer contributions in that system, because of our pension problem, have gone up dramatically. That has hurt schools districts very much.”

Moberly is serving on the governor’s Task Force on Pension Reform to find a solution to rising costs.“It is important that we come up with some solution to that or school districts are going to be hit with an increasing amount of employer contributions in the future,” he said. “The problem is with the health care cost in the state employment retirement system.”

While the pension issue was discussed during the 2006 General Assembly session, Worley said it needs to be a priority in the 2008 session.“ We have to look how to address the retirement issue so that school districts are not hit so hard that they have to look at understaffing as a means to balance their budget,” he said.

The Madison County School District may have survived within their income, Marshall said, if county retirement had not increased by about $400,000, and if transportation was fully funded.“We’re only funded at about 81 percent for our transportation,” he said. “A combination of all those factors would be the cause of us using capital outlay funds to balance the general fund budget.”“If you put $1.1 million back in our budget from transportation and not having to pay that county retirement increase, we’d be in pretty good shape,” Marshall said.

Headed toward financial crisis — Part 2

Adjacent districts also seeing funding strain

Ed Musgrove did a lot of “soul searching” during his first year as superintendent of the Clark County School District.“When I got here around the first part of August, we found out that our ending balance had placed us back on the (Kentucky Department of Education’s) Financial Watch List, which was the second time in four years,” he said. “We have been working vigorously this year to try to get off that list.”

Clark County was one of only two districts statewide placed on the list because their budgets were close to not having the 2 percent contingency fund required by state law.Because contracts already were approved for the year, Musgrove said there was not a whole lot he could do for the 2006-07 year.However, at the end of May, the school approved a budget for 2007-08 that he said will, by the end of June 30, 2008, allow the 5,200-student district to have a large enough balance to be removed from the list. In the approximately $40 million budget, $1.25 million was cut with most of the money sliced in personnel as 30 employee contracts were not renewed.

Similarly, the Madison County School District made nearly $2 million in cuts in its 2007-08 tentative budget, including nine teaching positions, 10 full-time substitutes, four and a half teacher aides, 11 and a half special education teachers, six special education aides, one speech position, a technology position, 14 bus drivers and 10 bus aides.

Not unique problem

“It’s not a problem unique to Kentucky by any stretch of the imagination,” said Musgrove, who spent 18 years as a superintendent in Missouri, where he said a lot of similar funding issues took place.“I think the real issue for our county is that we really have to look at the local effort toward how we fund education,” he said. “We’re a low-tax county. I think we have to look at our ability to provide the services that the public asks of us, and if there is not going to be anymore SEEK money or federal money, what can we ask our local constituents to do to help us provide those services that are expected?”

The Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding program is a formula driven allocation of state provided funds to local school districts. The formula includes funding for transportation costs and special needs students as reported by districts.Like all state school districts, Clark County uses the MUNIS system, a financial software package, to report financial information.However, Musgrove said the safeguards and checks and balances that are built into the system were not activated, leading to the district’s financial troubles.“By (turning them on), it allowed us to become very much aware of expenditure items that were approaching or exceeding budgeted items,” he said. “For the most part, it fixed itself. But, we did have to go back and take a really hard look at overall how we were spending money as it relates to instruction versus all the other things we do related to the educational component.”

The district also plans on making major revisions in transportation during the 2007-08 year to try to reduce costs.“The key to transportation is you try to operate your program as efficiently as you possibly can,” Musgrove said. “We went and looked at that, and we had some routing situations that were inefficient. Transportation is a big part of it, but when you look at everything, salaries and benefits eat up 75 to 82 percent of all your budgets around the state. If you want to make meaningful cuts, you have to start there.”

Little wiggle room

Garrard County Schools Superintendent Ray Woolsey also has very little financial wiggle room in his school district’s budget.“We have very little discretionary money to use,” he said. “I’d say almost 95 percent of it is obligated.”“We’re just getting by,” Woolsey said about his 2,600-student district adjacent to Madison County. “Basically, this is a school system that is supported by the county residents. We have very little industry or business to help with the system. When the legislature mandates certain expenditures that are not funded, it puts us in a bind.”

In what seems to be a theme across several districts, Woolsey points to two major issues of concern.“Transportation, for example, is one of those examples where our funding has been going down while fuel prices have skyrocketed,” he said.“Another area of concern is the cost of retirement programs for classified positions,” Woolsey said. “They continue to rise at the rate of 10 to 15 percent a year and that’s projected to go up for the next three to four years, I understand. That’s not funded. As we continue to grow, it just sucks the blood right out of us.”

In population, Garrard is one of the top 10 growing counties in the state, he said, adding that an increase of 50 to 100 students a year, which has been standard lately, is “a big growth spurt for us.”The district was required to make a few cuts for the 2007-08 school year in federally funded positions, Woolsey said.“Each of the our elementaries lost one position because the federal funding had gone down,” he said. “We’ve been able to maintain our positions in regard to state jobs to this point. But, it’s caused us to really do some soul searching.”“We’re going to get by. We’re going to make it again this year,” Woolsey said. “There are no frills. We’re trying to conserve money wherever we can.”

Estill County Schools did not have to lay off any teachers because of the increase in teacher pay mandated by state, but they did have to let a few go because of a decrease in Title I federal funding, said Superintendent Bert Hensley.“Hopefully, we’ll have enough money to make it through,” he said. “I think we’re in pretty good shape, but it could be one of those things that have an effect at the end of the school year.”

Cautious

In a district that has grown about 750 students in the past six years, Jessamine County has to continue to monitor their finances, said Tim Lemaster, director of finance.“We’re doing OK. It’s not great,” he said about the 7,000-student district. “We’re a little cautious because drops in state revenues can really hurt us.”Because of the county’s smaller geographical size, the cost of transportation is not as big of an issue as in other counties, Lemaster said, but the district still has had to budget considerably more for an increase in fuel costs.

The biggest problem for the Jessamine district in the budgeting process is the lack of information provided ahead of time by the state, he said. “It would help us to have more heads up about what our funding will be in the upcoming year,” Lemaster said. “We have to plan really short term, so it would help to know a year out what the funding will be and what the required raises will be. I know it’s a big dream. Otherwise, it causes you to be more conservative than you would be.”

While he describes his 2,900-student district as stable, Rockcastle County Superintendent Larry Hammond also admitted that there is never enough funding.“When an increase is mandated, typically, the increase in SEEK does not pay for the mandated salary increase,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”“We have been practicing trying to be conservative,” said Hammond. “We’ve been able to make the staffing portion work through retirements and attrition. We didn’t let anyone go because of the budget.”

The district continually works to reduce transportation expenditures, he said, by eliminating four to five bus routes in his 12-year tenure.“Unless you’re in a totally urban setting, you lose money in transportation,” Hammond said. “We spend several thousands of dollars more than what the state reimburses us.”While Rockcastle Schools may have experience an occasional slight decline in student population, overall, the district enrollment has been steady. “We’ve been basically flat in population for years on end,” Hammond said. “By being flat, it makes it easier to plan.

By comparison in Madison County, they’re experiencing rapid growth. With that, you can’t hardly keep up. If you go to the other extreme and you’re experiencing a decline, that’s probably even more painful than the growth because you’re cutting programs.”

“There are different variables in different districts that cause it to be one year to be more strenuous for us than the next year. It might be more strenuous for Madison County or Estill,” he said.

Having to struggle

While his district is not growing, Ralph Hoskins, superintendent of Jackson County Schools, said money also is tight.“We’re having to struggle,” he said. “It’s just a hard financial time right now for school districts.”“Jackson County is unique,” Hoskins said. “We don’t have a utility tax, and we don’t have the revenue strain that a lot of districts have. We just don’t have the tax base to go with that.”

For the past couple years, the approximately 2,200-student district has grown only a few students, which is an improvement upon the 25-student decrease the district was experiencing a couple years ago.“We’ve had to cut a lot of personnel over the past five years,” Hoskins said. “That makes it awfully hard. We’ve cut it down to the bone.”“Another thing is the high cost of everything — fuel costs for buses,” he said. “We just don’t have enough revenue. What I would love to see happen is (the state) to fully fund transportation and fully fund all-day kindergarten. That would help us tremendously in our district. We just need some more money. I know everybody has financial worries, but we just need some more funding.”

Although the district recently received $5 million in funding to renovate the high school, Hoskins said another $10 million more really is needed to build a new one.The high school is considered a category five high school, meaning that the building is more than 40 years old and it would cost more to renovate than to build a new facility.The district has not raised taxes mainly because the residents recently were hit with a city and county occupational tax.

Everybody can only pay so much,” Hoskins said.“(University of Kentucky President) Lee Todd was at a meeting one time and he said, ‘You can’t cut your way to excellence,’” he said. “That’s what scares me. You have to balance the budget, and that’s hard to do when your cutting services that you need to provide to your children and your school district. We’re striving to be proficient by 2014, and you can’t keep cutting if we really want excellence.”

Headed toward financial crisis — Part 3

Schools, state seek solution

Various studies have proposed that state funding for Kentucky school districts should be increased by hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Lisa Gross, press secretary for the Kentucky Department of Education’s Division of Communications.

“School funding in Kentucky, overall, is not where it should be” she said. “Although the funding system does provide equity, the pool of money is just not big enough. So, districts may struggle over time or have difficulty during a given year, depending on factors such as enrollment, facilities and other expenditure-related items.”

Kentucky has traditionally ranked lower than most states when comparisons are made on the amounts allocated per student for P-12 education, Gross said.The amount of public school expenditure per student in 2005-06 for the state was $8,195, ranking Kentucky 31st in the nation, according to fall 2006 rankings and estimates by the National Education Association.Washington, D.C., and Utah were first and last in the rankings, respectively, with $15,864 and $5,347 per student.

The seven adjacent states to Kentucky — Illinois ($10,271), Ohio ($10,034), West Virginia ($9,790), Virginia ($9,275), Indiana ($8,978), Missouri ($7,680) and Tennessee ($7,079) — ranked 11th, 17th, 18th, 21st, 23rd 39th and 45th, respectively.

The state always has to acknowledge the increase cost of education, said state Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond.“That is a core responsibility in our budget,” he said. “About 60 percent of all dollars in the state budget currently goes to education, all of education. As we privatize in other areas of state government, find savings and reductions, as the economy grows and additional revenue exists, we need to appropriate additional money from the state level.”

“(Kindergarten through 12th grade) are the most crucial years of a child’s development,” Worley said. “There has been significant improvement in funding over the past few years with the development and changes in the SEEK formula. But, as far as adequately funding for the full needs, until all of K-12 have the technology they need, the classroom sizes that they need and until teachers are compensated to a level that is fair and comparable to surrounding states, then it’s underfunded.”

‘Great progress’

We’ve made great progress since 1990,” state Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, said about the rankings. “At one point, we were ranked 47th or 48th. But, it is my goal to get it down more. Our kids are starting to perform at the national average or above on tests. I continually talk about the need for more money, at the same time as we have more accountability. If we put more money in, we expect more results.“I’m a strong advocate for squeezing every dollar we can out of the budget for education,” he said. “I think the greatest responsibility in the General Assembly and the governor is to assure that we have a good system of education P-20 (pre-school through college).”

However, Gross said it is a positive sign that the 2006 General Assembly added more funding to the state formula.“We have greatly increased the amount of K-12 money in the budget since 1990,” Moberly said. “Our last full budget in 2006, I think was the best education budget that we ever passed. But, we’re going to have to go in 2008 and address the issues (school districts have.) We’re still not funding elementary and secondary at a high enough level.“We need more money, particularly in preschool,” he said. “We need to improve our test scores across the board. We need more teachers. We’re going to need to do more. I’m committed to doing more, and I always have been.”

Elementary and secondary education has always been the legislators’ number one priority, he said.“It has lost some share in terms of percentage in the budget, not dollars, because the dollars have been going up greatly,” Moberly said. “But, in terms of percentage, it’s lost some ground since 1980 because of the amount of money we’ve had to put in Medicaid and prisons.

We think we’re starting to get a handle on those costs with some new and innovative ways of looking at those. So, education remains our top priority. I think 2008 needs to be a session where we show what a priority education truly is for us.”

Watch List

Two of the state’s 174 school districts were on the Kentucky Department of Education’s Financial Watch List at the end of 2006.The Clark County and Ludlow Independent school districts were placed on the list because their budgets were close to not having the 2 percent contingency fund required by state law. There usually is no more than five districts on the list within a given year with the average being two to three districts, Gross said.“We monitor districts’ financial status to ensure that they have at least that 2-percent reserve, and we offer resources and assistance when the contingency gets close to the required level,” she said.
“Madison County was not one of those districts.”KDE staff works with districts to help them implement sound business practices and make the most of the funding they receive, she said.

The state Department of Education and the Kentucky Board of Education continue to encourage and support expanded funding for the state formula, along with growth taxes that would benefit districts that experience rapid enrollment growth, Gross said.“Growth is a big issue in a number of districts, and it is cyclical, meaning that a district usually experiences rapid growth over a period of time, then levels off for a while,” she said. “Every year, some districts struggle with growth, which affects their financial status in a variety of ways. But, once district officials adjust to the growth, the district tends to bounce back.”

Funding

All districts have enacted local taxes, ranging from utility to “growth nickels,” which the Madison County School District has two of for building purposes, in order to raise revenues.For the 2007-08 school year, the Madison County School District, will derive 65.7 percent ($38.7 million) of its general fund budget from state funding, 33.9 percent ($19.9 million) from local sources, including property taxes, utility taxes, franchise taxes, motor vehicle taxes and delinquent taxes, and less than 1 percent from miscellaneous funding.The district also receives about $7 million in federal funding separate from the general fund.The total budget is about $64.2 million with $5.3 million of that carried over from the 2006-07 school year.

While districts do have the ability to increase taxes by a particular amount or attempt to have a referendum to raise taxes to improve revenue, Moberly said he disagreed that more funding should come from local sources.“Kentucky is in the top five in percentage of state contribution (to school districts),” he said. “We have traditionally been a much larger state contributor than a local contributor, although the local money is very important. I believe it’s a consensus politically of the people of Kentucky, including Madison County, that they want to continue that heavy state participation, and they don’t want to do anything where they’ll be paying a lot more local taxes.”

There is no one answer that covers all of the state’s school districts about whether putting more demand on local sources for revenue for school districts, Gross said.“In some districts, raising the level of local effort is the best solution,” she said. “In others, more state funding would be of greater help. And, for still others, some combination of the two would be most effective. Given that there’s a limited pot of money, it’s more a matter of sound fiscal policy, rather than counting on a great windfall, that will help districts manage funding successfully.”

SEEK can hurt

One way the Madison County District gets hurt with the state SEEK formula, said Glenn Marshall, acting superintendent, is when the county’s existing property values increase by more than 4 percent because the district can only receive 4 percent more than the previous year.The Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding program is a formula driven allocation of state provided funds to local school districts. The formula includes funding for transportation costs and special needs students as reported by districts.“If they increased 7 percent, our SEEK formula assumes we get a 7 percent increase, so they reduce SEEK based on that 7 percent,” he said. “But, we can only get 4 percent. That’s cumulative over the years. So, we’ve been hurt by hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years from that rule. A lot of districts like us that have increasing property values are hurt by that.”

“New property coming on helps us a lot,” Marshall said. “But, when new property comes on, that is additional children. Therefore, the money from the new property is supposed to generate income to serve those children. But, when we get reduced because of the older property increasing more than 4 percent, then that is a setback.”

Moberly admits that there are several factors in the SEEK formula that need to be looked at, including Marshall’s concern about property values.“We’ve been hesitant in the past to change that because anytime you change something, there are winners and losers because there is only so much money that goes in,” he said. “But, that’s an issue that we have to talk about because that’s not fair to those districts that have that phenomenon happen. I’m going to try to do something about that this time.”Studies have shown that SEEK is equitable, Gross said, because it provides weights for a variety of items whose “worth” will vary from district to district.

Equitable, not equal

“SEEK is designed to provide equitable state funding, rather than equal funding,” she said. “More funding for SEEK would help all districts, including Madison County. And, more flexibility for districts to level “growth” taxes also would be helpful.”

In the past 20 years, four independent districts have merged with their county counterparts with financial considerations being the primary reasons for the merger.Gross, however, said communities should remain optimistic about their school district.“I’d encourage those who are concerned about a district’s financial situation to have confidence that district officials work hard to ensure that students get the support they need in school, and that means they are focused on implementing good business practices,” she said.

There is no easy solution to any district’s financial struggles, Gross said. “Sometimes, those resolve themselves when state funding is allocated, if the issue is that the district experiences unforeseen growth or has a one-time major expense,” she said.“Sometimes, it takes a thorough review of fiscal practices and assistance from our staff to help the district get back on track,” she said. “The issue is not equity, but adequacy — more funding for the state SEEK formula will help all districts and balance out local funding.”

Kentucky constantly has to be thinking about creating a more stable economy and a more stable source of revenue, Worley said, so when there is a major industry dip because of a recession, the state still has the ability to address core needs, such as education.“The first thing that Harry and I will do before the 2008 session of the General Assembly is meet with the superintendent and members of the board of education,” he said. “We’ll learn from them exactly what caused them difficulty and whether or not it’s the anomalies that are in the SEEK formula where often times some of the more prosperous districts have a penalty as opposed to some of the less prosperous districts. We’ll do an assessment in terms of their financial needs so that cuts don’t have to be made.”

Case Closed: Probe for Erwin file unresolved

This from the Kane County Chronicle:

ST. CHARLES - Police have closed their investigation into the missing personnel file of former St. Charles Superintendant Barbara Erwin with no answer as to its whereabouts.

Police spokesman Paul McCurtain confirmed Tuesday that the investigation was closed, pending further leads and that such an outcome was not unheard of.

"There just isn't anything for them [the investigators] to go on," McCurtain said.

Erwin's file was reported missing on July 3 by Superintendent Don Schlomann. Since then, the police and Schlomann have been in communication and district staff were interviewed.

Schlomann said he had received a call from investigators who "suggested that they were at a dead-end."

"And I suggested to them that maybe they should close the investigation. But I'm relying on their judgement," Schlomann said.
~
And this from the Daily Herald.

Ft Thomas board member takes a swipe at legislature, Seek formula

This from Scott Johnson in the Cincinnati Post.

State formula is unfair to schools in Northern Ky.

If you follow Northern Kentucky, you have gotten wind of the storm that is hitting Boone County schools.

The storm's origin dates to 1989, with the Kentucky Supreme Court's landmark Rose v. Council for Better Education decision. This ruling produced the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) and a funding formula, "Support Education Excellence Kentucky" (SEEK).

In Rose, the Court held:

"The system of common schools must be substantially uniform throughout the state."

"The children who live in the poor districts and the children who live in the rich districts must be given the same opportunity."

"This obligation cannot be shifted to local counties and local school districts."

The future of 18,000 students, Boone County's quality of life and the future of similar districts around the state will ultimately be touched by the strategy that deals with this Frankfort whirlwind. Although there is a tendency to muddle the forces at work, it is only by bringing clarity to these components that we can arrive at solutions.

First, Boone County is synonymous with growth. By looking back to go forward, KERA / SEEK is ill-equipped to handle a district that needs one new school a year. Although the need to house students would seem undeniable, Frankfort continues to deny that the situation exists. While this is Boone County's issue, the problem did not show up two weeks ago.

Second, there are issues with KERA / SEEK that go beyond rapid growth. These flaws apply to Boone County, a rapid growth district, and Fort Thomas, a district where size is constant. The problems center around the way SEEK handles increasing property values, like those in Northern Kentucky, as "wealth" - the implication being that hefty mortgages mean mason jars of cash in the cellar. Under KERA / SEEK, increasing property values trigger corresponding drops in state funding. This dynamic results in chronic shifting of the funding burden from the state to local taxpayers, in direct conflict with Frankfort's obligation to fund education.

In addition, a separate law, (commonly known as House Bill 44), interacts with the SEEK formula to result in "property rich" districts losing money when values increase. This law requires revenue increases to be capped at 4 percent or risk voter recall. If a district receives a 10 percent increase in PVA values, the state responds with a corresponding 10 percent reduction and the local school board adjusts tax rates downward to limit revenue to a 4 percent increase - resulting in a net loss of 6 percent.

Previously healthy districts have found 17 years of SEEK debilitating. To take up the state's slack, local districts have little choice but to tax themselves senseless or allow their own decline. Although Fort Thomas and Boone County passed levies in recent memory, neither board welcomes the notion again - given the extent to which locals already pay the legislature's tab.

Fort Thomas schools receive $1,523 per pupil less than average state revenue, and local taxpayers contribute $1,928 more in local revenue than the state average, for a total per pupil imbalance of $3,451 relative to state averages. Boone County schools receive $1,839 less state revenue and local taxpayers offer an additional $1,455, for a total per pupil deficit of $3,294 relative to state averages. Despite the fact that Boone County is exploding and Fort Thomas remains constant, the two districts have more in common than apart under the KERA/SEEK formulas.

The third and immediate force impacting Boone County is the death of the property valuation administrator, the subsequent state assessment audit and the value increase of an astonishing 37.2 percent for commercial property. After this "windfall" is combined with the 4 percent rule, Boone County Schools project depleting cash reserves and netting a multi-million dollar deficit.

As for solutions, the General Assembly will likely acknowledge the anomaly of this "bubble" with special legislation, eliminating this component of the storm. As for rapid growth, legislation could get this job done, but given the legislature's tendency to duck controversy, litigation may be required.

When it comes to the discriminatory practices of KERA / SEEK, however, the time has come for local school officials to exercise fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers by utilizing litigation as the means necessary to secure a substantially uniform system of common schools.

With the General Assembly being engaged in "Reelection Incorporated," it is naïve to suppose that after 17 years, this body will suddenly muster the political conscience and courage to morph the current culture of majority entitlement to a system that serves every child equally.

Because the General Assembly has been deadlocked for 17 years, this is a textbook example of a time when judicial intervention is required to protect the rights of the few from the excess of the many. Although pursuing the same course and expecting alternative outcomes is insanity, expecting a legislative fix for KERA / SEEK is just plain crazy.

Law Blog criticizes C-Js Political Cartoon on Teddy Gordon and the Meredith case

First, C-J ran this Political Cartoon by Scott Coffman, titled: "Teddy Gordon waits for his $1 gamble to pay off."

Then, Michael Stevens, over at the Kentucky law Review blog, ripped the ticket in two.

Louisville: Courier-Journal Cartoon

on Attorney Fees in School Case

- Not a "Pulitzer" moment

I seriously considered NOT posting a link to the "political" cartoon in the Courier-Journal by Scott Coffman "Teddy Gordon Waits for his $1 Gamble to Pay off".

However, our judges and courts speak through their decisions, and someone has to come to their defense when inappropriate liberties are taken to attack either. This is one of those times.
Mr. Coffman's comparing the filing of a lawsuit to the purchase of a lottery ticket in any legal scenario is not factually inaccurate. Even worse, it is an insult to the reputation of the courts and breeds unnecessary disrespect for the judicial system. All for the sake of a questionable chuckle.

A picture of a lottery ticket with the names of each of the justices of the United States Supreme Court with check marks by those who voted with the majority in the Meredith v. Jefferson Public Schools case implies the law and the facts were ignored by all concerned.

Attacking the person and not the issues is a weak argument. Adlai Stevenson once said "He who slings mud generally loses ground."

This "lottery" ticket did not cost a dollar, and if as Lincoln said that a lawyer's time is his stock and trade, then a lot of time and hours over the years was expended on behalf of Gordon's client; much more than a token sum.

By looking at the lawyer and not the litigant, the cartoon took the path of least resistance and continues to play on the passions of the people rather than move forward. Whether or not you agree with the outcome is not the point! The point is that this is a nation of laws. The rule of law is important, and not just when the law agrees with you. The courts are open to those who believe they have been wronged and seek redress. A decision has been made; move on.

As Atticus Finch stated in his closing in To Kill a Mockingbird - "Now, gentlemen, in this country our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality!

Although I may not agree with each decision from our higher courts, and often point out the lack of justice and logic in those decisions, I am disturbed by those who compare any judge or justice to a numbered ping pong ball or reduce the justice system to nothing more than the tipping points in a bet.

Happy Birthday Dad !

John L. Day, circa 1954

Dad's long career included some youthful union activism (He helped lead a successful job action that aided his fellow workers and got himself fired in the process), real estate sales, President of the Kenton-Boone Board of Realtors, and a long career in real estate appraisal that found him working for both public agencies (like the Kentucky Highway Department, Greater Cincinnati Airport, East Kentucky Power) and individual home owners. He received a Kentucky Realtor's Emeritus recognition not too long ago for his 50+ years of service to the field. He and my mother reared three children including my brother Jack a Cincinnati attorney, and my sister Kim who has been a Vice President of Marketing for several fashion houses in New York. Mom & Dad presently reside in Crestview Hills, Ky

My father was a rather independent Democrat when he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives for two terms in the mid-1950s - contemporaneously with Foster Ockerman Sr., Edward T "Ned" Brethitt, Harry King Lowman, & John B Breckinridge.

Speedy Kentuckians can thank him for the “points” on your driver’s license.

KSN&C welcomes C-J to the Education blogosphere

The Learning Curve, a new education blog put together in time for the start of the 2007-08 school year by the education writers of The Courier-Journal; Nancy C. Rodriguez, Toni Konz and Daarel Burnette.

We are very excited about this new opportunity to communicate with our readers about different things going on in the world of education that don't necessarily make the print edition of the newspaper.

We plan on using this blog as a place to post events and snippets that are taking place in classrooms, schools, colleges and universities both locally and across the state. We also would like to use it as a way to give our readers a "Behind the Scenes" look at some of the stories that do make it into the paper and first-person accounts of some of the stories we cover. We plan to post at least three or four times a week, maybe more.

~

Welcome Y'all. Let us know when you have your feed set up.

Fayette County School board looks at nickle tax hike to address long-standing facilities issues

Last October, in a board of education debate, I was somewhat critical of the existing Fayette County Board for what I saw as a neglect of known facilities needs. At that time, the district said the need was $184 million for new construction, renovation and maintenance. This number was based on the 2004 district facilities plan. I argued that the board should not wait until the need grew to $200 million before doing something about it.

Many of the facilities projects had been "on the books" for years and kept getting pushed back due to insufficient bonding capacity. Just as with our homes, delayed repairs now can lead to greater costs later. School construction costs in Lexington have risen by about 8% a year, or 32% since 2004. Neglect the infrastructure at your peril. Leaky roofs, warped gym floors and air conditioning repairs all competed for the same dollars.

For example, Cassidy School was originally scheduled for renovation somewhere around 2000; now planned for 2008. Existing maintenance problems were handled with band aids while renovation was postponed in favor of more pressing needs, specifically new school construction. The situation has gotten worse.

When we planned for new elementary schools in the 1990s, the costs were typically in the neighborhood of $7 million. Bids for the new elementary schools presently underway in Fayette County came in at $14 million to $17 million.

It is important to note that Fayette County has not prospered under SEEK, the state's funding formula. For more than a decade Fayette County operated on the same funding as it did in 1991-92. During that time the district resisted the temptation to ask the local tax payers to better support Fayette County's schools. The last time the school district went to the public for a tax hike for facilities was in the 1960s. The Occupational License Tax began in the mid 80s and kept the schools from raising student fees for instructional materials for years. The general funding picture for Fayette County under SEEK hasn't gotten any better.

I have no doubt the district needs to raise the facilities tax, but I must confess I was surprised to hear that since last fall the stated need had grown to exceed $290 million, an increase of nearly 40%.

I looked into the question this morning and found that comparing to two numbers is like comparing oranges and...tangerines.

Administrators who work with state school facilities will understand that the Kentucky Department of Education does not allow school districts to list in their plans every item they need. That would lead to plans that were unrealistic and ultimately, never accomplished. District plans are limited to four years, further limited by the estimate of available funds, which in turn limits the number of projects that can be included.

The new $290 million figure Fayette County is using is based on current actual needs that exceed the 2004 plan including new projects and increased costs. For example, the district elementary school enrollment has increased by 500 students. "That's an elementary school..." district communication director Lisa Deffendall told me. As time goes by, smaller projects have turned into bigger projects. That is the case with Breckinridge and Yates elementaries for example. Both are in need of renovation. According to the 2004 plan, Breckinridge was only going to get some new lighting and Yates was scheduled to add some KERA mandated work spaces.

In fact, the actual figure is closer to $317.2 million when all projects are added, which takes the plan well beyond two biennia, to 2018. Without the nickel tax, today's kindergartners would graduate before many of the projects would be addressed. With the nickel, the full plan can be implemented by 2016, not counting emerging projects that occur. It might even be accomplished sooner, but there are practical limits to what can be done; like the number of construction firms capable of doing such work and some logistical problems. How many projects can a district the size of Fayette County realistically have going on at one time?

If the nickel is not approved, Fayette County is in for a rough time with its infrastructure. I'm not suggesting roofs will cave in (like the Minnesota bridge did), but I'm pretty sure rain will start hitting some student desks, sidewalks will crack, paint will be needed, repairs will be delayed and overall public confidence in the schools will be undermined.

The board is currently facing $21.9 million in projects that must be done, right now. If they can be done as part of a general building renovation, it will be much more cost effective. If the nickel fails, however, that work must still be done in a piecemeal fashion and the resulting impact on the rest of the facilities, in time, will become crippling as resources are siphoned away.

The circumstance the board finds itself in is troubling. It might also be argued that it is one of their own making. Many of the district's facilities needs have been around for a while. The best spin may call the board's previous inaction "commendable restraint" on behalf of the district's tax payers. The best thing that could have been said about the board - had they continued to get by on the cheap by slapping band aids on big problems - is "irresponsible."

Deffendall explained it this way, "In 2008, without the nickel, we can bond $27.6million. With the nickel, we can bond $195.2 million. And while that won't address the full $317 [million], we also know we couldn't do twenty-five projects, all in the same year, anyway...There's not enough contractors in Lexington. We'll hire them all, but that still won't [allow us] to juggle everything...What the bonding attorney has told us is that over a ten-year period, we would be able to bond the $317.2 [million]."

"We know there are going to be some projects that come online that we need to do. So that is why we see this as a long-term solution, because we're not going to need to come back and ask for more."

~

This from Raviya Ismail at the Herald-Leader.

Fayette County property owners' tax bills could rise more than 5 cents per $100 if school board members approve a plan to raise millions of dollars for new buildings and renovations.

School leaders said the increase -- from 54.1 cents to 59.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation -- would allow the district to borrow the estimated $290 million it needs for immediate school construction and renovation projects, in addition to paying for regular operating expenses such as teacher salaries and textbooks.

The proposed tax rate has two parts. The bulk, 53.9 cents per $100 of assessed property, would cover regular operating costs. The other 5.6 cents would be used strictly for school buildings. If approved, the money could be used for renovations and construction at up to 25 schools.

Without a rate increase, the district would have the money to address the needs of only three schools.

"We wouldn't be asking if the need wasn't so great," Superintendent Stu Silberman said. "We're hoping that this community will support our kids and join in this investment into their future."

A public hearing on the issue will be held Aug. 27.

The board discussed the proposal for the first time at its planning meeting yesterday. Board members were supportive of the increase.

"In the long run it's going to save taxpayers, rather than postponing it to when (school construction projects) are going to cost more," said board member John Price.

School board Chairman Larry Conner said there has been talk for several years about increasing the school tax rate. He said board members have cut district personnel costs and appealed to legislators about their funding needs.

"None of that has been successful to bring the district to the level it needs to be," he said. "This does it and it does it in the least amount of impact to our citizens."

If the proposal is approved, the owner of a $100,000 home would pay $595 a year in property taxes. Of that amount, $56 would go strictly for building and facility improvement in the school district.

Without the 5-cent rate increase, the tax bill would be $539.

The median home value in Fayette County is $165,000. That tax bill would rise $92.40 to $981.75.

Fayette officials expect the new rate to generate an estimated $12.9 million next year, which would provide for a total bonding capacity of $290 million. Without the increased tax rate, the district would be able to borrow only $27.6 million toward projects.

The new rate would appear on the tax bill homeowners receive this fall.

A 5.6-cent rate boost would produce a 10 percent increase in property tax revenue.

For any increase above 4 percent, state law requires districts to hold a public hearing, and opponents could challenge the increase through a voter referendum.

Districts usually adjust the tax rate so the revenue increase doesn't exceed 4 percent.

The most recent school tax rate increase was in 2003, with the approval of a half-cent higher tax rate to cover regular operating expenses. In the past 10 years, the highest rate has been 54.7 cents per $100 of assessed property in the 1998-99 school year.

About half the 54 schools in the district need immediate construction or renovations. With existing funding, it could take well past 2025 before the list is completed.

District officials said the facilities' needs are acute because of growing enrollment, with the district adding more than 300 students a year for the past five years. School officials are aiming to build elementary schools in the Clays Mill and Hamburg areas.

During the last decade, 20 renovation projects and six new schools have been completed, costing the district more than $204 million. The district already has the money for three elementary schools under construction, which will cost more than $47 million total...

~
Current Bonding Capacity for Schools Only.

District Talking Points in support of a tax increase.

Ten Year Tax Rate History.

Yesterday's FCPS press release.

Fayette's first Hispanic female principal takes over

Ivonne Beegle said her first day as new principal for Cardinal Valley Elementary School was both interesting and complex.

Beegle, 38, replaced outgoing principal Matt Perkins. During the school year, she said, she hopes to create a plan of checks and balances for the school that is systemic, "so that we can ensure that every child reaches proficiency."

Beegle is the first Hispanic female principal in Fayette County. She is a former Spanish teacher and specialist in English as a second language and worked at Maxwell Spanish Immersion Magnet and Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. Cardinal Valley has a large Spanish-speaking student population, which works to Beegle's advantage.

"There were a lot of people that were pleasantly surprised that I can communicate in Spanish," she said.

This from the Herald Leader; Photo by Janet Worne.
~
Congratulations Ivonne!

EKU board names Whitlock interim president

RICHMOND, Ky. --Doug Whitlock, a former Eastern Kentucky University administrator, will be the school's interim president while the university searches for a successor to Joanne Glasser.
Whitlock was vice president for administrative affairs from 1998 until he retired in 2003 and continued to teach computer science classes part time until 2006, the university said in a statement Monday.

The school's board of regents selected him on Monday.

Glasser resigned last week to accept the job as president of Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
From 1976 to 1998, Whitlock was executive assistant to the president. He had previously been director of publications and director of public information and taught in the Department of Mass Communications.

This from the Herald-Leader. Photo from EKU - Vice President for Administrative Affairs Dr. Doug Whitlock, right, andWEKU-FM Station Manager Tim Singleton helped celebrate the launch of WEKF.

And from yesterday's paper:

State Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, said he will consider applying for the position once the search for a permanent replacement for Joanne Glasser is under way. Moberly, who works at the university as director of student judicial affairs and services for individuals with disabilities at the university, said he would not be interested in becoming the interim president.

Moberly said he wants to get through the upcoming budget session of the General Assembly before making any commitments about pursuing the president's position.

"I haven't had anytime to think about it since this has all happened so quickly. I didn't have any notice that the president was going to resign this week," Moberly said.

St Charles Expands Audit to look at Erwin''s full tenure

The St. Charles school district is expanding its annual audit this year to find out exactly how much it paid former superintendent Barbara Erwin during her three years on the job.

Auditors have been told to break down not only how much Erwin was paid in salary, but also how many vacation and sick days she cashed in, new Superintendent Donald Schlomann said Monday.

The probe will span Erwin’s entire career in St. Charles, from 2004 to last month, and result in a public report that aims to address “rumors and innuendo about what may or may not have occurred,” Schlomann said.

School district audits typically encompass all of the taxing body’s finances, but do not narrow in on one employee — especially over several years.

Schlomann said the decision to focus on Erwin, who left amid controversy in July, was a result of speculation from the community over whether she was fairly compensated.

“I hear all kinds of ‘She got this, she got that,’” Schlomann said. “There are lots of rumors.”

Some rumors stem from a 2005 contract extension that credited Erwin for 85 sick days a year to put toward an Illinois pension.

The school board admitted earlier this year that it illegally agreed to the measure without a public vote, which caused a backlash from taxpayers.

It appears Erwin ended up getting about six months of sick time credit after the board retroactively approved the extension.

Other factors, including the possible theft of Erwin’s personnel file from district headquarters and her last-minute decision to decline a job as Kentucky’s state superintendent, only added to speculation surrounding her departure.

Schlomann said an outside auditing firm likely will begin reviewing documents in September, and a report detailing Erwin’s compensation will be made public this fall.

Erwin’s annual salary was $195,000, records show.

This from the Daily Herald.

As States Tackle Poverty,Preschool Gets High Marks

This from Deborah Solomon at the Wall Street Journal:

New Lobbying Strategy
Fuels National Move

For Universal Classes

In Washington and statehouses across the country, preschool is moving to the head of the class.

Florida and Oklahoma are among the states that have started providing free preschool for any 4-year-old whose parents want it. Illinois and New York plan to do the same. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to spend $15 billion over five years on universal preschool funding. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke calls preschool one cure for inequality.

The movement represents one of the most significant expansions in public education in the 90 years since World War I, when kindergarten first became standard in American schools. It has taken off as politicians look for relatively inexpensive ways to tackle the growing rich-poor gap in the U.S. They have found spending on children is usually an easy sell.

It took a well-orchestrated campaign to put pre-K on the top of political agendas -- and new tactics that didn't rely on do-gooder rhetoric. Among those working on the issue are the research director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, a billionaire Oklahoma oil man and a foundation executive in Philadelphia.

Their winning pitch: Making pre-K as prevalent as kindergarten is a prudent investment. Early schooling, they say, makes kids more likely to stay in school and turn into productive taxpayers.

"Politicians have a choice to make. They can do things like build sports stadiums that offer virtually no economic return, or they can invest in early education programs with a 16% rate of return," says Art Rolnick, the Minneapolis Fed official, who came up with that number after reviewing a three-decade study of youngsters growing up in Ypsilanti, Mich.

So far, few organizations are pushing the case against preschool, but the argument does exist.

Some skeptics predict the hefty return claimed by Mr. Rolnick would quickly shrink if states rush to make preschool universal. They cite some studies suggesting that Head Start, the federal program for disadvantaged preschoolers, gives children little edge when entering elementary school.

"The current full-scale Head Start program is having a disappointing impact on kids," says Douglas Besharov of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Pre-K is an important part of the tool chest for reducing the achievement gap...but will the return on investment be as great as people say? I don't think so."

Until recently, preschool was for a minority. Most American children began school at age 5 in kindergarten. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson created Head Start for disadvantaged children as young as age 3, part of his War on Poverty. Today, about 900,000 low-income children are enrolled in Head Start, which also includes programs in nutrition and health care.

In all, 55% of 3- and 4-year-olds are now enrolled in a school of some sort. The best-off are most likely to send their children to pre-K: In families with incomes of about $100,000, 80% of 3- and 4-year olds are enrolled, according to the Pew Charitable Trust's National Institute for Early Education Research...

...Pew established its Pre-K Now advocacy group to support activists in states. It funded the National Institute for Early Education Research. To date, Pew has spent about $58 million on the campaign, a substantial sum for a foundation that spends about $250 million a year altogether.

One of Pew's grants, in 2003, provided $542,000 to Columbia University's Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media to "build media knowledge" of preschool. A 2004 Pew analysis said reporters had the perception that "early childhood education was not a 'big-time' story." The institute set out to change that with seminars to give journalists story ideas and tips on how to win prominent placement for the subject...

..A May 2006 Hechinger report boasted that "just three days after the Hechinger seminar" a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote a story about the Virginia governor's plan to give public funding to child-care providers.

About two years into Pew's campaign, the Minneapolis Fed's Mr. Rolnick became an unlikely ally. A Fed economist since 1970, Mr. Rolnick had studied pre-Civil War banking and done research suggesting that governments are wasting money subsidizing sports stadiums. While he has two children, "I thought education started in kindergarten," he says.

In 2003, Mr. Rolnick heard a Minneapolis early-education group argue that government should spend on preschool mainly because it's the right thing to do. He scoffed. "Policymakers need more guidance than that," he says.

The group asked Mr. Rolnick to help make the case. He says he loves to dive into data, so he scrutinized some of the research that helped persuade Ms. Urahn, particularly a 1962 study of 123 low-income black children in Ypsilanti. Half were sent to preschool, and half weren't. After tracking the students over three decades, researchers found those who went to preschool were less likely to need special education and had higher test scores.

Mr. Rolnick and a colleague crunched the data, calculating that for every $1 invested in preschool, there was a $16 return from lower crime, fewer welfare payments and higher earnings.

The magnitude surprised everyone. Mr. Rolnick asked economist James Heckman, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, to check the work. The results matched Mr. Rolnick's.

Among those intrigued was Robert Dugger, a former Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill. He was working at the hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp. as a political and global-risk analyst. Using his own money -- $250,000 so far -- Mr. Dugger started his own think tank and commissioned a paper by Mr. Heckman.

The 2004 paper argued that extending preschool to the four million children under 5 then living under the poverty line would produce a net benefit to the economy of more than $511 billion.

Disadvantaged children who start schooling early are more likely to attend college and "less likely to be teenage mothers and foster a new generation of deprived children," Mr. Heckman wrote.

The paper helped persuade Mr. Dugger's boss, hedge fund magnate Paul Tudor Jones, to contribute $1 million. Mr. Dugger's project has grown from a handful of people sitting around a table in his office to a group of more than 1,000 who gather -- some in person, some on a phone link -- in Washington for two-hour presentations monthly. Pew has kicked in $1 million.

Some remain cautious about the research. Grover J. Whitehurst, director of the federal Institute of Education Sciences, says the studies used to calculate rates of return are too small to be "a basis for generalizing what the economic benefits would be if this was rolled out in various states."

Still, the experience of New York state shows how the publicity is having a practical impact...

...Economist Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research says pre-K benefits not only the poor but also middle-class children who are at risk of falling behind in school. "Most of the children who drop out of school or fail a grade are middle-class," says Mr. Barnett.

The University of Chicago's Mr. Heckman counters, "Scarce resources should be directed to the problem areas." Despite his role in pushing the pre-K cause, Mr. Heckman cautions against overdoing it. "There's a great danger here that people are going to rush out and with blind enthusiasm endorse very superficial programs," he says.

~

And this retort from Richard Lee Colvin the Hechinger Institute:

WSJ Notes the National Trend Toward Pre-K

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to label the national trend toward expanded public spending on pre-kindergarten for what it is: "one of the most significant expansions in public education in the 90 years since World War I, when kindergarten first became standard in American schools."

The Journal's front page article Thursday did what the paper does so nicely: allow a reader who hasn't been following a developing trend to drop in and get a good sense of who the players are, why they're doing what they're doing, the obstacles, and controversies, and what lies ahead. The story notes, for example, that not everyone is on board with the push for "universal" public preschool. Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman, for example, warns about overdoing preschool and says that "scarce resources should be directed to the problem areas."

Mr. Murdoch, don't mess with success, ok?

Full disclosure: the Journal article describes the important role The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Trusts' director of education, Susan Urahn, have played in fueling the national movement to expand public spending on preschool. The article also mentions that the Hechinger Institute is a grantee, and that our role is to help journalists become knowledgeable about the issues surrounding pre-k. As I always say, though, we're not advocates for anything other than good journalism about education.

Today's C-J Editorial says...what I said

A new education chief

Of course the state Board of Education would like to hire a new education commissioner as soon as possible. The board -- and the consulting firm it hired -- really messed up in their first attempt. The sooner a new commissioner is hired, members surely feel, the sooner that embarrassing episode can be left behind.

But there are practical problems with the quick deadline they have set for themselves. They want all applications to be in by Sept. 30. They want to hire a new commissioner at their meeting on Nov. 13.

But that timetable will really limit the candidate pool. Most educators are just starting their year's work in September. The good ones -- the ones who are principled and honor their commitments -- aren't looking for new jobs in the first weeks of school. Most wouldn't think of making an exit in November.

Certainly, disgruntled educators would be happy to apply. So would those who don't have a lot of options, or who looked for jobs last year and failed to get an offer.

But Kentucky can do better than that. Nationally, the job of education commissioner is considered a desirable post.

The education reforms passed in the '90s are still discussed around the country. The commonwealth should be able to attract the best candidates.

The truth is, there is no reason to rush right now. The Board of Education has already appointed Kevin Noland to be interim commissioner. Mr. Noland is more than competent.

He has served as general counsel to the board for years. In fact, he's run the place before, between commissioners in 1995, and again in 2000. And he's been running it since Gene Wilhoit left.

The board has nothing to fear with him in charge -- but it should fear the consequences of a limited candidate pool. One reason for its recent debacle was the lack of high-quality candidates.
The strategy for redemption should be to find a great candidate, not to find one who can step into the job in a hurry.

That could end in disaster. Members have had enough of that this year.

This from the Courier-Journal.

Lawyer files court motion to obtain Jeff Co school enrollment data

A Louisville lawyer filed a motion yesterday in federal court seeking to compel Jefferson County Public Schools to provide data on enrollment and the capacities of a handful of schools.

Attorney Teddy Gordon said that some parents whose children were denied transfers are trying to make sure that they weren't turned down because of race.

Gordon recently won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that forced the district to drop its racial integration plan.

The motion seeks grade-level capacity figures at seven schools, including Middletown and Hite elementary schools and Pleasure Ridge Park High.

District data provided to The Courier-Journal shows all but one, Farmer Elementary, were full or overenrolled as of Tuesday. The figures were not broken down by grade...

This from the Courier-Journal.

Back-to-school expenses on the rise

Parents have share of burden of providing classroom supplies

Clutching a list of required back-to-school supplies for her granddaughter, Missy Page made her way down the aisle at Wal-Mart on a recent afternoon, slowly checking off each of the 22 items.

Page, who lives in Fern Creek, said the list seemed longer than the ones handed out when her own children were in school. In addition to the usual paper, pencils and glue, she had to buy items ranging from a ream of copy paper to two packages of dry erase markers -- for a kindergartner.

"I'm not really complaining," she said of the list, pausing in front of a row of folders and crayons. "It's just different. You kind of wonder what your taxes are going for." She said she had no idea how much she would spend.

But a recent survey by the National Retail Federation found that the average household with children plans to spend $563 for back-to-school merchandise this year, up 6.9 percent from last year's average of $527. Although clothing and accessories represent the largest spending category, classroom supplies are expected to account for $94 of the total...

This from Alex Davis at the Courier-Journal.
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It's either this, charging student fees, or an increase in instructional materials money from the state. All other options lower the quality of the education.

More from C-J on new commish search timeline

This from Antoinette Konz at the Courier-Journal:

Education chief sought by fall
State board aims for mid-November

By mid-November, Kentucky should have a new education commissioner, according to a selection plan approved yesterday by the state Board of Education.

"We realize the timeline might shift a little as the search progresses, but our goal is to have someone named by mid-November and have them start the job as soon as possible," board Chairman Joe Brothers said.

The position has been advertised since mid-July on the Kentucky Department of Education's Web site. So far, five people have applied, Brothers said.

The board will advertise the position in state and national publications and accept applications until Sept. 30.

"Certainly, we have a place in our heart for Kentucky educators, but that doesn't mean we won't consider educators from out of state," Brothers said. "We want the most qualified person out there."

The full board will serve as the screening committee and will narrow the applicants to several semifinalists on Oct. 3, he said. Each semifinalist will undergo an "extensive background and reference check," he said.

"We are going to hire someone to assist us with the background and reference check," Brothers said. "Once the (semifinalists) get through the background check, we hope to publicly identify about five finalists."

Interviews will be conducted on Nov. 13, the same day the board would like to name the new commissioner.

This will be the second commissioner search conducted this year.

The board has been looking for a replacement since last November, when Gene Wilhoit left to take a job in Washington, D.C.

In May, the board voted 10-0 to name Illinois educator Barbara Erwin as commissioner. But after a series of revelations about her background, Erwin resigned July 13 -- three days before she was to begin the job.

Ray and Associates Inc., the Iowa-based firm the board hired for up to $50,000 to assist with the first search, offered to conduct the second search at no cost, but the board decided not to use the firm again.

Board members have criticized Ray and Associates, saying it should have vetted Erwin more closely.

The board's critics have agreed that the search firm should have done a better job, but they also say that board members failed to do their job. They say the board ignored concerns raised by the media and the public over Erwin's resume, which contained an award she hadn't won and a presentation she never made, and her reputation for running roughshod over teachers and administrators when she was a superintendent in Texas, Arizona and Illinois.

In a job created in 1990 as part of Kentucky's education reform efforts, the commissioner oversees the Department of Education and recommends and implements policies for the state's 175 public school districts, which include more than 1,200 schools and 660,000 students.

C-J dreams a little dream in today's editorial

Today's C-J editorial on the Kentucky school board correctly sees the Travis ouster as atonement for past failures, but not full accountability.

Accountability is a dream of things not to come.

But, somebody had to pay.

And all evidence suggests that Travis deserved what he got.

When information about Commissioner candidate Barbara Erwin came out, and piled up, Travis did his best to ignore it and wish it away. His leadership was to tell the rest of the board to believe the search firm's "sales job" and it would all be OK. As Joe Brothers correctly points out - they all bought it; they all own it.

The whole bunch, with the possible exception of Doug Hubbard, ought to have resigned - or been fired by any governor who valued integrity, competence in public office, and accountability when that competence was proven to be lacking.

Travis lost his leadership spot because somebody had to pay.

All things considered, the board's 10-1 vote probably takes some heat off the rest of the board members. By ousting Travis, maybe folks will quit calling for the rest of the board to quit as the Herald-Leader did recently.

The thing about Ray & Associates

When things go badly, it's good to keep ones head. I can fully understand the board's current notion of running as far away from Ray & Associates as possible. Once burned; twice shy.

But any search requires a lot of grunt work. Advertising. Correspondence. Compiling. Scheduling. Ray & Associates says they have a no refund policy on the botched search - but they guarantee two-years of continued assistance for boards that are unhappy with the results and promise to help "in any way we can to help them find the best candidate for the job."

The board of education needs many of the services a search firm can provide right now, and maybe that's one way Ray & Associates can repay Kentucky.

I think we should use them. I just don't think we should trust them.

Once candidates have been organized, paperwork collected and interviews scheduled...Ray & Associates should be thanked and sent away - while the board conducts a real investigation.

You don't outsource judgment.

A new Commissioner

I love the fact that the Chairman Brothers held discussions of the process and timeline the board would follow in hiring a new commissioner in open session yesterday. That's good leadership and a big step in the right direction. I hope it signals a return to the required public openness on the part of the board.

I'm much less thrilled by the timeline itself.

In the school business there is a hiring season - and this isn't it.

We don't need a commissioner quickly so much as we need a commissioner who is excellent. All of the top folks who were considering moves this past year are presently geared up for the start of the new school year wherever they are. The folks who are ready to change positions in October are largely leftovers. Any superstars who were willing to move have already done so.

In January, the political picture in Kentucky will be a settled issue and there will be a whole new crop of potential candidates who are looking ahead to the next year. To the extent Kentucky's leaders, including the board of education, can convince candidates that Kentucky is still a great place to be, that crop will be improved. That's the time to start anew.

Evidence suggests that the governor will use all of this term to do what he started out doing - placing Republicans in state positions. The thought that his appointees will resign in January - if the polls hold true and Beshear is elected governor - may be what C-J wants, but that's a dream that won't come true. Public accountability is for school folks - not the board of education.

I've got an alternative idea. If board members are not going to hold themselves accountable, can the members of the search committee at least give back the plaques they were awarded by Travis in June for the outstanding job they did in selecting Erwin?

The Board of Education at 30,000 feet

A few years ago, every school leadership conversation began with someone saying we had to get the right people "on the bus." This was a theme from Jim Collins' bestselling book, Good to Great. Unfortunately the idea was being used by some folks that weren't even good yet. Too frequently it was the leader that needed to be thrown under the bus. But, I digress.

I was amused by the conversation at the June board of education meeting when one member asserted to the group that he was operating at 30,000 feet. Not having been in required pubic school professional development sessions for a few years, I hadn't heard this one used quite this way before.

But, I get it. State board of education members should look at the big picture. Babysit the process, not the projects (As Harvard Business Review was reporting in 2003). Leave the details to the professionals (in other words, don't bug the staff). It caught my attention because the board chair in St Charles, Illinois (Barbara Erwin's prior school district) was using the same language at the same time. It made me wonder if Barbara Erwin imported this reconstruction.

I chuckled again as the next speaker said she was operating at 35,000 feet.

Uh oh. The competition was on. She talked about big picture issues and assured the group that she was on-board.

A few minutes later a third member came in at 40,000 feet and I laughed out loud.

But the competition ended when a vendor told the board that his view was from 100,000 feet. Smiles faded as members began to realize the newest cliche had just run its course.

Look. The idea of maintaining a leadership perspective that focuses more on process than projects is the right way to go. And if thinking one is in an airplane while doing it helps - fine. But let's not forget the little dots on the ground...the ones we can't quite make out. Those are the students who must be cared for, and that means they must be seen. The mile high club notwithstanding, I don't think love works very well when one loses sight of their beloved.

And the particular sin in the failed commissioner search was the board's steadfast refusal to look into the detailed evidence presented them. That's where the devil was. The business literature argues that management needs to be attentive and flexible, ready to swoop in at the first sign of real trouble.

Somebody forgot that part of the equation.

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This from the Courier-Journal:

Old faces, new seats

Two things come to mind in the aftermath of the Kentucky Board of Education's vote to sack its chairman, Keith Travis.

First, given that Mr. Travis cast the only vote for his retention in a 10-1 rout, he may not have been any better at assessing his political strength with his colleagues than he was in conducting a search for a new state education commissioner.

That exercise was a debacle from start to finish.

The Iowa search firm retained to screen and recommend candidates, Ray and Associates, failed to examine the record of Illinois educator Barbara Erwin carefully enough to illuminate her troubling and controversial professional background.

That fumble was compounded by the board's unwillingness simply to cut bait.

Instead, it forged ahead and hired Ms. Erwin despite false claims in her résumé and allegations that she ran roughshod over teachers and administrators in three states where she served. The appointment unraveled just three days before she was to start work, after her personnel file mysteriously went missing.

Second, however, the board's decision to put itself under new leadership and to acknowledge how badly it botched the search is better than what might reasonably have been expected.

In other places and at other times, the board's vote could be dismissed as a case of very little, very late. But this is the Frankfort of Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and the board members are his appointees. Gov. Fletcher's administration was investigated for criminal acts in the merit-system scandal, and only a blanket gubernatorial pardon averted multiple prosecutions. Yet, the Governor sees himself as an innocent victim.

Given that context, the school board's action seems a vigorous act of accountability.

That said, Mr. Travis' replacement should make Kentuckians feel slightly better only about the past -- not about what lies ahead.

The board and its new chairman, Joe Brothers of Elizabethtown, are still committed to hiring a new education commissioner.

The Erwin debacle cannot be blamed entirely on Mr. Travis. Other board members could have asserted themselves and reopened the search for a better candidate. Mr. Brothers properly acknowledges that the entire board must take responsibility for voting to bring Ms. Erwin to Kentucky.

It's hard to feel confident that this same group can do a better job the second time around.

A better course would be to recognize that a gubernatorial election looms.

If the voters decide to give Gov. Fletcher a second term, then there can't be serious quarrel with allowing his appointees to choose a new education commissioner. But if his Democratic rival, Steve Beshear, is elected, the new governor should have a major role in filling such a key position.

Such an outcome would require more than just Mr. Beshear's victory. It would also take the resignations of at least a majority of the board, so that Mr. Beshear could replace them.

That would not be Kentucky politics as usual, to be sure. But it would be real accountability -- and it would be an act for the common good.