Comparisons

Good or bad, the statistics are available to anyone who wishes to check them out at the DESE website and they tell the rest of the story.

As found at the DESE website ( http://www.doe.mass.edu/ ) here are some interesting and telling statistics:

DY vs Barnstable

DY vs Harwich

DY vs Nauset

DY vs Sturgis

DY School Choice – 6th in State

DY Enrollment Stats FY’11

And, for ease of comparison, I have compiled the results of the above spreadsheets into one spreadsheet.  For impact and out of curiosity, I also added the same statistics for some of the major cities in this state, which I expected to be much worse than our district.  In many cases, this was not so.

Indicator Comparison Summary with Cities

Barnstable, Harwich, Nauset and Sturgis are the schools to whom we lose most of our students and that is why I have linked the comparisons to those districts/schools.

It isn’t exciting to look at all of these numbers and statistics, but they are real and they tell the whole story.  It isn’t pretty.

But the leadership in this district prefers to focus only on the redacted, selective, manipulated information which the Superintendent presents.  And the fact is that she has a very obvious, vested interest in manipulating the data and to show only the data which shines some glimmer of positive light on the job she is doing.  It’s time to pay attention to the truth, not just a spin on certain information that warps the truth.

I believe that it is the job of the School Committee to face facts, dig for the truth, verify the information being spoon fed to them like pabulum and hold the Superintendent accountable for what is happening in this district.

Correlations

A lot of people seem to be confused and profess great concern for the proposed staff reductions in the district.  For instance, this year, the Superintendent is proposing that 11 full-time equivalent (“FTE”) teaching positions be cut.  And a lot of people (who obviously do not understand) hear that number and express angst over losing so many teachers.

Here’s the rest of the story.  This year, we have lost a total of 443 students to school choice and charter schools.  At an average of 22 students per classroom, this means that (if all those students leaving were grouped in the same classes, which, of course, they are not), there would be 20 teachers with no students to teach.  Now, because the number of students who are left are scattered amongst the schools and grades (although, let’s not forget that over half of them are leaving from one school – the high school), the idea of having to let 11 FTE teachers go is very appropriate.

But the Superintendent is not suggesting that we just let 11 FTE teachers go, she also proposes that we hire coaches and reading teachers (some of whom will replace some SPED assistants) – so the real number of staff reductions is less than 11 FTE teachers.  But, beggars can’t be choosers, eh?

With 443 students leaving our district this year, that also means that we have 443 empty seats throughout the district (over half of which are at the high school).  Empty seats cost us money.  You still have to turn the lights on, turn the heat on, clean the rooms, etc.  The fixed costs do not go away with the children.  But the tuition we pay to the schools they choose does.

MacArthur Elementary School has 269 students enrolled.  Station Avenue Elementary School has 408 students enrolled.  M.E. Small has 317 students enrolled.  Ezra Baker has 368 students enrolled.

I think that gives a little perspective to just how many students 443 students really is.

This year we will spend approximately $3 million in tuition to other public schools and to charter schools.  Imagine what this district could do with that money if it stayed here.

The truth is that the performance (and safety) issues in this district have been problematic (to put it mildly) for the past six years and the mass exodus of students is evidence of it.  It is not an easy decision for parents to place their child(ren) in schools outside of their own district.  So, when they do it, they do it for a reason.

What is it going to take for this School Committee to begin facing facts?  How much longer will they stay the current course with the current Superintendent at the helm?  How’s it working for us?

A somehwat new budget approach

This year’s budget process has been a bit different from recent years.  The School Committee has asked the Superintendent to bring the proposed budget down to a point which may actually pass without the necessity for an override.  And the Superintendent has attempted to do so.  This means that the budget numbers are moderate and that cuts in staff have been made and there seems to be a barely perceptible “waving of the white flag” where the budget is concerned.

And this year, it isn’t programs for the students which are being eliminated, it is actually a reduction in staff.  And although many members of the public and the School Committee express collective outrage at having to cut staff, the fact is that we have significantly fewer students to teach each year, so it is logical to assume that we must eliminate staff positions.

It is not an easy decision to let staff members go, but budget decisions should not be made based on emotions.  These are financial decisions which require a bit of courage and countenance to make.  These are the decisions for which the voters in our towns have been asking for the past three or four years.  These are the decisions which tell us that the School Committee appears to finally be listening.

The Superintendent said at last night’s School Committee meeting, “We have had override after override after override and they don’t pass . . .”  So, this year, she has made the difficult cuts necessary to bring the budget in line with the economic climate and made staff cuts in line with the dropping enrollment.

Perhaps this is the first step in the right direction?  I’m not sure I’ll hold my breath, but maybe, just maybe, reality has come calling.

Where is the leadership?

The measurable results of the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District under the current school district “regime” and the current Superintendent’s reign (since 2005) are:

• Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District is categorized as the only Level 3 district on Cape Cod.
• 12% of the population of students (443 out of a possible 3,642) elect to attend charter or other better performing public school districts – a steady annual increase since 2005.
• Over half of the students who exit our district do so at the high school level, a clear indicator of concerns over performance and safety.
• The district’s budget has increased each year, with the exception of one year of level funding – for which the voters fought long and hard.
• This district performs worse than competing districts in 13 out of 21 categories of measurable performance indicators.
• This district pays almost $2 million in school choice tuition and over $1.5 million in charter school tuition.
• This district has significantly worse out of school suspension statistics than neighboring districts.

The Superintendent will attempt to refute these facts with a plethora of manipulated data which is difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce.  She consistently states that facts do not tell the whole story or that the vast amount of fact-based data which can be readily retrieved from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (“DESE”) website ( http://www.doe.mass.edu/ ) are not accurate, change continuously or misrepresent the truth.  The Superintendent presents data which is partially redacted, selectively chosen and manipulated to her advantage.  Managing and manipulating the data may be to her advantage, but it is not to our students’ advantage!  Again, I say that the truth should be good enough and, if it isn’t, then take action to make it better.

First and foremost, if we are to believe that the DESE’s data is somehow an inaccurate depiction of the true state of our district, then surely the same must be true for every other district – so we must conclude that the DESE’s data shows meaningful comparisons.  And perhaps more importantly, we must not forget that the DESE does not make these numbers up on its own.  The DESE compiles its data from the information reported to it by this district’s administration.

The School Committee prefers to believe what the Superintendent presents, without question.  I have to wonder if any of them have ever taken the time to go to the DESE website and see for themselves that all is not as it is being presented.  At what point does the leadership of this district begin to face facts?  You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.  It is the responsibility of the Superintendent of our schools to acknowledge the truth about the problems in this district.  Failure is no accident.  It is the responsibility of the Superintendent to set a plan into action that will change the outcome because awareness without action is worthless.

It is the responsibility of the School Committee to hold the Superintendent accountable for the failing trends of the district.

Henry Kissinger said, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”

Ross Perot said, “Lead and inspire people. Don’t try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be led.”

Where is our leadership?

ANOTHER Open Letter to the DY School Committee

This blog started because of an open letter I published to the School Committee on another blog, so I’m not surprised that I again find the need to be heard by way of another open letter to the School Committee.  You see, unless one is willing to “toe the line” of conformity at School Committee meetings, the constituents who elect our School Committee members are not allowed to be heard.  The School Committee continues to show a blatant disregard for the will of the voters and when the voters attend meetings (and the School Committee members continue to complain that no concerned citizens get involved!) and begin to make comments that oppose the “business as usual” approach (and how is THAT working for this district?), they are shut down before they are permitted to voice them.

I certainly understand the need for orderly and organized, productive committee meetings.  However, if last night’s meeting was a show of order, then we’re all in deeper trouble than the voters can imagine!  The Chairman is completely incapable or entirely unwilling to take control of meetings and adhere to Par Law.  The first item on the agenda was the public comment period (only if the public wished to make comments that the School Committee and the Superintendent wished to hear), and yet, the meeting opened NOT with a public comment period but with some clarifications on recent changes to the budget and another presentation by the Superintendent explaining how wonderfully the district is performing.

And so, I will again publish what I wished to say as a voting member of the public regarding the budget at the public budget hearing here:

We have yet another proposed budget which shows an increase in staff numbers for fewer students.  And the increased staff is not the only cost directly related to the district’s poor performance.  The cost in tuition for charter and school choice goes up – and has gone up dramatically – each and every year for the past six years.  Even if it is true that two private schools opened in 2005 (as Gerry Bastian pointed out) – I am not addressing the number of students who leave our district to attend private schools.  I am speaking to those who choose charter and other public schools.  This is lost revenue.

Now, this district has the dubious honor of qualifying as Level 3.  That means we are the only district on the Cape which has at least one school in the bottom 20% of schools in the state.  This is not something of which to be proud and it is costing us money.

We lose over half of our out-of-school sending students at the high school level.  Parents pull their kids out of school at the high school level for one primary reason and that is performance.  That’s not to say that the majority of elementary school students aren’t leaving due to the district’s performance issues – but no one knows because no real effort has ever been made to find out why they leave.

Every high school that I spoke to on the Cape and Wareham agreed that when you see such a dramatically disproportionate percentage of students leaving one district at the high school level, one has to assume it is performance-related.

The Superintendent herself said that “if you build it, they will come.”  She is right.  When Harwich opens their new high school, we will lose even more high school students.  Next year, Sturgis is opening a temporary facility and plans to open a permanent facility in the near future.  We will lose significantly more high school students then.  These are mostly high achieving students, without question.

Our vacancy rate (the fixed cost of maintaining facilities for empty seats) has and will continue to increase and, as long as we keep losing our highest achieving students to other better schools, our measurable performance indicators will continue to decline.

This district is fighting a losing battle if it stays the current course and this School Committee has an obligation to the voting public to take courageous action to turn things around.

Over the past six years, under the current Superintendent’s leadership, the district has steady declining revenues and steadily increasing expenses.  This is not sustainable. Our district reached a critical level several years ago and today – it is beyond critical – it is terminal.

Hiring more teachers to teach our teachers how to teach is NOT the answer.  This district has the highest number of highly qualified teachers on the Cape.  There is already a cost for their professional development throughout each year.  If it isn’t working, then we need to discover why it is sufficient for other districts (many of which have far less highly qualified teachers), but our teachers don’t know how to apply what they learn in a classroom.  “Teaching” is a verb – and isn’t it all about the act and ability to apply knowledge in a classroom?  The reality is that our teachers are not failing our students.  It is this School Committee, this Superintendent and this administration that is failing our students.

No matter how the data is spun, the irrefutable fact is that we are losing students at an alarming rate, many of which are our highest achieving students, and we have been for the past six years.  This means that we have more and more empty seats every year, we pay more and more in out-of-school sending tuition, so we have less and less revenue to pay higher expenses.  It’s not rocket science and it is NOT complicated.

We are swimming upstream and the current we are swimming against is getting stronger.  We can NOT continue “business as usual.”  I implore this School Committee to stop rubber-stamping budget increases without addressing the real and tangible issues which are costing our towns not only more money but our children’s education.  You can no longer bury your collective heads in the sand and continue to believe that everything is lollipops and rainbows.

It is time for a call to action.  It is time for new leadership and a new direction.  Until that happens, Yarmouth voters will not approve a property tax increase while we see our real estate value decrease due to an under-achieving school district which is draining the resources from other necessary and important town services like fire and police.

“Here she comes”

This is what Superintendent Carol Woodbury whispered to Chairman Jim Dykeman as I approached the microphone.  Her comment was most definitely not meant for public consumption; however, if one was watching the televised broadcast of last night’s School Committee meeting, her comment was clearly audible.  This just goes to show how much preparation the Superintendent puts into refuting the few courageous citizens who would dare to confront her with facts and truths to make sure their comments will not be heard.

I’m sorry to disappoint the Superintendent, but I’m nothing if not a fast learner.  I have long since learned that School Committee meetings are exactly the LAST place anyone should go to make open comments unless those comments fall entirely in line with the Superintendent’s way of thinking.  Take, for instance, the comments of one of our Yarmouth neighbors who was openly harassed and harangued when she attempted to address the severely deficient performance in this district.  Anyone who chooses to believe that performance is not related to the budget is suffering from advanced dementia!  The fact that our district underperforms in so many categories (and, in fact, we have the dubious honor of qualifying as a Level 3 district!) is directly and specifically related to the vast percentage of our students who choose to attend other schools and that means that we are losing more and more revenue every year.

The public comment period (Let’s be honest, shall we?  There is no real “public comment period”.  There is only a period within which citizens will be allowed to speak if they are going to say exactly what the Superintendent and most of the School Committee wish to hear.  Anyone who dares to challenge what the Superintendent presents is mightily quashed, immediately.) began with a very large group of citizens, led by Wayne Bergeron (one of the Dennis Selectmen), approaching the microphone.  Mr. Bergeron proceeded to lecture the audience about how everyone should be civil and respectful and how it is okay to disagree but not to be disagreeable.  Such a nice, kind, compassionate concept, isn’t it?  Well, it seemed like a great idea until a citizen from Yarmouth took the seat at the microphone and dared to point out the trends in declining revenues, increasing expenses and failing performance.  At this point, the Superintendent interrupted the citizen with a snide and immature comment “Thank you for denigrating the district publicly . . .” which brought about a supportive but ugly mob response from all over the room as they booed and yelled out against this woman’s comments!  So much for civility and compassion.  I sat behind one [thug] individual (he sat in the second seat of the third row on the stage side of the room – you know who you are) and I witnessed this supposed grown man acting like no more than a playground bully.  The ugliness was palpable and disgusting.  I have never before witnessed such a disgusting, outrageous and immature display of disrespect.

It isn’t a surprise to me that the Chairman would do absolutely nothing to stop the imbeciles who had taken over the meeting, nor would he call the Superintendent “out of order” (which she absolutely was – she did not have the floor and she was not asked a question) because the only time he ever speaks up against anyone is when someone says something that refutes or challenges the Superintendent’s position.  It was blatantly obvious that the Superintendent had primed the Chairman prior to the meeting that she did not want anyone to be allowed to say anything she wouldn’t like (hence, her whispering to him “here she comes” as I approached the microphone).

One might think that all of these truths are getting to her.

The injustice that is done (yet again) is that the public is NOT allowed to speak to the issues that plague this district.  A school district cannot separate performance from the budget.  They are profoundly linked.

The public is again forced to swallow the bitter taste of the Superintendent’s hypocrisy at a public meeting.  The first half hour of the public hearing on the proposed budget was spent listening to the Superintendent go on and on about the district’s performance (and again, her “presentation” was NOT on the agenda)!!!!!

I guess what’s good for the goose is most definitely NOT good for the gander here at DY.

The fact of the matter is that the truth should be good enough.  If the truth were good enough and if there was nothing to hide, the Superintendent would welcome open discussion about the areas where our district is failing and how those failures continue to cost our taxpayers more money while the children in our towns are robbed of a competitive education.

The public comment period at School Committee meetings is a tasteless joke!  Citizens are required to speak only to issues which are on the agenda for that meeting and, if they wish to have something placed on the agenda for discussion, they must go through “proper channels” to have it so placed.  I requested that an item be placed on the agenda for discussion nearly six months ago, and it still has not been addressed.  I’m sure it is no coincidence that it is because I wish to discuss the public comment period!  Hmmm.  No accident, I’m thinking.