Dear MPS partners and friends,
I am pleased to report to you that preliminary budget allocation issues involving some of our schools have been resolved. New allocations were shared with principals Tuesday; they in turn will work with their site councils to continue their fiscal year 2015 (FY15) budget planning.
The revised allocations provide a total funding increase of approximately $40 million directly to schools, rather than the roughly $33 million previously communicated. This includes increases of about $3 million for class size adjustments, about $3 million for basic per pupil expenditures and about $2 million in discretionary funds.
Although concerns were raised at about a dozen schools, I decided to review the budget allocations for all schools to be certain that accurate numbers were provided to all sites. Of the 69 school budgets, 59 received increases in both total discretionary dollars and individual per pupil amounts.
The remaining 10 schools received slightly lower discretionary allocations or per pupil amounts. The finance team and associate superintendents worked with these schools individually to review their proposed budgets and ensure all needs had been fully met.
I acknowledge and apologize that this budget process has been challenging and confusing. We will continue to work to improve and refine our processes as well as our communication and engagement with individual school sites.
Despite our challenges, I am very proud of the outcomes of this budget planning process. Shifting approximately $40 million from central office budgets to individual school budgets has laid a solid foundation for the school district’s work to create a more equitable and transparent funding process for our schools. This proposed budget has also helped to move us in the right direction of giving schools more bounded autonomy in their budget decisions.
The FY15 budget will provide more support to high priority schools by reducing class size ratios to 18 students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade. We also included an increase to fund academic intervention strategies, which include additional math and reading specialists for schools. The budget also provides more funding for International Baccalaureate programs, arts and world languages and support to English learners and maintains funding for magnet schools.
The budget supports the enhancement of transportation services by adding buses that will provide more flexibility in loading and route times. The additional funds will pay for safety equipment such as GPS systems and incident tracking devices.
The maintenance and cleanliness of our buildings remain priorities, so we are increasing the number of custodians at school sites. Climate and safety in schools will continue to be supported by maintaining school resource officers at schools. The budget will also allow for the expansion of our Go-To Student Pass program. We want families to be able to easily take advantage of citywide school choice options.
As we continue our budget planning for next school year and future years, we remain committed to keeping student needs at the center of financial decision-making. Thank you for your continued support of Minneapolis schools and students.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Doty, CPA
Chief Operating Officer
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