CMS board to request
$346.5 million from county
Equity team reports less than equitable results
by Kathleen E. Conroy
kathleen@thecharlotteweekly.com

The vote passed after a last-minute move added 40 more teachers to high-poverty, at-risk elementary schools. Larry Gauvreau, who represents District 1, dissented. The $346.5 million requested – $30.4 million more than last year’s – will now go before county commissioners in May at a public hearing slated for May 24. The commissioners are expected to vote June 5.

Budget battle
In introducing his overall $1.2 billion budget for the 2007-08 school year, CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman urged board members to scrutinize the county appropriation portion and how it dovetails with CMS’ Strategic Plan 2010 to revamp the district.

“We have focused our resources on student achievement. We’ve looked at needs, operations, growth, program expansion and new initiatives. Student achievement does need to be the first and foremost concern,” said Gorman.

Maurice Green, CMS chief operating officer, presented the budget, noting that the biggest areas of increase focused on quality teachers, smaller class sizes and improving student achievement.

The increased funding proposal presented to county commissioners – which is estimated to be about $5.5 million more than they are expecting – also is needed to pay for increased operating costs and growth, Gorman has said.

CMS expects to add 5,231 more students next year, an increase of about 4 percent, bringing total enrollment (pre-kindergarten through 12th grade) to 137,510.

Trent Merchant, an at-large board member, told peers that the budget was a good compromise, especially with the addition of teachers in at-risk primary schools. “What we have here tonight is better than what we had a day ago. Aggregation of poverty does matter,” he said. “I think what we have come up with will help us do our core business.”
Board member George Dunlap, representing District 3, admitted that he originally had planned to oppose the budget but thanked his colleagues for persuading him to act otherwise. “I went looking for fluff but found none. The research shows that smaller class size increases student achievement,” he said.

Gauvreau voiced his opposition, saying the budget “is missing a crucial element – longer instructional time.” He also said that he felt 10 percent of the student services money could be deleted, as well as $10 million in sustaining operations. “The $9 million decentralization fee has turned out to be farce and should be wiped off the budget completely,” he said. “I also think we are squandering money on magnet programs. ... They need to be scaled back.”

CMS’s equity: Inequitable?
After removing an Equity Committee report from a February school board meeting agenda, Gorman gave the green light this week for the 10-member committee to present the report – one that showed “equity” among CMS schools has a long way to go.

Among its findings from reviewing testing and achievement data from CMS schools from 2002 to 2006 were large disparities in achievement by geography (using CMS’s new learning communities system), by socio-economic status and by race.

Julian White, chairman of the Equity Committee, delivered a sobering and detailed report that focused on equity, which he defined as “making sure that resources are there for each student, regardless of ZIP code, race, gender, poverty level or being at grade level.

“Our goal is not to see that students have all the ‘stuff.’ The task is to make sure that students have everything they need to have the opportunity for an equal education,” he said.

The report showed that African-American students make up the largest block of CMS students, and are also faring the worst on standardized tests. CMS’s African-American population performed at grade level in percentages equal to or above the percentages of all students at their schools at no high schools (out of 17), no middle schools (out of 30) and only eight elementary schools (out of 89). The data also showed large achievement gaps between free and reduced-price lunch populations and paying populations.

Geographically, the report addressed disparities in achievement by the six new learning communities that have resulted in CMS’ recent decentralization plan, dividing CMS into North, Northwest, West, South, Central and East. It showed that of CMS’s 17 high schools, only four had more than 70 percent of students at grade level and none of those with a passing grade are in the North, Northeast or West learning communities. Among CMS’s 30 middle schools, four had 90 percent or more students at grade level – three were in the South learning community and none in the Central, East, Northeast or West zones. More disturbing, the Northeast learning community’s four middle schools all have fewer than 60 percent of students at grade level.

“I think this report is very powerful. It’s a wake-up call,” said Merchant. “There’s a big difference in being hit in the head with a lot of little hammers or with a gigantic sledgehammer. I think there is effectiveness in scale.”

A few of the committee recommendations for 2007 included expanding Gorman’s proposed Achievement Zone to include more at-risk schools, working harder to close socio-economic gaps and focusing on hiring quality teachers and faculty. “We also ask that you keep in mind foremost that the aggregation of poverty impedes achievement and threatens to thwart equity,” said White.

The board agreed to meet with the committee and Gorman on realizing the equity goals.

Other board action
• CMS will apply for a $1.7 million grant to implement the CMS Teacher Ambassador Program outlined in its Strategic Plan 2010. The grant, from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement Transition to Teaching Program, would be paid out over five years. The goal is to increase the number of highly qualified lateral-entry teachers in critical areas such as math and science in high-need secondary schools. CMS will be notified about the grant in June.

• CMS will request $200,000 from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for the William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program. Its goal is to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of English as a Second Language families. The program goal is to promote academic achievement of students and adult education. CMS will be notified about the grant in June.