District/School Administration Administration
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Preliminary Discussion of the FY2009 Budget Proposal

Chapter 69 § 1A of the Massachusetts General Laws directs the Commissioner to propose a budget reflecting the Board's goals and objectives to the Board for discussion, approval, and submission to the Legislature and the Secretary of Administration and Finance. My preliminary recommendations for the FY2009 budget are on the attached two-page summary of all the Department's state accounts, along with appropriated levels for fiscal years 2007 and 2008 and the Board's request to the Legislature for 2008. I have also attached a brief description of each line item with appropriation levels for the last four years.

To help inform your discussion, I have organized the budget line items around four priority areas: support for students; support for educators; support for schools and districts, and state leadership. The attached document, "Proposed priority areas," explains each area in more depth. In this memo, I have highlighted our priorities for additional funding in FY09 within each area.

As you are reviewing the budget, recall that 95 percent of the Department's budget is accounted for by formula-funded local aid to schools and districts, including Chapter 70 local aid, the special education circuit breaker account, transportation assistance, and reimbursements to districts for charter school tuition. These outlays are based heavily on student data collected by the Department in early October and not available in time for this memo. We hope to have a preliminary estimate of all these figures in time for the Board's special meeting on the budget on November 1 and more up-to-date estimates for the November 27 Board discussion and subsequent vote.

Support for Students

Closing the achievement gap and challenging all students to proficiency and beyond requires a constellation of academic and school- and community-based supports so that all students are able to take full advantage of learning opportunities. To support this work, I am proposing substantial increases in several related programs.

• Student supports to close the achievement gap: Academic expectations for the classes of 2010 and beyond have increased substantially, and many students will require additional academic support to meet these expectations. An appropriation of $43.2 million ($35 million over FY08) would allow us to expand student academic support in two ways: to assist high school students in reaching the new science standard and completing their Educational Proficiency Plans, and to add programs in elementary and middle school grades, where we may have a greater impact in closing the achievement gap. 7061-9404

• Health education and social services in schools: State and federal funding for health and social services in schools, such as health education, counseling, substance abuse prevention, and school safety, has decreased in recent years. Yet the need for these services has not; these support services remain critical for many students' ability to achieve proficiency and to lead healthy and productive lives. This $12 million request would reinstate state funding (ended in FY02) and supplement diminishing federal funding for these programs. 7032-0500

• Adult basic education services: Serving adult students who did not reach proficiency in high school or who arrived as non-English speaking immigrants is part of the Department's mandate. Appropriating $38.1 million to this line item ($8 million over FY08) would allow us to reduce the waitlist for this program by 4,000 students, a 20 percent reduction. 7035-0002

• High school initiatives: For several years the Department has been working to strengthen the connections between high school and college or career. The proposed request of $12.1 million ($8 million over FY08) would establish a new competitive grant program for early college and dual enrollment, provide funding for a college and career web portal aimed at students as young as middle school, and build on our existing school-to-work connecting activities. 7027-0019, 7061-96xx, new line item

• Full-day kindergarten: Currently about two-thirds of the 68,000 kindergarteners attending public schools are enrolled in a full-day program. The proposed appropriation of $45.8 million ($12 million over FY08) would bring the program to an additional 3,000 students statewide. It would also strengthen the quality of the program by providing districts with $16,900 per classroom-$2,000 more than prior years-to improve paraprofessional support and professional development. 7030-1002

• After-school programs: An appropriation of $4 million ($2 million over FY08) would double the Department's resources to provide before-school, after-school, and summertime programs for children and youth, particularly those in high-need communities. 7061-9611

Support for Educators

Of all the elements in our educational system, educators have the most direct influence over student outcomes. Our long-term goal is to enhance the standards for the professional skills that educators should demonstrate at each stage of their career and to use those standards to drive the state preparation, licensure and professional development systems. My budget requests this year reflect the steps we need to take now to build toward those long-term goals.

• Teacher mentoring and induction: Board-approved state regulations require educators to complete a one-year induction program with a mentor, but funding has never been appropriated to support consistent statewide implementation. This proposed addition to the Teacher Workforce Development line item would provide $5 million to pilot a new mentoring and induction system in 12 to 15 districts statewide. 7010-0216

• Educator performance assessment pilot: This is a small request but one with the potential to significantly improve the state's licensure and professional development systems. With this $350,000, we will develop pilot performance assessments to measure teachers' ability to teach in their areas of content expertise. These assessments, if feasible and effective, will allow us to link licensure requirements and professional development to the skills and abilities teachers need to improve student outcomes. 7010-0216

• Professional development academy: Over the next several years, we intend to build a Commonwealth Professional Development Academy that more systematically helps educators to build their knowledge and skills in key areas identified by the state educator standards. The Academy will focus first on our highest priorities for development: leadership, mathematics, English language learners, and the effective use of data for decision-making. Our request of $5.5 million ($3 million over FY08) would establish a solid foundation of standards for professional development and enable us launch the Professional Development Academy. 7027-1004, 7061-9411, 7061-9804, new line item

• Educator certification program administration: An appropriation of $2.3 million in this program ($0.4 million over FY08) would allow us to prevent a recurrence of a backlog in processing educator license applications and better protect children by strengthening educator misconduct investigations and licensure revocations.

Support for Schools and Districts

All districts and schools require assistance from the state to succeed, both through direct financial support and through state improvement initiatives such as targeted assistance, school redesign, and state assessments. The following requests would help build and sustain those resources and foster improvement in schools and districts statewide.

• Targeted assistance: In 2007, 46 districts and 668 schools in the Commonwealth were identified as facing significant challenges in improving their students' academic performance, and these numbers increase every year. Our experience shows that these schools and districts can improve, but that significant assistance from the state is often required-in the most challenging cases, as much as $300,000 per school per year. The proposed request of $39.1 million ($30 million over FY08) would support three related forms of aid: targeted assistance for the nine Commissioner's Districts; a statewide system of support for other schools and districts; and continued support for Commonwealth Priority One schools and the Commonwealth Pilot Schools initiative. 7061-9408

• Expanded Learning Time: This initiative, which provides $1,300 per pupil for schools to increase student learning time by 25 percent or more, has generated substantial interest both statewide and nationally. It currently serves 18 schools and approximately 9,000 students at a statewide cost of $13 million. An appropriation of $26 million ($13 million over FY08) would allow us to expand this program to 9,000 more students. 7061-9412

• Assessments: An appropriation of $34.4 million ($5.4 million over FY08) would allow us to offer the new Algebra II assessment to all interested students statewide, to fulfill our state mandate to develop an assessment for limited English proficiency students in grades K-2, to take the first steps toward moving MCAS online, and to build the Certificate of Occupational Proficiency assessments in vocational and technical subjects that do not currently have an industry-standard assessment. 7010-1022, 7061-9400

• Special education: An appropriation of $12.5 million ($4.8 million over FY08) would allow the state to fully fund our state-mandated obligation to provide appropriate special education services to students in state facilities, as well as the state-mandated Vision Resource Library. 7028-0031, 7061-96xx

State leadership

Providing all these services to students, educators, schools, and districts requires a well-resourced, highly effective Department. Current staffing and technology resources are insufficient to support all of the Department's critical work towards closing the achievement gap and challenging all students to proficiency and beyond.

• Administration: An appropriation of $18.6 million ($5.0 million over FY08) would support 15 strategically targeted new staff positions to bring the agency to higher levels of performance and the expected $3 million cost of our move to new office space in early 2009, as well as covering increases in fixed costs such as collectively bargained salary adjustments. 7010-0005

• Technology: An appropriation of $7.1 million ($1.6 over FY08) would allow us to more effectively roll out the new education data warehouse by gathering additional information on student course-taking and by offering statewide training for districts, schools, and Department users on using the data warehouse. It would also allow us to implement the first stage of a redesigned grants management system. 7061-9200

Questions

If you have questions about any aspect of the budget or the Department's recommendations, please contact me or the following staff:

• Tony DeLorenzo, Associate Commissioner and Chief Financial Officer (administrative and program items)
  adelorenzo@doe.mass.edu, 781-338-6598
• Jeff Wulfson, Associate Commissioner (local aid items)
  jwulfson@doe.mass.edu, 781-338-6500

	Proposed Priority Areas for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
	Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Description of State Appropriations
	FY2009 Preliminary Commissioner’s Recommendations