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

BOE Budget Subcommittee FY2010 Maintenance and Expansion Budgets

Attached, you will find the updated FY2010 budget recommendations resulting from the October 1st and November 5th Budget Subcommittee meetings. The attached worksheet and this memorandum reflect the discussion and work of the Subcommittee. I am grateful to Gerald Chertavian, Tom Fortmann, and Jeffrey Howard for the time and thought that they contributed to the development of these recommendations.

The budget worksheet contains the two Board of Elementary and Secondary Education FY2010 Budget requests (a maintenance and an expansion budget) that are being forwarded to you from the Subcommittee. Both FY2010 budget requests are in blue text and the priority expansion or consolidated programs are in bold text. You will note that neither budget includes an estimated amount to fully fund the FY2010 Chapter #70 formula. A number of data elements used in the calculation of the Chapter #70 formula are not available at this early date. The Department will work with the Governor, the Legislature, and the Secretary to assist with the calculation of the Chapter #70 formula as the data becomes available.

The spreadsheet columns identify:

• the FY2009 ESE budget as adopted;
• the FY2009 budget after the reductions implemented last month;
• the percentage reduction from the FY2009 adopted budget to the current budget;
• the FY2010 maintenance budget that the Board Subcommittee is presenting to the full Board for your consideration (this budget was developed within the fiscal constraints established by the Executive Office for Administration and Finance for each Secretariat);
• the cumulative change that the FY2010 maintenance budget represents from the adopted FY2009 ESE budget; and
• the FY2010 expansion budget that the Board Subcommittee is presenting to the full Board for your consideration (the lines recommended for increased funding and/or a consolidation of programs in FY2010 are in bold text).

The budget items are presented in four categories on the spreadsheet: 1) grants to school districts and other entities; 2) direct educational services in institutional settings; 3) Department-directed programs; and 4) local aid, including Chapter 70.

You will recall from our October presentation that several principles guided the development of the proposed budgets you will be discussing this month. These principles include the elimination of earmarked funds in favor of DESE-implemented initiatives that include the solicitation of non-governmental partners through a competitive bidding process to secure performance-based contracts for services.

Brief descriptions of all the BOE's budget expansion items are listed below in the same order as they appear on the attached two-page chart:

• Expansion of the Department's current Full Day Kindergarten (FDK) Program to $42.8 million. The requested increase will allow the Department to increase funding for FDK classrooms in low income / high need districts to $18,000, will allow funding for those high need districts that have not been eligible under the current budget language and will allow for continued "Transition to FDK" grants to achieve the goal of universal FDK.

• $26.0 million for a new consolidated Extended Learning Day Program. This new program consolidates the After-School and Expanded Learning Time Programs into a comprehensive Extended Learning Day Grant Program.

• $2.2 million for a new consolidated Gifted and Talented Grant Program. This new program consolidates the current W.P.I. School of Excellence and Gifted and Talented Programs.

• $10 million for a new consolidated State-Wide Reading Program for elementary and middle schools. This new program combines the current Bay State Reading Institute and Early Intervention Tutorial Programs earmarks with the John Silber Early Literacy funds to create a new State-Wide Reading Program.

• $5.0 million for a new consolidated Drop-Out Prevention and Recovery Program. This new program consolidates the current Matching Citizen School and Youthbuild earmarks to create a new Drop-Out Prevention and Recovery Program.

• $12.0 million for a new Interdisciplinary Human Services Grant and Technical Assistance Program to promote integrated academic, human services and health promotion activities.

• $1.5 million for new 21st Century Challenge Grants to create up to five 21st Century Districts and up to ten 21st Century Schools, which will allow ESE to fund pilot sites consistent with the recommendations of the Board's Task Force on 21st Century Skills.

• $5.0 million for expansion of the Department's current Professional Development for Mathematics Program funded. The increase is requested to more adequately address the state-wide demand for content based professional development in mathematics and science.

• $1.0 million for a new consolidated Professional Development for Individualized Student Instruction Program. This program supplants the current Professional Development for English Language Acquisition (ELA) Program with additional funding to train classroom teachers to address the individual needs of English language learners and students with disabilities within the regular classroom setting.

• $2.0 million of new funds to the Department to develop curriculum resources to assist schools and educators in the improvement of curriculum and to identify and disseminate effective school- and district-based instructional practices.

• $3.6 million to adequately fund the Educational Quality and Accountability Center that was transferred to ESE this past Just. The increase of $600K represents the annualized cost of staff salaries and full-year contracts to meet the requirements of the legislation.

• $34.1 million to fund the MCAS contract and the staff associated with implementing this program. The increase of $4.8M will allow the development and piloting of multiple assessment measures, participation in a multi-state Algebra II end-of-course exam, development of an on-line Biology test, and accelerated scoring next year.

• $1.0 million for a new Regionalization Planning and Implementation Grant Program.

• $17.3 million for the Department's Main Administration Account. This represents the minimum funds required in FY2010 to maintain the Department's new offices and administrative staff that are funded in FY2009.

• $65.0 million to fully fund Regional School Transportation, an increase of $3.7 million above the FY2009 GAA.

• $2.2 million to fully fund the Transportation of Non-Resident Students, an increase of $125 thousand above the FY2009 GAA.

• $247.5 million to fully fund the Special Education Circuit Breaker Program at the 75% reimbursement rate, an increase of $17.4 million above the FY2009 GAA.

• $91.8 million to fully fund the Charter School Tuition Reimbursements, an increase of $12.0 million above the FY2009 GAA.

I look forward to our discussion and vote on these two budgets at our November meeting.