Downtown Ann Arbor Main Street light pole on northeast corner of Main & William. Photograph is from the city of Ann Arbor, taken April 2012.

Based on the DDA board’s resolution, it’s the DDA’s expectation that the city of Ann Arbor will make up the difference of $216,000. The board’s action came at its July 3, 2013 meeting.

Responding to an emailed query from The Chronicle earlier this year, city of Ann Arbor staff indicated that in early 2012 two of the light poles fell – due to a structural failure at the base of the poles caused by rust. After inspection of all the poles, two additional light poles were deemed to be in immediate risk of falling and were also replaced.

The DDA’s resolution indicates that the city of Ann Arbor’s budget approval process this year had determined that the city would allocate $216,000 for the project. What the Ann Arbor city council actually did on May 20, 2013 was to alter the DDA’s budget by recognizing additional TIF revenues of more than $568,000, and shifting $300,000 of that revenue from the DDA’s TIF fund to the DDA’s housing fund.

The council’s resolution also recommended that the DDA spend $300,000 of its TIF fund on the Main Street light pole replacement. And in response to an emailed query from The Chronicle, city administrator Steve Powers indicated that the city council will be asked to act on the matter either at its July 15 or Aug. 8 meeting. At the July 3 DDA board meeting, DDA executive director Susan Pollay noted in her remarks to the board that if the board approved the resolution, at that point the council would be asked to act.

This brief was filed from the DDA offices at 150 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 301 where the DDA board holds its meetings. A more detailed report of the meeting will follow: [link]

Tappan Middle School orchestra students performed for the board.

Four community dialogue meetings the board held regarding the budget were summarized by board president Deb Mexicotte and treasurer Glenn Nelson. The trustees will be working to divide some of the suggestions they heard from the public into short-, mid-, and long-term action items.

The board also met during a study session before the regular meeting to address some of the most pressing needs of the superintendent search: identifying a salary, determining a superintendent profile, confirming the superintendent search timeline, and approving an advertising schedule.

The trustees hope to have a candidate in place by the end of July. They decided on a salary range of $180,000 to $220,000, commensurate with experience.

Also at the meeting, Mexicotte made standing committee appointments. The trustees recently moved away from a committee-of-the-whole structure to planning, performance, governance, and executive committees.

Additionally, the board heard first briefings on paving contracts, tech bond purchases, and the Freeman School lease renewal. Trustees voted to approve the 2013 spring grant awards.

2013-14 Budget: Overview

District superintendent Patricia Green led off the presentation on the district’s expenditure report and budget proposal by saying that “none of the potential reductions are without a significant amount of pain.” The projected budget deficits for the 2013-14 school year are at least $8.67 million, following five years of “already massive cuts,” she said. The district’s foundation allowance [per pupil allowance from the state of Michigan] is $9,020 – an amount less than the foundation allowance in 2001-02.

The board had asked Green and the administration to make a best estimate to prepare a list of potential budget cuts, which were presented at its Feb. 27, 2013 meeting. Since then, the administration has continued to cost out potential reductions, and “the picture is not pretty.” Until something changes in the revenue stream from Lansing, these cuts won’t be the end of it, said Green.

The proposal the administration presented was, as Green described it, the beginning of “some serious deliberations that need to take place.” She reiterated that the administration wanted to work with the board to balance the budget. But she noted that if one cost savings could be taken off the list, it would have to be replaced by an equivalent.

2013-14 Budget: Expenditures

Nancy Hoover, AAPS director of finance, first gave a brief overview of how AAPS spends its money.

AAPS director of finance Nancy Hoover.

The majority of the general fund budget is spent on instruction and instructional support (80%). The rest is spent on operations and maintenance (10%), athletics (2%), transportation (3%), and central administration (5%).

To illustrate the increasing problem of funding the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS), Hoover then presented an analysis of MPSERS pension costs per pupil. While the state has worked to contain the costs in recent years, since 1994 the pension cost per student has steadily risen from $280 in 1994 to $1,366 in 2012. Subtracting out the pension cost from the foundation allowance leaves the district with $7,654 per pupil.

Before walking the board through the budget proposal, Hoover listed out the assumptions used for the expenditure projections. The projections assume:

• district enrollment remains flat
• an annual cost increase of 5% over the next three years for health benefits
• an increase in the retirement rate
• an annual cost increase of 4% for transportation costs

Taking into account basic expenditures, as well as step and fringe increments, the district’s projected expenditures for 2013-14 total $192.66 million. Given $3.4 million in staff concessions, the district needs to make $8.67 million in reductions to balance the FY 2013-14 budget.

2013-14 Budget: Proposed Cuts to Instructional Services

Hoover presented the following proposed reductions to the budget for instructional services, totaling $6,264,068:

• Reduce teaching positions by 32 full time equivalents ($3.2 million);
• Eliminate reading intervention teachers ($1 million);
• Reduce Fine Arts/PE positions through attrition ($200,000);
• Reduce counselors to the ratio specified in the AAEA contract ($300,000);
• Reduce theatre funding ($77,068);
• Eliminate one theatre technician position at Pioneer to provide equity with the other comprehensive high schools ($50,000);
• Eliminate 7th hour ($500,000);
• Reduce noon hour supervision ($71,000);
• Move Skyline High to semesters from trimesters ($300,000);
• Freeze library material purchases for one year ($100,000);
• Eliminate high school transportation ($466,000).

Nelson said he was concerned about the scale of what they had to do. He asked how many retirements had already been handed in to the district. Hoover said that on average, between 40 and 50 instructional staff retire every year. Currently, they have 12 notifications. She said the smaller number could be a reflection of the reduction in the early notification incentive that was made last year.

Mexicotte asked about the timing of layoff notices. Comsa said that if it involves the Ann Arbor Educational Association (AAEA), they would have to make a determination the last day of the school year. If they are looking to reduce 30 positions, Mexicotte said, they would have to notify approximately 200 staff members by the end of the year.

Trustee Susan Baskett was concerned about the implication of cutting staff. If the district were to cut 7th hour, as well as the reading intervention teachers, that would mean cutting services that have taken a lot of time to build up. She asked how they would compensate for the loss of services provided. AAPS deputy superintendent of instruction Alesia Flye said that they would like to partner with the community to make up for the cutting of services. Trustee Andy Thomas suggested telling the high schools that if they wanted to keep things like 7th hour or trimesters, they would need to do it with fewer teachers, then let the building administrators figure out how to make that work.

The trustees also talked briefly about the issue of transportation. Thomas noted that in the proposal, the Roberto Clemente Student Development program would remain as it is, but high school transportation would be cut. Because Clemente was not located on an AATA bus route, he wondered how students would be able to get to the remote location. Randy Trent, AAPS executive director of physical properties, acknowledged that if the district were to eliminate high school busing, it could not discriminate between schools. Green noted that transportation must include special needs and homeless students. Forty-two percent of Clemente students are classified as special education.

Mexicotte questioned how they were able to supply provide to Clemente but not to Community High.

Trustee Simone Lightfoot asked if the number of common bus stops could be increased. Liz Margolis, AAPS director of communications, said that this school year, the district started off with fewer common stops, but ended up adding more for safety reasons, especially for students who lived in the more rural areas of the district. Margolis said the district will continue to have the conversation about transportation.

Margolis also noted that three AAPS routes at the high school level have been replaced with Ann Arbor Transportation Authority routes. So far, they’ve heard positive responses about the augmentation of service with the AATA. While the consolidated bus services “haven’t worked perfectly for everyone,” Margolis said that anecdotally, the district hadn’t seen an increase in tardiness or absenteeism due to the changes made to busing last year.

2013-14 Budget: Proposed Cuts to Athletics

Instead of the $1 million cut to athletics that was in the initial costing out phase of the budget’s preparation, Hoover presented a more granular proposal for athletics with a reduction of $512,685:

• Increase ice hockey rental fees to $600 per student ($36,000);
• Increase golf course rental fees to $225-$400 per student ($21,000);
• Reduce equipment purchases ($30,000);
• Eliminate transportation for games outside of Washtenaw County ($120,000)
• or eliminate all transportation to any athletic event ($300,000);
• Reduce middle school clubs by 16% ($18,989);
• Eliminate middle school baseball and softball ($31,000);
• Eliminate 7th grade basketball ($30,696);
• Increase pay-to-participate fee at the middle schools to $100 ($75,000);
• Increase play-to-participate fees to a one-time fee of $250 for all high school sports ($150,000)

Several district athletic directors were on hand to answer questions from the trustees. Rusty Fuller, Slauson’s athletic director (AD), said that they worked to make incremental cuts to the athletic program instead of the million dollar cut that was initially proposed. He emphasized that the ADs would like to work with the district more – because they did not realize that the cuts to the middle school baseball, softball, and basketball would be on the budget list.

Slauson Middle School Athletic Director Rusty Fuller.

The pay-to-participate fees generated some discussion among the trustees. Baskett asked how the increase in pay-to-participate would impact the number of students who participate in district sports.

Fuller said that Dexter Public Schools had significantly increased their fees and had subsequently seen a huge increase in scholarship requests. He said that because of the number of programs AAPS has already cut, they’ve seen a decline in participation, especially with girls.

Dottie Davis, Huron High AD, said that the district hasn’t raised its pay-to-participate fee in three years, saying “we’re the cheapest in town.” Fuller said that the ADs were comfortable with the middle school increase, as the issue at that level isn’t as big as it is with high school athletics.

2013-14 Budget: Proposed Cuts to Operations

Hoover also walked through reductions to operations totaling $1.23 million.

• Freeze furniture/fixtures purchases ($200,000);
• Reduce natural gas purchases by negotiating a lower price ($100,000);
• Realizing energy savings through a sinking fund investment ($200,000);
• Reduce grounds personnel by one FTE ($50,000);
• Restructure custodial services ($600,000);
• eliminate one crew chief ($80,000)

2013-14 Budget: Proposed Cuts District Wide

Hoover also presented several items that would have a district-wide impact for a total of $682,540:

• Reduce food costs ($70,000):
• Reducing conference and travel expenses ($50,000);
• Close middle school pools ($70,000);
• Suspend table rentals ($15,000);
• Reduce central office positions and restructure ($477,540)

Thomas asked that if there were any discussions about savings coming from reductions in the administrations’ salaries. He acknowledged that they were in negotiations with AAAA, and that any voluntary reductions in salary among the senior administrative staff had not been included in the budget proposal – because nothing was finalized. As the contract negotiator, Comsa said the board had given him direction on the amounts. While he couldn’t give trustees a number just yet, he said they had given him direction and, as the negotiator, he was working towards that.

2013-14 Budget: Outside Funding Options

The trustees spoke in depth about the role the Ann Arbor Public Schools Education Foundation (AAPSEF) could play in generating private giving from the public. Green noted that the AAPSEF has not been making any grants to the district since their executive director resigned at the start of the school year. They haven’t been able to fundraise this year, but will be working to improve upon that this next year.

Trustee Christine Stead said that while she understood the foundation’s circumstances, “we need them more than ever.” She wanted to encourage people to donate directly to APSEF with the assumption they’ll be looking aggressively at the district’s budget. Or the board needed to explore other options for people to donate. She said she would like to get an update on the AAPSEF fundraising.

From right: Irene Patalan, Christine Stead, and Deb Mexicotte.

Mexicotte noted that the topic of targeted funding came up over and over in the dialogue meetings. She expressed her desire for the community to have “a clear couple of paths” to donation. Thomas suggested the Karen Thomas Memorial Fund as an excellent conduit for making up a cut to the media purchases. The memorial fund was established in 2008 following the death of Karen Thomas, a local writer and Thomas’s wife. He acknowledged that they wanted to capitalize on the “sense of urgency” that has been created by the budget dialogues and board discussions.

Mexicotte suggested having a smaller, more widespread donation process by which the community could express their “$20, $30, or $40 desire” to help the district. Trustee Irene Patalan wondered if they could have a fund-drive similar to the public radio stations.

After acknowledging how awful the cuts were, Nelson said all the trustees would, if they could, choose to fund all the programs. During the community dialogues, over 100 people offered to help with raising revenue. The district needs to work on specific channels to help mobilize those people, Nelson said.

2013-14 Budget: General Commentary

Hoover noted that the proposed cuts eliminate 75 FTEs total $19,293 more than the amount that is needed to balance the budget. For any additional shortfalls that might occur, Hoover said, the recommendation is that they be paid for out of the fund balance.

Stead asked how much money the district needed in its fund balance to cover summer payroll costs. Hoover said she wasn’t sure – because they had never needed to do that. Stead said that it could be important: If the district had less in its fund balance than it needed to cover payroll, the district would need to borrow the money from the state, which would mean interest fees would be incurred.

Green highlighted some of the changes that were now “off the table” compared with the initial set of proposed cuts. Elementary principal sharing was determined to be a safety risk, especially in light of the recent Sandy Hook Elementary (Newtown, Connecticut) shooting. Several items, such as elimination of media specialist positions, could not be implemented because of contractual issues. Theatre funding was reduced instead of eliminated. It has been decided that the administration will be conducting a more thorough review of all alternative programs in the district – so the Roberto Clemente Student Development Center and Community High School were maintained as is. Middle school transportation was also recommended to be maintained.

Lightfoot reiterated her call to “amend, rather than end.” She said she wanted to make sure the administration was talking to the people in the trenches rather than the people at Balas – so that they are really looking outside the box. Green said that administration has done that, giving as an example the trimester scheduling at Skyline High School.

Mexicotte noted that this was the board’s first conversation about budget reductions, but it would not be the last. The administration has conceived what could be considered a draft budget at this point, said Mexicotte, and the board will be working under this framework.

Outcome: No action was required by the board, as this was a first briefing. The trustees will continue to have budget update discussions until they finalize the budget. The 2013-14 budget must be finalized before June 30, 2013.

2013-14 Budget: Community Dialogue Meetings

On Saturday, April 20, the trustees completed the last of four community dialogue meetings on the budget. Mexicotte and Nelson reported out on some general findings at the April 24 board meeting. Nelson thanked the nearly 300 members of the public who showed up for the four dialogues. He said that he gained a lot in listening and talking with people, and that it was truly a two-way dialogue.

AAPS trustee Glenn Nelson.

Mexicotte said she and Nelson had compiled the sentiments expressed by the public. They will also be separating the items out into short- and long-term items. The documents Mexicotte created was divided into four different areas: (1) themes arising from questions and comments; (2)specific suggestions and ideas for alleviating financial stress; (3) strategies and questions that are useful guides to future work; and (4) reflections of Mexicotte and Nelson.

During the April 24 meeting, the trustees talked over how the specific suggestions from the community could be added to the budget discussion. Nelson said that they needed to assess how best to approach some of the suggestions. Some of them could be explored through committee process, and some of them – such as illustrating the extent of cuts already made – could be immediately implemented.

Thomas asked if there could be a tracking mechanism so that the suggestions made didn’t go into “a black hole.” Such a mechanism would allow the public to see that their suggestions were considered. Lightfoot asked if there was a place for additional comments and ideas from the community. Baskett asked if any of the ideas could be acted on for this year’s budget.

Mexicotte responded by saying that while some of the topics, such as redistricting, would not be acted upon for the next year, the dialogues helped inform her about what was most important to the community. Because maintaining a smaller class size was a consistent theme at the community dialogues, it will be a lens through which she now looks when faced with budget cuts.

Nelson noted that some of the suggestions, such as eliminating half-day professional development days, needed to be worked through by a combination of board, administration, staff, and the public.

Patalan was grateful for the work Nelson and Mexicotte put into compiling the data. The dialogues, she said, left her with the feeling that the community absolutely values its schools. She noted that the district website was a valuable resource for finding information.

2013-14 Budget: Community Dialogue – Next Steps

Moving forward, the trustees will work to identify the issues as: short-term suggestions that can be easily implemented; mid-term items that will need to be addressed in committee and with the administration; and long-term items that “need long-term work by the staff.” Green and the cabinet were an “integral part of the process,” said Nelson.

Outcome: Because Mexicotte and Nelson are both part of the governance committee, it was decided that they will schedule a committee meeting to begin identifying the short-, medium-, and long-term items. A governance committee meeting is scheduled for May 3, 2013 at 9 a.m. at the Balas Administration Building.

2013-14 Budget: Public Commentary

Eleven members of the public spoke to express their support of programs the board has identified for possible reductions.

2013-14 Budget: Public Commentary – General

Christa Moran asked that the board make it so the budget cuts are felt across the district, not just by any one group. She asked that the programs themselves decide how they were going to have to tighten their belts.

2013-14 Budget: Public Commentary – Roberto Clemente

Several students spoke in support of the Roberto Clemente Student Development Center. Tevin Cole said that many doors wouldn’t have been open for him without Clemente. While there, he was taught: Anything is possible with self-determination. Karrah Weeder expressed her concern over what would happen to “all of us” if Clemente was moved or shut down.

Anyse Malcolm, a Community High School student, spoke in support of Clemente. She said she was saddened at the lack of sympathy and empathy from the board. While she was grateful to attend Community, she said she saw that the relocation of Clemente would only devastate the students who attend the program.

Nancy Kupina said that she couldn’t have been more wrong in her initial impressions of Clemente. Repeatedly using the phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know,” Kupina said the public entrusts the board of education to find out what the public doesn’t know. And she asked them to do that when it came to the “poorly researched recommendations” about Clemente.

Clemente teacher Mike Smith asked that the board to imagine it was their sons and daughters who didn’t succeed in a traditional high school and who needed another option. He said that because of decisions the board may make, the program might not be there in the near future.

David Malcolm said that the students of Clemente didn’t want to go through a “back door” of Pioneer. [This was an allusion to the possibility that the program would be relocated physically to the Pioneer High School building, with a separate entrance.] They wanted to stay where they were. In addition, Malcolm also recognized the Clemente and Community students who assisted with St. Mary’s Lodge #4 Adopt-a-Highway clean-up.

Joe Merrick asked that the board not to make the proposed cuts to Clemente. It was a program his son was succeeding in, and it should be kept intact, he said.

2013-14 Budget: Public Commentary – Community High

Parent Ed Borbely argued for maintaining block scheduling at Community High because it allows for more in-depth coverage of the curriculum and it produced results.

Student Carson Borbely spoke in favor of maintaining block scheduling at Community High School.

He said the school draws students into the district who would otherwise attend private schools, so it should be left intact.

Carson Borbely also spoke in favor of keeping block scheduling and forum at Community. Those two pieces were integral to the success of students at Community. “While there is a dollar amount attached to block scheduling,” she said, “the education is priceless.”

2013-14 Budget: Public Commentary – Athletics

Parent Mark Vorobiev said that while he was not born in America, he recognized that high school sports were as American as apple pie. Cutting funding to athletics and other areas like theater and the arts will take away the district’s competitive advantage, he said.

Superintendent Search

Earlier this month, superintendent Patricia Green announced her resignation, effective in mid-July. The trustees began discussing the search process at a study session on April 17, 2013.

Before the regular meeting on April 24, the trustees met again for a study session to take steps to address some of the most pressing needs of their superintendent search: identifying a salary, determining a superintendent profile, confirming the superintendent search timeline, and approving an advertising schedule.

Superintendent Search: Salary

The trustees were in agreement on posting a salary range, rather than a set number. After some wrangling about the top levels of such a range, they decided on $180,000 to $220,000, commensurate with experience. [Green began her tenure on July 1, 2011 with a five-year contract and a starting salary of $245,000.]

Justifying her desire for a higher top number, Patalan said she interpreted the money differently. The money they have to manage is important to her, she said, and so she would like someone who has had experience in successfully managing expenditures. Nelson and Stead also believed $220,000 was too low. Stead said she was interested in “hiring high,” knowing they would have to cut because it was not likely they were going to have more money in the near future.

During the last superintendent search, Thomas recalled, they decided they wanted to offer a high salary to get a very experienced, very accomplished superintendent. While they did that, he said, from the moment the salary was announced, it became a sore point in the community. He would like to be able to tell the community they were bringing in the superintendent for less than $200,000. Lightfoot said she was interested in incentives that could be added to the base salary as reward for things that were “profound and permeated the district.”

Baskett said that while experience matters, “longevity is the key.” The community was willing to take a less experienced superintendent, so long as there was longevity in the position.

Mexicotte summed up their position by saying that the board was in the same dilemma as it was last time. Their work was to do the best thing for the community by getting “the best candidate we think we can bear.” So they need to balance the demands of the job and the job market with what the community believes the salary should be. That’s why the low end is important, she maintained, because that number told the community where the board thought a superintendent might come from.

There was some additional discussion about how the fringe benefits match up to comparable districts. David Comsa, AAPS deputy superintendent of human resources and general counsel, said the current superintendent package includes the salary, life insurance, reasonable expenses, and vacation days, with a value of about $50,000. Some other districts include benefits such as annuity and car allowances, which AAPS does not have.

Superintendent Search: Profile

The board also decided on a list of 14 characteristics for the superintendent profile, which will be used during the search. The trustees amended and added to the profile they had used during the 2010-11 superintendent search. [.pdf of amended superintendent search profile]

Because Nelson came to the study session with an adjusted profile already written up, the trustees used his as a “straw man” and amended it as needed.

The trustees added to Nelson’s list. Stead focused on stressing the financial duress the district is under, saying the district needs a superintendent who understands Michigan’s financial plight – and specifically Ann Arbor’s situation. The idea of “a visionary” was repeated by several trustees. Mexicotte asked for the inclusion of media savviness. The ability to build relationships was also highlighted.

Superintendent Search: Advertising

The board also adjusted the advertising of the job opening to include some outlets that weren’t already listed by Ray and Associates – the search firm the board is using – and also to eliminate some places that didn’t have wide enough reach. Mexicotte noted that Ray and Associates had added LinkedIn as a new venue this time round.

The trustees decided not to advertise the position with the Broad Center. Lightfoot raised concern about the implication of a Broad Center trained superintendent, saying that the leadership of the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) was heavily Broad trained. It was “antithetical to the basic tenets of public education,” Lightfoot contended. Stead agreed, saying that some of the political agenda behind the Broad Center was to work to privatize public education.

At least two public forums will be held in the future to get community input on the superintendent search. Baskett reiterated that she wanted the community to be made aware that the board had discussed longevity, and was aware of what the community was saying. Trustees are looking for feedback from the community dialogues and from individuals, she said.

Superintendent Search: Timeline

Additionally, the trustees adjusted the timeline suggested by the search firm Ray and Associates to reflect an end goal of a superintendent named by the end of July. The trustees wrangled to align their personal schedules with the needs of the hiring process.

It was determined that the final candidates would participate in a community forum the same week they would be doing the finalist interviews. Right now, that would fall during the week of July 5, 2013.

Superintendent Search: Public Commentary

Victor Stoeffler asked that the board “exercise restraint and thoughtfulness” when choosing the next superintendent. He expressed concern that the trustees had already proposed the parameters for the search, when so little time had passed for introspective conversations.

After listing off some of the characteristics she believed the next superintendent needed to have, parent Jody Huhn endorsed Ben Edmondson, current Clemente principal, as a candidate for the superintendency. It was critical, she said, to find a superintendent who wouldn’t back down from challenge and who understands the needs and perspectives of the students, the staff, and the parents.

Barbara Malcolm said there was a “systemic leadership problem” with the board of education, and specifically Mexicotte, because so many personnel have left under her tenure. She asked for Mexicotte’s resignation.

Briefings

At most regular meetings, the board hears initial briefings on items they will be asked to approve at a subsequent meeting. At the April 24 meeting, the board heard first briefings on tech bond purchases, paving contracts, and the Freeman School lease renewal. The 2013 spring grant awards was presented as a second briefing – for the board to approve the receipt and expenditure of the grant monies. Additionally, the standing committee appointments were finalized.

Briefing: Tech Bond Purchases

Trent briefed the board on bid recommendations for district-wide network cabling and mechanical modifications to support the 2012 technology bond initiatives.

After conducting post-bid interviews, the district’s professional team recommended awarding contracts to Fuller Heating Company for $80,669 for HVAC work, and to Complete Communications Inc. for $386,989 for network cabling. Both companies were the lowest qualified bidders for each job.

Trent noted that the district is opting for CAT 6 in place of CAT 5 cabling. While more expensive, it will take longer to be obsolete, he said. The team also opted for adding a “student drop” because it was cheaper to do two at the same time rather than pursuing a second drop later.

Trent also noted that if trustees approve the bids, they will have approved about 26% of the entire technology bond budget.

Outcome: This was a first briefing item. The board will vote on the bids after a second briefing at the next regular meeting.

Briefing: Paving Contracts

The trustees were briefed on bid recommendations for contractors to perform the 2013 summer paving projects. The first briefing was presented by Randy Trent, AAPS executive director of physical properties.

Trent had interviewed the lowest qualified bidders: Best Asphalt from Romulus, Barrett Paving of Ypsilanti, and Quality Asphalt of Howell. After the time when district conducted due diligence, Barrett Paving withdrew its bid.

Contract awards are recommended for Best Asphalt at $377,535 and Quality Asphalt at $60,208 to perform the paving projects. Trent noted that Best Asphalt previously has done paving projects for the district, and Quality Asphalt has tried to get projects with the district in the past. The projects are funded through the district’s 2010 sinking fund.

The schools where parking lot or sport court paving is being done in summer 2013 are: Allen Elementary, Ann Arbor Preschool and Family Center, Ann Arbor Tech High, Bryant Elementary, Roberto Clemente Student Development Center, Dicken Elementary, Forsythe Middle, Haisley Elementary, Huron High, Northside Elementary, Scarlett Middle, Slauson Middle, Tappan Middle, and Wines Elementary.

Outcome: This was a first briefing item. The board will vote on the bids after a second briefing at the next regular meeting.

Briefing: Freeman School Lease Renewal

Trent briefed the board on a recommendation to renew the district’s lease of Freeman School to Go Like the Wind Montessori School. The district has leased the building to Go Like the Wind since 1987. The building is located at 3540 Dixboro Lane in Superior Township.

If approved, the new three-year lease with one two-year renewal option would begin on July 1, 2014. The new proposed rate is $300,862, with a 3% increase each year. Over a five-year lease period, the district will receive over $1.5 million in rent.

Trent mentioned that the tenants have paid for renovations over the past 10 years, while the district pays for maintenance.

After Thomas asked about the possibility of selling the school, Trent said that as a school building, the property was not very lucrative. When it was last assessed several years ago, it was appraised at $600,000 for the building and the 40 acres of land it sits on. However, if the area becomes more developed in the future, Trent said, it could be an important property for the district to own.

Outcome: This was a first briefing item. The board will vote on lease renewal after a second briefing at the next regular meeting.

Briefing: Spring Grant Awards

As part of the consent agenda, the trustees unanimously approved the 2013 spring grant awards. There was no discussion about the grants at the meeting.

New grants include: $11,332 from the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop for SchoolMessenger, a parental notification system; $15,000 from the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation (AAPSEF) for the Community Builders program; and $8,900 from Toshiba America to purchase Lego Mindstorms for Pioneer High School.

AAPSEF is also providing renewal grants for the following: $15,679 for Great Ideas; $4,000 for 5th grade instrumental music instrument repairs; $21,000 for SchoolMessenger; and $22,644 for the Environmental Education Program. Secondary Perkins III is providing a renewal grant of $143,022 for the Career and Technical Education program.

The entire cost of SchoolMessenger will be covered by the two grants from the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop and AAPSEF.

The board had been initially briefed on the grants at its April 10, 2013 meeting.

Outcome: The board unanimously approved the receipt and expenditures of the 2013 spring grant awards.

Briefing: Standing Committees

The trustees recently voted to move back to a standing committee structure. There are now four committees: planning, performance, governance, and executive. Planning and performance committees will look deeply into topics, then bring forward to the board an executive summary and recommendations. Governance will look at areas of board policy and boardsmanship. The executive committee, made up of the committee chairs and the president, will set the agenda.

Briefing: Standing Committees – Appointments

After polling the trustees as to where they would like to serve, Mexicotte named the committees.

• Performance: Thomas (chair), Lightfoot, Baskett
• Planning: Patalan (chair), Stead, Nelson
• Governance: Mexicotte, Nelson, Lightfoot
• Executive: Mexicotte, Patalan, Thomas

As all the trustees were amenable to the committee appointments, Mexicotte noted that the executive committee will meet as soon as possible to set the upcoming agenda. She also requested that the committee chairs poll their members to set up a meeting schedule. Other ad-hoc committees that have been formed, such committee formed to look at the district’s contract policy, will continue their work outside the standing committee structure.

Briefing: Standing Committees – Agenda

As the board moves to a standing committee structure, the agenda will need to be rearranged. Many of the items that were scheduled to be presented and discussed at regular meetings or at committee of the whole meetings will be divided up between planning and performance. Mexicotte proposed splitting up six of the topics: special education metrics, Roberto Clemente follow-up discussion, curriculum report, climate survey report, communications update, and preschool and HeadStart report. She recognized that the topics may not necessarily fit into the mission of the committees, but are put there because of the workload.

Association Reports

Five associations are invited to make regular reports to the school board: the Black Parents Student Support Group (BPSSG), the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC), the Parent Teacher Organization Council (PTOC), the Ann Arbor Administrators Association (AAAA), and the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA.) The Youth Senate is also invited to speak once a month, alternating with representative groups from each of the high schools.

At the April 24, 2013 meeting, the board heard from AAPAC, PTOC, AAAA, and AAEA.

AAPAC representative Erica Melnykowycz asked that the trustees recognize that students identified as having a disability are legally entitled to receive special education services that are individualized. She emphasized the importance of making sure students’ right to a Free Appropriate Public Education is considered when making budget decisions. AAPAC also asked for the continued support of SISS and the general education administration of the Disability Awareness Workshops, workshops for 4th graders to experience the challenges of living with a disability.

Amy Pachera, PTOC representative, thanked Flye and her team for their presentation to the PTOC on the balanced assessment system. During the presentation, they explained the testing students go through and the reasons for them. Pachera also addressed the public who spoke during public commentary about budget cuts. “When you have to cut a budget $15 million four years straight,” parents must get involved, she said. If the way schools are funded in Michigan doesn’t change, they will have to cut what makes AAPS so excellent.

Kathy Scarnecchia, Haisley principal, represented AAAA. She congratulated Green on her retirement, and asked that the board consider allowing AAAA to be part of the process for selecting the interim and permanent superintendent. She also said that AAAA “remains open to dialoging with you” regarding tough budget cuts.

Linda Carter, AAEA president, said in no uncertain terms: “The AAEA bank is officially closed.” The members of AAEA have sacrificed to keep the quality of education at the highest level, she said, but they cannot continue to see smaller paychecks.

Comm/Comm: Tappan Middle Orchestral Performance

The board meeting was started off with a performance by Tappan Middle School 6th grade orchestra, under the direction of Joe DeMarsh. The group performed two pieces for the trustees. Before the performance, DeMarsh congratulated his colleagues for their work in making AAPS one of the best communities for music education, as listed by the NAMM Foundation.

Comm/Comm: Administrative Professionals Week

The trustees formally recognized the district’s administrative professionals by approving a proclamation in acknowledgement of administrative professionals week.

Executive assistant to the board of education Amy Osinski. The board recognized administrative professionals week.

Mexicotte thanked the administrative professionals for their day-to-day work, as well as for their “sacrifice to the district.” As part of the AAEA office administrators bargaining unit, administrative professional now have mandated furlough days in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Mexicotte also singled out “the tireless work” of Amy Osinski, executive assistant to the board of education.

Comm/Comm: District Accolades

In her superintendent report, Green highlighted several achievements: student accomplishments in art and music; a Gates Millennium Scholar finalist; success in the TeamWorks competition; Carpenter Elementary’s 175 anniversary; the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad (WESO); and accomplishments of several teachers.

Green also acknowledged the “tremendous job” done by AAPS administrative professionals.

During public commentary, Stephen Barrett of St. Mary’s Lodge #4 spoke to recognize the efforts of Clemente and Community High students who assisted with the Lodge’s Adopt-A-Highway clean-up.

Stephen Barrett of St. Mary’s Lodge #4.

When students do something positive, they need to be recognized, he said.

During “items from the board,” Nelson reported that he had attended both the Choral Cavalcade and an event at the Neutral Zone. He said he was always impressed by the leadership of the Neutral Zone.

Stead also recognized WESO, saying it was a “high energy event” that she was very proud of. Stead, Lightfoot, and Baskett all thanked Patricia Jenkins, the Skyline Communication, Public Policy, and Media Magnet lead teacher for work she and some of her students had done.

Agenda Setting

As the board considered the May 8 agenda, priority was given to “a continued discussion of the budget.” A budget discussion update was added. A University of Michigan student presentation – about the ways student voices can enhance and improve the district – was referred to a committee. While Mexicotte noted the students had been working hard to meet her requests of relevancy and efficiency in presentation, the trustees decided their focus should be on the budget. They also voted to schedule an executive session on May 8 before the regular meeting for the purpose of labor negotiations.

Outcome: The agenda, with the above changes, was unanimously approved.

Items from the Board

Several trustees reported on various meetings and conferences they had recently attended.

Stead, Lightfoot, and Baskett attended the Pioneer PTSO, which Stead said ended up being like a pseudo-community budget dialogue. At that meeting, Baskett said, she connected with a parent who was interested in helping write grants for the district.

Patalan noted her own and Stead’s attendance at the Governor’s Education Summit. She said that she was proud that AAPS has already had conversations about a strategic plan, part of which other districts are only now just beginning to do.

Thomas noted he and Stead were part of a panel at University of Detroit Mercy Law School, which focused on the interaction between all levels of government.

Present: President Deb Mexicotte, vice president Christine Stead, treasurer Glenn Nelson, secretary Andy Thomas, and trustees Susan Baskett, Simone Lightfoot, and Irene Patalan.

Next regular meeting: May 8, 2013, 7 p.m., at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library’s fourth floor meeting room, 343 S. Fifth Ave.

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The budget dialogue meetings will be structured differently from the forums that have been held in previous years – to allow for more open conversation. Several board members will be in attendance at each meeting to engage in conversation with the community. Conversation topics will depend on the interests and questions of the attendees. Board members anticipate those topics could include:

• Potential measures to increase AAPS resources
• Ideas for improved practices in AAPS
• Discussion of respective value of various programs and services
• Ideas for measures that would lessen the negative consequences of budget cuts

Community Dialogue Meeting Schedule

• March 28, Thursday, 7-9 p.m. Clague Middle School, Media Center 2616 Nixon Road, Ann Arbor. Board members expected to attend:  Andy Thomas, Glenn Nelson, Deb Mexicotte 
• April 9, Tuesday, 7–9 p.m. Slauson Middle School, Media Center at 1019 West Washington St., Ann Arbor. Board members expected to attend:  Christine Stead, Glenn Nelson, Deb Mexicotte
• April 16, Tuesday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Downtown Ann Arbor Public Library in 4th floor Conference Room (A) 343 South Fifth Ave. Ann Arbor. Board members expected to attend:  Irene Patalan, Glenn Nelson, Deb Mexicotte
• April 20, Saturday, 9-11 a.m. Scarlett Middle School, Media Center 3300 Lorraine St., Ann Arbor. Board members expected to attend:  Susan Baskett, Glenn Nelson, Deb Mexicotte

Additional community forums will be scheduled in early May to discuss the draft AAPS budget for 2013-2014.

Chart 1: City of Ann Arbor two-year outlook for the general fund. The black bar represents recurring revenue. The stacked bars represent expenses. From the bottom up, those expenses are: existing recurring expenses (light red), requests for new recurring expenses (dark red), one-time requests (light blue), and capital improvement plan needs (dark blue). There also could be additional expenses needed to meet the city council’s priority goals.

The most recent of those work sessions took place on March 11, 2013. The agenda focused on the city council’s top priorities, as identified at its planning retreat late last year: (1) city budget and fiscal discipline; (2) public safety; and (3) infrastructure. Two additional areas were drawn from a raft of other possible issues as those to which the council wanted to devote time and energy over the next two years: (4) economic development; and (5) affordable housing. The retreat had resulted in a consensus on “problem” and “success” statements in these areas – answering the questions: (1) What is the problem we are solving? and (2) What does success look like?

The priority-focused March 11 work session followed one held on Feb. 25, which mapped out the financial picture for the next two years fund-by-fund – not just the general fund, but also the various utility funds (water, sanitary sewer, stormwater, and streets) and internal service funds (fleet, and IT). But on March 11, the council’s focus was primarily on the general fund – as deliberations centered on the first two priority items: fiscal discipline and public safety.

The Feb. 25 session had provided the council with a sketch of the basic general fund picture for the next two years, which is better than it has been for the last several years. Based on current levels for all services, recurring revenues for the two years are projected to exceed recurring expenses by a total of $1.44 million in a general fund budget of about $82 million each year.

That doesn’t factor in requests from various departments that would result in additional recurring expenses, totaling $1.17 million for the two years – which would leave a surplus of just $265,000. When further requests from departments are considered that would result in one-time expenses, that two-year surplus would flip to a deficit of about $252,00. And if all as-yet-unfunded capital improvement expenses are added in for the two years, the city would be looking at a two-year general fund deficit of $4.41 million.

The general fund’s uncommitted balance could cover that deficit – but it would leave the uncommitted balance at $9.69 million at the end of FY 2015, or 11.5% of operating expenses. Under city policy, the uncommitted general fund balance should be between 8% and 12%. However, Tom Crawford, the city’s chief financial officer, has recommended that the city strive for 15-20%.

None of those numbers factor in any additional resources that could be required to achieve success measured in terms of the city council’s priority goals.

At the March 11 session, discussion by councilmembers of the first two priority items – fiscal discipline and public safety – revealed some unsurprising philosophical differences in approach. The majority of councilmembers seemed to accept city administrator Steve Powers’ inclination to take FY 2014 as a “breather” year, not asking departments to meet reduction targets this year, after several years of cuts. But Jane Lumm (Ward 2) – who previously served as a Republican on the council in the mid 1990s, and was elected as an independent in 2011 – expressed disappointed with this approach. She wants reduction targets every year.

And Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1), who was elected in November 2012, challenged the idea that it’s only new councilmembers who need to learn during the budget process. She pointed out that city staff members also have a learning curve – as they shift the organization’s priorities to the new council’s priorities.

For public safety, a consensus seemed to emerge that the council’s planning retreat success statements about policing might need further refinement – in light of the current department’s configuration. Police chief John Seto characterized that configuration as set up to be reactive, not proactive. Current staffing levels don’t allow for a proactive configuration, he indicated.

But the council did not appear to have a complete consensus about the importance of that proactive capability – unless that capability could be linked to success in making the community be safe and feel safe. Measuring perceptions of safety through the National Citizens Survey – for the first time since 2008 – was an idea that seemed to have some traction on the council. Some sentiment was expressed that the number of police officers should be increased – whether or not that increase could be tied to better safety as defined in adopted city council goals.

For the fire protection side of public safety, councilmembers effectively made a decision – without voting – to give clear direction to fire chief Chuck Hubbard that they didn’t want to see his three-station plan implemented. He had first presented the plan about a year ago. The proposal would close three stations but re-open one, for a net reduction from five to three stations.

Some dissent was offered, but mayor John Hieftje indicated that in his view the three-station plan was dead. Still, councilmembers seemed unenthusiastic about an alternative – which would entail hiring an additional 23 firefighters to staff existing stations. They seemed more inclined toward incremental improvements in fire safety. Those improvements might be gained through community education. Another possibility is deployment of some light rescue vehicles, which would require a crew of just two, instead of water-carrying trucks that need a crew of three.

This report focuses exclusively on the top council priorities of budget discipline and public safety. Also discussed at the working session, but not included in this report, were draft work plans for the other three priority areas: infrastructure, economic development and affordable housing.

The council may schedule an additional work session on March 25 to give city administrator Steve Powers more direction as he shapes the final budget that he’ll submit to the council in April.

Work Session Overview

The agenda for the council’s working session included draft work plans built around the council’s priorities and success statements – which they had adopted from their late 2012 planning retreat. [.pdf of 2014 draft priority area work plans]

Work Session Overview: General Fund

But before being briefed on the draft work plans for the five priority areas, city administrator Steve Powers invited chief financial officer Tom Crawford to review the basic financial picture for the city’s general fund. The council had been briefed on this at their previous work session held on Feb. 25.

Crawford highlighted the contrast between recurring requests and nonrecurring requests. He also pointed out that there was a line for capital improvement plan (CIP) projects that have no other funding identified except for the general fund. Listed as “TBD” in the chart presented to the council were additional resources for the council’s priorities identified at their planning retreat, as well as other possible subsidies from the general fund that might be required for other funds.

Crawford told the council he would be listening that evening to hear their feedback. Specifically, he’d be listening for how the council wanted to measure success for each of their priority areas. Based on the council’s reaction to the draft work plans, Crawford said, he’d be listening to see if the staff had heard accurately what the council had expressed about how it wanted to measure success.

Crawford presented the council with a slide they’d seen at their previous work session [figures are in thousands]:

                      FY 2014     FY 2015
Recurring
Recurring Revenue   $(82,274)   $(83,527)
Recurring Expenses    80,797      83,565
Net Recurring         (1,477)         38
Recurring Requests       698         476
Net Recur Oprtns        (779)        514

Non-Recurring
One-time Rqsts           431          86
Gen Fund CIP Rqsts     1,298	   2,856
Council Priorities       tbd         tbd
Gen Fund Subs Other      tbd         tbd
Total Non-Recur Rqsts  1,729       2,942

(Surplus)/Deficit        950       3,455

Uncommitted Fnd Blnc  13,144       9,689
Fnd Blnc as Percent    16.1%       11.5%

-

Crawford reminded the council that if all current departmental requests were granted, and all of the capital needs were funded, that would result in the use of general fund balance of around $950,000 in fiscal year 2014 and roughly $3.5 million in fiscal year 2015. The result would be to reduce the uncommitted general fund balance to about 11.5% of total expenses. The current fund balance, Crawford indicated, reflects about 18% of operations. He reminded the council that the range that he recommended for the uncommitted fund balance for the general fund was between 15% and 20%.

Work Session Overview: Draft Work Plans

To give councilmembers an idea of what they’d be presented that evening, city administrator Steve Powers described the draft work plans as centering around the council’s priority areas – which the council had identified at the December 2012 planning retreat. Powers indicated that the service area administrators would be presenting the draft plans and highlighting those places where the staff feel like they need additional feedback from the council.

Powers also stressed that some of the action items might be accomplished without additional funding and that the service area administrators would highlight those items. Some of the action items might also be undertaken in partnership with other entities, he said, not necessarily under the leadership of the city. Powers reiterated Crawford’s point that staff would be looking for feedback from the council on how to measure success as set forth by the council.

The desired outcome for the staff that evening, Powers said, was a consensus about the success statements and guidance for the 2104 and 2015 budgets, and about how the council would like to proceed in developing its priorities. The staff wanted guidance on topics that the council would like to see brought before the body within the next two years. The idea was to transform the draft work plans into something that was really actionable during the two-year timeframe, Powers said. He stressed the fact that the work plans are currently drafts on which the staff is looking for feedback at the work session or later.

Later in the presentation, Powers also reminded councilmembers that the problem statements and the success statements in the draft work plans were developed and adopted by the city council. The other parts of the work plan were initiated by the city staff.

Budget Discipline

Crawford reviewed the success statements on budget and fiscal discipline from the council’s planning retreat.

Problem: Provide efficient, quality service delivery in the face of the projected gap between revenue and
expenses.
Success: Prioritizing expenditures while matching them with revenues over the long-term.

Budget Discipline: Draft Work Plan Summary

The city staff were hearing that the council was basically satisfied with the kind of discipline that the city currently has, Crawford indicated. In thinking about how to measure success, he told the council, the staff felt that they could continue to look at the question: Do we have a balanced budget?

Whether a budget is balanced is measured in two ways. First, is the budget balanced on a recurring basis over the two-year plan? And second, on a non-recurring basis – unless you’ve been saving for a particular investment – does the two-year plan balance out by not showing a net use of fund balance? The city staff’s interpretation so far, Crawford said, is that this kind of metric would resonate with the city council. He wanted to hear some feedback if that kind of metric doesn’t meet the council’s expectations.

Staff is trying to listen to the council’s direction about how to achieve budget discipline, Crawford indicated, so staff had come up with four basic strategies, with four corresponding action items.

The four strategies that were in the draft work plan, with comments from Crawford made at the work session, are:

1. Pursue efficiencies where/when possible. This reflects the fact that there are always opportunities for improvement and the staff always need to be looking at ways to become more efficient, Crawford said.
2. Periodically consider how services are delivered (in-house, privatized, franchised, etc.). Crawford said the staff needs to step back periodically and consider whether the city should be providing a service using in-house resources, whether it should be a franchise arrangement, or privatized. Historically, Crawford explained, the city had applied that kind of scrutiny during the “off year” of the budget cycle – when there is a chance to “chew on” some of the bigger questions. [The city has a two-year budget planning process, but adopts budgets one year at a time. This is the first year in the two-year budget cycle. The second year is considered to be the "off year."]
3. Develop a citywide strategic plan to help inform the prioritization of services. The idea here, Crawford said, is that the city provides a wide range of services to the community, and they are not necessarily independent. In fact, many of the services are interrelated, he noted. So the strategic framework would have a longer lasting priority direction.
4. Reconfirm budget policies/practices. Crawford explained this strategy in terms of action items related to it. Those included a laundry list of general policies and practices that are currently in place. Those policies have implications for how the staff develops the budget each year.

In addition to the strategies and action items, Crawford continued, the staff has listed out some challenges associated with the council’s goals. With respect to budget discipline, he said, the staff recognizes that the city council has elections every year, with half of the council elected every year. Given the size of the organization and complexity of operations, it takes time to get up to speed on all the issues. Another challenge is that a complete re-prioritization takes a lot of resources – and it might not be something you do every year or every two years, but only periodically.

To illustrate the inter-relatedness of the various services and the complexity of the organization, Crawford gave the example of crime reduction. A lot of people might think that’s a police function, Crawford said, but the attorney’s office also has a role in that. And for crime related to nuisance properties, for example, the planning and development services area has a role to play. So there’s a lot of relatedness between the city’s various operations, he said.

Another challenge is the staffing resources to support a number of simultaneous efforts.

Crawford returned to the initial sentiment he’d expressed – a sense that the council felt that the city’s fiscal discipline was in pretty good shape, but that it could perhaps be tweaked. That’s the context in which the work plan for budget discipline was offered, he said. If that’s not the case, then the staff needed to hear about that.

Budget Discipline: Why No Reductions?

City council reaction was led off by Jane Lumm (Ward 2). She told Crawford she appreciated the fact that some “meat had been put to the bones” of the strategic framework. She told Crawford that she felt he and his staff did pursue efficiencies wherever possible. But picking up on the statement that there is always room and opportunity for improvement, she said, the city has identified no cost reductions targets for the next two years. She understood that there had been budget reductions over the last few years, but she didn’t feel that meant there were no further efficiencies that could be achieved.

Lumm felt that continuous improvement is a reasonable expectation. Even in a world of flat budgets, she continued, we should be striving to optimize resource allocation, to meet priorities. Savings generated in one area could be reinvested in another, she said. She encouraged staff to strive to identify cost-saving targets. “That was a surprise to me that we didn’t do that.” The city has been through some tough times, Lumm said, but she still felt that cost reductions are something that the staff should always strive for.

Crawford responded by indicating that earlier in the day, in response to a question that Lumm had raised at the previous working session, staff had developed some responses that had been emailed to the council. Summarizing the sense of the email, he said staff’s view is that the organization “needs a breather” right now. The staff does believe that there is always opportunity for improvement – but the larger opportunities for that improvement will require some planning, and may require that a lot of different elements be brought together, he said. Significant efficiencies are likely to be more surgical in the future, Crawford felt. That contrasted with the way things were done in the past – where the city collectively had been “ratcheting down.”

Lumm characterized the issue as perhaps a philosophical difference, and reiterated her view that there were always opportunities for improvement and finding savings so that the city can allocate resources in a way that’s consistent with its priorities.

Budget Discipline: Against Wal-Mart-ization

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) said he heard the staff saying that efficiencies and improvements are always part of the analysis – and in the past it’s been driven by a need for cost savings. But now, Taylor said, he didn’t necessarily want to have a desire for cost savings drive the efficiencies. If we can achieve cost savings and maintain or improve service, then absolutely we should do that, he said. But in the environment he envisioned in the future, he felt the goal is not merely to provide service, but provide excellent service. He compared cutting merely to achieve cost savings to “Wal-Mart-ization” – cutting and cutting and cutting and making the products thinner. Ann Arbor’s goal, he felt, should be to do the best we can to provide services to the residents with the taxes and the few dollars that we have. We should make sure that we’re doing it right, he said, and in that he concurred with Lumm. But he wanted the organization to equally emphasize excellence in service.

Lumm reiterated her point that the goal should be to find savings in some areas so that the money can be spent in other areas that are a higher priority. For example, she felt very strongly that the city needs to look at the pension plan – and to transition from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan, or some hybrid form. That would not be for existing employees, she said, but rather for future employees. That’s just one example, she said, where the organization could find savings to invest in other areas.

Budget Discipline: For a Breather

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) summarized the last 10 years as a period during which the city had been downsizing. As some of the areas have been totally reorganized, she characterized the result as “a lot of chaos.” However, in the last couple of years, she continued, things had settled down a little bit. With the new city administrator and service unit managers, she felt those people are now looking at how the organization is structured and asking where additional efficiencies can be realized. But she felt that the organization did need “a moment to take a breath” – otherwise there could be continual chaos in the organization, and that just leads to a lot of anxiety.

Ann Arbor: Total number of city employees by year.

Higgins felt that the staff came to the council every year with proposals for savings and how the savings could be used in other areas. She felt the staff are already doing a pretty good job at that. Higgins felt it was a great dialogue to have about how the identified savings can be used on the council’s identified priorities. So Higgins asked Lumm how Lumm envisioned that dialogue taking place. “Where in the process do you see that taking place?” Higgins asked.

Budget Discipline: Council Input Process (Dog Food)

Lumm ventured that everyone could put forward their budget amendments. Last year, the budget amendments that she had brought forward had identified savings in certain areas to be spent in other areas, she said. “A lot of people didn’t like the dog food, so it didn’t really go anywhere,” she laughed. Identifying savings in one area and spending it in another – that was how she envisioned the next step unfolding. But she ventured it was difficult to say, because the council did not yet know what budget the city administrator would propose.

Steve Powers weighed in by suggesting that some of that feedback and discussion could be conducted before the point of preparing budget amendments. He ventured that the draft work plans being presented that evening could provide a framework for discussion.

Margie Teall (Ward 4) said that for her part, the city had gone through 10 or 11 years of cutting. She felt the city is now a very lean organization. If the staff feels that the council needs to give them a break to see how things are going, and let things settle down a bit, then now is the time to do that, she felt. A lot of the stress, she ventured, comes not just from the chaos, but from doing more with less over and over again. So she wanted to let up a little bit if the organization feels it can do that. Her question for Lumm was: When is there a point when you’re not looking to cut anything?

Lumm responded to Teall by saying that she felt it was always possible to look for continuous improvement and savings. There are lots of ways to do that, Lumm said, and there are lots of things that the savings can be spent on – like the priorities identified by the council. A lot of it is simply shifting money from one bucket to another, she said. Infrastructure is a council priority, she observed, but she felt that she didn’t want to see any more money spent on the city hall building. She wanted more potholes to be filled instead. It’s those kinds of shifts, she suggested, where the city is reducing allocation in one area and increasing it elsewhere.

Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1).

Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1) told Crawford that she did not want to quibble with what he had said. But she picked up on his remark that when there are changes in the city council membership, there can be a steep learning curve to digest the budget complexity. She flipped that perspective by suggesting to Crawford that the city staff need to digest the fact that new priorities sometimes come with new councilmembers.

She felt that the priorities identified in the council’s planning retreat did not reflect a “Wal-Mart-ization,” but rather shifted priorities. She did not feel that the council had stressed cutting and achieving more efficiency, but rather the retreat had focused on what the council wanted to spend money on. She knew a lot of people, for example, who wanted to see the roads fixed.

Teall interjected that road repair was, in fact, one of the council’s priorities. Mayor John Hieftje wanted to move the discussion along, but before doing that, he responded to Lumm’s remark about shifting funds from one bucket to another. He stressed that this is possible just as long as the “buckets” are located inside the general fund. But outside the general fund, the various buckets, in many cases, have legal restrictions on them. He wanted to make sure that no one in the public misunderstood the city’s intentions.

Police Services

Ann Arbor chief of police John Seto reviewed the problem and success statements from the council’s planning retreat.

Problem: Inadequate police staffing resources to do proactive and consistent enforcement and community outreach.
Success #1: Part I crime rates (major crimes) are among the safest 20% of communities in the country.
Success #2: Community perception of safety is high.
Success #3: Police officers have 25%-30% of time available for proactive policing.

Police: Crime Rates

Seto told the council that he would like to hear some input about measurement of that 20% standard. The way the city of Ann Arbor analyzes its crime statistics, he explained, is through the Federal Bureau of Investigation crime statistics reports. Those reports group cities into different population sizes, he explained. Ann Arbor falls into the population size of 100,000-250,000. For 2011 – the last year for which the city has complete data – 206 communities fell into that group. Ann Arbor is ranked 26th out of those 206, which translates to the top 12% – so Ann Arbor is in the top 20%. By that standard, the city is meeting success as defined in the statement right now. So the strategies and action items related to that success statement, Seto explained, relate to the idea of maintaining and continuing what the city is doing to achieve that success that has already been achieved.

Strategies for achieving the top 20% safest community standard included in the draft work plan are:

• Increase efficiencies in communicating with the public through Neighborhood Watch and social media.
• Increase communications with other law enforcement agencies within Washtenaw County.
• Seek opportunities for collaboration with other law enforcement agencies to reduce crime.
• Create a Crime Strategy Unit with the mission of reducing crime.

The strategies were heavily focused on communication, Seto observed.

Some of that increased communication could require additional staff support, he ventured. He noted that the reductions in overall police force staffing have not only affected sworn officers, but also civilian support staff. A lot of factors are also outside of the department’s control, he noted – like economic conditions, or the policies of other judicial systems. Seto summarized by saying that the department needed to continue to do what it is doing, and to increase some of the efficiencies through better communications. Invited to comment on the strategies and action items for the first success statement, councilmembers did not offer any feedback to Seto.

Police: Perceptions of Safety

Seto told the council that some additional direction on the second success statement might be required – noting that the perception of safety is highly subjective. One of the strategies listed is to participate in the National Citizens Survey to determine the current community perception of safety. He ventured that some councilmembers might remember that the last survey was conducted in 2008. So he was suggesting that another one could be done – to gather a more current measure of Ann Arbor residents’ perception of safety. Based on the results of the survey, additional action items could be generated, he suggested. The cost of the National Citizen Survey – a tool for measuring community perception of safety – is estimated to be around $15,000-$20,000, Seto told the council.

It’s all about visibility, he said, and allowing people to see the police. It’s also important to have accurate information available so that people have accurate statistical data about crime – instead of having to rely on what they hear from their neighbors. As challenges, Seto noted that there could be a trade-off between assigning additional resources to downtown foot patrols and the department’s ability to react effectively to other situations. That could have an impact on Part I crime rates.

Police: Council Reaction – Perception of Safety

Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) said he appreciated the way the success statements are defined because the goal is not to hire officers – but rather to have a safe community. He wanted to keep that goal in front of the council and to talk about approaches to reaching that goal. But he said that the community’s perception of safety has to be taken with a great deal of caution. In connection with some high-profile sexual assaults recently, Warpehoski said people had an understandable fear about “strangers in the bushes, and parking garages,” but he pointed out that most sexual assaults take place in homes where the victim knows the assailant: Somebody might feel safe with someone they know, but might not actually be safe. So improving a sense of safety is not always about making an actually safer community, he said. He noted that it’s a nuanced issue.

Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5).

Warpehoski felt that it was important for people to actually be safe, and then also feel safe as a function of that real safety. He indicated support for the use of the National Citizens Survey as a tool to measure perception of safety – but felt it was important to decide in advance of administering that survey a clear goal for the metrics.

If a clear standard were not identified before administering the survey, he feared that once the survey was done, whether the numbers reflected in the survey were too high or too low would a political discussion as opposed to a data-driven discussion. So he wanted to identify a specific numerical goal for perception of safety in the same way the council had identified a numerical goal for Part I crime rates.

Sally Petersen (Ward 2) felt like there was probably some benchmark that would be reliable. Seto indicated that the 2008 survey data included benchmarks. If there were benchmarks associated with the 2008 survey, then Higgins wanted to know from Seto what was done with that information and what the results of the survey were. Seto told Higgins he would provide a link to a summary of the public safety portion of the survey. [.pdf of 2008 Ann Arbor National Citizens Survey]

Public safety results from 2008 Ann Arbor National Citizens Survey.

Police: Budgeting – Hiring, Staffing Level

When he laid out the costs for some of the action items, Seto indicated that an additional officer for fiscal year 2014 would cost $78,000 and in fiscal year 2015 it would be $86,000 – due to step increases, Seto explained.

Sally Petersen (Ward 2) asked if there would be an explicit connection in the budget presented by Powers between the numbers and council’s priorities. Powers indicated there could be. One of the outcomes that would be helpful for the staff would be some council discussion on, for example, recurring revenues and recurring expenditures, he said. It would be useful for him to know where those revenues and expenditures coordinate, conflict, or collide with the priority area of policing and the need for additional resources.

Sally Petersen (Ward 2) before the March 11 work session started.

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) indicated that his feedback on that question was: If we don’t have recurring revenues for something, we shouldn’t be making recurring expenditures associated with it. Petersen indicated that she wanted a notation in the proposed budget that specific expenses reflected the implementation of the council’s priorities.

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) stated her expectation that the council’s priorities – especially those related to public safety – would be reflected in the proposed budget. And that doesn’t just mean how to spend new money, she said. It also means a reallocation of existing resources to the council’s priority areas. That’s how she interpreted the direction that the council had given the city administrator. Added personnel would be at a cost.

Last year Lumm had asked the question about the “magic number” for sworn officers. Some back-and-forth between Lumm and Seto established that the current authorized number of sworn officers is 119 and there are currently 117 officers, after recent hires. She wanted to see the city on a “glide path” to get to higher numbers, so that the police agency can become not just reactive but also proactive. She felt it is desirable to have additional foot patrols in the downtown, but at the same time it is important to balance that against pulling them from some other place.

Later in the working session, Seto indicated a problem with not knowing if somebody is going to be eliminated from the training program, which is what happened to one of the two people who were supposed to bring back the staff number of sworn officers to 119. Seto indicated that the department did not have a policy of staffing more than the authorized number of FTEs.

Lumm objected somewhat to the characterization of all the “new” hiring, saying that all of the new hires had replaced retired positions. She felt it was important to clarify that the size of the police force had not grown. She noted that the department had strategically held that number lower than 119 because of the overtime bill that has to be paid – so not filling those positions is freeing up the cash to pay for overtime. [Lumm's characterization was based on remarks made by Seto at the Feb. 25 working session.]

Powers weighed in to correct Seto’s statement about authorized staff levels. He noted that when there are talented, competent candidates, he’s given Seto authorization to hire above the 119 level. He’s given the chief direction to “over-hire” in the event that there are very highly qualified candidates who apply. Seto has also not been restricted in his hiring in order to achieve overtime pay, Powers said. Powers also noted that the department has proceeded with hiring replacements despite losing $350,000 in funding from the Ann Arbor Public Schools. So the staff’s direction – following the council’s priorities – has been to continue to strive to maintain the staffing level at 119 FTEs. He wanted to make sure that the staff understands the direction it’s been given by the city council is to maintain staffing – not to reduce it to offset overtime or to compensate for lost revenue from the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) looked at the police department staffing levels as a whole in 2001, when the staff total – sworn officers and civilians – was 244. In 2009 the level was down to 209. And in 2013 the level was down to 146, which he characterized as a precipitous drop over the last five years. He didn’t figure that the city could make up 60 FTEs anytime soon, and he knew that Seto did not want to say what the magic number was for the right staffing level. But he felt like the city had a long way to go to return to being a proactive department.

So what he was hearing from the administration, Kunselman said, was that the council needs to find some revenue. He asked Powers if additional direction would need to come from the council in order to direct any additional revenue toward police and fire staffing. “Or will that be something that we can just assume that you are going to want to do?” Powers told Kunselman that one of the desired outcomes from that night was for the council to have some discussion in a work session setting regarding priorities. Given that feedback, Powers could – with Seto and Crawford – develop a proposed budget. If it’s not to the satisfaction of the city council, the council would have the opportunity to amend the proposed budget.

Police: Budgeting – Overtime

Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1) noted she had raised the question of overtime at a previous work session. Adding more police officers does not necessarily mean that the city would be spending more money, she contended, pointing out that this could result in a reduction in overtime. There is a “sweet spot,” she said, for the hiring of additional police officers, that would somewhat reduce overtime, even if it wasn’t dollar-for-dollar. In the ensuing back-and-forth, Seto indicated that he did not believe there was a great deal of efficiency to be gained by eliminating overtime.

But Kailasapathy wanted to find that “sweet spot.” Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) questioned why there are currently only 117 officers on the job, when the city had budgeted for 119. Seto indicated that the department would have been at full strength (119) but one of the officers to whom AAPD had made an offer declined at the last minute and took a job with a different department. Another one had not made it through the training program. Higgins wanted to know if 119 was the proper number of sworn officers that would optimize overtime costs.

Tom Crawford then gave a more detailed analysis of the department’s overtime expenditures, which total around $1.2 million. Only about $250,000 of that total amount is attributable to scheduling, he noted. Reimbursable overtime – like University of Michigan football games – cause a spike for a couple of months, but you would not hire FTEs to cover those spikes, he said, when the cost is covered by the university.

The next category of overtime is holiday pay and court appearances. For that category, as you add staff and proactive enforcement, that will cause an increase in overtime costs, Crawford explained. And that category of overtime costs has gone down as staffing levels overall have declined, he said. So if staffing levels were to increase again, he would expect overtime in that category also to increase. The smaller category of around $250,000 equates to about 8,000 hours of work per year, which would be 3-4 FTEs. He did not feel that hiring additional FTEs would help reduce that overtime. “You’re at a very low level of overtime already.” He allowed the council might have other reasons to want to increase police staffing levels, but he did not feel that the desire to reduce overtime expenses should be one of those reasons.

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) questioned the equation of $250,000 to 3-4 FTEs. He pointed to the various costs per officer that had been provided – $78,000, $86,000 and $110,000 – so Taylor indicated that he had a tough time reconciling $250,000 with four FTEs. Crawford explained that he’d used the rate of overtime pay, and divided that into $250,000. So $250,000 divided by $30/hour yields roughly 8,000 hours of work. Given 2,000 work hours a year per employee, roughly, that works out to four employees, Crawford explained. Taylor did not seem illuminated by Crawford’s explanation, but allowed, “This may not be important enough to keep talking about.” Still, Taylor continued by suggesting that it seemed to him the calculation should be dividing $250,000 by the $78,000 or the $86,000 figure. Taylor eventually seemed convinced that hour-by-hour it’s cheaper to pay the overtime than to hire the FTEs.

Police: Staffing Levels – Core Functions

Kunselman raised the point that in addition to less crime and fewer police officers, the city also had less revenue coming from officers performing core responsibilities, like traffic enforcement.

Ann Arbor traffic citations: 2006-2012 [No data was available for 2010]

Ann Arbor parking violations: 2006-2012

Kunselman concluded that if the city wants to perform core responsibilities really well, they need to add to the number of FTEs in the police department. As an example, he noted that for a while the city had focused on pedestrian traffic safety. Then “all of a sudden” the hotspot was taxicab ordinance enforcement. [The taxicab ordinance enforcement was actually pushed by Kunselman, who chairs the city's taxicab board.] What’s going to be next? he wondered. He compared the approach to Whac-A-Mole where things are addressed in one area, but would pop up again in another place. It seemed to him that more FTEs were needed to perform core responsibilities, saying that the 60-FTE drop in the last five years was pretty significant in his mind. With all the talk about successes, he felt there are a lot of things that are still not getting done.

Total Ann Arbor police department staff strength: 1997-2012. CFO Tom Crawford cautioned against using simple staff levels as an indicator of the amount of police services being delivered to the community.

Seto reminded Kunselman that the 60 FTEs includes civilians. And Crawford pointed out that it’s difficult to draw conclusions from a chart. As an example, Crawford noted that by contracting with the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office for dispatching services, the city was continuing to provide dispatch service – but not by using full-time city employees. That meant the FTE count went down, but the service was still being provided. In other cases, the FTE count might go down because the same service was transferred to a different department.

As examples, Crawford gave an information technology position that was transferred from the police department to IT, and accounting positions in the police department that were just absorbed by the accounting services department. Crawford also pointed out that through technology and capital investments, service levels can be increased, even though the FTE count might not stay the same. So he did not view the FTE count as the only way to evaluate how much service was being delivered.

Police: Proactive Policing

Seto recalled some remarks he’d made to the council at their previous work session, when he’d told them he felt the department was very effective at reacting. Statistics show the department is effective at making arrests, he said.

Ann Arbor physical arrests: 2006-2012

But there’s not a lot of flexibility in the staffing levels to allow for proactive engagement, Seto said. The proactive engagement that is currently done in the department is not at the same level as the department used to do, he said. Seto indicated that additional personnel would be needed, depending on the desired level of additional proactive and community engagement.

Police: Proactive Policing – Council Reaction

Higgins returned to the success statement the council had adopted related to proactive policing. Proactive policing can mean a lot of different things to different people, she said. She asked Seto to define what he was talking about. Seto indicated that the success statements were given to him by the city council. Higgins ask Seto again to define what proactive policing meant to him. Seto referenced the success statement: Officers will have 25-30% of their time available for proactive policing. He noted that the police department had developed an electronic data sheet that maintains accurately all of the activities the officers perform. That was rolled out in January, and it still has a few bugs in the system, Seto allowed. But he noted that each category of activity can be accurately captured.

In this extract from the city of Ann Arbor’s digital activity report system, 22 minutes were logged on downtown foot patrol.

He felt it would be possible to pull out specific categories – such as downtown foot patrol, or neighborhood patrol – and evaluate whether officer activities in those categories add up to 25-30%. And that could be the gauge that the department could use. But clear definitions of categories of activities that constitute proactive policing would need to be defined, he said. He allowed that his idea of proactive policing might differ a little bit from councilmembers.

Higgins told Seto that she still hadn’t heard what his definition of proactive policing is. He told Higgins it has to be dedicated time that is not obligated to respond to calls coming over the radio. Higgins ventured that it meant engaging one-on-one with the community. She imagined it meant when officers were on foot patrol in the downtown, talking with citizens and “just being personable.”

Seto agreed with that description, adding that it could mean taking an hour of time to go to a neighborhood association meeting, or visiting the schools. There are a lot of activities that he felt could be characterized as proactive. The parameter he would use, he said, would be that it’s time when you’re not answering the radio – you’re free to make contact with citizens and businesses.

Higgins ventured that an officer on a patrol could pull up to a city park and then take 15 minutes to take a stroll through the park and see what’s actually happening on the park grounds. Seto agreed, saying that is what officers do now as free time permits. The difference between the way the department approaches that now, and the way the department did previously, is that previously they would have an officer dedicated eight hours a day to do just that. Now it’s only as free time permits that officers would walk around in Briarwood Mall or around downtown, for example. Some of that can be accomplished now, Seto said, but not with as much flexibility.

Warpehoski indicated that his recollection from the planning retreat in late 2012 is that the definition of proactive policing had come from the consultant who facilitated that retreat. The consultant had referenced an outside standard. The 25-30% figure makes sense to him if it’s related to a third-party standard. If the city itself is coming up with a number and assigning some other definition to it, he was less certain. If the definition was something more akin to what Higgins and Seto had just described, and if that definition was unique to Ann Arbor, then the question of 25-30% as appropriate needed to be revisited, Warpehoski felt. His own definition of proactive policing would include the behaviors that Higgins had just described, but he wanted to get some clarity. He ventured that defining proactive policing was not something that Ann Arbor had to do completely on its own.

From left: mayor John Hieftje, Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) and city administrator Steve Powers.

Taylor echoed what Warpehoski had said – and he wanted to push that sentiment even further. The success statement by the council, he said, struck him more as an action item rather than a separate goal.

Taylor felt that the goal is to be actually safe and to feel safe. If the way to achieve that goal is to have zero proactive policing – every officer in a patrol car just driving around town – that would be fine with him. If it means 50% proactive policing, “you tell me.” For his part, Taylor would “downshift” on the third success statement and focus in on the first two. “If you come back and tell me in order to get to one and two you need 25-30% of time available for proactive policing, I’d say, ‘Thank you, chief, we’ll see what we can do.’”

Seto told Taylor that the staff was simply trying to create some options for the success statement that the council had identified. Seto pointed out that one of the recommended action items was to develop standards for measuring the impact of proactive policing. He felt that proactive policing may have an impact on success statement number one, for example. Crime might go up, because there are more reported crimes – because people feel more comfortable reporting crimes. It also might have an impact on the perception of crime – positively or negatively.

Teall said that to her, the core function of policing was to respond to calls, and that core function needs to be completed in any case. To her, the percentage of proactive policing loses meaning. In her experience, when she contacts the police about issues in the neighborhood, they have been addressed reactively, but then intense proactive policing begins in an area that really needs that extra attention. If more proactive policing were done everywhere that would be great, she said, but she felt that it should in some sense be driven by a need and fed by reactive policing.

Seto indicated agreement with Teall. He agreed that the department is reactive to concerns identified by residents or by the city council – and that resulted in proactive efforts in a particular area. Seto also pointed out that the department gets requests for enforcement of traffic safety or traffic enforcement. So more proactive policing could be taking time away from traffic enforcement or other code enforcement in other areas, he explained. “It’s all a balancing act,” he said.

With respect to the balancing act, Warpehoski felt that Taylor’s idea – to look at the first two goals and then tell the council what it would take to achieve those goals – made a lot of sense. He encouraged a data-driven approach, alluding to a report from San Jose, California – academic research on the relationship between police staffing and crime. Citing that research, Warpehoski contended there is a general consensus that simply adding or subtracting police personnel will not impact crime. The report indicates that the “hotspot model” – identifying where there’s a problem and focusing resources there – does work. Seto noted that even with reduced police staffing, the long-term trends are that crime is down, not just here in Ann Arbor but in other communities as well.

Fire Protection

In Ann Arbor, the chief of police is also head of all public safety – so fire protection also falls under John Seto’s general administration. Seto gave the overview for the fire department draft work plan before inviting fire chief Chuck Hubbard to comment and respond to questions from councilmembers.

Problem: Current fire staffing and deployment is not optimized to meet the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standards for Fire Suppression.
Success: Fire station locations, number and infrastructure are optimized to meet community needs and industry standards, within City resources.

Options from the draft work plan for fire safety:

• The Station Restructure Plan.
• Reduce minimum staffing by deploying light rescue vehicles, which can be operated with two fire personnel. This could reduce minimum staffing without closing any stations.
• Hire 23 new employees so that each of the existing 5 stations can be staffed with a minimum of 4 fire personnel each day given the current contract language for daily staffing.
• Work with employees to develop ways of maintaining minimum staffing.

Seto indicated that more clarification was needed – to determine what the community’s needs and desires are with respect to fire suppression and medical response. Should the department emphasize fire suppression, medical response, or both? [Later during the work session, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) told Seto that he was adamant that both fire suppression and medical response were priorities.]

Ann Arbor EMS responses: 2006-2012

Ann Arbor fires extinguished: 2006-2012

Seto told the council that more clarity was needed from them on that point. Depending on the answer to that question, Seto said, different action statements might be appropriate. The new station reconfiguration plan is a possibility. Also a possibility is reducing required staffing by deploying light rescue vehicles. Hiring 23 new employees was another possible action for the council to take – which would allow the operation of the current five stations with both fire suppression and medical response as priorities.

Fire Protection: Light Rescue Trucks

Margie Teal (Ward 4) indicated that light rescue vehicles had been talked about for a long time. She was not sure why the city had not already moved ahead in that direction. She felt it was pretty clear a while back that this would be a great cost saver. She wondered what the holdup was.

Ann Arbor fire chief Chuck Hubbard.

Fire chief Chuck Hubbard responded to Teall by explaining that the department had put in a bid for a light rescue vehicle a few months ago. In the final stages, he explained, the vendor “came up with some things that were not discussed initially” – so that vehicle had to be re-bid. The department is in the process of doing that right now.

Assistant city attorney Mary Fales, he said, is currently reviewing the request for proposals. As soon as she gives a green light, that light rescue vehicle will go out to bid again. He indicated that one light rescue vehicle was currently in service. Once the new RFP is issued and another vehicle is purchased, that would bring the total to two.

Fire Protection: What the Truck?

Mayor John Hieftje asked for an update on the tower truck the city is purchasing. Hubbard said he expected delivery of the new tower truck next month. The day after the work session, a final inspection was to be done in Dublin, Ohio, he said, where the truck is being built. He expected delivery of the truck by April.

Fire Protection: Inspections

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) asked about redeployment of staff to raise revenue as it relates to increased fire inspections. She told Hubbard that she had received some feedback from “customers” and she felt that there are a lot of people in the community questioning why there is suddenly an increase in annual fire inspections. Depending on the property class, inspections may not be required at all, or might be required only every two years, not annually, she observed. She said the justification and rationale for the inspections is not clearly understood. If it’s a safety enhancement policy that’s one thing, she said. It’s a revenue enhancement policy then “not so good,” she said.

Ann Arbor fire inspections: 2006-2012

Hubbard told Lumm that fire inspections are a proactive approach to safety. In the department’s past history, it had not been particularly diligent in that area. He could not speak to why that was – because he was not the chief at the time. “But under my tenure that has become a priority – to be proactive as opposed to react.” These inspections are critical, he said, for businesses and for tenants. He told Lumm that he’d received her email and there were some statements in it that were not accurate, and he would be responding to it. The annual compared to biannual inspection is one of the items, he said. Re-inspections can be required, he explained, if an issue is identified and the fire department inspector needed to return, to ensure that the problem had been rectified. Hubbard stressed that the inspection program is not designed to increase revenue but rather to increase safety for Ann Arbor’s citizens. “We want to prevent fires as opposed to going to put them out.”

Fire Protection: Station Restructuring Plan

Lumm asked about the fire station restructuring plan. She felt that the restructuring plan was based on the wrong premise and answering the wrong question. Rather than responding to the question of what the necessary staffing levels and equipment were, the restructuring plan was an attempt to optimize service, given staffing levels. Lumm wanted confirmation about the question of whether the plan is still “hanging out there.” Is this still being considered as a valid option? she asked.

Hubbard gave a straightforward answer: “As far as I’m concerned, yes. It is still a valid option.” He acknowledged that Lumm’s characterization was accurate – that the station reconfiguration plan had been designed around current staffing levels. He reminded Lumm that when he had put the plan together it was designed to meet the NFPA and the OSHA standards – to provide the best service the department possibly could with the staffing levels that it had. So he considered it to be a viable option.

Lumm wanted to know what the parameters were for framing the issue. She felt that the city was not looking at the issue in the right way.

Fire Protection: Station Reconfiguration

Kunselman passed along some praise from a constituent he’d met over the weekend who’d experienced a dryer fire in his house. Ann Arbor firefighters had gone “above and beyond” and had done everything in their power to save the constituent’s possessions. The constituent was also adamant that if the truck had to come from someplace else besides the Huron Parkway station [Station #6], the house would not have been saved. It’s that kind of concern that led Kunselman to conclude that closing any fire stations was not an option – whether there’s three people on the truck or four. What’s paramount, he said, is to get a truck on the scene, so that some kind of action could be taken.

Kunselman reported that he had attended one of the public meetings on the station reconfiguration proposal – at Cobblestone Farm. He’d heard from a heart attack victim, who told him that firefighter first responders had saved his life. Kunselman weighed in adamantly that the priority of the fire department should be both fire suppression and emergency medical response. He felt there should be a way to find a hybrid solution where the downtown fire station had the staffing to put four people on a truck, to cover the denser downtown area. He didn’t know how it would be possible to hire an additional 23 firefighters. But if the city could get a few more, he wondered if that might relieve the pressure to close stations. He felt it was very important to the community that a station in their neighborhood be open – so that they would feel safe and that they would be safer.

Fire Protection: Station Reconfiguration – Light Rescue Trucks

Sally Petersen (Ward 2) asked Hubbard if he was implying that the acquisition of additional light rescue vehicles could possibly mean that the existing five stations could be kept open as they are now. Hubbard explained that light rescue vehicles require only two personnel. The current labor contract with the firefighters union requires three personnel for any vehicle that carries water. Light rescue vehicles don’t carry water, but they are equipped with all the medical equipment and firefighter tools and gear. The only thing missing is water. So in a situation that might trigger overtime to staff a three-person truck, when there’s a two-person truck that can be put in service, that prevents the need to pay overtime to the third person, Hubbard explained. And that keeps the station open. If the community’s priority is for medical response, then a two-person rescue truck could staff the station. Petersen ventured that the answer to her question was yes, which Hubbard confirmed.

Teall questioned the idea that with one additional light rescue vehicle, all the stations could be kept open. She felt that depends on the community needs. For Kunselman’s example, she wondered what would happen if a three-person truck from the Huron Parkway station arrived at a fire: How many people could be sent in to fight the fire? Hubbard told Teall she was referring to the OSHA law – which requires a two-in-two-out deployment for a total of four firefighters on the scene before a firefighter could enter a burning building. That’s the principle that the restructuring plan was designed around.

The idea would be to put four firefighters on the scene together, so that they could safely attack the fire. He noted that a dryer fire, as in Kunselman’s example, is a lot different from a structure fire. When you pull up to an actual structure fire, you need the people, he explained. Teall asked if Kunselman’s example had been a structure fire, how would that have been different? Hubbard told her that there would have been a lot more to do, for one thing. Firefighters from other stations would have eventually arrived on the scene.

Map 1. Ann Arbor fire chief Chuck Hubbard’s plan is to protect the city from fires with three stations (red helmets): Station 1, Station 2, and Station 5. Closed would be Station 3, Station 6 and Station 4 (gray helmets). Station 2 is currently not used and would need to be re-opened. The light blue area is the part of the city that is reachable by at least four fighters within four minutes. Red dots indicate fire locations over the last decade.

What the restructuring was designed to do was to get four firefighters on the scene at the same time together – as opposed to arriving separately. When you arrive with three people instead of four, it’s rolling the dice, Hubbard said. If two people go in, they essentially don’t have an escape plan. Still, Hubbard said, “a firefighter is going to do their job.” The problem comes, he said, if someone gets killed or hurt. Then we have to answer the hard questions, he said: Why didn’t you have the two-in-two-out? Why didn’t you wait?

That’s why you try to design a plan that is safer for firefighters and for residents, Hubbard explained. The extra two minutes or three minutes to get everyone there is, in some cases, the time you need to take. In the station reconfiguration plan, for some areas of the city, the result was to actually get trucks on the scene much quicker, he said. It’s hard to have a fire station on every corner, Hubbard said.

Teall made clear that she was not opposed to the station reconfiguration plan. She felt it’s part of the efficiencies that Lumm had alluded to. She wondered if the council is going to have a discussion on the question of fire suppression versus medical response. She recalled having community conversations about the issue back in 2002. When Huron Valley Ambulance pulls up at the same time a “giant fire truck” rolls up, she said, the city is paying for the expense of that truck every time it leaves the station. She felt that the medical response issue needed to be discussed, and community needs should be determined.

Fire Protection: Station Reconfiguration – Two-in/Two-out

Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1) didn’t follow the logic that all four firefighters had to arrive at the same time. If three firefighters arrived on scene, she felt they could still start on the prep work. Why is there a fixation on the idea that all four firefighters need to arrive at the same time? she wondered.

Hubbard allowed that there are, in fact, outside operations that have to take place before the fire can be attacked. Even one person can at least pull the hose off the truck and get it laid out on the ground, he noted. But minutes count, he said. And if there’s a rescue situation, then that’s very labor intensive. It requires a lot of bodies, and you need them immediately. If four firefighters arrive together, they can start to put that plan together en route, and when they arrive they can go right to work, instead of waiting. And by waiting, he didn’t mean just standing there doing nothing – because there’s a lot of things you can do even without the four personnel. But if there’s a rescue situation, then there is a lot of very intensive work – ladders that need to be raised and the like – that needs to get done very quickly. If there is a possible rescue, he noted, the firefighters will go in. The problem comes when they’re trying to attempt a rescue and something goes wrong and there’s no one to come get them out.

Kailasapathy indicated she was not interested in exposing firefighters to an unsafe situation. She was not asking that firefighters enter a burning structure without having the required two-in-two-out configuration. At the same time, she felt that having four people arrive at the same time seemed to be a goal in and of itself. If time was a so important, then even if there were fewer people at a closer station, it would be better to get them there immediately, she felt.

Mayor John Hieftje indicated that it had come up many times in conversation – if there were three firefighters on scene, and a rescue needed to be performed, then they would attempt a rescue. Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) told Hubbard that she was confused – because she had heard him say that every minute counted, but also that sometimes there was no choice but to just wait. Higgins indicated that Ward 4 under the current configuration has large sections that are within the acceptable time frame. Under the station reconfiguration plan, there were large sections of the ward that had unacceptable time limits.

Higgins told Hubbard that when he said the station reconfiguration plan is “still on the table,” she did not feel it was still on the council table. She did not know that the council had said yes or no to it. She only knew that the plan had been introduced to the community at public meetings. She did not feel like the council had continued that dialogue at the council table – about whether to go forward with it. She felt the council had not yet given the fire chief enough input to give clear direction about whether the station reconfiguration plan was the right path or not. The council had not done its job in giving the fire chief clear direction, she said. Hubbard agreed with Higgins’ assessment.

Fire Protection:  Station Reconfiguration – Decision

Hieftje then indicated it was very apparent to him that the fire station restructuring plan “isn’t going anywhere.” He felt it would be beneficial to take it off the table and if a vote of the council was needed to do that, than the council could vote. But he felt it was already very apparent that it was not going anywhere. He didn’t feel that it had anywhere close to a majority of the council’s support. “So this might be a good time to just say: Let’s work with the stations we have.”

Jane Lumm (Ward 2) hews to the old adage that it doesn’t work if you don’t plug it in.

Lumm quipped that she wanted to make a motion. Hieftje cautioned that the council did not make decisions at working sessions. Higgins picked up on Hieftje’s wording that the city would continue to work with the stations it has – but she pointed out that the city still has a station that is closed [Station #2]. She’s heard repeatedly that Station #2 is an integral piece of the station reconfiguration plan because of its location. She wondered what the final cost would be a staffing all six stations. She was interested in seeing that analysis.

Taylor understood the station reconfiguration proposal not as something that the city was definitely planning to do. Hubbard had been queried about it, and had said it remained a possibility in the world of possibilities. It was a useful topic of conversation, Taylor felt. It was useful to have the clarity of Hieftje’s understanding of sentiment around the table. Taylor felt it was useful for the public to understand that the station reconfiguration proposal was not something that was before the council for its consideration.

Kunselman thanked Hieftje for making sure that the station reconfiguration plan doesn’t go anywhere. Lumm thanked the mayor for saying loudly and clearly that the proposal is no longer “hanging out there” as a possibility.

Fire Protection: Education

Warpehoski said he’d had frequent chats with a retired firefighter who lives in his ward and who talked about the need for fire prevention and education. Warpehoski ventured that if he had a dryer fire in his house, there would be several minutes spent smelling the smoke, wondering what it was, and figuring out what to do before calling 911. Community training in recognizing signs of dryer fire, for example, could be useful in reducing the time between a fire actually making a 911 call.

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City Apartments, a Village Green residential property under construction on Feb. 4, 2013. (View is at First & Washington looking east) The bottom two floors are a parking deck, which is on track to be turned over to the city and the DDA on March 15, 2013. It will expand the capacity of the public parking system by almost 100 spaces. (Photo by the writer.)

The surplus from FY 2014 would be used in the FY 2015 budget, which calls for $23.8 million in expenditures against $23.5 in revenues, leaving the DDA with about $5.2 million in total fund balance reserve at the end of FY 2015.

DDA revenues come from two main sources – tax increment finance (TIF) capture and Ann Arbor’s public parking system.

Besides operation and capital maintenance of the parking system, revenues to the public parking system are used by the DDA to support the getDowntown program’s go!pass subsidy. So one focus of the Jan. 25 DDA operations committee meeting was budgeting for that program. The go!pass is a bus pass that downtown employees obtain through their employers, who pay $10 annually for passes for each of their employees. In a presentation made to the operations committee, Michael Ford – CEO of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority – requested a total of $623,662 to support the getDowntown program, including the go!pass subsidy. That compares with $553,488 granted by the DDA last year. For FY 2014, the DDA’s draft budget calls for a $600,000 allocation that could cover most of that request.

This year’s draft budget also calls for $250,000 in parking revenue to be spent on a possible arrangement with the city of Ann Arbor to pay for additional downtown police patrols. Based on the conversation at the operations committee meeting, it’s not a topic on which any recent detailed talks have taken place. But DDA executive director Susan Pollay indicated a strong interest in having those conversations with the city. If that didn’t lead to an agreement with the city, she said, then the DDA board was certainly not obligated to spend the money in that way.

Another $300,000 in the FY 2014 budget that could be used somewhat flexibly is in the TIF fund budget, labeled “capital construction.” It could be used to fund sidewalk improvements between William and Liberty along State Street to facilitate patio dining for restaurants along that strip – or streetscape improvements for William Street, or even alley improvements near the Bell Tower Hotel, Pollay told the committee.

The full DDA board will be asked to approve the FY 2014 and FY 215 budgets at its Feb. 6 meeting. The DDA’s fiscal year is in sync with the city of Ann Arbor’s fiscal year, which begins on July 1. The city council will settle the city’s FY 2014 budget by May 20 – the council’s second meeting in May. While the city uses a two-year planning cycle – which begins fresh this year – the council approves its budget just one year at a time. [.pdf of draft DDA budgets FY 2014-15] [.pdf of FY 2013 six-month financial statements] [.pdf of monthly parking reports]

Parking Fund Budgeting

The Ann Arbor DDA operates the public parking system under a contract with the city of Ann Arbor – an agreement that calls for the city to receive 17.5% of gross revenues to the system. For this year and the following two budget years, that 17% payment to the city is projected to translate to $3.14 million, $3.20 million and $3.24 million.

In the current year, total parking revenues are budgeted for $18.1 million. But according to the financial statements through December 2012, which is mid-way through the fiscal year, actual parking revenues through that period are $9.4 million, or about $300,000 more than the budgeted year-to-date number. Projected parking revenues for the next two fiscal years are $19.3 million and $19.6 million, respectively.

Parking fund revenues pay for the direct expense of contracting with Republic Parking for the day-to-day operations of the system (about $6.5 million), rental for some properties not owned by the city but used for public parking (about $0.5 million), as well as roughly half the DDA staff compensation and administration (about $370,000). The other major allocation from the parking fund is for maintenance of the parking structures. For FY 2014 there’s $4.4 million set aside for parking maintenance.

Parking Fund: Alternative Transportation

One focus of the Jan. 25 DDA operations committee meeting was budgeting for the getDowntown‘s go!pass program, which is also funded from parking revenues. Downtown employers can purchase a go!pass at a cost of $10 per employee – with the condition that the business must purchase a pass for all their employees. Beyond that, rides taken with the go!pass are free to the pass holder or their employer. The cost of the rides has been subsidized historically by the DDA, using revenues from the parking system. The getDowntown program is administratively a part of the AATA. Through the AATA’s fiscal year FY 2012, which concluded at the end of September 2012, here’s how go!pass ridership has trended:

go!pass total rides by year. The number of rides taken with go!passes has roughly doubled since 2004. This past year reflected a dip, which appears to be related to a reduced number of cards in circulation: 6,591 compared to 7,226. (Data from AATA; chart by The Chronicle.)

go!pass rides by month, year over year. The red trend line is the most recent year, 2012. The previous year is shown in black. (Data from AATA; chart by The Chronicle.)

While the total number of rides dipped slightly, the number of rides per card continued its upward trend. Since 2004, the number of rides per card has increased from about 60 to about 90. (Data from getDowntown program; chart by The Chronicle.)

In a presentation made to the operations committee on Jan. 25, AATA chief executive officer Michael Ford requested a total of $623,662 to support the getDowntown program, including the go!pass subsidy. That compares with $553,488 granted by the DDA last year. In the DDA’s budget summary for FY 2014, the getDowntown subsidy falls under the line item for “alternative transportation” – for which $615,000 is allocated this year.

The detailed breakout for the parking fund, which the DDA uses to support getDowntown – indicates that $15,000 of the $615,000 is allocated for the “connector study.” That’s a study meant to determine a locally-preferred alternative mode for a high-capacity transit system along the corridor that arcs from US-23 and Plymouth southward along Plymouth to State Street and farther south to I-94. In the fall of 2012, the DDA approved that $15,000 as part of a total $30,000 commitment over two years. Other funding partners for the $1.5 million project – which is supported by a $1.2 million federal grant – include the city of Ann Arbor, the AATA and the University of Michigan.

Compared to the DDA’s $600,000 budgeted amount, Ford’s request is $23,662 more. As one way to cover that difference, DDA executive director Susan Pollay pointed committee members to $300,000 of discretionary grant funding from the parking fund that’s in the draft FY 2014 budget. Of that amount, $50,000 could be used to cover the gap between the budgeted amount and Ford’s request.

By way of additional background, in the past the AATA has essentially agreed to absorb the cost of go!pass rides that might be taken in excess of the funded amount. So, at the AATA board’s Aug 24, 2011 meeting, a decision was made to accommodate the DDA’s financial circumstances and to set the amount charged for go!passes in 2013 at the amount the DDA had already allocated – $475,571.

At the Jan. 25 DDA operations committee meeting, getDowntown director Nancy Shore put the cost-per-ride figure used to calculate the request at about $0.90 per ride. In negotiating the cost-per-ride for similar arrangements – like the University of Michigan MRide program – AATA uses as a benchmark the amount that bus riders would pay if they paid the full fare under a regular 30-day pass. The 30-day pass is the cheapest full-fare option. Full adult cash fare on boarding would be $1.50.

At the AATA board’s most recent meeting, on Jan. 17, 2013, the relationship between rides taken and fares collected was highlighted. The treasurer’s report included a note that despite greater ridership numbers, the fares collected were not keeping pace. One theory floated was that this disparity could be attributed to go!pass ridership in excess of the projected funding need.

The request from AATA this year is based on the projected ridership. In the chart below, presented by Ford at the Jan. 25 meeting, the decreased request in the first line, for getDowntown program operations, is explained by the fact that this year the program will not incur the cost of an evaluation survey. The projections based on ridership originating east of US-23 are made possible by the swipe-able go!pass cards and fare-box technology, which allow the AATA to analyze where riders are boarding the bus.

YEAR                 2013       2014
getDowntown       $52,488    $35,488   
go!pass          $475,000   $479,000   
NightRide 
go!pass discount   $5,000    $18,233   
ExpressRide 
go!pass Discount   $7,000    $18,000   
Route 4 
East of US-23     $14,000    $56,363   
Route 5 
East of US-23          $0    $16,578   
====================================
Total            $553,488   $623,662

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The $14,000 provided last year to help subsidize improved service to and from Ypsilanti on Route #4 was actually authorized by the DDA board on Dec. 1, 2010, as a “challenge grant” – which was made hoping to prod other entities to join in supporting the increased service.

And committee members on Jan. 25 wanted to know what kind of requests were being made by the AATA municipalities and entities other than the DDA. Ford responded by indicating that other communities that are a part of the “urban core” will also be asked to help fund the Route 4 improvements as part of conversations that have continued since the abandonment of the Act 196 countywide authority, which was newly incorporated in the fall of 2012.

By way of background, part of the Ann Arbor city council resolution on Nov. 8, 2012 – which withdrew the city from the new transit authority the council – also gave direction to the AATA to continue conversations with immediately neighboring communities about options for improving local transit. And the AATA has engaged in talks with communities about a smaller-than-countywide transit authority with possible members to include the cities of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Saline, as well as the townships of Pittsfield and Ypsilanti. Involvement with the townships of Superior and Ann Arbor is also a possibility.

In addition to expressing an interest that the Ann Arbor DDA not be the only entity providing additional support, committee members indicated they’d also like to see even better service provided on Route #4 – in the form of an “express” route that had no stops between downtown Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. Ford seemed receptive to the idea in concept, and suggested it might be necessary to think about using I-94 to provide that service. DDA board member Roger Hewitt indicated that he felt one obstacle in the way of Ypsilanti becoming an even more vibrant community is the amount of time it takes to ride the bus between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.

Some committee members also questioned the structure of the “all-in” go!pass program requirement – which means an employer must purchase passes for all employees of the company at a cost of $10, even for those who might not ever use the card. It’s part of the reason that the cost per card to employers is relatively low – and until two years ago was even lower ($5).

Part of getDowntown director Nancy Shore’s presentation to the committee included an anecdote about a lost wallet and the holder of a go!pass saying the pass was the most valuable item in their wallet. Hewitt responded to that part of the Shore’s presentation by observing that even though the card holder contended that the go!pass was valuable, that person was not being asked to contribute to its cost – because it’s provided through the employer. Shore’s presentation indicated that many downtown employers see the go!pass as one of the only benefits they’re able to offer to their employees besides salary.

Parking Fund: Beat Cops

After subtracting $50,000 for possible alternative transportation, the remaining $250,000 of discretionary funding in the parking fund budget could be used to pay for downtown beat patrols by the Ann Arbor police department. Based on the conversation at the operations committee meeting on Jan. 25, it’s not a topic on which any recent detailed talks have taken place – but DDA executive director Susan Pollay indicated a strong interest in having those conversations with the city. If that didn’t lead to an agreement with the city, she said, then the board was certainly not obligated to spend the money in that way.

Conversation among committee members was mixed on the idea. Bob Guenzel wondered how much downtown policing $250,000 would buy. [Guenzel was Washtenaw County administrator during the time that some townships litigated over the amount they were being charged by the county for sheriff's road patrols.] John Mouat wondered if the $250,000 might not be spent more wisely on “ambassadors” for the downtown. Of the committee members, Hewitt seemed more enthusiastic about the idea, pointing to ongoing issues in the South University area, where he owns a business.

Hewitt expressed skepticism, at least in the near term, that the relatively new Main Street Business Improvement Zone could eventually be expanded beyond its current geographic boundaries – along a few blocks of Main Street – to include a significant part of the rest of downtown Ann Arbor. In any case,  the Main Street BIZ was, he said, more focused on the “clean” part of the slogan “clean and safe.” So, while the self-assessment used to finance the BIZ might support snow removal and handbill removal, it would not be capable financially of hiring personnel to address the “safe” part of the slogan.

At the committee meeting on Jan. 25, Pollay alluded to the idea that the DDA had harbored an expectation that downtown beat patrols would continue to be provided – as a result of the DDA’s willingness to support the city’s municipal center project. By way of background, the DDA agreed to make an $8 million grant to the city – in the form of roughly $0.5 million in annual installments – to help pay for the city’s police/courts project, known called the Justice Center. That grant to the city comes out of the roughly $4 million in TIF capture that the DDA receives annually. The DDA board’s decision to allocate that grant came at the DDA board’s May 8, 2008 meeting.

In this AAPD officer activity report, 22 minutes were logged on downtown foot patrol.

However, the downtown beat patrols, which some officers chose to do on bicycle, were discontinued, as the total sworn officers in the AAPD decreased through the late 2000s. The strategy used by then-police chief Barnett Jones was to encourage officers to spend their “out of car time” in the downtown area. [For some coverage on that issue from the 2010 budget season, see: "Budget Round 6: Bridges, Safety Services."]

A new digital system for logging officer activity reports rolled out at the start of 2013 and could allow for a realistic assessment of the current level of downtown police coverage.

Parking Fund: Revenue Trends

Parking revenue totals are reported monthly to the DDA operations committee. The most recent month for which data was provided was December 2012. Those numbers show an increase in revenues of about 7.2% compared with December 2011, and a drop in the number of hourly patrons by 8.5%. Those numbers come in the context of a 13% increase in the number of spaces in the system – from 6,870 to 7,805. Mitigating factors cited by Republic Parking manager Art Lowe at the Jan. 25 committee meeting included the fact that Midnight Madness fell this year in November, not December, and that in 2011 Christmas and New Year’s fell on the weekend.

Lowe also indicated that some of the decrease in the number of hourly patrons is attributable to the conversion of parking patrons from hourly parking patrons to monthly permit parkers. Above a certain threshold, for the same amount of parking activity, a monthly permit holder would be paying less for their parking. Based on numbers provided by Lowe at the meeting, and subsequent clarification with DDA staff, it appears that around 3,600 monthly permits were in play for December 2012, compared with around 3,100 for the previous year.

Lowe also said that the Fourth and William structure was likely seeing some incremental erosion of its previous patrons, as a result of the new nearby Library Lane underground garage.

Another highlight evident in the charts is the fact that the Library Lane underground structure, completed in the summer of 2012, has now reached the same revenue-per-space numbers as the on-street metered parking spaces.

And in a month and a half, capacity of the public parking system will be getting an additional 95 spaces. At the operations committee meeting, executive director Susan Pollay told the board that Village Green was still on track to hand over the parking deck component of the City Apartments project to the city and DDA on March 15, 2013. The building included a 244-space parking deck on those first two floors, 95 of which are to be available for public parking. The rest of the spaces will be used by residents of the 146-unit project, when the construction is completed.

That announcement of a March 15 handover was met with some skepticism on the operations committee – because the structure will still need a certificate of occupancy from the city before the transfer can take place. However, it was generally understood that the intent was for the parking deck to be open before construction of the entire project was completed. The building is on track for fall 2013 move-in, based on remarks from Pollay to committee members.

Ann Arbor Public Parking System: Total Revenue

Ann Arbor Public Parking System: Patrons

Ann Arbor Public Parking System: Structures

Ann Arbor Public Parking System: Surface Lots

Ann Arbor Public Parking System: Whole System

TIF Fund Budgeting

While the DDA’s budget is dominated by its administration of the parking system, that’s not a function assigned to the DDA by state statute. But it’s a function the DDA has performed for the city since the early 1990s.

The part of the DDA’s revenue budget that’s enabled by state statute comes from tax increment financing (TIF). Under a TIF arrangement, an entity “captures” a portion of the property taxes in a specific geographic area that would otherwise be collected by taxing authorities in the district. In the case of the Ann Arbor DDA, taxes captured include those of the Ann Arbor District Library, Washtenaw County, Washtenaw Community College, and the city of Ann Arbor. The tax capture for the Ann Arbor DDA is only on the initial increment in valuation – the difference between the value of property when the district was established, and the value resulting from improvements made to the property. In other words, the Ann Arbor DDA’s TIF doesn’t capture increases due to inflation.

For each of the next two years, the DDA is projecting around $4 million of revenue from its TIF capture. Big-ticket expenditures from the TIF fund include $3.4 million for bond payments and interest, as well as $508,608 as an annual contribution toward the city’s police/courts building.

The TIF fund budget also includes $440,631 for approximately half of the salaries, fringe benefits and administrative costs of the DDA. [The DDA splits these costs roughly evenly between the TIF fund and the parking fund. The DDA has four employees.] For the next year, the DDA is planning to spend about $1.3 million more from the TIF fund than the revenues it will receive, drawing down the TIF fund balance by that amount. That would leave about $800,000 in the TIF fund balance.

Included in the FY 2014 TIF budget is $300,000 that could be used somewhat flexibly – which is labeled “capital construction.” At the Jan. 25 operations committee meeting, DDA executive director Susan Pollay told members that the money could be used to fund sidewalk improvements between William and Liberty along State Street to facilitate patio dining for restaurants along that strip – or streetscape improvements for William Street, or even alley improvements near the Bell Tower Hotel.

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Ann Arbor Public Schools trustees Glenn Nelson and Susan Baskett. (Photo by the writer.)

AAPS superintendent Patricia Green stressed that the list brought by administration for review was in no way a list of recommendations – it was just a list of savings estimates, which trustees had requested at a previous meeting. The estimates totaled nearly $26 million in potential reductions. They included: reducing teaching staff; reorganizing human resources; eliminating funding for some extracurricular activities; and closing buildings.

As part of the budget discussion, trustees also reviewed their plans to begin a series of one-on-one and small group meetings with key community leaders, school groups, and other partners. Trustee Glenn Nelson described the plans as first sharing information about the funding situation currently faced by AAPS, and then engaging in an open discussion with a lot of listening. Trustees then plan to bring back the information gleaned from their discussions, and use it, as trustee Andy Thomas put it, “to put together a message and a campaign on how to keep these schools excellent – a message that will resonate with people … and will respond to their hopes and their fears.”

The bulk of the Dec. 12 meeting was spent discussing some preliminary recommendations on high school start times. The recommendations were made to the board by an administrative committee charged originally to look at that issue. Green explained how the scope of the committee had broadened beyond start times to include review of high school scheduling. The committee had also looked at the possibility of opening up the district’s comprehensive high schools (Pioneer, Huron, and Skyline) to in-district transfers and school-of-choice students.

The board also weighed the issue of semesters versus trimesters at Skyline High School, and seemed favorably inclined to consider a shift to semesters. No decision was made at the meeting on that topic.

Cost Estimates of Potential Budget Reductions

AAPS deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen introduced a list of potential budget reductions to the board, highlighting the cost savings the district could reap from each one, if it were enacted. He stressed that this was not a list of recommendations, but simply a list of cost estimates for the board’s review.

On the list provided, Allen said, the items are mutually exclusive – meaning that each estimate can stand alone, and is not dependent on any other estimate. The presentation included an estimate of the number of staff reductions that would accompany each reduction, and a short description of the implications associated with that reduction. The bulk of the reductions discussed by the board were potential cuts to instructional services and staff wages and benefits.

Cost Estimates: Instructional Services

Of the items presented as potential cuts to instructional services, the board engaged in the most discussion over the possible reduction of 32 FTEs (full-time equivalent) of teaching staff for a savings of $3.2 million. Allen noted that reducing teachers by 32 FTEs would equate to essentially one teacher per building, and would cause class sizes to increase.

Trustee Christine Stead and board president Deb Mexicotte each expressed concern about the idea that staff reductions, if any, would be implemented in an across-the-board approach such as one per building. Instead they indicated that they would be in favor of delivering instruction differently. Mexicotte suggested that some classes could have larger enrollments – as many as 70 students – or that Skype could be used to connect students and teachers across locations. Stead said she was looking for a “substantive overhaul” that allowed AAPS to compete on choice and innovation.

Board members didn’t understand specifically how some of the items on Allen’s list would save money. They questioned how moving Roberto Clemente program into Pioneer High School (savings: $200,000), or closing individual school buildings (savings: $500,000 to $3 million per building) would result in the projected savings. Allen explained that in all cases of building closures, the savings comes from a reduction in utilities costs and building personnel – such as principals, custodians, and secretaries. Allen also clarified that closing a building takes more than a year – in order to re-configure the attendance boundaries and communicate the change to the public.

About the list item for principal-sharing at the elementary level (savings: $1 million), Nelson pointed out that the idea had not gone over well with the community when it’s been suggested previously. He suggested going the opposite route – by assigning some administrative tasks to building principals at lower attendance buildings.

Trustee Susan Baskett asked how teaching staff or principals would be reduced. Allen explained that there is contract language that determines how reductions are made. Mexicotte added that while AAPS has generally been a district that does not lay off staff, the board could choose to do so. “The strategy for getting there [to the target number of reductions] could be multi-level,” Mexicotte said.

Thomas suggested that two of the suggested cuts on the list of possibilities – suspending the purchase of library materials (savings: $100,000) and eliminating fifth grade instrumental music (savings: $500,000) – could be offset by community donations made via the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation (AAPSEF). Green added that AAPS fine arts coordinator Robin Bailey had just been selected to be on an advisory committee at the Kennedy Center. Green reiterated that the cost estimates on the list were not recommendations, and that the impact of making those reductions would need to be studied.

Several board members pointed out that suggested reductions to high school theatre (savings: $200,000) and athletics (savings: $1 million) could hurt the AAPS brand. Stead argued that preserving arts and athletics makes AAPS unique when families are comparing AAPS to “a charter school in a box or just a computer.”

For any reductions that might be made, trustees noted the importance of factoring in the impact of potential student loss in response to the changes. Allen added that while AAPS currently receives just over $9,000 per student in state funding per year, that could change if a re-write of the School Aid Act being considered by the state were to pass. That re-write would allow funding to “follow” students in and out of AAPS on a monthly basis.

Cost Estimates: Wages and Benefits

Baskett questioned asked if the administration had priced out moving to a four-day week with longer school days. Allen said the financial impact had not been calculated, but indicated it would yield savings in transportation and utilities. But Green noted that shutting down all buildings one day a week would reduce the availability of space for extracurricular activities run by the Rec & Ed department. AAPS director of student accounting Jane Landefeld added that the district would be prohibited from moving to a four-day week because the minimum number of school days allowed is 170. AAPS has offered about 175 days of instruction each year, she said.

Thomas asked about the difference between making across-the-board salary reductions and requiring furlough days. Allen stressed that any changes to wages or benefits would need to be collectively bargained. He noted that requiring furlough days would not change the base pay of staff members, which is one factor in calculating retirement pay. Allen clarified that the furlough days could occur at times of the year that would have the least impact on students, such as on snow days or professional development days.

Some trustees expressed interest in having more details provided about the cost estimates. Mexicotte added that the line-item budget being currently developed by the administration could reap savings. She also asked the administration to add more information to the chart that had been provided, such as the percentage of the total that each proposed reduction represents, as well as more specific impacts of each cut. For example, she asked: What would be the practical effect of cutting $1 million from athletics – would it mean cutting football or figure skating?

Community Outreach

The board revisited plans it had discussed at an earlier meeting to engage in more extensive community outreach as part of the budgeting process. Nelson offered to coordinate the trustees’ individual efforts to connect with community leaders. Thomas suggested that trustees also attend PTO/PTSO meetings, and booster club meetings for theater, music, and athletics groups. Other board members were amenable to both suggestions.

Nelson suggested that information gleaned from the meetings with community members would be shared by each trustee with the whole board, and could be used to create a marketing campaign to preserve the excellence of the public schools. Trustee Simone Lightfoot expressed concern that the input of each trustee is not given equal weight in board discussions. Nelson responded that if there is conflict over how to proceed after the information is gathered, the board might need to take formal votes on issues, even though he indicated it would be possible to take a more informal approach.

A few trustees noted the board should still provide traditional community forums for people in the community who would prefer to attend those. Stead said, “What we are really trying to do is create ongoing relationships with our community that say: We value education.”

Trustee Irene Patalan suggested having a liaison from each school meet regularly as a group to discuss the budget, but Mexicotte suggested waiting on that approach. Baskett suggested that trustees should take administrators with them to their assigned community meetings. Mexicotte suggested that everyone should send Nelson a list of those key community leaders with whom they planned to meet. She also requested that the administration also send Nelson a list of those people with whom they feel trustees should meet.

High School Start Times

Green introduced an extensive presentation brought to the board by an ad-hoc administrative committee. She explained that the committee had originally been charged with studying high school start times, but that its scope had been expanded to include a review of high school scheduling options, as well as high school enrollment processes.

AAPS deputy superintendent of instruction Alesia Flye reported that research is mixed on whether there’s a positive academic impact that comes from a later start to the high school day. She noted conflicts with athletics, additional transportation costs, and child care issues are possible arguments against moving to a later start time.

The board spent some time discussing the effect of later high school start times on transportation costs. For almost all scenarios where all schools district-wide started 15 minutes later, there was an increase in transportation costs. The board was not supportive of shifting all school start times by 15 minutes.

Given that the committee did not see any compelling research that said it makes a big difference in academic outcomes to have a later start time, Flye said, making the huge adjustment to start times does not seem warranted. She suggested that the district include questions about high school start times in its annual climate survey of students and families. Thomas agreed, pointing out that families’ responses may be affected by the possible reduction or elimination of district-provided transportation. Green noted that any surveys on this issue should include families with students in all levels of instruction, because shifting high school times could affect the other levels.

Lightfoot stated, “We tend to talk about evidence a lot when we agree with it, but find fault with it when we don’t. I believe that evidence is circumspect either way.” She suggested that the high school start times question was important enough to warrant its own survey. Baskett suggested having high schoolers manage the survey as a school project.

The board in general was not inclined to support a survey focused just on high school start times, and ultimately directed administration not to spend the extra resources to do so. Start time preferences will be gathered from families as part of the annual climate survey.

High School Scheduling

The public commentary at the Dec. 12 committee meeting was focused on the issue of trimester scheduling. Four parents spoke, all of whom argued that Skyline was doing students a disservice by operating on a trimester schedule, instead of semesters like the other two comprehensive high schools. In particular, the parents expressed concern about math and foreign language – because students do not receive continuous instruction in these areas all three trimesters of the school year. For some students, the parents pointed out, this means they could go six or even nine months in a row with no math class.

Flye reviewed the scheduling used at each of the high schools: Huron and Pioneer have traditional semester schedules with a 7th hour; Community uses semesters, but has alternate-day block scheduling; A2Tech has semesters with evening class offerings; and Skyline and Clemente run on trimesters.

AAPS director of student accounting Jane Landefeld explained the costs of each scheduling set-up: Teaching 1,600 students in a trimester system requires 80 FTEs, she said, compared to 76.8 FTEs in a semester system, a difference of 3.2 FTEs. However, offering the additional 7th hour class at Pioneer and Huron requires 4.4 FTEs, making the cost difference closer. Finally, Flye summarized pros and cons of semesters versus trimesters, gleaned from the committee’s conversations. She noted that only two other school districts in Washtenaw County  (Chelsea and Saline) use trimesters, whereas two others (Dexter and Whitmore Lake) had previously used trimesters but returned to semester scheduling this school year.

Ultimately, Flye said, the committee’s recommendation was to develop an action plan to move Skyline to a semester schedule.

Trustees who were not members of the AAPS board during the planning and creation of Skyline asked their colleagues to give some insight into the reasons Skyline was set up on a trimester system in the first place.

Mexicotte listed several reasons as keys to the decision to make Skyline a trimester school: cost savings; more elective class options; more flexibility for block scheduling for the magnet programs; and better math remediation. She also noted that when Skyline was conceived, trimesters were seen as the “wave of the future,” and that Skyline was seen as a pilot, which could lead to all district high schools adopting a trimester system.

Nelson echoed the idea that having more flexible scheduling at Skyline was “modern, and fits the 21st century.” He suggested that Skyline’s smaller learning communities and focus on mastery learning were aided by trimester scheduling. Patalan stressed that the set-up of Skyline was aided by the best data available at the time, including extensive community meetings and professional consulting. She also noted that trimester scheduling is not the same thing as block scheduling. Baskett added that the district had been counting on Pioneer and Huron to rework their structures as well, perhaps adding magnets such as humanities and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs, which did not happen.

Several board members asked whether a review of academic outcomes had been undertaken, now that Skyline has had its first graduating class. Board members were told that had not been part of the committee’s review.

Lightfoot noted that trimester-format classes are not readily available during summer school. Stead said she was “happy to be convinced” that trimesters were better. But it did not make intuitive sense to Stead that students didn’t have instruction in math for a period of nine months. Thomas suggested that what he was hearing was, “We’re going to be different because we want to be different,” even though there were no metrics that proved trimesters were better in any way.

Nelson and Patalan took exception to Thomas’ “tone” in expressing his thoughts, and Thomas later offered an apology for his tone of voice. “It was not my intention to denigrate the work that went into planning Skyline. My frustration that resulted from that tone has to do with the fact that … I can’t see anything that we definitely accomplished. We have received a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that [trimester scheduling] is not working to the advantage of the students.”

Lightfoot asked if the board had a set of metrics it had planned to use to evaluate Skyline’s scheduling. Nelson said that board wanted to see if the magnets led to better career development, as well as higher achievement and lower dropout rates. Mexicotte noted that the district also has climate survey data.

Stead said she would like to hear from people who do believe trimesters are great, stressing. “We can’t just be different; we have to be different and better.” She suggested that the board adopt the recommendation to move Skyline to semesters by March or April so there would be time to plan for the shift. Patalan said she wanted to be sure any planning to shift Skyline to semesters was done respectfully and in a way that continues to honor Skyline’s uniqueness. Mexicotte and Nelson agreed that Skyline should not have to be the same as the other comprehensive high schools just to be the same.

Thomas asked administration if March or April was enough time to plan for a shift to semesters at Skyline, and Green responded that she would not want to wait that long. The data the board had asked for during the course of this discussion – comparative achievement, discipline, and attendance data, she said, is readily available, and could be brought back to the board soon for its review.

High School Enrollment

Flye suggested that the board open up an in-district transfer option as well as school-of-choice (SOC) enrollment at the high school level. Landefeld added that up to now the district has only allowed in-district transfers and SOC students at the elementary and middle school levels. But Landefeld thought allowing a minimal number of transfers at the high school level would be a good idea, perhaps just 25 students.

Trustees expressed universal support for these recommendations. Thomas pointed out that with the possibility of losing transportation at the high school level, this would offer additional flexibility for families. Nelson said he would be in favor of opening enrollment by up to 30 students, but not many more than that, say as many as 75.

Baskett asked about the rules that would be put in place for lotteries at different schools. Landefeld responded by saying she would follow the same process as in-district transfers and SOC enrollment at the other levels. Landefeld said the new slots would only be available to ninth graders.

Board members expressed some concern with “personalized redistricting” that could result from allowing more in-district transfers. But they acknowledged that this is essentially what is allowed at the elementary and middle school levels already.

Stead said that she thinks opening the high schools to a limited number of SOC students is necessary to meet the district’s revenue expectations. Nelson and Patalan agreed that AAPS should start small.

Mexicotte said that she was eager to allow SOC enrollment earlier than before, and said she has been concerned that the SOC window has been too late to capture the number of students intended. Green said she agreed that the timeline needed to move quickly, and Flye said administration could now draft a timeline according to the board’s recommendations.

Mexicotte said she was thrilled to have had this in-depth conversation about these high school issues, and that the board “considers our high schools to be the crown jewels of our district.”

Board Goals Update

Mexicotte led the board in a brief discussion on the board’s stated goal of engaging in professional development to increase trust among board members. She reported that she had priced out facilitation from the Michigan Association of School Boards. It would cost roughly $3,000 per month for as many months as trustees wanted to work on this issue, she said.

Thomas said he would not support pursuing that kind of professional development for three reasons: (1) time would be better spent on interacting with the community about budget issues; (2) this is not a good use of limited funds; and (3) he is not convinced such work would have a significant positive effect on board interactions.

Stead, Nelson, and Patalan agreed with Thomas. Baskett and Lightfoot disagreed. Baskett suggested that as the board embarks on budgeting, it will do a better job if there’s trust among the board members. Although Lightfoot felt challenged by the cost, the issue was “beyond a top priority” for her, and she wished the board could find a lower-cost alternative. Mexicotte said that the cost pays for neutrality – and without the cost, it was more difficult for her to see how to work on the trust issue.

Thomas said that the trustees are who they are, and reiterated that facilitated discussions would not likely lead to any changes in their interactions. Lightfoot countered that she was more hopeful about the possible effect of facilitated discussions, and said she still found lack of trust to be a barrier to maximizing board effectiveness. “We’ll do the work,” she said, “but under what challenges, conditions, frustrations?”

Patalan felt that the community engagement the board is starting during this budgeting cycle could manifest itself in helpful ways.

Nelson said that “sometimes the best plan is to have important work to do together.” Just doing the work of the board could improve board relations, he felt, rather than “sitting around and talking about it in the abstract.” Stead said she has seen progress in small groups of trustees working on issues, and agreed with Nelson, calling a facilitated discussion to build trust a “forced situation.” Baskett cautioned that she did not think trust would be built naturally, and that although “people like to diminish it … the touchy-feely stuff is really important.”

Mexicotte closed the discussion, confirming that the majority of board members sounded like they want to set aside the possibility of a facilitated discussion for now. “I will continue to think about how we can do this in a cost-neutral way,” Mexicotte said, “and in the meantime, we can see what happens as we continue to work with each other organically.”

Agenda Planning

Mexicotte noted that the board’s January meeting will be the annual organizational meeting, during which the board will vote on officer positions, and can discuss changes to the organization of meetings or board committees. She also announced her desire to serve as board president again; and she invited any other trustees interested in the position to approach her for a collegial conversation.

Present: President Deb Mexicotte, vice president Christine Stead, secretary Andy Thomas, treasurer Irene Patalan, and trustees Susan Baskett, Simone Lightfoot, and Glenn Nelson.

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, at 7 p.m. at the fourth-floor boardroom of the Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown branch, 343 S. Fifth Ave. [Check Chronicle event listings to verify time and place.]

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AAPS superintendent Patricia Green and deputy superintendent for operations Robert Allen.

Before receiving an “unqualified opinion” on the district’s 2011-12 audit and reviewing the first quarter financials from 2012-13, the board took a first pass at framing the discussion surrounding the development of the district’s budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year – a step the board has not typically taken as early as November.

Also at the meeting, the board approved the renaming of two facilities at Pioneer High School – the tennis courts and the planetarium. The tennis courts are being renamed for long-time tennis coach Tom “Brick” Pullen. And the planetarium is being co-named in regnition of a $100,000 gift from the IMRA America company.

The board also recognized Huron High School cross-country runner Allie Cell, for an extraordinary display of sportsmanship during a recent meet. 

Budget Discussion

Saying that November had been set as the target time for beginning budget discussions, board president Deb Mexicotte noted that the board had recently received information on budget considerations. The budget would be a main agenda item on next week’s board committee-of-the-whole meeting, she said. Superintendent Patricia Green noted that AAPS administration had taken the lead as requested by the board, and provided a three-year glance at upcoming budgets, saying, “There are big-ticket items that might be painful [to cut] out there. My preference is to try to preserve as much in the classroom as we possibly can. That’s where the very difficult decisions will have to be made down the road.”

Though this item was listed as an information item on the agenda, Mexicotte opened up essentially a free-flowing discussion about what trustees would like to see included in the district’s 2013-14 budget, and what process they would like to follow to set that budget. Trustees offered their thoughts on various aspects of the budget: long-term vision; possible spending cuts and revenue enhancements; political and legislative implications; and the timeline for budget development.

2013-14 Budget: Long-Term Vision

Trustee Christine Stead argued that, after making approximately $70 million of budget reductions from the general fund in the past five years, the district needs to create a longer-term vision for making bigger changes. She said necessary changes could involve large parts of the district and could require two or three years of planning.

Mexicotte said that the district’s transportation working group will make a report to the board in December, and noted that this group represents “one of those long-term planning pieces around sustainability” that will inform the conversation. She suggested that the board may want to consider creating similar working groups around other pieces of the budget that might need similar attention, such as redistricting. “It’s like trying to think about what those big items are, not that we will necessarily do anything with them, but we need to know what those could mean.”

Mexicotte also noted that the district is moving to a zero-based budgeting (ZBB) system. Green added that ZBB is a complex process involving linkages between all departments, including finance, instruction, operations, and human resources, and the reworking of existing budget items into line-by-line templates. She noted that the organizational shift to ZBB is a long-term process, and that it will not impact the 2013-14 budget.  But ZBB will be in place for the development of the 2014-15 budget.

2013-14 Budget: Possible Cuts/New Revenue

Trustee Irene Patalan said her “guiding light” is to keeps cuts away from the classroom, and that she is very interested in keeping the community in the conversation.

Trustee Andy Thomas said the budget reductions required to pass a balanced budget next year could range from $8 million to $20 million – and any way you look at it, it’s a big number. He reminded the public that the district used $4.5 million of fund equity last year to stave off deeper cuts. But it’s extremely unlikely the district would be able to do that again, he said. Thomas suggested looking at renegotiating employee contracts; reducing or eliminating transportation; closing buildings; enhancing marketing efforts; and revisiting the School of Choice option to determine net gain in enrollment.

Later in the meeting, during items from the board, Stead added that the WISD transportation review committee had also just met, and had enumerated the savings AAPS had gleaned from participating in the WISD transportation consortium. She reported that it was suggested at the review committee meeting that other districts may now be interested in joining the consortium, if the WISD continued to offer transportation services.

Mexicotte suggested that the board needs to focus more aggressively on increasing revenue as part of the budget process, giving examples such as: campaigning for a countywide educational enhancement millage in 2014; possibly selling or leasing real estate holdings; and lobbying the legislature to restore local levy authority.

2013-14 Budget: Political and Legislative Implications

Stead pointed out that the district’s 2013-14 budget could be impacted by a multitude of developments at the state and federal level, including the “lame duck” session currently playing out in the Michigan legislature. She is following HB 5923, which if passed “basically says ‘any entity can be a school,’” and said she is concerned that an active lame duck session could cause incremental financial obligations for which AAPS would need to put contingencies in place. Stead also noted that the FY 2014 budget put forth by Gov. Rick Snyder last year did not include a best practices incentive, which netted AAPS $4.4 million in 2012-13.

During items from the board, Stead complimented John Austin, president of the state board of education, for his advocacy against HB 5923 among other efforts, and said it’s been a privilege to work with him. She also noted that she, Green, and Nelson successfully worked with the finance committee of the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) at a recent meeting to add the the list of MASB’s legislative priorities by including the exploration of local levy authority and long-term changes to Proposal A.

As part of the budget discussion, trustee Glenn Nelson said the board should be prepared to pass a resolution as a special briefing item at their upcoming committee-of-the-whole meeting. If the board recommends a position on certain legislative issues, that would provide leadership to the community, so that citizens could contact their legislators quickly. Green stated that AAPS has to “keep an eye on Lansing,” and be willing to “get into vehicles and go to Lansing to be part of the conversations happening rapidly.”

Both Green and AAPS deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen expressed concern about the possible reduction in grant funding at the federal level, as the nation approaches the “fiscal cliff” which will cause automatic reductions at significant levels unless a budget compromise is reached before the new year. “There are no sacred cows … We have already seen a reduction in Title I funding that we were not expecting,” Green said. Allen added that in some areas, “no increase” can add up to a decrease, for example with funds that have run out from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Nelson suggested that AAPS should “broaden the scope of its budgeting exercise” to include planning for changes to grant funding at the state and federal level. Usually, the main focus of the budget has been specifically the general fund, but Nelson argued that the board should adopt an approach that looks at a “combined general fund,” which would include grant funding.

Mexicotte indicated that some good might be fund in the prevailing negative climate, and suggested the board discuss contacting the two new state representatives representing portions of Washtenaw County – Gretchen Driskell (District 52) and Adam Zemke (District 55). Later in the meeting during the items from the board section of the agenda, Stead also congratulated the new representatives, saying she thought they would be receptive to working with the district.

Stead asserted that while people talk about keeping cuts out of the classroom, the situation has moved past that as a possible solution. “We need to change our funding situation, period,” she said. “That’s the only thing that will substantially change things. Communities in this state have to have a way to prioritize education in the democracy we think we live in. We will fight for a different answer for Ann Arbor, and we will get a different answer. Our students deserve better and we will get them better.”

2013-14 Budget: Timeline

Whatever decisions are made, Thomas said the district will require lead time and planning. For example, he said, the district had difficulty in the past communicating transportation changes over the summer – when cuts were made too late in the budget cycle. Thomas highlighted his hope that starting budget planning in November would not mean the board would be “arguing about the cuts for eight months rather than three months,” but rather that the decisions will be made earlier to allow for the development of a thoughtful implementation plan.

Mexicotte referred to a comment made by Thomas before the meeting started, saying that Thomas had suggested the budget be framed out by the end of January. At that point it could be brought to the public with answers about what the board plans to adjust or reduce. She suggested the trustees could go review a list of possible budget reductions and decide where they have agreement and what needs more conversation.

For example, Mexicotte said, if the board decides it does not want to touch transportation, transportation reductions would get “moved to the anathema page.” She described such an exercise as “triaging what’s on the list so we start to articulate to the public what our thinking is and how we go about prioritizing our pieces.”

Stead said that taking what the board knows now and going through that process today might not be as useful as doing so in January, when any substantive changes in funding at the state or federal level will have occurred. She asked administration to share any information they have about anticipated changes in revenue or expenses tonight.

2012-13 Fall Grant Awards

Linda Doernte, AAPS director of purchasing, walked the board through a brief review of 2012-13 grants awarded to the district, noting that grants brought in around the same amount of money as last year – roughly $4.8 million. She noted that the Head Start grant has not had any increase for two to three years, which means that rising retirement costs for the employees funded by that grant have been absorbed by the district. She also noted that Title 1 funding decreased by $300,000 because the state has the same amount budgeted for Title I, but charter schools are now requesting funding from that same “pot of money.” Allen added that the “flat grants” are causing decreased funding to other programs as salary and benefit costs rise.

The good news, Doernte said, comes at the local level, with the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation (AAPSEF) bringing in new grants totaling $115,000, and the Ann Arbor PTO thrift shop offering a total of more than $144,000 for transportation. Of the AAPSEF funding, $7,000 comes from the Greek Orthodox Women’s Philoptochos Society for the purchase of software to help autistic students.

Doertne also noted that the current grant totals do not include the Perkins grant, which will be presented in the spring.

Nelson noted the grassroots commitment evident in these grants, and urged national legislators to rationally resolve the budget crisis and avoid the “fiscal cliff,” as the federal funds represented by the largest of these grants re substantially at risk.

Thomas asked about the number of students served by Title I funding. AAPS deputy superintendent of instruction Alesia Flye responded that the number of students who are eligible to receive Title I services has increased, based on the rate of students eligible for free and reduced lunch. Thomas said he was upset by the fact that charter schools are partially to blame for there being less Title I money available to serve a growing number of eligible students.

Patalan said that while she knows federal funds are important, she wanted to acknowledge the modest but extremely appreciated grant made to AAPS by the Greek Orthodox women’s group. She suggested even more effort should be made to solicit local funding, saying, “It’s time to look everywhere.”

Stead said she looks forward to Allen being able to deliver the board positive information on the budget someday. Allen replied that nobody is looking more forward to that than he is.

Outcome: The 2012-13 fall grant awards will come back to the board at the next regular meeting for second briefing and approval.

2011-12 Audit Report

The district’s auditors, from Plante Moran, made a formal presentation to the board summarizing the 2011-12 audit results. The auditors noted that a set of audits on various aspects of the district’s finances is required by both state and federal law, and that the district has received an unqualified opinion on all fronts – that is “clean, without exception.” They compared the audits results to having attended class all year, done all the homework, and earning an “A” on the final exam. Noting that not every district receives an unqualified opinion, the auditors encouraged AAPS to take pride in these results.

Audit: Presentation

The auditors reviewed a summary of the highlights of the audit, noting that overall, the expenditures and revenue numbers were very close to what had been budgeted. They noted that the one-time use of the fund balance will need to be replaced as the district moves in to the future, and discussed that several school districts they work with have discussed ways to find new revenue sources. They listed increasing retirement costs, and other budget constraints as challenges, as well as future uncertainties regarding state and federal funding.

Thomas asked if the budget figures in the audit document were the numbers approved in June, 2011 or the numbers after amendments were made throughout the year. Auditors indicated the numbers were the amended figures. [.pdf of AAPS audit for FY 2012]

Audit: Board Discussion

Thomas pointed out that using the original budget – instead of the amended budget – in the audit would not result in a close a match between planned and actual performance. He said he understood why the budget had to be amended during the year, but said it would be much more valuable as a planning tool to know how closely the district had been able to adhere to its original budget. Mexicotte pointed out that that the comment applied more to AAPS administration than to the auditor.

Nelson also questioned where actual budget numbers show up in the audit, and the auditors pointed them out [on page 33]. The audit also shows the numbers as a combined general fund, which includes grants. Nelson contended that showing the general fund as combined with grants for the audit – when the general fund is presented to the public, as part of the district’s budgeting process, as separate from grants – makes the budget less transparent.

Allen responded that the budget book contains the general fund and the athletic fund, and that grants have typically been reported in the fall, as they were that evening. He said there is a good basis for making a grants estimate and including it in the budget book, along with the general and athletics funds, and agreed it would make it easier to “follow the numbers back when they are combined in audit reporting.”

Stead complimented the auditors for a fine job, and agreed with Nelson’s recommendation to administration that grants funding be estimated when setting the budget. “We definitely need to deal with the impact of grant funding shifts next time around. We need to understand this at a deeper level than we ever had before, because there is no room to make a mistake.” Patalan agreed, saying she would like to have administration help the board to understand all the money included.

The auditors said they appreciated the fervor with which the board examines these issues and commended them for making a strategy that allows them to manage better into the future.

Outcome: The audit report will come back to the board at the next regular meeting for second briefing and approval.

First Quarter Financial Report

AAPS director of finance Nancy Hoover briefly presented the financial report from the first quarter, noting that it was being brought to the board earlier than usual, and that it contained no adjustments to revenue or expenditures.

Stead questioned why the adjustments made to fund equity just mentioned in the audit report were not being corrected now, and suggested doing so before any budget numbers are shared with the public going forward.

Allen responded that there are a number of anticipated adjustments for the second quarter. Those included a seven FTE increase in staffing, primarily because of the reclassification of special education teachers – who had been funded with federal dollars – back to the general fund, and three teacher assistants who were hired to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Adjustments also included: a decrease in available fund equity; adjustments to the MPSERS retirement rate, which went from 27% to 24%, and then back up to 25%; an 80-count decrease in student enrollment; and an anticipated gain in special education funding.

Thomas said he was alarmed by what sounded like a set of negative adjustments totalling $1.5 million. Allen said some adjustments will be one-time, while others will be ongoing – but that adjustments are not made for non-recurring items. He also pointed out that the reduction in the MPSERS rate is roughly a $2 million positive adjustment, and that the additional special education reimbursement will also be positive.

Nelson reiterated the importance of keeping a comprehensive view of the general fund in mind, and not narrowly defining it. Stead agreed, saying that the board needed to see both a comprehensive view of the budget, including grants funding, but also needed to have the same level of detail as it currently had. Allen said the data can be presented in a format that can reflect both funds – separately, but also together.

Stead reflected on all the financial data presented at the meeting, saying that the net impact was worse than anticipated, even though the district thought it had budgeted conservatively. Saying the district needed an “all hands on deck” effort, she argued, “We need to do everything we can to increase enrollment, and improve our customer service, but also think differently about programs and services and budgeting moving forward.”

Green added that part of what is being developed as part of the ZBB, is the ability to better track spending from year to year within specific line items.

Outcome: The first quarter financial report will come back to the board at the next regular meeting for second briefing and approval.

Renaming of Facilties

The board considered renaming of two facilities at its Nov. 7 meeting, both at Pioneer High School – the tennis courts and the planetarium. Reasons for the naming of facilities were to honor service to the school district and monetary contributions, both of which are possible reasons for naming under the district’s policy. [.pdf of AAPS naming policy]

Renaming: Tennis Courts

The proposal considered for final approval by the board was to name the tennis courts after Tom “Brick” Pullen – who coached the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams at Pioneer High School for more than two decades. The district’s director of communications, Liz Margolis, reminded the trustees that they’d been briefed at the previous meeting on the item. She noted that previously, testimony had been provided that made clear that Pullen meets the extraordinary service criterion of the districts naming policy. She introduced a few additional people.

Sandy Lymburner, whose daughter Courtney Lymburner now plays tennis at the University of California Santa Cruz, was the one who had the idea to name the courts after Pullen, addressed the board. She read aloud part of an essay that Courtney wrote as part of a college application. “Today he [Pullen] is, second only to my parents, a major figure in my life … He taught me my forehand grip, a new serve, but he also taught me how to never give up on my dreams and to persevere.”

District parent Frank Rampton also spoke in support of naming of the tennis courts after Pullen. He told the board he had a who daughter played for Pullen for four years. Tennis had been her first love as a kid – but his own aspirations for her were to follow in her older sister’s footsteps with crew. But when his daughter was in 5th grade she would tell him about this coach would come around and say, Hey, Julia, if you keep out this up you might be on the varsity by the time you’re in 9th grade! The word Rampton gave to describe Pullen was “tireless.” Pullen wasn’t tireless just on the tennis court, but also in his attitude towards the kids – in-season and off-season. He drew a comparison between Pullen and Bo Schembechler – inasmuch as Schembechler was never gone from the players’ lives.  His daughter learned a lot of life lessons from Pullen, and considers him a second father, he concluded.

Trustees took turns offering their own praise of Pullen.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to name the Pioneer tennis courts after Pullen.

Renaming: Planetarium

In her introductory remarks Superintendent Patricia Green noted that the generous gift of $100,000 from IMRA America  had been made through the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation. She stressed that the second briefing was an opportunity to acknowledge the generosity and the appreciation of the district for the gift. The planetarium would have closed eventually, she said, because the cost of keeping it operational was exorbitant.

The district had never expected that one generous donor would come forward. Because of that, the district felt that it deserved recognition of a co-naming of the planetarium. District director of communications Liz Margolis reviewed how the planetarium was originally gifted to the district by the Argus Camera Company back in 1956. The district now looks forward to students in the future also receiving the benefit of the continued existence of the planetarium, she said. The projector system would be upgraded, which would allow expansion of the curriculum.

Executive Vice President of IMRA America Makoto Yoshida and  board president Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation Omari Rush were on hand to deliver some remarks. Yoshida told the board he was grateful to the district for its support in the education of the children of the company’s employees. IMRA is a research company, he noted.  To recruit people to come work for the company, he always emphasizes that Ann Arbor is a really good place to live – because the education system is the best, with a reasonable cost. As a high-tech company, he said, IMRA recognizes the value in encouraging interest in science at an early age. This is where our future scientists are created, he noted. Science and technology is IMRA’s passion, he said, and they would continue funding through through the district’s educational foundation – as long as the company can still make a reasonable profit, he quipped. He called the donation an investment in the future for all of us.

Trustees in turn expressed their appreciation for the gift from IMRA.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to approved the co-naming of the Pioneer High School planetarian in recognition of IMRA America’s gift.

Sportsmanship Recognized

Superintendent Patricia Green announced the special recognition. She said it was very important that students be commended for things that they do that are so noteworthy, and selfless in their contribution to others that it rises to the level that it needs to be brought before the public and the board of education.

She invited Huron High School athletic director Dottie Davis to come to the podium to recognize one of the district’s athletes – a student from Huron High School who excelled in making certain that she had given back to others – Allie Cell. She thanked Amy Cell, Allie’s mother, for raising a wonderful daughter and putting the values into her that the district so much appreciated. [Cell is granddaughter of Ingrid Sheldon, former mayor of the city of Ann Arbor, who was on hand for the recognition of Allie's sportsmanship.] Tony Mifsud, coach from the opposing team from Dearborn Divine Child High School was also on hand. Davis describe the athlete from Divine Child whom Cell had helped as having a body type more like that of Davis – like that of a discus thrower.  [Mariah Fuqua, the Divine Child athlete, is accomplished as a discus thrower and shot putter.]

Fuqua, had never run 5K [3.1 miles] in her life, Davis explained. Her coaches prepared her so that in the first couple of weeks of the season she was able to run a mile and then she would stop. The second couple of weeks she was able to run two miles. On that particular day in question, on an up-and-down winding course, Fuqua was about to quit at the halfway mark. Allie had already run the course, and finished the race among the top runners. As she saw Fuqua struggling up a hill, Cell went back and encouraged her and and wound up running step for step with her all the way to the finish line. When they crossed the finish line, Davis reported, “Tears just exploded from everybody’s face.”

Trustees in turn heaped praise on Cell and noted the importance of athletics in education.

Communication and Comment

Board meetings include a number of agenda slots when trustees can highlight issues they feel are important, including “items from the board” and “agenda planning.” Every meeting also invites public commentary on subjects not necessarily on the formal agenda or that are not covered elsewhere in The Chronicle’s meeting report.

Comm/Comm: Association and Student Reports

Five associations are invited to make regular reports to the school board: the Black Parents Student Support Group (BPSSG), the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC), the Parent Teacher Organization Council (PTOC), the Ann Arbor Administrators Association (AAAA), and the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA). The Youth Senate is also invited to speak once a month, as are representatives from each of the high schools.

At this meeting, the board heard from the Youth Senate, the AAPAC, and the AAEA.

Youth senators Xuerui Fa and Seunghyun Lee, both sophomores from Pioneer, asserted that the policy of having “split lunch,” or two lunch periods, should be abolished. They noted that the transfer of students from Pioneer to Skyline has reduced the number of Pioneer students sufficiently to allow for all students to have lunch at one time. Arguments the the two made for one common lunch included: access by students to all teachers during lunch time, and better access to more club and activity meetings, which often occur during lunch hours. Fa and Lee also noted that a large number of students support their recommendation to abolish the split lunch policy.

AAPAC’s Melanie Robault congratulated Mexicotte on her re-election, and noted that the AAPAC was looking forward to working with Mexicotte for years to come. She also thanked the administration for recently presenting information at AAPAC meetings. Robault also invited the public to a free workshop entitled “The Contents of an IEP [individualized education plan],” to be held on Nov. 27 at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District from 7-9 p.m.

The AAEA’s representative reported that she had attended a professional development session at Pioneer High School the previous day during which staff had created lists of things of which they were proud. The representative shared a sampling of the items she had seen on the lists, including: Special Olympics, peer mentoring, guest speakers, peer mediation, revamping of the media center web page, open communication with students, rising AP scores, and participation in the Midwest music conference.

Nelson also spoke as the board liaison to the developing Arab-American Parent Support Group (AAPSG), which he noted was formed approximately one year ago. He invited the public to the first community-wide meeting of the AAPSG, to be held on Sunday, Nov. 11 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in the third floor meeting room, also called the “free space,” of the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library.

Comm/Comm: Superintendent’s Report

Green enumerated recent awards and accolades received by the AAPS community, including: Community high school’s invitation to participate at a statewide conference to share strategies for improving student achievement for all students; the NAACP’s honoring of 112 students at its annual Freedom Fund dinner; Tappan music students’ invitation to perform on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech; and the success of the Dicken Dash, a new PTO fundraiser in which 367 students raised over $15,000 to support field trips and develop an outdoor classroom.

Comm/Comm: Action Items

The board passed a consent agenda containing minutes approvals and gift offers, and also approved a motion to hold an executive session on Dec. 5 for the purpose of negotiations.

Comm/Comm: Items from the Board

Thomas noted he had the privilege of making a number of “great idea” grant awards on behalf of Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation’s (AAPSEF) Karen Thomas Memorial fund, which Thomas founded to honor his late wife. The grant awards were matched with PTO funds and used to purchase Nook e-Readers to promote reading and writing among fifth grader students. Thomas also noted that his monthly coffee would be held next Tues, Nov. 13 at 9a a.m. at the Sweetwaters on Washington.

Nelson reiterated his appreciation for the awards received by the AAPSEF and the PTO thrift store, and also expressed thanks to the Center for Independent Living and the NAACP for the their work in promoting the educational development of young people.

Patalan noted that this meeting highlighted both the successes in the district, and well as the challenges the district faces “with people who are not on the same page with funding public education.”

Mexicotte noted that trustee Susan Baskett was ill and that therefore Nelson would need to attend an upcoming meeting in her place, as was an alternate delegate for that meeting. She also offered encouragement to the boards in Ypsilanti and Willow Run, noting that both of their communities agreed to a consolidation plan and to add an operating millage to support the newly created district. Mexicotte said she wanted to congratulate them on these plans and extended the support of AAPS to help them during the transition. She also noted AAPS may partner with them on a possibly upcoming educational enhancement millage.

Comm/Comm: Re-election of Deb Mexicotte

Also during items from the board, each of the trustees congratulated Mexicotte on her successful bid to remain on the board of education for another term. [Mexicotte received 31,436 (63.19%) votes to 17,758 (35.69%) for Dale Leslie.] Thomas pointed out that Mexicotte had garnered over 31,000 votes, which he believed sets a record for the highest number of votes any AAPS school board member has ever received. Green also expressed congratulations to Mexicotte during her superintendent’s report.

Mexicotte began by acknowledging the passion and interest of her opponent, Dale Leslie, thanking him for putting himself out there to the community and being willing to serve on the board. She then thanked the her fellow board members for their support, and then closed the meeting with a statement acknowledging and thanking the community for their extensive support of AAPS students and of the board of education.

Mexicotte said running for re-election during a fall presidential race was more difficult than in June, noting it was more expensive, a little more partisan, and harder to reach voters. However, she said it was really gratifying and humbling to hear how much the community supports the work of the board. “Even when they disagreed,” she said, “they were still so positive about the district. The community respects our service.” She noted the support of many of the district’s community partners support students in a meaningful way, saying “This community serves our students – they give their time, their money, their volunteerism, their verbal support … Thank you to the community for all they do, and for returning me to do my very small piece.”

Present: President Deb Mexicotte, vice president Christine Stead, secretary Andy Thomas, treasurer Irene Patalan, and trustee Glenn Nelson.

Absent: Trustees Susan Baskett and Simone Lightfoot.

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012, at 7 p.m. at the fourth-floor boardroom of the Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown branch, 343 S. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

The bottom line in the draft AATA operating budget for FY 2013.

That’s an increase of around $3 million over the current year’s budget, which called for the AATA to spend $30,410,622 against only $29,418,998 in revenues. The nearly $1 million planned deficit for that fiscal year – which ends on Sept. 30, 2012 – was previously characterized by the board as a way to “catapult” the organization forward by offering some increased levels of service, in advance of AATA’s possible transition to a new, broader transit authority. Despite budgeting for that $1 million deficit, current projections included in the FY 2013 budget show that the AATA now expects to finish FY 2012 with a much smaller deficit of $296,378 – about one-third of what was projected.

For the new FY 2013 budget, an increase in revenues is accounted for in part by increased passenger revenues. Increased ridership is expected to generate about $750,000 more in fares in the coming year, compared to the fares collected in the fiscal year that’s nearing its end on Sept. 30. The AATA is also budgeting for about $300,000 more in state operating assistance for FY 2013. And the AATA anticipates about $3 million more in federal operating assistance, compared to what it actually received in the current fiscal year. A chunk of that is for a connector study from the northeastern part of the city to its southern edge.

Ann Arbor’s local transit tax, levied at a rate of just over 2 mills, is expected to show stable revenue levels compared to FY 2012, generating about $9.3 million. For the coming year, the AATA does not expect to use any of the local tax levy to help fund commuter express services from Canton and Chelsea, as it has since launching the service. Instead, the AATA will be using $105,217 of federal funds to cover that cost. Responding to an emailed query from The Chronicle, AATA controller Phil Webb explained that the AATA is taking advantage of newly expanded regulations that allows up to $1.47 million of AATA’s programmed federal funds to be used to pay for early investments in the AATA’s 5-year transit program. The AATA released the final draft of that plan on Sept. 5, 2012.

The city of Ann Arbor’s online Legistar system does not show any previous occasions when the draft AATA budget has been forwarded to the council as a communication or a report. Over the past year, however, Stephen Kunselman – who represents Ward 3 on the council – has been vocal about calling for the AATA to do that. He wanted an opportunity to comment on the AATA’s budget as required under a 1974 agreement between Ann Arbor and the AATA. [.pdf of 1974 agreement]. Kunselman’s most recent call for the AATA to submit its budget for council review came at the council’s Sept. 4, 2012 meeting.

That was the same meeting when the  council – with two absences on the 11- member body – turned down a $60,000 request for the city’s share of an alternatives analysis for a connector system. That connector would run along the Plymouth/State corridor, from US-23 and Plymouth southward along Plymouth to State Street, extending south to I-94. Although the council is expected to reconsider the request at its Sept. 17 meeting, with a full complement of the council present, it’s not clear the council will have the eight votes necessary to make the budget change.

The city’s $60,000 funding share for that study would be part of a $300,000 local match component, the rest of which is being paid by the AATA and the University of  Michigan. The study has a total project budget of $1.5 million, $1.2 million of which is being funded through a federal grant. The AATA FY 2013 budget factors in the city’s $60,000 share for that study.

The AATA board will have the FY 2013 budget on its Sept. 27 meeting agenda. [.pdf of draft AATA FY 2013 budget]

Charts

Included in the material attached to the city council agenda are four pie charts created by the AATA.

AATA FY 2013 draft operating budget. The bulk of expenses supports the AATA’s fixed route service (dark blue), which is the basic bus service that people typically associate with AATA. Also significant are the A-Ride paratransit service (red) and the AirRide airport service (teal). The connector study also makes up a significant portion of the overall operating expenses.

AATA FY 2013 revenue. The AATA gets roughly the same amount from property taxes (red) as it does from the state (green). Passenger fares (dark blue) and federal assistance (purple) make up comparable shares.

AATA FY 2013 local millage dollar usage. The majority of the local millage goes to support the basic fixed route (blue) and paratransit service (red).  Putting the connector study and WALLY (north-south commuter rail) together brings the amount the AATA will be spending on planning efforts in the coming year at $115,000.

AATA FY 2013 federal operating expenses. Efforts connected to the transit master plan (TMP) are those that involve the AATA’s effort to expand its area of service and governance in the form of a new transit authority to be incorporated as The Washtenaw Ride. TMP efforts include the salmon wedge and (counterclockwise) the light blue and orange wedges. The dark purple wedge represents Route #4 improvements for the service between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

Other Facts

The draft budget includes several facts of interest.

The AATA expects to deliver 6.8 million passenger trips next year during 284,200 hours of service. That works out to a cost per service hour of $117 per hour, about $5 more than last year.

To deliver those trips, the AATA expects to use 623,000 gallons of bio-diesel fuel.

The AATA will be have 125 full-time equivalent bus drivers next year, which is 2.5 more than last year. That includes 110 full-time positions and 20 part-time. The top of the wage scale for AATA drivers is $24 per hour. The total amount paid in union wages is about $8.6 million. Management wages total $3.9 million, of which $2.6 million goes to administration.

Update on Sept 21, 2012: The board’s information packet for its upcoming Sept. 27 meeting includes some negative news with respect to the budget, which the board  is expected to ratify at that meeting. The AATA will be receiving about $800,000 less  than expected in operating assistance from the state. The AATA’s response was to identify some expense reductions, but that left the AATA still $300,000 short, which will be covered with fund balance reserve.

From the draft of the board’s resolution, which it will be asked to approve:

WHEREAS, on September 14, 2012, notification was received from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) that a new interpretation of the State’s Operating Assistance Formula would decrease AATA’s FY 2013 operating assistance by approximately $803,500, and

WHEREAS, Staff subsequently worked diligently to propose expense reductions in the budget that would neither negatively impact the public nor diminish its published transit services, however, there remains approximately $300,000 of uncovered expenses, and

WHEREAS, the Board has previously established an Unrestricted Net Assets Policy for instances when “it is necessary for the AATA to have on hand a prudent reserve to cover the expenses necessary to maintain service levels in the event of interruption or delay of the receipt of state or federal funding,” now therefore

IT IS RESOLVED, that AATA shall utilize approximately $300,000 of its Unrestricted Net Assets for the purpose of balancing the FY2013 Operating Budget of $32,700,181, that such budget is hereby approved to become effective October 1, 2012, and that the budget is assigned to the Performance Monitoring and External Relations Committee (PMER) for appropriate monitoring

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The Ann Arbor Public Schools board at its June 15, 2012 meeting.

That budget reflects roughly $4 million in spending cuts compared to last year’s budget, and reflects the elimination or restructuring of some transportation services, a reduction in the budget for substitute teachers, and the consolidation of high school summer school programs.

The approved budget also calls for using $6.54 million, or about one-third, of the district’s current fund equity, which caused trustee Christine Stead to cast her vote against the budget. Stead expressed strong concern that the budget neither allows for incremental expenditure shifts, nor sets the district up for successfully weathering the 2013-14 budget cycle and beyond. “I want us to use our past year’s experience as a data point,” she said, “… [T]o act like we are, with the information we have, is difficult for me to support.”

The June 13 meeting also saw the approval of three special briefing items – a renewal of the district’s food service contract with Chartwells, a resolution to upgrade human resources and finance software, and a set of policy revisions. Special briefing items are reviewed and voted on by the board in a single meeting instead of being entertained as first and second briefing items at two consecutive regular meetings.

Finally, the board approved the contract of Robyne Thompson as the new assistant superintendent of secondary education, and extended the contract held with AFSCME Local 1182, which primarily represents custodians and maintenance workers in the district.

2012-13 Budget

The formal adoption of the 2012-13 budget  was the main item on the board’s agenda.

Budget: Public Commentary

There were eight speakers during public commentary. Seven spoke about the district’s current plan to keep Roberto Clemente Student Development Center open for the next year, but to evaluate its effectiveness (as the board had previously weighed the option of consolidating or closing alternative high schools, including Clemente) and one spoke about busing reductions at Bryant and Pattengill.

Barbara Malcolm asked: “How do we citizens hold the school board accountable?” She argued that the board is “allowing those with no vested interest in this community come in and make you appear incompetent.” She called the arrogance displayed by the school board deplorable and questioned whether the board was so disconnected that it does not know what is going on in the community. “We have to get those who are not truly concerned about education for all students out of here,” Malcolm said.

Malcolm pointed out that the cost savings for closing the Clemente summer school might be lower than hoped – given that Clemente summer school staff members were hired by the district-wide summer school program at Pioneer High School instead of absorbing the Clemente students into the district-wide program without any adding additional staff.  She also noted that the board still has to pay for busing to the program. She also contended that a partnership with Ypsilanti has led Clemente to add $150,000 in revenues to the district, which the AAPS board has not acknowledged, she said. Malcolm noted that Green had attended the recent African-American festival, saying, “We are happy you came…, but don’t just come for the fun stuff – that’s a slap in the face.” Finally, she asserted that it seems like some board members are supporting personal agendas in their board work.

Clemente parent Kathleen Ardon disputed a contention that there had not been an evaluation done of Clemente earlier, saying an evaluation had been done under former AAPS superintendent Richard Benjamin in the 1980s, and the program had been deemed exemplary. Ardon said it bothers her that the board does not want to consider the GPA of Clemente students as a measure of success, and also noted Clemente was not “given credit” the money it brings in by enrolling students from Ypsilanti. She thanked the board for waiting to restructure Clemente, but said it was too little too late, and contended that the board has alienated Clemente principal Ben Edmondson.

Clemente graduate Nicholas Morton said he will be proud to come back to talk to the students at Clemente after attending college. He recited the Clemente creed, and noted how Edmondson holds all students to his high expectations. “There is a school for everyone, Morton argued, and [Clemente] is the school for us.”

Charlae Davis said she sat and cringed at the last board meeting when the Clemente summer school was presented as an orientation program. She said the program is 110% academically rigorous, and addresses what scholars say will diminish the achievement gap. As an educator, Davis said, she does not understand why the summer school program would be consolidated with the district-wide summer school at Pioneer. She called it a “lose-lose” situation for students who have to choose between attending summer school at Pioneer or not attending at all.

Like others, Davis noted that Clemente brings in over $150,000 in School of Choice revenue from Ypsilanti students, and questioned why that was not included in the cost savings calculations. Davis continued, saying that, “…power, oppression, intimidation, and professional bullying have no place in the school board, or superintendent’s cabinet. Please stop trying to push your own agendas – you have already received your education.”

Tia Jones said she is truly bothered that Clemente does not have a summer school program for the first time since 1974. It is not orientation, she said, but a “home” for students over the summer. “We want to be with our family and not with some strangers,” Jones asserted.

Jeanne Rivers, daughter of former U.S. Congresswoman Lynn Rivers and Clemente graduate from 1998, noted that she actually graduated early because of the summer school program at Clemente. She said it’s sad that Clemente could be closed. “We [in Ann Arbor] claim we’re not racist,” Rivers said. “I just don’t see how we are going to succeed as a city if we allow this one little school to just be dismissed and dismembered,” noting that Clemente students are not welcome in the comprehensive high schools. “Please don’t take this away from these kids,” she urged the board. “This is some of these kids’ only chance.”

Monique Hardeman urged the board to remember that we were all children at one time, and pointed out that different children have different needs. She noted that AAPS has had three alternative high schools for her whole life—A2Tech (formerly Stone School), Community, and Clemente, and that they are all part of the Ann Arbor community, and serve different groups of students. She pointed out that Clemente is not just a school for African-Americans, but that she has noticed students of many different cultures there. “Everybody there is loving and getting along well,” Hardeman said. “Before you cut any school, think about how it will affect those children.”

Patty Kracht addressed the board regarding busing changes at Bryant and Pattengill. She noted that the board has said Bryant-Pattengill parents have requested this change, but in fact, parents feel “like we have been steamrolled with this plan.” She noted that the combination of routes between the two schools will cause some of the district’s youngest students to be on a bus for 45-50 minutes at the end of the day. Two hundred four to seven-year-olds at Bryant will be “corralled in a gym” for 18 minutes before school with only two to four teaching assistants looking after them, Kracht pointed out. She added that she was disheartened by her experience on the newly formed committee on this issue, and that it was obvious that parents’ ideas and information would be dismissed.

Superintendent Patricia Green introduced the second and final briefing of the 2012-13 budget proposal by saying that the creation of the budget had been a long process, and that the administration knew it was going to be a very difficult cycle. The budget reductions that are part of the proposal are designed to keep the cuts out of classroom as much as possible, Green said, but she acknowledged the “great losses” experienced by the AAPS community as the district goes through its sixth year of significant budget reductions. “There is not a person who works for this school district who feels good about what we are about to request this evening, but we still need to be responsible in this decision-making,” she said.

Budget: Base Expenditure and Revenue Projections

Deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen reported that since the board’s May 23, 2012 meeting, he had made a $1 million adjustment to projected base expenditures based on additional cost savings from the district’s self-insured portion of health insurance offerings. Allen explained that fewer employees are now on the self-insured plan, so the risk is lower than in past years. He pointed out that this will mean the 2012-13 budget as presented will use $6 million of fund equity, not the $7 million discussed at the previous meeting.

Trustee Glenn Nelson said he is very pleased with the hard work that led to the $1 million savings in health care, but questioned the district’s assumptions about the amount AAPS would receive from the state’s School Aid Fund now that the state had passed the 2012-13 school aid bill. Nelson said that if the house fiscal agency is correct, AAPS will receive $700,000 less than the district projected.

Allen responded that based on the latest information, the MPSERS (Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System) offset will be $2.2 million, the best practices incentive will be $900,000, the performance incentive dropped to $700,000, and School of Choice revenue stayed constant at $1.2 million. He agreed with Nelson’s assessment that the district will receive less in school aid than anticipated, but said he did not adjust the budget to reflect that because of other factors that could affect the budget positively, such as the state’s proposed retirement reform legislation, and the excess TIF capture by the Scio Township Downtown Development Authority (DDA). [The Ann Arbor DDA does not capture any of the AAPS millage; however the Scio DDA does. And each year, the Scio DDA returns to taxing jurisdictions – like the AAPS – whatever amount it does not use in the service of its TIF plan.]

Stead added that the MPSERS rate will likely increase, but Allen pointed out that some versions of the retirement reform legislation cap the rate, and would the state picking up the remainder of the cost.

The bulk of the board’s discussion on the budget centered on the use of the $1 million base adjustment made by Allen since the first briefing, and the public hearing on the budget, held at the board’s May 23 meeting.

Budget: Use of the $1 Million Base Adjustment

Thomas suggested revisiting the cuts to four FTEs (full-time equivalent positions) in counseling staff. As of the first briefing on the budget, Thomas pointed out, the board was prepared to spend $7 million in fund equity, but now must tap the fund reserves for $6 million. He asked Green what her priority would be if she had a magic wand, and could resurrect one item from being cut.

Green responded that if there were additional funds available, she would assign the highest priority to three items: counseling staff; the departmental budgets; and the school improvement funds. She noted that these three items directly impact the work on social and emotional learning that she is spearheading in the district.

Nelson, Lightfoot, and Patalan supported Thomas’ suggestion to restore the counseling positions.

Nelson argued that there was urgency to restoring funding for the counseling positions due to the timing of the hiring process. Green agreed, but said that while she stands by her administration’s budget recommendation, she also feel strongly about the role of counselors as critical to the work of the district going forward. Nelson also suggested that if the board agreed to renew more funding than the amount needed for the counseling positions, the administration could split it between reinstating the departmental budgets which are used to deliver professional development and giving money back to the school improvement teams.

Lightfoot said she was amenable to reconsidering the counseling cuts, and that she had several concerns, including how the placement of the remaining counselors would be made by human resources, and how the counseling reductions would impact the neediest students.

Patalan said restoring the school improvement team funding resonated with her, and that the departmental budgets are used to improve what goes on in the classroom for kids. Counseling also affects large numbers of students, she said, and is really very important. Patalan said that while she is nervous about the future of state funding, she is supportive and appreciative of the hard work that Green and her administration have done, and that she is “intrigued” by the possibility of using some of the “found chunk of money” to restore Green’s priority items, and saving some of it. She pointed out that three weeks ago, the board was ready to spend all of this money out of fund equity.

Stead said this discussion made her think of the budgeting experience the district had last year, when not all of the approved reductions could be implemented. She expected the district to face the same situation this year. She said budgeting was not a “perfect science,” but expressed concern that the board was not allowing for some opportunity to experience incremental increased costs. She pointed out that AAPS will not likely be adding much to fund equity in coming years, school aid fund revenue could decrease, fund equity needs to be maintained to manage summer payroll, and special education funding is expected to decrease by almost $3 million.

Stead encouraged the public to “employ common sense” when reading about the district’s budget, and noted that “one of the things [she] saw in anonymous comments on a local media site” is an argument that AAPS is projecting a 5% revenue increase. She pointed out that, in fact, revenue is projected to decrease, and added that the district’s per-pupil funding would be more than $12,000 per student if it had kept up with inflation. [The district’s current per-pupil allocation is $9,020.] Stead said she would be inclined to support putting anything back on the table if the district were in a different situation. “I want us to use our past year’s experience as a data point,” she said, “…[T]o act like we are, with the information we have, is difficult for me to support.”

Mexicotte took issue with the use of the term “found money,” which she said “makes it sound like it fell out of the sky.” She argued that it was due to the conservative work of AAPS administration that it was not included at first, and said that adjustments are to be expected. “What we think will work best, not what we want to do, is here on the table,” she said.

Referring to public commentary made at the beginning of the meeting which argued that board members were motivated by personal agendas, Mexicotte also asserted that “there are no personal agenda around these budget items. The agenda is to try to maintain public education in Ann Arbor. We disagree on how to get there… The only thing that is personal is how painful it is.”

Mexicotte said she agreed that the board has to look forward, but argued that putting some money back into the budget will “neither save us nor doom us,” but may allow some of the critical changes proposed by Green to “see some momentum.” Mexicotte later proposed a friendly amendment which restored $500,000 of funding for use by Green to fund some portion of her priority items – counseling staff, departmental budgets, and school improvement team budgets – at Green’s discretion.

Intermediate outcome: The board accepted Mexicotte’s amendment as “friendly” – that is, without requiring a separate vote on the amendment – to restore $500,000 of funding for Green’s priority items. That resulted in a planned use of $6.5 million from the fund balance reserve, instead of $6 million as the budget was previously briefed.

Budget: 4 p.m. Middle School Busing

Nelson asked for an update on the current status of the late bus serving the district’s five middle schools. Green said the budget still includes a reduction to eliminate those buses, but that the district has asked two organizations to help with funding them. At this time, Green said, the PTO Thrift Shop has agreed to pay for half of the cost to keep those buses running, and the AAPS educational foundation (AAPSEF) has been approached to ask if they would consider funding the othe half.

Patalan said that she is absolutely grateful that the PTO thrift shop and the AAPSEF might be able to help with middle school busing costs, and said it speaks to the “fabulous community we are all a part of.” Green added that she, along with Nelson, sits on the board of the AAPSEF, and that she would be remiss if she didn’t remind people that the AAPSEF is in the midst of its Million Reasons campaign.

Intermediate outcome: The late bus discussion did not lead to any revisions to the budget.

Budget Bryant-Pattengill Busing

Thomas asked for an update on the Bryant-Pattengill busing plan. Green said that combining routes to the two schools will eliminate the need for some runs, and will allow students from the same family to take the same bus. She said the goal was to eliminate as many stops as possible, accepting the fact that adding more students to each bus at the remaining stops means the busses will fill up faster. Green also said that AAPS requested WISD transportation services to do some dry runs to see how the proposed times line up with actual times needed to complete each route. Green reported that the dry run times were within a minute or two of the projected times.

Allen added that the numbers used in the proposal are for current riders, but pointed out that 5-10% of the routes are usually adjusted every year when current ridership numbers are established.

Thomas pointed out that the board’s budget vote does not commit the administration to specific plans for enacting each and every one of the reductions the budget contains, and that the transportation plan may end up different from what has been presented so far.

Intermediate outcome: The discussion of Bryant-Pattengill busing did not lead to any revisions to the budget.

Middle School Athletics

Regarding the proposed $37,000 reduction of middle school athletic directors, Allen said that alternative approaches to reaching the same cost savings in middle school athletics are still being considered, but at this time no changes to the proposed reduction have been agreed on. Green added that the proposal crafted by the middle school athletics directors could have “ripple effects” on another group, and that it would need to be fleshed out it more detail to be approved. “There is the beginning of the workings of possibly being close to that,” she said.

Intermediate outcome: The discussion of middle school athletics did not lead to any revisions to the budget.

Lightfoot said she was encouraged that staff had been enlisted to help shape the budget, and that she would like to see more of that. Stead said she had faith in the administration that the details would get hammered out. Green responded that she has asked her executive cabinet to develop preliminary action plans for enacting the budget so that those plans are ready to be vetted by the full cabinet as soon as the budget is approved by the board.

Outcome on budget: The budget as amended ($500,000 restored, using fund balance) was passed by a vote of 5 to 1. Mexicotte, Nelson, Patalan, Thomas, and Lightfoot voted yes. Stead voted no. Baskett was not present at the June 13 meeting. The millage resolution supporting the budget was also approved at the June 13 meeting; this includes four millages – a homestead millage at 4.7084 mills, a non-homestead millage at 18 mills, a debt service millage at 2.45 mills, and a sinking fund millage at 1 mill.

Food Service Contract Renewal

Green introduced the contract renewal to the board, saying that this was an opportunity for them to ask questions about the program, now in its third year in the district. AAPS director of purchasing, grants, and business support services Linda Doernte said that this was the third renewal of a five-year contract, and that the contract has not changed much. Doernte did note that Chartwells’ administration and management fees have increased based on the consumer price index. She also said AAPS has been receiving checks from Chartwells honoring the guaranteed minimum $500,000 that is owed to AAPS, regardless of the revenue that the program generates.

Chartwells new district manager Ann Smith and new food service director Heather Holland introduced themselves to the board, and gave a brief presentation on the food service provided this year. Holland said Chartwells has seen a 3% increase in lunches served in the district this year, and attributed that success to the introduction of new programs, and to creating an environment in which students enjoy the dining experience. She also noted the success of Chef Neil going to all the middle schools and teaching students how to create yogurt parfaits.

Holland said that students have been excited by the improved look of the service area, and the transformation of the food service setting from an “institutional look” to more of a “restaurant look.” She also noted that fresh fruits and vegetables are served at all schools four days a week from September through November, and that the overall menu is phasing out trans fats, decreasing sodium, and increasing whole grains.

Holland also reported that, effective 2012-13, the USDA will require that students select a fruit or vegetable for their meal to be reimbursable through the federal school lunch program (for students who qualify for the free or reduced lunch program), or for students to qualify for the lower “meal rate.” Students who do not select a fruit or vegetable with their meal will be charged a la carte for their items, which is generally higher than the “meal rate.”

Thomas questioned the process for ensuring that students choose a fruit or vegetable, and Smith said that cashiers are trained to ring up the selections properly. She also said the district is considering creating a “share table,” where students can leave food they do not want for other students. Thomas said the idea of charging students more money if they do not select a fruit or vegetable “seems a bit intrusive” but that the district would “roll with it.”

Smith noted that in kindergarten through 8th grade, students can be served a fruit or vegetable, but that in 9th through 12th grades, “we can only offer, not put it on their plate.” She said while she looking forward to the fact that students are being encouraged to make healthier choices, she’d be lying if she said she did not have the same concerns as the board about this new mandate.

Lightfoot asked if the increases in the Chartwells contract come automatically, and Doerte explained that yes, the management and administrative fees have increased every year due to the CPI. Lightfoot also verified that the district receives $500,000 no matter what – so that if the net income from the program is only $300,000, Chartwells will write AAPS a check for $200,000, and Doernte said that is correct. Allen pointed out that food service money is a separate fund that can only be applied to certain expenditures.

Finally, Lightfoot asked how the district tells the difference between legitimate and non-legitimate complaints about the food. Allen said that he and Doernte will sometimes arrive unannounced at the schools and eat the food being offered to the students. Smith suggested that the district could do student surveys. Holland said the trustees were welcome to eat in any of the district’s 33 lunchrooms anytime.

Nelson encouraged the sharing table, and Patalan said she is happy with the food education that is going on.

Outcome: The food service contract renewal was approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda.

Administrative Software Upgrade

Green explained that the Washtenaw Intermediate School District is considering having a uniform software platform for human resources and finance across the county. She said a recommendation for New World Systems Logos.NET for K-12 has been made after a year-long study. Green thanked Allen, Comsa, and director of human resources Cynthia Ryan for their work with the WISD selection process, noting that AAPS wanted to select software that would be fully vetted to work on both Apple and PC machines – because AAPS is an Apple district.

Green noted that the board would need to approve the purchase of this software by the end of June for the current pricing to be guaranteed. Allen drew the board’s attention to the cost summary in the board packet, pointing out that the cost would be $468,000 over the first five years, which would be entirely covered by the recently approved tech bond. In year six, Allen said, the district would have to bear the software support cost, which is estimated to be $51,000 annually. Due to the ongoing costs just in the finance department related to the current software report generation costs, Allen said the new software would not cause additional expenses, but rather would shift current costs.

Thomas confirmed with Allen that the district is positioning itself to take advantage of the scale effects – to be realized if AAPS offers its services in finance and human resources to other districts – and that would eventually drive down costs.

Stead said she was concerned about switching to a PC-based system, even though the software is supposed to work on both platforms. She asked what the cost will be if in the end, if not all the other districts in Washtenaw county sign up. Stead noted that the original WISD transportation consolidation was supposed to include all ten districts as well. Green said it was her understanding that the other districts are also in the process of  approving the platform. But Stead questioned how other districts will pay for it – because they have not all just passed technology bonds. “I think good will is good, but we have been here before,” she said.

Nelson asked if the district was pleased with its current human resources and finance software. Allen told him AAPS was not pleased with the current software. Allen explained that support has been dwindling over the years, and that AAPS often has to pay extra for a software developer to write code to generate reports that are not part of the package. Allen added that the new software will be web-based, and have drop-down menus that allow users to create reports. “From an efficiency standpoint, we have to make a change,” he argued, adding that it would cost AAPS much more to purchase new software outside of the group rate being offered as part of the WISD. Nelson pointed out that the cost of this upgrade would have needed to come out of the general fund, if the community had not passed the tech bond.

Stead said she was in favor of the software purchase, calling it “directionally correct,” but said that she would have liked to see a business case made for how much AAPS can potentially gain, depending on the number of districts that actually sign up.

Lightfoot asked if more districts in the county are likely to participate in transportation if they are first participating in this shared software purchase. Allen responded by saying there is still talk of consolidating special education transportation services.

Mexicotte suggested a friendly amendment to remove the word “irrevocably” from the resolution to approve the resolution, since nothing can prevent a future board from making different choices. There could be circumstances that the board can not anticipate which would make AAPS want to revisit this choice.

Green added that she would like the district to move toward zero-based budgeting, and that such a move would be difficult with the current software. She pointed out that zero-based budgeting allows for more transparency, and Allen added that it can also allow for more precise budget projections, because the majority of the district’s costs are in human resources.

Stead asked how friendly the user interface is, and Allen said it is very easy to use. Green added that the ease of use can make it more helpful at the school level too. Stead said she liked the fact that the software will allow more staff to meet more reporting requirements as those requirements continue to increase.

Outcome: The administrative software upgrade was approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda.

AAPS Policy Review

Mexicotte noted that the policies being reviewed that night were being treated as special briefing item – in the hope that the board could cancel the June 27 regular board meeting. [The board will be meeting in executive session at 5:30 p.m. on June 27 to evaluate Green formally in a closed session. Around 70 members of the community have been surveyed for the purposes of the evaluation: .pdf of survey form contents. For Chronicle coverage, see "AAPS Begins Superintendent Evaluation."]

Mexicotte reviewed the eight policies being presented – the entire 7000 series, regarding communication and community relations – most of them with no changes. The policies were reviewed only because they were nearing expiration. She noted the few minor changes being presented, and asked trustees asked a few clarifying questions.

The board made a few small wording suggestions to clarify meaning in the set of policies without much discussion.

Outcome: Policies in the 7000 series were approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda, which – in addition to the items above included the third quarter financial report, and donations.

Board Action Items – Contracts

The board took action at this meeting to renew a contract with one of its bargaining units, and to ratify the employment contract of a new administrator.

Contracts: AFSCME Extension

AAPS deputy superintendent of human resources and general counsel Dave Comsa recommended that the board approve a contract extension with AFSCME Local 1182, which primarily represents the district’s custodial and maintenance staff. Comsa added that AFSCME members have already ratified the contract.

Outcome: An extension of the AFSCME contract was approved unanimously.

Contracts: Asst. Superintendent – Robyne Thompson

Green requested that the board approve a contract which had been extended to Robyne Thompson. Thompson will be joining the district in the role of assistant superintendent for secondary education following the retirement of longtime AAPS teacher and administrator Joyce Hunter, who currently holds that position. Green read a statement about Thompson, highlighting her work with social and emotional learning, her doctorate degree, and her extensive professional experience. Thompson is currently a middle school principal in the Utica Community Schools district.

Lightfoot asked if Thompson had signed the employment contract yet. Green reported that Thompson has signed it, but Green has not signed it and would not do so until after the board approved the contract. Green also noted that Thompson would be paid the same rate as Hunter, and that Thompson would be taking a pay cut to join AAPS. Lightfoot also asked if Thompson was planning to move to Ann Arbor to take this position, but Green said she did not know, and that AAPS did not have a residency requirement for staff members.

Stead asked about a phrase in the contract that ensured Thompson’s salary would not decrease, and asked how that could be affected by future administrative salary budget reductions. Mexicotte added that there have been periods in the district where cabinet members have agreed to “share the pain” of budget reductions.

Comsa said the contract is a two-year agreement, which is standard for Class 1 personnel. He said lowering Thompson’s salary before the contract expires would require the district to enter into negotiations with her, and Lightfoot pointed out that that would be the case for all Class 1 employees. Comsa agreed, and said it would be true for employees covered by union contracts as well.

Outcome: The board unanimously approved the proposed contract with Robyne Thompson.

Mexicotte stated that she was happy to be among the first people to welcome Thompson to the district.

Association Reports

Five associations are invited to make regular reports to the school board: the Black Parents Student Support Group (BPSSG), the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC), the Parent Teacher Organization Council (PTOC), the Ann Arbor Administrators Association (AAAA), and the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA). The Youth Senate is also invited to speak once a month, as are representatives from each of the high schools.

At this meeting, the board heard only from the Youth Senate. Priyanka Menon said students receive a world class education in AAPS, and that being at Skyline has been “phenomenal.” She said as long as every voice is heard, there is no problem the district cannot solve, and said she hopes AAPS continues to maintain high standards. Blaire Crockett called AAPS a “close-knit community” that she has been grateful to be a part of. She noted that AAPS cares for its students, and is loyal to them.

Awards and Accolades

Numerous individuals and groups were praised for their accomplishments at the June 13 meeting, including the 2012 graduates, individual students, and two retiring members of the superintendent’s cabinet.

Awards/Accolades: Graduations

The meeting began with a graduation video montage celebrating the successes of graduating seniors at Community, Skyline, Huron, Pioneer, and Ann Arbor Technological high schools. Multiple trustees pointed out that this was the first time there were five different graduation ceremonies in the district, and congratulated Skyline for graduating its first class. During the “items from the board,” section of the agenda, Stead pointed out that Skyline did a great job of highlighting the comprehensive experience students have there, as well as “establishing their legacy.”

Awards/Accolades: Envision Michigan

Two AAPS seniors– Priya Menon and Aoxue Tang– were awarded $500 Envision Michigan scholarships by state senator Rebekah Warren. Warren staffer P.J. Petitpren was on hand to present the awards, and noted that the application for the scholarship was simple, requiring only a 750-word essay on the topic, “If you were governor, what would you do?”

Calling Menon “a woman ready to go forward,” Petitpren noted Menon will attend Harvard in the fall to pursue her interest in law and politics. Petitpren noted that Tang, was unable to attend because she has gone to China with her family for the summer, will be attending Stanford in the fall.

Mexicotte said she was pleased to have Petitpren come and present these awards.

Awards/Accolades: Jay Jondro

Green introduced longtime AAPS staff member and master plumber Jay Jondro, who on two occasions has saved the lives of others. Saying that Jondro has been a role model for students, and has distinguished himself as an asset to AAPS, Green said he was being presented with a special recognition for acts of heroism and acts of service to the community and the district. Jondro thanked the board for its recognition, but said it was part of his duty.

Green also thanked AAPS executive director of physical properties Randy Trent for bringing to the board’s recognition that one of his employees was deserving of this special recognition.

Awards/Accolades: Retirements

Green recognized two members of her cabinet who were retiring – director of community education and recreation Sara Aeschbach and assistant superintendent of secondary education Joyce Hunter.

Green praised Aeschbach for having transformed the Rec & Ed department into becoming self-sustaining, and noted her long tenure with the district. Aeschbach has worked for AAPS since 1981. Lightfoot added that Aeschbach was very gracious to her when she became a trustee, and said she was inviting, informative, and passionate about her work. Mexicotte extended her appreciation to Aeschbach as well, as did Patalan, who said that Aeschbach was “calm, funny, personable, kind ,and a treasure” and that she was happy to have had the chance to work with her.

Green said that Hunter has had an illustrious career in AAPS beginning as a teacher in 1974. She became class chair, then a principal, before moving to central administration, Green said, and has been instrumental in the career and technical education program, which allows students to receive on-the-job training while still in high school. She noted Hunter’s graciousness, thoughtfulness, and kindness. Green also noted Hunter’s many activities beyond her work in the district, and said, “You are a significant leader, and I know that we will still be seeing you in the district, and in the community.”

Mexicotte also extended her appreciation to Hunter, who was present at the meeting and enjoyed a standing ovation from the entire room. Lightfoot added that she loved Hunter in many capacities, and called her a “saving grace” for many students at Huron in the 1980s, including Lightfoot herself. “I’m glad you’re still so young and pretty that you can get out and do your thing… I’m looking forward to what you’re going to be doing with that museum,” she said. [Hunter is a founding member of the African-American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County.] Finally, Patalan also praised Hunter, saying she was happy to have been able to work with her, and that she goes back the longest with Hunter compared to anyone else in the room, having served with her on a high school review committee in the mid-1990s.

Awards/Accolades: Superintendent’s Report

In addition to some of the items listed above, Green praised the students who participated in the Special Olympics games, saying it was a wonderful achievement, and noting they brought home many medals. She also expressed thanked the staff, the community, and the board for supporting students this year, and her staff who helped her go through her first year in AAPS.

Agenda Planning

Stead requested that the board discuss Skyline’s trimester system, and said that some parents are concerned that their students do not have the flexibility they expected regarding the ability to dual-enroll in Skyline and Community high schools – because the two schools are on different schedules. Mexicotte asked Green how she would recommend approaching this issue, and Green said this is a topic that is already under discussion. She suggested that the board take up the discussion at a future committee-of-the-whole meeting.

Lightfoot said that she, too, was looking forward to hearing about the trimester issue, and noted that she loves it for the mastery approach it fosters. “Because [students] have so much room in their schedule, they are able to catch up,” she asserted.

Lightfoot said she also wants to be sure that summer school meets the district’s needs as it moves to close the achievement gap, and that Green has led her to believe that summer school is being evaluated that way. She questioned why students who have not actually failed, but have received a D- for example, are not included in summer school.

Nelson said he misses the old days where the board sat down with everything in front of it and set priorities. He said that every time there is a board meeting, one to four ideas come out, and all of them take up significant staff time. “I want this great professional staff that we have to be focusing on really important things,” Nelson said.

Mexicotte said the board is looking to have a retreat about superintendent and board goals in August, and that such a retreat might be the time for “setting those broader directions.” She said she was considering flipping the committee-of-the-whole and regular meetings in August, so that the August 1 meeting would include retreat-type activities, and the August 15 meeting could address business that comes up just before school begins for the next year. Mexicotte closed by agreeing that that board does not yet have the committee-of-the-whole process streamlined, but that the board will keep working on it.

Items from the Board

Thomas said he had attended a concert put on by the community outreach music program, which is sponsored by the Ann Arbor School of Performing Arts in cooperation with the district. The program allows students who would not normally be able to have private music lessons to take them at a greatly reduced cost, Thomas said. He recognized the contributions of AAPS staff members Robin Bailey, Fred Smith, and Abby Alwin for their role in the program.

Thomas also encouraged everyone to participate in the AAPS Educational Foundation’s Million Reasons campaign.

Nelson said that he was pleased to say he’s the proud owner of a medal from Northside Elementary, as he was the honorary starter of a 5K race at the school.

Lightfoot shared that she was invited by the Wayne State Board of Governors to join an oversight board there, and pointed out that higher education is facing some of the same challenges as K-12 education. She also said she has been in contact with many of the community assistants in the high schools about how they see their role changing with the reduction of the three dedicated police officers. And, finally, Lightfoot congratulated the Logan 5th graders, and thanked all the schools for holding “phenomenal” graduation ceremonies.

Patalan said that as she was reflecting on the graduations held throughout the district last week, she had to pause and think, “What a fabulous group of young people who are now our future.” She said she was so proud of AAPS, and noted that each graduation had its own “flavor, and was fabulous, and beautiful, and delightful in its own way.”

Patalan said that while the board has been hearing a lot in the past 60 days from people who are upset or concerned, the district really is doing a good job. Patalan asserted, “There is nothing like education – it is worth putting all of our time and energy into.”

Stead quipped that there would be a “little jog through town on Sunday,” referring to Ann Arbor’s inaugural marathon. She said it primarily benefits AAPS through the AAPS education foundation, and said that if people are not running themselves, she hoped they would come out and support it. [Stead ran the marathon herself, and finished in 7th place among female participants, with a time of 3:40.]

Mexicotte reported that her son participated in the recent Special Olympics on a team sent by Pioneer, and thanked the parents and staff who supported that effort.

Present: President Deb Mexicotte, vice president Christine Stead, secretary Andy Thomas, treasurer Irene Patalan, and trustees Simone Lightfoot (arrived at 7:50 p.m.) and Glenn Nelson.

Absent: Trustee Susan Baskett.

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, June 27, 2012, at 7 p.m. in the fourth-floor conference room of the downtown Ann Arbor District Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor.

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AAPS board president Deb Mexicotte led the trustees in their budget discussion at the May 16 committee meeting. The formal budget presentation from the administration will come at the May 23 meeting.

That still leaves a $7 million gap to be addressed as the district faces a $17.8 million deficit for the 2012-13 school year, which begins July 1. There was general agreement on the board to use some amount fund equity to meet the budget targets, but no agreement about how much to use. Hypothetically, the entire $17.8 million shortfall could be covered by drawing on the fund equity the district has to start FY 2013, which is $18.73 million.

But without some cuts and revenue enhancements, that fund equity would be close to just $1 million by the end of the year, which is a half percent of the district’s currently proposed  expenditure budget for FY 2013 – $194 million. In addition, it would leave insufficient reserves to manage cash flow through the summer. And by the end of the following year, fund equity would be projected to be negative $23.5 million.

At the May 16 meeting, most trustees expressed support for leaving Roberto Clemente Student Development Center in place in its current form for at least another year, while evaluating the program’s educational effectiveness. Much of the board sentiment on Clemente was reflected in an exchange between trustees Simone Lightfoot and Glenn Nelson near the end of the three and half hour budget discussion. Lightfoot asserted that Clemente’s parents are “not caught up in test scores – they are just happy that their children want to go to school” and that their students are getting “some basics in place – social and mental.” Nelson responded, “I’m willing to grant that in that part of education, they are doing a good job, but for $18,000 [per-student cost], I’d like both the academic and social/emotional learning.”

The administration’s budget proposal called for the elimination of between 32 and 64 teaching positions, but trustees were in broad agreement that there should be no cuts to teaching positions, if at all possible. Nelson suggested that by hiring less-experienced new teachers to replace retiring teachers, the district would still be able to save roughly $960,000, without incurring any rise in class sizes. Trustees expressed support for that approach, which board president Deb Mexicotte dubbed the ”Nelson model.”

While trustees showed a consensus about maintaining teaching staff levels, they were divided on the issue of transportation. Lightfoot suggested a “hold harmless” approach to transportation this year – as the districts forms an administrative committee with broad stakeholder participation to develop a sustainable transportation plan. Taking almost an opposite view on transportation was trustee Christine Stead, who advocated several times during the meeting that all non-mandated busing should be cut. Based on the board discussion, busing for Ann Arbor Open will likely be preserved via a cost-neutral plan that relies primarily on common stops at the district’s five middle schools. Also likely is that the 4 p.m. middle school bus and the shuttles to and from Community High School will  be cut. Some board members also indicated an interest in “phasing out” busing to the magnet programs at Skyline High School.

The board took no formal votes during their committee-of-the-whole-meeting on May 16. However the board’s consensus on various issues, convey to the AAPS administration, will inform the final budget proposal. That final proposal comes to the board for a first briefing and public hearing on May 23.

In addition to the budget discussion, the May 16 committee meeting included four and a half additional hours of discussion on: discussing gifted and talented programming in the district; outlining the superintendent evaluation review process; and creating a framework for a broad-based committee to study the sustainability of transportation in the district.

Budget Discussion Process

Board president Deb Mexicotte began by outlining an approach to the budget discussion that would first identify areas of consensus on the proposed budget reductions. After that, it focused the board’s conversation on areas where opinions diverged. The idea was to determine “what [the board] will be able to tolerate” as it addresses the $17.8 million budget deficit. AAPS superintendent Patricia Green added that her administration had brought additional information to inform the discussion.

The board held three rounds of discussion. In round one, trustees briefly considered each of the 27 proposed reductions put forth in the administration’s budget proposal , and were encouraged to reach consensus on items that could be eliminated with very little or no discussion.  During this round trustees agreed on cuts to 13 budget items totaling $1.9 million.

In round two, trustees discussed each of the remaining 14 budget items in detail, but did not try to come to consensus about how to balance them against each other. This round ended with an administrative presentation and lengthy board discussion on the Roberto Clemente Student Development Center.

In round three, trustees tried to reach consensus on a subset of the remaining suggested reductions – in the context of the required fund equity that would otherwise be needed to balance the FY 2012-13 budget. In the end, trustees were able to agree on another $2.8 million of cuts.  They disagreed on the question how much of the remaining $7 million deficit to address by using fund equity versus deepening the budget cuts. Almost all the consensus cuts came from the administration’s core budget proposal (Plan A). The exception was a 10% cut to the district-wide discretionary budgets, which was part of the suggested second-tier of additional cuts (Plan B).

The Chronicle has organized this report by first listing the cuts the board adopted with little or no discussion. After that, discussion and general agreement reached by the board on the remaining proposed reductions are grouped into the following categories: Clemente, transportation, teaching staff, and other district-wide cuts. The report concludes at the same point the trustees’ discussion ended – with a brief discussion of next steps in the process, and general agreement that AAPS should pursue revenue enhancement via advertising.

Line Item Cuts – Round One

The board’s first pass at line item reductions yielded $1.9 million in savings. Mexicotte led trustees through a comprehensive list of the 27 proposed budget reduction options one by one and asked if there was consensus to retain each item on the list of cuts. She started a list of any items on which the board wished to have more extensive discussion on chart paper set on an easel at the front of the room.

Via this method, the board agreed to the following 13 reductions with very little or no discussion:

1. Eliminate four high school counselors ($400,000);
2. Eliminate middle school athletic directors ($37,500);
3. Eliminate funding for athletic entry fees ($58,000);
4. Move lacrosse to club sport status ($93,000);
5. Outsource noon-hour supervision ($75,000);
6. Eliminate district subsidy for summer music camps ($60,000);
7. Reduce budget for substitute teachers ($200,000);
8. Combine bus runs for Bryant and Pattengill elementaries ($16,560);
9. ITD restructuring ($200,000);
10. Move Rec & Ed director and office professional positions to Rec & Ed budget ($205,000);
11. Eliminate the early notification incentive for retiring staff ($40,000);
12. Enact Phase V of energy savings capital improvements ($500,000); and
13. Reduce health care costs ($100,000).

Regarding the reduction in counselors, Stead asked for clarification on whether the positions would come from attrition or retirements, and which schools would be affected. AAPS deputy superintendent of instruction Alesia Flye said that three of the four positions would be reduced via retirements – one each at Forsythe and Scarlet middle schools, and Huron High School. Those three schools can reduce one counselor and still meet the contractual counselor-student ratio of 1:325, Flye said, but a staff reassignment would be needed to fill the position left by retirement at Scarlett. The fourth counseling position would be eliminated  at Pioneer High School – a suggestion that came from that school’s administration.

Trustee Susan Baskett questioned whether the reduction in counselors would have an effect on the district’s ability to enact the new counseling and guidance programming, which was presented at the February 2012 committee of the whole meeting.  Flye said it will be a challenge to deliver some of the new plan’s services, and that a reduced number of counselors at each building could be problematic down the road.

Trustees got clarification that the athletic entry fee was beyond the fees associated with regular conference participation for all sports. Baskett asked whether students would have less exposure to recruiters. AAPS deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen answered that recruiters would still be able to come to many events.

Mexicotte tallied up the total amount saved from the above cuts, and it came to $1,985,060. Trustees agreed to employ all four of the revenue enhancement suggestions proposed by the administration (Schools of Choice, Medicaid reimbursement, MPSERS offset, and best practices incentives), totaling $6 million.

That left $9,814,940 as the remaining amount the board was still looking to cut as it moved into the next phase of discussion.  [$17.8 million – $1,985,060 – $6 million = $9,814,940].

Roberto Clemente Student Development Center

At the May 16 meeting, four people addressed the board during public commentary on the topic of the Roberto  Clemente Student Development Center. AAPS administration also presented a new set of information for board review, including a set of options for relocating or restructuring the school, and a large amount of data on achievement, attendance, graduation rates, staffing, course offerings, and cost comparisons between the six district high schools. Additional board discussion on Clemente, including its summer school program, followed the administrative presentation.

Allen introduced the proposed reduction to Clemente as potentially saving $400,000, which included savings related to the building, principal, office professional, custodian, and utility costs. Moving the Clemente summer school to Pioneer would save another $80,000.

Clemente: Public Commentary

Barbara Malcolm, a community liaison at Clemente, asserted that the board members are no longer representing the community that elected them. She said she has been appalled by “actions, lies, and deceit” and that the school board has lost much of its credibility in the community. Malcolm said the district still faces the same level of attacks on blacks, poor people, and disenfranchised students as it did when she was a student at AAPS. She said it was shameful that Mexicotte has called Clemente “racist” and “a one-way street.” Calling superintendent Patricia Green an “outsider” who was “not part of the community, only paid by it,” Malcolm accused Green of dismantling a pillar of the community. Malcolm asked Green at least to “own” a statement Green had made at the beginning of her tenure as superintendent that Clemente was not on the chopping block. She argued that AAPS needs to educate all students, “not just those who do well on standardized, biased tests.”

Charlae Davis said that if the process is sloppy, the outcome will be sloppy, and said she had serious concerns with the budget proposal process. She argued that denying families and students a role in the planning process is a form of oppression and said the process has been “victim-blaming.” She asked board members to consider whether they would be satisfied with this process if their own children were at Clemente.

Georgina LeHuray shared the story of her grandson’s switch to Clemente and the positive effect it has had on him. She argued that test scores are the wrong measurements to use in evaluating Clemente, and asked what will mean the most to these kids in 10 or 15 years – test scores or [the support] they get from these people at Clemente. LeHuray urged the board, “If you save one kid at Clemente, it’s worth every damn tax dollar we put on these kids … Do not fail these kids. Appreciate what you’ve got at Roberto Clemente.”

Clemente staff member Pat Morrow asserted that AAPS has failed the children who attend Clemente. She argued that achieving high test scores is not as relevant as getting a high school diploma, and said that sending Clemente students back to the comprehensive high schools would be setting them up to fail. “We can get kids into colleges, Morrow said, “and they can go onto be productive citizens.” She said the board needed to let the Clemente community know right now what its fate is.

Clemente: Short-Term Focus

Green said the presentation her team brought to share was developed in response to questions from the previous committee of the whole meeting about what the options the district had to make changes to Clemente. Lightfoot noted that she was not comfortable getting this information for the first time at 11:20 p.m.

Flye reviewed how Clemente is made up mostly of 9th and 10th graders, but includes some upperclassmen as well. The goal of the program, she said, is to help students return to their home school by making use of smaller learning environments, among other program features. Flye said that the administration’s short term goal was to maintain the philosophy, initiatives, and structure of the Clemente program, with the long-term of possibly redesigning the program.

Green added that the district has been talking about the possible redesign of alternative programs, and noted that A2 Tech’s name change came out of those talks. She noted that when she had been interviewing for the position in Ann Arbor, she heard that cutting alternative programs had come up during last year’s budget discussions. Green also addressed an accusation made repeatedly at recent board meeting public commentary sessions about a statement she made on Clemente’s future: “When I had visited over there early in the year, at the time I was asked, ‘Are you planning on closing the school?’ I said there had been no conversation about that – it was very early in September. None of these conversations had taken place.”

Clemente: Restructuring Options

Flye described four options for restructuring Clemente:

1. Relocate Clemente to the A2Tech building and run both programs separately;
2. Relocate Clemente to A2Tech and create a blended version of both programs;
3. Relocate Clemente to a dedicated space in either Pioneer or Huron; or
4. Integrate Clemente students into their home high schools, with the Clemente program principal coordinating support of Clemente students in the comprehensive schools.

Flye then explained why (option 1) and (option 2) were not seen as desirable. She briefly touched on how (option 4) was envisioned, and then went into detail about how (option 3) could work.

Flye noted that there might not be enough space to keep the programs fully separate in the same building (option 1). She also said that the principals of A2 Tech and Clemente had said it would not work well to blend the programs (option 2), because the two programs have such different areas of emphasis. Clemente targets mostly 9th and 10th grade students, Flye said, while A2 Tech targets older students.

If Clemente students were integrated into their home high schools (option 4), Flye said that some instruction could be delivered by Clemente staff, that some instruction could consist of “touchpoint” classes delivered with technological enhancements, and that” wraparound services” would be offered.

On the topic of relocating the Clemente program to Pioneer or Huron (option 3), Flye and Green suggested that modified schedules could be used to keep Clemente students totally separate from other students if that was desired. The modified schedules might include separate lunch periods, or alternative starting and ending times. At the comprehensive high schools, Clemente students would benefit from an enhanced set of opportunities, they said, including sports, arts, career and tech education and other electives, while maintaining Clemente’s mentoring approach and weekly “rap sessions.”

AAPS executive director of physical properties Randy Trent led the administration in describing the spaces within Pioneer and Huron that could house Clemente. At Pioneer, he said, there are seven classrooms in the D wing that could be available, along with an eighth room upstairs that could be used if necessary, an administrative area, a separate entrance, and a large lecture facility that could be used for the weekly rap session. Clemente would displace math classes currently using the space, which Pioneer’s administration said would be a good change for the school, Flye added.

At Huron, the available space would be an isolated area with eight classrooms would be on the third floor of the arch, Trent explained, noting that students would have to walk through the entire building to reach the space. Flye allowed that world language and language arts classes would be impacted by the classroom shift at Huron. However, she reported that Huron’s administrative team had indicated it would not be a problem to relocate those classes and provide office space to accommodate the Clemente program.

Stead questioned how much would be saved by relocating the program intact under (option 1) or (option 3) versus blending the program with A2 Tech under (option 2) or integrating Clemente students in to the comprehensive high schools under (option 4). Allen answered that only the blended program in (option 2) would save the targeted $400,000. The other three options would save around $200,000 – because those options preserve Clemente’s administrative costs.

Lightfoot asked if there had been any consideration of ways that $200,000 could be saved while leaving the Clemente family as it is – like marketing the program to bring in more School of Choice students, or opening it up to more 8th graders. No, Flye answered. Lightfoot asked when such alternatives would be considered. Mexicotte responded to Lightfoot by saying that the board would use the meeting to decide whether to move forward with one of the options presented by administration, or make no change to the program.

Clemente: Data

Flye presented the board with data on Clemente’s student achievement, attendance, graduation rates, staffing levels, and course offerings, and comparative data on student achievement, graduation rates, and cost per student for all six AAPS high schools.

Chart 1. Average cost per student at Ann Arbor Public School high schools. (Image links to higher resolution file.)

AAPS director of student accounting Jane Landefeld said that it was challenging to determine the degree of student academic growth at Clemente, because students enter the program at all times of year and stay for different lengths of time. Landefeld said she had reviewed the transcripts at the end of the second trimester for each of the 87 Clemente students enrolled at that time, and determined that 39 of the 87 (45%) then had higher GPAs than they had had when entering the program. However, she also noted that many of Clemente’s classes are slower-paced, and so “it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges in terms of which classes they are taking.”

Trustee Andy Thomas questioned the relevance of graduation rates – because the goal of Clemente is to return students to their home school for 11th and 12th grades. Landefeld confirmed that students do not graduate from Clemente because “Clemente is a program, not a school.” She explained, however, that “somewhere along the way, the state listed it as a school, so if a student ends at Clemente, they are considered graduating from Clemente.” Stead suggested that AAPS should communicate to the state that Clemente has been misclassified as a school.

Chart 2. Michigan Merit Exam scores by subject by AAPS high school. (Image links to higher resolution file.)

Nelson asked about the capacity of Clemente’s building. Trent explained that the building has 18 classrooms, which can fit up to 15 students each, with some larger rooms as well. Nelson noted that many classes at Clemente have fewer than 15 students. Flye added that Clemente strives to keep class sizes averaging 10-12 students. Landefeld stressed that Clemente gains students throughout the year, so the number of students fluctuates. There are  currently 104 students in the Clemente program, according to the analysis of student growth presented by Landefeld.

Mexicotte said that when she was first elected to the board, Clemente’s enrollment was around 170 students. She pointed out that for the purposes of current discussion, the board has been using a population of 100 students.

Clemente: Long-Term Focus

In the long term, Flye said, Clemente and other alternative programs in AAPS could be redesigned to offer expanded distance learning opportunities made possible through digital technology, and additional course offerings. The administration could also continue to explore the implementation of a middle college concept, and more flexible day and evening schedules. Flye concluded by saying that AAPS will continue to develop early interventions for at-risk students.

Clemente: Board Discussion

Baskett asked if there was any discussion of team-building – in a scenario where Clemente students are moved back into the comprehensive high schools in any way. Flye said the schools would welcome them, and that team-building with staff and students was acknowledged to be a very important part of the process.

Thomas said he had a number of concerns, beginning with the fact that decisions about Clemente should take program effectiveness into account, as well as potential cost savings. Regarding the student achievement data presented, Thomas said that on one hand, the fact that 0% of Clemente students are proficient in writing [See Chart 2] seems like “a pretty strong indictment of the Clemente program.” However, he said, the real question is, “At what level are students when they enter the program, and where are they at the end of one year, two years?” Thomas said that student growth is not being clearly measured except by GPA, which he argued was an “imperfect” measure.

Thomas also expressed concern about the timeline of implementing any changes in the Clemente program by fall 2012, and said that the district needs more time to prepare. He suggested that AAPS keep Clemente intact for one year, during which it completes a comprehensive evaluation of the program based on data, not anecdotal evidence. “And if that costs $200,000 or $400,000 plus transportation costs, that’s the price that we pay for not dealing with this earlier in the year,” Thomas said.

Stead said her thoughts on Clemente were similar. She said she was willing to trade off all transportation to preserve education as the district’s primary mission. She said she could support a change to Clemente that is led by a focus on the program, and would be discussed for a year by the principal, parents, families, and students involved. She felt like the district is now “trying to retrofit” a solution.

Directing her comments to two Clemente students still in attendance at the meeting [at 12:30 a.m.], Stead called the Clemente achievement data “extremely concerning,” and said, “You can roll your eyes and say it’s not important, but I can tell you – these numbers are important.” She agreed that Clemente warrants further review and discussion, and that while there is not time to fix it this year, “We need to do right by these students.”

Lightfoot said that she believes Clemente has done a “great job,” and that she is interested in the district considering better marketing of the program so that perhaps AAPS can “get it up to capacity” and bring in new revenue.

Nelson said that how he will vote on preserving Clemente will come down to where the money comes from, saying, “If it comes from the 32 [teaching positions districtwide], I just can’t go there. I really believe in those 32 [teaching positions].” If the money for Clemente would be taken from fund equity, Nelson said, he would “want to be convinced by the evaluation people that in fact there is reason to think there is something different we are going to know eight months from now because I find the achievement data very disturbing.”

Responding to Lightfoot directly, Nelson questioned how AAPS could effectively market this program when the test scores at Clemente are so much worse than at the comprehensive high schools. Nelson questioned whether performance at Clemente was actually decreasing the achievement gap and asserted, “The averages for African-Americans would go up if you took these students out of the mix.”

Lightfoot said that she was also upset by the data, but noted that African-Americans’ scores are low throughout the district, not only at Clemente. She asserted that Clemente’s parents are “not caught up in test scores – they are just happy that their children want to go to school” and that their students are getting “some basics in place – social and mental.” Nelson responded, “I’m willing to grant that in that part of education, they are doing a good job, but for $18,000 [per-student cost], I’d like both the academic and social/emotional learning.”

Trustee Irene Patalan said the test scores as well as the money do concern her, noting that the per-student cost at Clemente is closer to $19,000 than $18,000. She said she feels an urgency to help the students at Clemente be successful as soon as possible, and that she would like a recommendation from the AAPS administration about which option to take.

Patalan also mentioned that her children had been in alternative programs within AAPS, and that she was very much an alternative school supporter. She shared some of the history of the district’s “Middle Years Alternative” program that was housed within Forsythe but had almost complete autonomy. Patalan said she is not afraid of “putting programs together and sharing spaces.”

Baskett said that she was tired and would refrain from commenting. But Mexicotte asked her to please share her thinking now. Baskett obliged, saying that if the district moves to change the status of Clemente now, it will not be done right. “The driver will be money, and not the quality of education for all our children,” she said, “I think, Irene, you are wrong on this one.”

Thanking the administration for the presentation, Baskett suggested that an evaluation of Clemente should include a qualitative element, saying, “When you talk about measuring climate, we need to capture that as well.”

Mexicotte began by clarifying that the comments ascribed to her during public commentary were things that she had reported having heard over the years about Clemente, not comments that she had made personally.

She continued by saying that while she appreciates that Clemente students have positive feelings about their school, the achievement data have troubled her for many years. “Are we going to say that these data points are not going to be what we are judging our achievement gap on across the district?” she asked. Mexicotte said that if the district wanted to decide not to judge “growth to proficiency” with test score data, then it would need to decide what else to use as metrics.

Mexicotte suggested the district needs to set expectations about test scores, and what kind of cost per student figures it would like to see. She suggested that the district study Clemente over a two-year time frame to determine if it should be marketed, moved, or adjusted in some other way, and noted, “If the program is really something we want for our students, we shouldn’t be gatekeeping as hard as we are.” Mexicotte also suggested that art and music should be brought back to Clemente in its current location.

Outcome: The board agreed to leave the Clemente program intact for at least one year while assessing its educational effectiveness. Stead suggested that in terms of the targeted savings in alternative high school programming, AAPS administration should have a conversation with A2 Tech one more time to see if any savings can be found in that program.

Clemente: Summer School

Green explained that the impetus behind moving Clemente’s summer school is to have all the secondary summer school programs located at one site – Pioneer High School.

Baskett noted that part of the transition to Clemente is the summer school program, which is not just academic. Allen said that not all Clemente students attend summer school, and that $20,000 out of the $100,000 Clemente summer school program can be preserved to add services to the traditional summer school program, which focuses on credit recovery. Flye reported that Clemente principal Ben Edmondson has said that Clemente summer school students are also working primarily on credit recovery, and that summer school helps to provide a consistent routine for them.

Thomas said moving the Clemente summer school to Pioneer is an opportunity to achieve some efficiency. Flye noted that moving the program would also give students more opportunities in terms of course selection. Green added that the board should decide as soon as possible what the location will be – because Clemente needs to start preparing its summer program.

Trustees asked for clarification on the costs related to summer school. Landefeld explained that there are only fees for courses that are taken for extra enrichment, as opposed to courses taken for credit recovery, and that scholarships are available. Baskett asked if there is busing for summer school. Allen said there is no busing for summer school in general, but that Clemente students would be transported, and that it would likely cost less to bus them to Pioneer than to the Clemente building.

Outcome: The board agreed to move the Clemente summer school program into Pioneer High School to achieve an $80,000 budget reduction.

Teaching Staff Reductions

The administrative budget proposal includes the elimination of 32 FTEs (full-time equivalent positions) in teaching staff in Plan A, 48 FTEs in Plan B, and 64 FTEs in Plan C. Trustees were in agreement that they are not interested in cutting any teaching positions.

Nelson suggested retaining the number of teachers, but hiring new teachers to replace those who are retiring. He asked for confirmation on comparative salaries, and Allen confirmed that there is roughly a $30,000 spread between retiring teachers (whose salaries and benefits cost nearly $100,000 each) and new teachers (whose total cost to the district is roughly $70,000).  Nelson suggested that 32 FTEs at $70,000 would be $2.24 million, which means that if the number of positions were preserved, but less expensive teachers were hired, the district could save $960,000.

Stead, Thomas, Patalan and Mexicotte all agreed about the importance of retaining teachers. Stead said this is one area where the primary mission of the district is clear, and that she could not justify cutting one more teacher. Thomas said he is willing to compromise on everything else, but that cutting teaching positions would be unacceptable, even if it means dipping into fund equity.

Transportation

Trustees considered a variety of cost-saving measures in transportation services. There was disagreement among trustees about how much transportation they were interested in cutting this coming year – from none to all of it. Two people addressed the board during public commentary on the topic of transportation.

Transportation: Public Commentary on Busing to Ann Arbor Open

Ann Arbor Open Coordinating Council (AAOCC) co-chair Sascha Matish passed out a set of handouts to the board outlining the impact of eliminating busing to Ann Arbor Open on subgroups of the school’s population. She noted that busing is used by 95% of the school’s 22 African-American students, and 68% of the school’s 57 economically disadvantaged students (who receive free or reduced-price lunch). Matish also passed out an aerial map of the Ann Arbor Open area, and requested that the board view a video created by the AAOCC of morning traffic near the school to give trustees a sense of the traffic back-ups already facing families on a daily basis. Again, Matish suggested that cutting busing would severely compromise student safety.

The other co-chair of the Ann Arbor Open Coordinating Council (AAOCC), Jill Zimmerman, also addressed the board. Referring to a set of bar graphs distributed to trustees, she noted that Ann Arbor Open’s MEAP scores are higher than the district averages in math and reading. She also pointed out that districtwide, the percentage of students scoring “proficient” or “advanced proficient” in 8th grade is lower than the percentage of students scoring “proficient” or “advanced proficient” in 3rd grade. However, the gap between 3rd-grade achievement and 8th-grade achievement is smaller among Ann Arbor Open students than it is across the district. “When we are talking about equity and closing the achievement gap, what Ann Arbor Open does matters,” Zimmerman asserted. “Our kids are doing better, and we think it’s because of what we are doing.”

Zimmerman also briefly reviewed an alternate busing proposal created by the AAOCC, which was sent to board members and AAPS administration before the meeting. The alternative proposal relies on common stops at middle schools and would more than halve the cost of busing to Ann Arbor Open.

Transportation: 4 p.m. Middle School Bus

Nelson said that he has consistently heard from middle school parents about the value of the after-school middle school program. Thomas suggested that the middle school principals could use some of their discretionary funds to keep the 4 p.m. bus if they wished.

Stead reiterated her theme that she does “not see transportation as being more important than education.” She noted that transportation is not required, not funded, and is not more valuable than a teacher. She argued that the community could come together and provide transportation, but could not come together and provide teaching. Baskett argued that there are many people in the community who would not be able to come together to provide transportation, saying, “You can call a carpool on your iPhone. Other families do not have phones.”

Mexicotte said she was inclined to leave the 4 p.m. middle school bus in place for another year, because a few years ago the district completely restructured middle school and lost a lot of extras and opportunities.

Transportation: Mid-day Shuttles to/from Community High School

Mexicotte noted that students get themselves to Community High School, and Baskett asked how many students this affected. Stead asked if AATA could be approached to provide shuttles, and Margolis answered that AATA buses don’t run often enough to make it work. Stead asked if Community students could Skype into classes at the comprehensive high schools. Allen allowed that yes, that would be possible.

Thomas said he was in favor of this reduction, and noted that Community shuttles are a “big-ticket item.”

Transportation: Busing to Choice Programs – Ann Arbor Open, Skyline Magnets, Roberto Clemente

Green presented a proposal crafted in the previous week by her staff that offered a cost-neutral alternative to continuing Ann Arbor Open busing – by consolidating routes at middle school common stops. Lightfoot expressed frustration that a new proposal was drafted for the Ann Arbor Open portion of the transportation cuts only, and said that she wants to be sure the district is doing the same for everyone, not just “the squeaky wheel.” Baskett commented that the administration’s proposal was very similar to one crafted by Ann Arbor Open parents and presented by them to the district.

Several trustees expressed discomfort about eliminating busing at Ann Arbor Open – because of the inequity of that would arise from offering busing to all other students of the same grade levels (K-8). Nelson disagreed, saying that he was fine with cutting Ann Arbor Open busing to reach the cost savings goals.

Regarding transportation to Clemente, Thomas said he believes AAPS will have to maintain transportation to the building if it stays open – because there is no other way to get there.

Baskett said that providing busing to the magnet programs that are part of Skyline High School was a promise that the district made to the community, and was meant to ensure better diversity in the magnet programs. Baskett asked how many students in the magnet programs rely on transportation provided by AAPS. Landefeld explained that about 30% of Skyline students are bused, roughly 100 per grade level on average. Thomas said he’d consider eliminating magnet transportation before eliminating all high school busing. Mexicotte pointed out that not everybody who takes a bus to Skyline is in a magnet program, and suggested that the district should keep transportation for the magnet programs for now, but consider phasing it out.

Lightfoot said the she feels like she’s “operating in the dark” when it comes to transportation choices, like she has to “choose now and see the fallout later.”

Transportation: Skyline Starting/Ending Times

Lightfoot said she did not like moving Skyline’s start time up by 15 minutes, because she has a concern about the earliness of high school days in general. Baskett said that as the district makes use of its newly forming, community-wide committee on transportation, the decision about Skyline’s starting and ending times could be revisited and reversed. A change to Skyline’s starting and ending times would require a memorandum of understanding with the teachers’ union, as noted earlier by Allen.

Transportation: High School Busing/All Busing

Almost all the trustees expressed general concern that there was not enough advance time this year to eliminate high school busing or all busing in a responsible way. Stead disagreed, and continued to push for the elimination of all busing as a way to leave more money in the district’s fund balance.

Stead said she would be more inclined to work on creating an entirely new program for transportation, and to begin concerted conversations with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority to work on that as soon as possible. She added that she wanted to remind the board the district had a “horrible experience” with transportation this year. The district had to adjust transportation spending by $800,000 mid-year, while maintaining a “fragmented” system with “little bits of transportation here and there,” she said.

Outcome: Trustees agreed to maintain busing to Clemente and to the Skyline magnet programs. Busing to Ann Arbor Open will likely continue under a modified plan, which will save the district $98,000. The board plans to cut the 4 p.m. middle school bus ($85,284) and mid-day shuttles to and from Community high ($230,184), as well as achieve $266,400 in savings by moving the Skyline starting and ending times up by 15 minutes.

Other District-Wide Cuts

The board also agreed to cuts to police liaisons, site-based budgets, and district-wide discretionary budgets.

Other District-Wide Cuts: Police Liaisons

Stead suggested that removing the police liaisons would cause increase safety issues. She cited five bomb threats at Forsythe Middle School and two bomb threats at Skyline High School as evidence. Baskett pointed out that the bomb threats were unsubstantiated. But Stead argued that students are staying home from school and getting physically sick with worry because of them.

Thomas said that it is not clear to him that having police liaisons is having any effect on the bomb threats in any way whatsoever. Stead countered that when she has talked to principals, they believe that the sheer presence of the officers helps to reduce disciplinary issues. Nelson stated that he believes five teachers will have a greater impact than three police liaisons for the same cost.

Stead argued that the city will not hire these police officers if AAPS releases them, and that the robberies in her area have gone up as police numbers across Ann Arbor would be decreasing.

Baskett pointed out that overall, crime in Ann Arbor has actually decreased, and that these three police liaisons have seniority in the Ann Arbor police department and would be reassigned within the community. She said that a police officer could arrive any building in the district in less than 10 minutes, and that she would rather have teachers than police officers. Patalan said she agreed with Baskett, Nelson, and Thomas.

Discussion: District-wide Discretionary Budgets

Mexicotte reviewed the administration’s proposal on discretionary budgets. She said that a 5% cut to these budgets – which cover building-level costs such as professional development, paper, and supplies – would save $250,000. A 10% cut would save $500,000. Thomas suggested “bumping that up” to possibly as much as a 15% cut. However, Allen and Flye suggested that would have a dramatic effect on the ability of a building to function effectively.

This was one area in which the board included a reduction from Plan B of the suggested reductions – Plan A of the budget proposal had suggested cutting discretionary budgets by 5%, and Plan B took the reductions to 10%.

Discussion: Site-Based Budgets

Site-based budgets in AAPS fund have been available to school improvement teams (SITs) to use as they see fit. Patalan said that while it was a small amount of money, she appreciated that each SIT was able to decide how to best use it to serve that school locally. Still, she said, she understands the need to cut it.

Outcome: The board agreed to eliminate police liaisons ($350,000) and site-based budgets ($250,750). They agreed to cut district-wide discretionary budgets by 10%, saving $500,000.

FY 2012-13 Budget – Next Steps

After the board worked through the list of possible reductions for the third time, Mexicotte tallied up the cuts tentatively agreed to by the board. The cuts totaled $4,805,678, leaving a $7 million of deficit [$17.8 million deficit, minus $4.8 million in cuts, minus $6 million in revenue enhancements]. She asked the board if they would be willing to use $7 million of fund equity to balance the budget. Their responses were mixed.

Part of the board’s decision about how much fund equity to use will be based on projections of school funding – this year and into the future. One person addressed the board at public commentary on the topic of school funding.

Next Steps: Public Commentary on School Funding

Steve Norton reported that the state of Michigan is currently projecting funding for the School Aid Fund (SAF) to increase, but cautioned that the board should not assume this unexpected revenue will accrue to benefit local districts. Norton pointed out that the state may choose to save the extra SAF funding to reduce the pressure on the state’s general fund, which is forecasted to be lower than expected this year and next.

Norton also suggested that the community begin a conversation about private giving to support schools. He noted that the East Grand Rapids public schools educational foundation has raised $350,000 in one year to offset the budget cuts facing their district. Norton said it’s hard to get people to dig deep, but that “we are at a point that if we can’t get the rest of our citizens to move forward with a countywide enhancement, and can’t convince legislators [to provide adequate school funding], maybe we should move forward to do something ourselves.” Norton suggested as an example that the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation could launch a campaign to cover the cost of transportation.

Next Steps: Fund Equity

Mexicotte said that Norton had made a very good point during public commentary, and that there is no guarantee based on past history that the SAF would see any increase. At this point, she said, if the board does not give different direction to AAPS administration, a balanced budget would be achieved by taking $7 million coming out of the fund balance.

Thomas said he would be willing to use $7 million of fund equity, but Stead was adamant she would not be. When pressed, Stead said she might find it acceptable to use up to $5 million, and added that it was “poor planning to sit here for six, seven, eight hours.”

At 1:15 a.m., as the board appeared unable to make further progress, Mexicotte responded, “If this is as far as we can get now, it’s as far as we can get.” She explained that the administration would take the board’s input from the meeting, and present a final budget on May 23. After that, she said, the board can have additional discussion and move forward.

Nelson said that starting from a $17.8 million deficit and getting to within $2 million of addressing it is not bad for one evening. He thanked Mexicotte for her facilitation, and said that he was open to staying longer to continue discussion, but also fine with waiting to continue discussion on May 23. “Then the administration can come back and give us … an option with $7 million use of fund equity, and then those of us who want to can argue for $5 million.”

Nelson also noted that Senate Bill 1040 – a retirement reform bill which as of May 17 was passed by Michigan state senators and is moving on to consideration by the state House of Representatives –could be helpful in resolving the budget. “There is a chance that more than $2 million could come out of it, and with luck, we could be done,” Nelson said.

Stead disagreed, saying that part of what’s driving up the mandated employer contribution rate to the state retirement system is that many districts are laying off staff. She said she is very concerned about how things will look a year from now, because current layoffs are not part of the figures being considered.

Lightfoot said that while she would prefer not to use $7 million of fund equity, she could support it if the district committed to make the next year be strictly focused on planning to be more prepared to make cuts in the future.

Next Steps: Advertising

Just before the meeting wrapped up, AAPS superintendent Patricia Green said she had one quick question for trustees, and asked if they would give her and her staff direction on the revenue enhancement ideas that administration had previously presented.

AAPS director of communications Liz Margolis reviewed the suggested advertising possibilities – digital billboards, scoreboard advertising, and website banners. She said she felt the trustees had given clear direction against pursuing the creation of billboards on the properties of Wines, Pioneer, and Huron, but reiterated the suggestion for allowing banner ads across the top of the AAPS website.

Margolis said that the company AAPS would work with has worked with Plymouth-Canton Community Schools (PCCS), and when Margolis had talked to the Plymouth-Canton director of community relations, they spoke positively of the partnership. The first-year revenue from allowing banner advertising would be at least $22,500, said Margolis, and would be projected to increase to $250,000 by the third year. She noted that Plymouth-Canton’s revenue has increased by 30% every month, and that the terms of the agreement will be shifting from a 60/40 revenue share with the advertising company [in favor of AAPS] to a 50/50 split if the district does not commit soon.

Maintaining a commitment to local advertisers had been a concern expressed by trustees at their March 21 meeting, when the advertising proposal had been presented to the board.  Margolis said that it would cost about $500 a month for a rotating ad, which would price it equal to what it costs to run ads locally in other venues. This would give local advertisers another daily advertising spot, she said, and the ad company would also bring in regional and national ads to the AAPS website. Finally, Margolis noted that many community members have suggested the district engage in website advertising, and added that AAPS would have full discretion to have any objectionable ads removed immediately.

Margolis also sought approval to begin the process of re-equipping the high schools with new scoreboards, which would be paid for by an advertising company and would show ads during sporting events. She said the high schools would be eager to receive the new scoreboards. In a follow-up discussion after the meeting, Margolis explained to The Chronicle that the scoreboard equipment, valued at $270,000, would come at no cost to the district. After enough ad revenue is earned to pay back the cost of the equipment, future ad revenue will be split 50/50 between the district and the advertising company, she said.

Outcome: The trustees agreed to pursue website banner ads and the scoreboard advertising.

Present: President Deb Mexicotte, vice president Christine Stead, secretary Andy Thomas, treasurer Irene Patalan, and trustees Susan Baskett, Simone Lightfoot, and Glenn Nelson.

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 7 p.m., at the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, Mich. 48104. [confirm date]

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