Performance art by Lawton Elementary teacher Susan Bailey’s 2nd grade class at the AAPS March 13, 2013 board meeting. (Photos by the writer.)

The trustees seemed to be unimpressed with the SISS report – because not enough quantifiable data was presented. They asked the SISS team to come back with a more data-rich report at a future meeting.

Alesia Flye, deputy superintendent for instruction, presented the review of Roberto Clemente. The administration’s ultimate recommendation was to relocate the Clemente program to Pioneer High School beginning the fall of 2013 – for an estimated savings between $127,379 and $348,677. This was presented to the board as an information report. No action will be taken until the budget is finalized later on this year.

The board also discussed and unanimously approved a resolution to support three students who are currently facing criminal charges for their alleged roles in the Huron Pioneer football brawl.

Also at the meeting, the trustees also approved 2013-14 School of Choice (SOC) openings, which will be opened up on April 8 until May 8, 2013. Despite recommendations from the administration against it, the trustees approved 25 spots to be opened at Skyline High School for incoming ninth graders.

The board also formally approved a $2.5 million budget adjustment to cover lower-than-projected revenues and greater-than-projected expenses through the first half of the current budget year.

Upcoming budget decisions and anticipated cuts were also a prominent theme of the meeting. The board set a schedule for public forums to take place over the next month. And students who participate in the theater program addressed the board asking trustees not to cut support to that program.

Student Intervention and Support Services Review

As part of superintendent Patricia Green’s effort to have each department present an annual report to the board, the team – led by Elaine Brown, assistant superintendent for SISS – presented a review of the program.

Brown emphasized the committee was made up of a wide range of stakeholders, including SISS administration, teachers, and parents. The report itself touched on a literature review of recent special education mandates and strategies, the data collection tools used for the report [which were primarily site visits and interviews], trends and patterns, major findings, and recommendations. Committee concerns were also noted. The review culminated in a summary of the areas that should be addressed in the 2012-2013 school year and subsequent years.

SISS Review: Overview

After noting that there seemed to be a discrepancy of services from school to school, the team identified several areas that needed improvement.

Elaine Brown, assistant superintendent for student intervention and support services.

The Achievement Team Process (ATP) was described as not being well understood by staff and not consistently implemented. Curriculum and instruction, as well as need for more collaborative planning time, were also noted as focus areas. While communication between staff and parents was an area staff felt they were doing well, they felt communication between levels was lacking, which affected student transition between elementary, middle, and high schools.

Some of the 22 recommendations included training on the ATP, working to create more collaborative time for teachers, and a review of leveled classrooms. Christia Butler-Ketchum, SISS assistant director, argued that leveling students in general was not necessary. Tracking students leads to confusing a student’s pace of learning with their capacity for learning, she said. She contended that leveling created different expectations for those students.

Summarizing the recommendations, Green said a common understanding is needed of the ATP and services available, because when people don’t have the correct understanding of what is needed, “there can be a quick referral to special ed services without understanding the full need.” She wanted to make sure the appropriate services are being provided for the appropriate reasons.

SISS Review: Board Response

While trustees were appreciative of the report, their feelings were best summed up by trustee Andy Thomas’s concerns: Trustees were “struck by the complete absence of any metrics” in the report and were disappointed by the absence of clearly defined goals and next steps.

Brown said her team felt they should not repeat information already given to the board in the district achievement report. She reiterated that action plans will be developed and implemented on a yearly basis to address the recommendations put forth by the report. She also noted the report only examined how services were provided and did not take into account the financial implication of the services.

AAPS trustee Glenn Nelson

In a program review, trustee Glenn Nelson said, it would be helpful to have a broader picture of how special ed fits into the district program. He noted that while other districts in Washtenaw County have experienced growth in the general education population, AAPS has seen an increasing “market share” of special ed students. He said that must mean the special ed services are part of what people find attractive about AAPS.

Nelson also highlighted the financial consequences of special education enrollment. In 2012, $34 million was spent by the district on special education. About $23.7 million of that will be reimbursed by the state [roughly $6.3 million] and by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) special education tax millage [about $17.4 million]. Even factoring in the state’s foundation allowance that the 390 FTE special education students bring to the district, the district still has to cover about $6.8 million of the cost out of the general education fund.

If that $6.8 million is divided by the 390 students, the district pays over $17,000 per special ed student, Nelson said. Nelson wanted to draw attention to the costs of special education as it currently is structured and how that impacts the budget. Trustee Christine Stead also pointed out that the district is really spending $87,000 per special ed student, but that they are currently being reimbursed for all but $17,000 of it.

Trustee Simone Lightfoot noted the reimbursement from WISD will be diminished in upcoming years. For the 2012-13 school year, WISD will reimburse 67% of special education costs. In 2013-14, that number drops to 56%. In 2014-2015, it drops further to 49%, and in 2015-2016, that number bottoms out at 46%. As reimbursement declines, Lightfoot asked, how can the district be expected to maintain the same mandated level of services.

Brown said that was why they looked at the structure of how services were being provided. The district wants to move towards more inclusive environments that are the least restrictive for students. And while appropriate services for each student would still be provided, not as many special education dollars would be spent if the services were more inclusive.

In an educational system that offers more choice, Nelson said, there are going to be providers who search out the low-cost elements of the educational mission, which are typically K-8 general ed students. Charter schools do not have to accept the higher-cost students. That leaves special education and high school students the responsibility of the public schools, he concluded. Nelson argued that the dynamics over time are going to mean that the high-cost providers will find it unsustainable to deliver that kind of education. There needs to be a partnership between general ed and special ed to have strong, viable programs for both, or else, “we’re in trouble,” he concluded.

Responding to a question from trustee Susan Baskett, SISS assistant director Erik Thompson clarified that a targeted resource room was not a federal or state term, but one developed by AAPS. He explained that the program began as a kindergarten transition for students who had problems with social communication and who required more time and services than could be allotted in a half-day kindergarten program. The rooms were housed at Angell and Lawton elementary schools. Now that the district offers all-day kindergarten, he said, services can be provided at neighborhood schools, because all schools have resource rooms and speech and language pathologists. That push for inclusion, Butler-Ketchum added, will help set the bar higher for students.

Stead said the board would be interested in a more data driven presentation. While a lot of the information already exists, having it coalesced would help the board. She said the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee (AAPAC) did a fine job of identifying some of the areas where data is needed. She also said that as the district is already spending close to $90,000 per student, she would hope the whole SISS team would think about cost effective ways of implementing services for students.

Outcome: The board asked for a data-driven component of the report to be presented at a future meeting. If the meeting turns out to be a committee of the whole meeting, AAPAC would be specifically invited.

SISS Review: AAPAC Response

During the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee (AAPAC) association report, Heather Eckner, AAPAC representative, addressed the SISS review. She thanked Brown and the SISS team for including AAPAC members in some data collection. She followed that by saying the committee was troubled by the lack of data on student achievement or student outcomes from the program review that had been designed and conducted by SISS.

In the absence of such data, AAPAC believed it would be premature to make significant changes to the services or programs serving special education students. They urged the board to maintain the current practices of using separate, leveled classrooms for students with mild and moderate cognitive impairments, and to maintain or expand targeted resource rooms for early elementary students with developmental delays.

Eckner also highlighted current special education law, and pointed to a conversation board had at its Feb. 27, 2013 meeting about teacher assistants being written into individualized education plans (IEPs). AAPAC’s position is that that the district is reimbursed for a significant portion of the costs for special education, and the trustees should keep that in mind when talking about the budget.

SISS Review: Public Commentary

Several parents addressed changes in special education during public commentary.

Karen Underwood thanked the district for the support her daughter had received in a targeted resource room at Angell. She questioned why the SISS review didn’t come until mid-March, as it gives special education families little time to consider other options. She also asked how special education services were going to be expanded throughout the district, given the budget constraints.

Patricia Memmet said she was dismayed to hear the board looking into pressuring the IEP teams to reduce support for special education students, and she thanked the trustee [Mexicotte] who had previously suggested that would not be compliant with the law. Memmet asked why a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) hasn’t yet been hired. This was a gaping hole in the staff, she contended, and could be contributing to increased costs for additional teacher assistants.

Marie Kreger argued for the continued need for targeted resource rooms. She said that early on, AAPS had been a model for intervention for high functioning students. It was a testament to the program that out-of-district families work hard to get their students into AAPS schools. She said that as far as developing a robust special education program, “If you want to grow a forest, you don’t cut down the trees. You plant more.”

Paula Goforth was also concerned about the elimination of the targeted resource rooms. The targeted rooms, she said, provided the social and emotional components that kids need and they have really helped her son blossom. She was concerned that parents don’t know what other viable options might be, if the resource rooms were removed.

Roberto Clemente Student Development Center Review

As part of the budget reduction process last year, in 2011-2012, relocating the Roberto Clemente alternative program was discussed as a potential reduction of approximately $400,000. The administration’s recommendation was to relocate Clemente to Pioneer High School as a cost-saving measure. At the time, the trustees decided to leave the program intact, but charged the administration with doing a review of the program.

When the board had originally heard the review, at its May 16, 2012 meeting, AAPS administration presented a set of information for board review, including a large amount of data on achievement, student make up, attendance, graduation rates, staffing, course offerings, and cost comparisons between the six district high schools. The administration used a similar approach this year at the board’s March 13, 2013 meeting.

Clemente: Options

After conducting its review, the administration’s recommendation remains unchanged: Relocate the Clemente program to Pioneer High School. While there would be a change in location, Flye said, the service model would stay the same. The program would be intact, and the same number of instructional FTEs would be in place.

Deputy superintendent of instruction Alesia Flye

The administration proposed two different options. Option A would yield a total potential savings of $348,677. The savings in Option A are realized by eliminating the principal and the office professional, as well as yielding savings in the areas of transportation, energy, maintenance, custodial, and ITD tech support. Option B offers a total potential savings of $127,379 – by leaving the principal and office professional positions in place for the initial year of transition. In either option, any sinking funds or bond money currently allocated for the Clemente building would be redirected to improving the program site at Pioneer.

The next steps, according to Flye, would be to collaborate with the Clemente and Pioneer principals to develop an action plan. Flye acknowledged that Pioneer principal Cindy Leaman has begun to brainstorm considerations to keep in mind to help ensure a smooth transition, if the program is relocated to Pioneer. Pioneer administration is “confident” the building has the capacity to house Clemente. While Pioneer currently is technically over capacity, there is some flexibility with room configuration in the building, according to Trent. One of the benefits to moving Clemente students to Pioneer, according to AAPS administration, would be that the Clemente students would have greater access to more opportunities.

Flye reported that Clemente’s current principal, Ben Edmondson, would prefer to keep to keep the program at its current location. Issues such as uniforms and a dedicated space were some of the concerns he expressed. [Clemente students wear uniforms.] He also said he would welcome the opportunity to talk to the principal at Ann Arbor Tech High School about housing the program at A2 Tech.

Retired Clemente principal Joe Dulin weighed in during public commentary, saying that if the proposed move of Clemente to Pioneer goes forward, “we are headed for some serious problems.” He recalled the time that Clemente was housed at Forsythe Middle School – which lasted less than two weeks – as a negative experience.

The cost per pupil (CPP) at Clemente based on 2011-2012 enrollment is $18,941. That compares with CPPs of $14,804 at A2 Tech and $8,253 at Community High School. Flye noted that in this financial climate, “it is becoming more challenging to operate a program with that high a cost per pupil.”

Clemente: Board Reaction

Several of the trustees were appreciative of the work that went into the report. Lightfoot, however, was troubled to have the “same suggestions we had last year.” Thomas said he had hoped the board would receive an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Clemente program. That qualitative aspect was something Baskett had asked for at the May 16, 2012 meeting. Flye responded that they found that the strengths of the program included its smaller learning environment and the relationships developed between teachers and students.

It was not surprising that Clemente scores would be lower when compared to the comprehensive high schools, Thomas said, given the fact that the students at Clemente were struggling already. The 88.24% graduation rate at Clemente, however, was striking to him. If the end result, Thomas allowed, is to graduate a student, then Clemente seems to be effective. But he added, “If the result is to attain a certain measurable standard of learning, the outcomes are not good.” He wondered if the end results were any better or worse than if those students had attended a comprehensive high school.

Responding to a question from Thomas about how the culture of Clemente would be maintained if moved to Pioneer, Flye felt the culture of Clemente could be preserved. The same number of classrooms would be provided at Pioneer, and there would be room for Clemente staff to work together. To address issues of mixing between Clemente and Pioneer students, there was some brief discussion on a separate entrance to the D-wing of Pioneer where the Clemente program would be housed.

The trustees did have some concerns about the future leadership of Clemente. Forty percent of the projected savings, Thomas noted, came from the elimination of the principal position. He was skeptical of Flye’s assertion that the real value of Clemente had more to do with individual teachers and what goes on in the classroom than with the leadership of the school. He said he thought the leadership mattered and eliminating the position should be thought through “quite thoroughly.”

Flye responded by saying that the relationship component of student and teacher is a strength, and will remain the same. The 15:1 ratio of student to teacher will be maintained at Pioneer. She also noted that the principal of Clemente would have the opportunity to be part of the summer school experience.

Trustee Irene Patalan also emphasized the importance of leadership. She wondered who would be in charge of the Clemente program at Pioneer, who “would be the glue to hold them together” if there were no principal or office administrator. She shared some of her own family’s experience with the Middle Years Alternative (MYA) program, which was housed at Forsythe. She emphasized that having some leadership was an important component to the success of a school within a school, but ultimately, she could see the relocation working.

MYA was not a good example of a “school within a school” because it was ultimately closed, Baskett contended. The administration had not convinced her that they would be able to sustain at Pioneer the qualities that makes Clemente successful. She was concerned the district was not thinking through all the details of the day-to-day operations. If a Clemente student gets into an altercation with a Pioneer student, she asked, who would be in charge?

Baskett also pressed the administration on how student success would be ensured if Clemente students were moved to Pioneer. The students there would not have the same kind of “TLC” from all staff that they are able to have at Clemente. Lightfoot also noted the irony of sending students back to Pioneer – the school from which the majority of Clemente students are referred.

No one was pleased with the achievement scores at Clemente, said Flye. She mentioned the instructional team had been exploring distance learning components at the comprehensive high schools, which could be additional resources for Clemente students. Baskett disagreed, saying the metaphorical and physical arms that Clemente teachers wrap around their students are key. She didn’t think distance learning would work for Clemente students.

The question for Nelson was: Where could the least amount of harm be done when viewing the budget as a whole? They were looking at this option because “we’re forced to cut money from the budget.” Green assured him that they were not bringing forward any item separately. She recognized, however, that they were making plans for each of the potential reductions being considered.

Lightfoot wondered when the administration’s recommendation switched from housing Clemente at A2 Tech to housing it at Pioneer. Flye answered by saying that they had conversations with all the high school principals last year to discuss several options. It was ultimately decided then that there was not enough physical space to combine both programs at A2 Tech – and both principals at A2 Tech and Clemente were opposed to the combination.

Lightfoot also encouraged the administration to solicit ideas from Clemente students, families, and faculty. She asserted that “too many decisions are being made in Balas [the central administrative office]” without the input of the people most impacted by those decisions. Flye said they know parents appreciated the experience students have at Clemente. That was one of the reasons that they are looking to keep classrooms together if the program does end up moving to Pioneer.

As a possible revenue generator, Lightfoot suggested looking into recruiting more students to Clemente. She also asked that they be more creative than just eliminating programs. If the district is going to be committed to the program, Lightfoot maintained, it shouldn’t be sent “hobbling along.” Students had limited other options for alternative education, Lightfoot said, especially since the Center for Occupational & Personalized Education (COPE) closed its doors in 2012.

On a different topic, both Lightfoot and Baskett questioned the admissions process to Clemente. Lightfoot said that previously students could opt to go directly from middle school to Clemente – but now were required to spend at least one semester at one of the comprehensive high schools before being able to transfer. That seemed to be a punitive approach, Lightfoot contended.

Some of the issues that would have to be addressed if Clemente were to be housed at Pioneer would be the possible wearing of uniforms by Clemente students. Clemente students would potentially switch to semester scheduling as opposed to the trimester scheduling currently used at Clemente. Baskett argued that trimester scheduling was used at Clemente for a reason – credit recovery. The connectivity provided by the longer classes are important to the success of Clemente students, she concluded.

Clemente: Summer School Update

Some of the trustees asked about the impact of combining summer school programs. Before 2012, Clemente offered its own summer school program. Because of budget cutbacks, the trustees voted to have all the secondary summer school programs at one site – Pioneer High School.

Flye told the board it was a smooth transition to one site. Because it was so successful, she said, the district will be continuing it for the 2013 summer school program. She said they had initially received lots of feedback from parents who had reservations about transitioning the summer program, but once the program started, they did not hear any more concerns. When pressed by Baskett for some written documentation of that feedback, Flye said they are putting in place a complete review of the summer school program. Baskett maintained that summer school would have been “a nice pilot to measure the social interactions” between Clemente and non-Clemente students.

Outcome: This was a review requested by the board. There will be more discussion on Clemente as the board considers the budget as a whole. No action was taken at the meeting.

2013-14 Budget

The upcoming budget decision for FY 2013-14 emerged as a topic throughout the meeting.

2013-14 Budget: Dialogue Meetings

Led by trustee Glenn Nelson, the board discussed and approved a process for engaging citizens in their budget development. The proposed process and timeline is:

• Late March & Early April: Community dialogue meetings sponsored by BOE
• April 10, 2013: Administration presents projected revenues for FY 2014
• April 24, 2013: Administration presents recommended expenditure budget for FY 2014
• Early May: Community forums led by the administration on the proposed budget
• May 8, 2013: First briefing of the Budget Resolution for FY 2014
• May 22, 2013: Second briefing and action on the Budget Resolution for FY 2014

The meetings would need to be sub-quorum [only three or fewer trustees], and Nelson said it would be “something of an experiment.” Since they have heard criticism that the traditional forums were not informational enough, the smaller gatherings would allow for more input from the community. With projected action on the budget coming before Memorial Day, the hope would be that members of the community would have enough time to adjust to whatever changes will be coming.

Nelson envisioned that the trustees present at each meeting would describe what it is they are facing and a list of the various options. Attendees would be encouraged to do three things: (1) address ideas for additional revenues; (2) identify the core areas that must be protected; (3) and find the areas where $17 million (almost 10% of the district budget) can be cut.

Stead noted that the costed-out information was going to be important for trustees to have – to give the public a sense of scale.

Lightfoot also noted that as trustees look at the budget, they keep in mind and suggest to the public the importance of restructuring and amending rather than ending. She said they were looking to the public to come to the meetings with ideas that could possibly be implemented. She also highlighted this point when talking about the proposed relocation of Clemente.

2013-14 Budget: Items from the Board

Thomas said he has received a number of emails over the past week about possible cuts to the funding for the district arts programs. “We get it,” he said. But the problem, he argued, was that nobody wants to cut anything, and the district is still faced with a $20 million deficit. He suggested that as a district and as a community, they need to get behind some charitable contributions in support of the arts. He suggested donations to the AAPS Educational Foundation as a way to support the arts so they can save some of the programs that are so clearly valued by the community.

Board vice president Christine Stead presided over the meeting, as president Deb Mexicotte was absent.

Lightfoot mentioned she had attended a Education Achievement Authority (EAA) board meeting at EMU and was struck by the “egregiousness” of the legislation. The workings of the EAA have siphoned off some of the district’s students, without incurring the kinds of costs the public schools have. She said that while residents’ frustrations are directed at the board, they should instead be directed at the governor and state legislature. Stead noted that it was districts like AAPS that had been giving the most since funding from proposition A was started [in 1996].

Nelson thanked Stead and the others who organized the Michigan board of education forum on state legislation that could impact public education, which was held on March 11, 2013. It was a forum “we could all be proud of.” Stead said she is following up with the panelists to pursue the possibility that they would remotely answer some of the questions from the community.

2013-14 Budget: Public Commentary

Two people spoke during public commentary about the budget and issues with the administration. Barbara Malcolm said she was “outraged at what seems to be back alley deals” when it comes to the budget. She said the board should be distrusted and ashamed for bringing in “outsiders who have no connection to the community.” She asked for more transparency when it comes to the budget.

David Malcolm addressed the failings of the board to keep Green’s pay in check, and said Green should have taken a pay cut a year ago given the current financial environment. He directed some of his remarks directly towards Patalan because of her previous statement at the May 9, 2012 meeting, when she said she was “a little troubled by what seems like … like a lack of sticking to the rules of public commentary.” Addressing Patalan, he said, “We are coming for that seat in 2014.”

School of Choice Openings

As they have for the past three years, the trustees approved limited school of choice (SOC) openings for the 2013-2014 year. Under the limited option, a school district must identify the number of openings and can open an application window for only 30 days.

The district is offering the following SOC openings: 40 seats in kindergarten; 40 seats in grade 1; 10 seats each in grades 2 through 5; and 50 seats in grade 6 for the 2013-14 school year. These numbers are consistent with what was offered last school year.

New for the 2013-14 school year, the board also decided to add 25 seats in grade 9 at Skyline High School. This was not consistent with the administration’s recommendation. Because the district could not accommodate all the requests for in-district transfers at the high school level, the administration did not want to open up any high school for SOC.

The trustees were in agreement that it made sense to open Skyline up for SOC – because enrollment at the school was down. While there are 100 open enrollment seats for students who reside in the district but live outside the Skyline boundaries, not all seats went filled for the 2012-2013 school year. In a time where “we are talking about eliminating all these programs, it seems unwise to leave an opportunity untapped,” said Thomas.

Nelson noted that because Skyline has smaller class sizes than either Huron or Pioneer, it was likely that an addition of 25 students could be absorbed with no increase to FTEs. Each SOC student brings in the corresponding foundation allowance from his or her own school district. Thomas also mentioned that if they did not open up the seats, the district would possibly be looking at a reduction of teachers at Skyline – to bring staffing levels more in line with the other comprehensive high schools.

The administration’s recommendation is to give it some time to see how in-district transfers between high schools works, before opening up a high school to SOC, Green said. But if the board wants to try opening up Skyline for SOC, and the board and the administration is “all on the same page that this is an experiment,” she would not delay doing it. Flye said the administration will still be monitoring in-district transfers.

Second Quarter Financial Report Update

After receiving a sobering second quarter financial report at their Feb. 27, 2013 meeting, which showed a $2.5 million gap, the trustees amended the general appropriations in the current year’s budget and approved the second quarter disbursements. The formal amendment to the budget was made as part of the board’s approval of the consent agenda.

The second quarter financial report shows the projected revenue will be approximately $1,088,000 lower than expected. The decrease is due to adjustments of the number of budgeted general fund FTEs to the audited student account, along with other reductions.

The expenditure budget will be approximately $1,394,758 higher than originally projected. The increase is due to an $894,758 increase for an additional 24 teacher assistant FTEs and a $500,000 adjustment to basic programs for projected substitute teacher costs.

While acknowledging that it wasn’t going to close the $2.5 million gap, Green said they have implemented a limited budget freeze. For a purchase or a requisition to be approved, it first must be approved by the appropriate executive cabinet member, then by Green herself. This was met by approval from the trustees. Patalan said she appreciated the initiative. Stead said that since the public didn’t always understand the estimations that go into the budgeting process, she wanted people to become more aware of the work being done by Green and her team to address the current financial situation.

Green also noted that the move to a zero-based budget and line-by-line accountability will allow the administration to look more closely at the budget so “when we are offering service, we are doing so appropriately.” Right now, for example, she described funding for substitute teachers as the responsibility of the HR department, while the bills for substitutes are paid from finance, and requests are made at the building level – who have no idea of the costs. If you don’t know the costs, Green asserted, you can’t control the costs. She acknowledged that as the district moves to line-by-line accounting, there will be “some growing pains.”

Lightfoot asked how there could be a job fair if there was a budget freeze – referring to the job fair AAPS held on Feb. 28, 2013. Green explained that the freeze is related to purchases and acquisitions. The current openings for principal will be kept open until filled. [Skyline High School principal Selura Jackson is leaving at the end of the school year to take a new principalship in North Carolina.]

Green acknowledged they were trying to “level out the organization” at the administrative level. That means the administration is not going to be filling Robert Allen’s deputy superintendent for operations position. But Linda Doernte’s director of purchasing and business services position will be filled when she retires.

Green also said they would be looking at some more creative ways of cutting expenses. She noted a proposal had come forward to cut down on graduation costs, as had a proposal addressing table rentals.

Outcome: The board approved the second quarter financial report as it was presented.

Purchases

The board was asked to give final approval to two purchases.

Purchases: Copiers

After receiving an initial briefing on the item at its Feb. 27, 2013 meeting, the board voted to approve a purchase of 103 Lexmark copiers at a cost of $360,000, funded through the technology bond. It has been verified with the district’s bond counsel that this would be an allowable expense for the bond.

The purchase represents a one-time savings of approximately $25,000 over the lease option. Because the lease was a budgeted expense in the general fund for the next three fiscal years, a savings of approximately $130,000 annually will be realized in the general fund. The savings from the copiers will most likely be used to offset the costs of a software upgrade, which cannot be funded through the technology bond.

Outcome: The board unanimously approved the purchase.

Purchases: Classroom Projectors, Amplifiers

The trustees approved a district-wide replacement of classroom projectors, approximately 200 sound amplification systems, and supporting electrical equipment.

A request for bids on the project went out on Jan. 10, 2013. Bids were received and publicly opened on Feb. 5, 2013. After various companies were interviewed by the district’s technology bond professional team, the team recommended the following contract awards: Great Lakes Power and Lighting ($393,000 for electrical work); The Professional Group ($1,879,619 for audiovisual equipment); and to AVI-SPL ($183,168 for the sound amplification systems).

Brief discussion centered around the business practices of Great Lakes Power and Lighting after some complaints were brought up during public commentary at the Feb. 27, 2013 meeting. Trent said that after internal discussion, none of the complaints changed their recommendation of the companies.

Lightfoot made clear she would not be supporting the contract because of letters from the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth from 2008 that state that Great Lakes Power and Lighting was not in compliance for pay.

Outcome: The board approved the purchase on a 4-2 vote. Baskett and Lightfoot dissented.

Financials and Insurance

With limited discussion, the board approved both Plante Moran as the financial auditor and renewed the district’s liability insurance. The trustees were initially briefed about both topics at the Feb. 27, 2013 meeting.

Plante Moran, the district’s previous auditor, was awarded the district’s financial audit contract for a cost of $161,000 over three years, with the potential for two one-year renewals. Nelson was pleased to hear that there would be some change in the team from Plante Moran. He was initially concerned that there could be too much familiarity – if an auditor had been with the district for an extended period of time.

The trustees also voted to approve the district’s liability insurance renewal. The district’s final liability insurance premium will be $716,476. The renewal premium reflects an overall increase of 5.9%, which is less than current market conditions.

A National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy was purchased this year because Affiliated FM identified eight buildings located in a low hazard flood zone as locations that are “at risk.” Affiliated FM would insure those buildings only with a $5 million limit and a $1 million deductible. Because this was a large deductible that could potentially put the district at financial risk, the additional NFIP from Selective Insurance was purchased to cover the gap, which would insure the buildings up to $1 million with a $1,000 deductible. The NFIP coverage goes into effect March 6, 2013 and costs an additional $30,732.

All policies except the NFIP coverage went into effect Feb. 1, 2013 and will expire on Feb. 1, 2014.

Communication and Comment

Board meetings include a number of agenda slots when trustees can highlight issues they feel are important. 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: Huron/Pioneer Football Brawl

The trustees weighed in to support three district students who face criminal charges as a result of a “brawl” that took place at the conclusion of a football game last year. The game took place on Oct. 12, 2012 between Huron and Pioneer high schools, both schools in the AAPS district. A hearing for one of the students had been scheduled for March 15, 2013.

During public commentary, five members of the public spoke in support of the three young men. Joe Dulin, retired Clemente principal, speaking on behalf of Ann Arbor Concerned Citizens for Justice, said that while no one in the group applauds that someone was injured during the brawl, they felt there was injustice done by “overcharging” the students. He asked that the board remedy the situation. Ruth Zweifler asked the board to “stop criminalizing our students” because it just creates more problems than it solves. Leslie Hollingsworth noted there was an overrepresentation of African American students who face expulsions and suspensions in AAPS. She asked that board call for the dismissal of charges against the three students. Sioban Harlow encouraged the board to support the students and bring the issue back to a dialogue rather than a criminal proceeding. Lefiest Galimore also expressed his support for the young men.

The board’s resolution, which was put forward by trustee Susan Baskett, asks Washtenaw County prosecutor Brian Mackie to reconsider the charges his office has brought against the young men. Included as “resolved clauses” in the resolution were the following:

Therefore, we ask that our students, when required to be accountable through the judicial system and thereby learn from their mistakes, be treated with compassion, fairness, equity, efficacy, and respect for their ability to learn, and

We therefore further recommend that the Prosecuting Attorney, Brian Mackie, consider the best interests of the injured student, the students criminally charged and the community by re-evaluating the degree of criminalization of adolescent behaviors that would be better resolved through a greater emphasis on educational and developmentally appropriate measures relative to harsh charges and convictions.

Both Thomas and Patalan had initially expressed concerns about the board becoming involved in a matter that has progressed into the criminal justice arena. After some small changes made to the proposed resolution and after having listened to the concerns expressed by the community, Thomas said he was able to support such a resolution.

Patalan said she read the resolution with an eye for an affirmation for all of the district’s students. Feeling satisfied that the resolution could be true for every student, she was content to support the resolution.

After some discussion by the trustees, it was decided to change the word “resolve” to “recommend” in the last paragraph. This decision was made because the resolution was supposed to be suggesting an action for Mackie.

When Green said the district did not initiate any of the criminal proceedings, Lightfoot said that while the district did not initiate the proceedings, “we did not make it clear to the penal system where we stood.”

Outcome: The board unanimously approved the resolution, with the understanding it will be sent directly to Washtenaw County prosecutor Brian Mackie.

Comm/Comm: AAAA Budget Recommendations

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 the March 13, 2013 meeting, the board heard from AAAA and AAPAC. The AAPAC report is included in the write-up of the SISS review.

Mike Madison, co-president of AAAA, recognized several administrators who were leaving their jobs in the near future. He commended Robert Allen as someone who “you could always get a straight answer from.” He also congratulated Selura Jackson on her new job assignment in North Carolina. He encouraged the administration to fill the vacancies from the ranks of AAAA.

And acknowledging there were “tough times ahead,” Madison read off 31 suggestions from the members of AAAA on ways to reduce the budget. The suggestions ranged from selling buildings off, to cutting central administration jobs and pay, to adding five to ten minutes to each day with the end goal of ending school two to three weeks earlier. Madison stressed that the suggestions were not his ideas but were the consensus of AAAA’s collective thinking. He noted that over 75% of their members supported the recommendations.

Comm/Comm: WISD Board Elections

During agenda planning, Nelson pointed out that one of the board’s duties was to elect members to the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) board. Terms for two of the members will be coming to an end in June of 2013. Members of WISD’s school board are elected by a body of electors composed of one member from each WISD member district’s board of education. So AAPS has a vote in the WISD elections.

Nelson proposed the board be more systematic in its approach to voting on WISD elections – having the two incumbents who were up for re-election this year to come speak to the board. He suggested inviting Diane Hockett and Mary Jane Tramontin to the March 27 meeting to explain their platforms and why they were running.

By having the incumbents present, Nelson suggested, the board would be in a better position either to support the candidates or encourage someone else to run. He also noted that one of the reasons he wanted to draw attention to this was the low barrier to candidacy: Running for a position on the WISD board requires only submitting a nominating petition with the required number of signatures.

Outcome: The board will invite the two incumbents to the March 27, 2013 meeting.

Comm/Comm: Accolades

In her superintendent’s report, Green highlighted many student and teacher achievements across the district. She noted three groups of Pioneer High School students who were among the winners of C-SPAN’s StudentCam documentary film contest. Art students, art teachers, orchestra teachers, music students, and students of Japanese were among those recognized for their accomplishments.

Comm/Comm: Lawton Elementary Musical Performance

The board meeting was started off by two songs from Susan Bailey’s second grade classroom at Lawton Elementary. They were led by Cynthia Pagebogen, who had taught several of the trustees’ children when they were younger. The songs blended science, dance, and music. The trustees were effusive in their praise. Baskett said she had never seen such enthusiasm at a board meeting.

Comm/Comm: High School Drama

Seven members of the public spoke to express their support for the drama programs at the high schools. Eliminating district funding of theater for a savings of $200,000 is one of the items being discussed in as a possible cost cutting measure.

Sena Adjei, surrounded by other high school theater students, spoke against cuts to the theater program.

Several students spoke about how theater has been an integral part of their high school experience. Sena Adjei said he became more of a man in the first ten minutes of theater than he ever did playing football. Gabrielle Vuylsteke offered some examples of students who had had their lives changed by theater. Pioneer student Kate Summers shared her own story of how her theater experiences helped grow her confidence. Eleanor Howell-Shryock, a member of the Huron Players, said that “no matter how much money we might be save [by cutting theater], we can’t afford it.” Having the theater budget at Huron cut would be the death of them, she said.

Several parents spoke in favor of maintaining theater funding. Margie Morris, a district parent, asked that the board keep in mind how many students would be affected by the cuts. Brice O’Neal credited theater at AAPS for saving his life as a high school student. He asked that the board consider what the impact of these cuts will mean to the students. Jeff Crause pointed out that all other proposed budget cuts were a percentage of the programs, while theater would sustain a 100% cut in its budget. He also noted the high caliber of theater in the district. Any additional fundraising the students would have to take on would be a subtle tax increase, he argued.

Isaac Scobey, Community High School student, argued for block scheduling at Community to be maintained. He asserted it was part of what makes Community unique and it gives students time to reach deeper into subjects.

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

Absent: President Deb Mexicotte

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, March 27, 2013, 7 p.m., at the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Ave.

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The board is expected to vote on the FY 2012-13 budget at its June 13 meeting.

In addition to the budget discussion, trustees moved quickly through a number of other items of business at the May 23 meeting: (1) directing administration to create a transportation committee; (2) approving the sale of tech bonds; (3) supporting the Washtenaw Intermediate School District budget with some suggested reporting improvements; (4) the approval of two property easements with the city of Ann Arbor; and (5) the approval of a number of policies, including an anti-bullying policy as newly mandated by state law.

Trustees also heard from 20 people, most of them speaking during general public commentary in support of the Roberto Clemente Student Development Center, which had originally been proposed to be closed or restructured as part of the budget. Many thanked the board for taking Clemente “off the chopping block” for this coming year, but expressed concerns about the board’s process, the district-wide achievement gap faced by African-American students, and the board’s “lack of respect” for Clemente students.  

2012-13 Budget

AAPS superintendent Patricia Green introduced the first formal briefing on the AAPS proposed 2012-13 budget by asserting, “The district is hemorrhaging… The pain is real.” She reiterated the position shared at earlier meetings, saying that her administration does not want to make any of these cuts at all, and that what has been in the budget is valued and has made the district great.

The budget elements of the May 23 meeting are reported below. First, there was a presentation by AAPS deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen on the background and assumptions informing the proposed budget; a review by Allen of the suggested budget reductions; board discussion on the proposed budget; and a public hearing on the proposed budget. Public commentary, as well as this meeting’s student report, are described following these items, as they were each primarily related to the proposed budget reductions.

2012-13 Budget: Background and Assumptions

Robert Allen said that his PowerPoint presentation was “pretty much the same” as the board had already seen multiple times. He reviewed it again briefly, stressing how rising pension costs are not under the control of local districts.

Trustee Christine Stead asked what the foundation allowance would be if adjusted for inflation, and Allen said he did not know, but as far as he had heard, there was no plan to increase the $9,020 per pupil allowance. Board president Deb Mexicotte said that the figure she had seen before, if the foundation allowance had risen only by the rate of inflation, was near $11,000, and Allen said that sounded right.

Allen said the projected deficit for 2012-13 was $17.8 million, which includes the shift to providing all-day kindergarten. He also said that he feels fairly confident that the projected deficit can be lowered $1 million due to health care cost savings, but that he has not yet incorporated that into the plan.

Allen described the health care cost savings in more detail, explaining that the benefits of offering a self-funded health care plan to employees is starting to pay off, but that he is still being conservative in estimating the savings to the district. As more employees move to the self-funded plan, those savings continue to increase, Allen said. He noted that a health care consultant paid for by the health care corporations had advised him regarding making a $1.7 million budget adjustment to the base expenditures. Trustee Glenn Nelson, who had asked about the shift in base expenditure numbers at the last meeting, said he appreciated the way Allen keeps the board well-informed.

Allen then put up a slide with three-year projections, which shows that if the district does nothing to reduce expenditures, the fund balance will be depleted within two years. Stead expressed concern that with the special education reimbursement rate decreasing, the mandated retirement contribution rate increasing, and less guarantee of state offsets and incentives, the cuts that AAPS will need to make for 2013-14 will be even higher than this year.

Trustee Andy Thomas disagreed, saying that the state offsets are likely to continue, and that the board isn’t going to “sit on our hands and do nothing.” He noted that the $4 million in reductions the board is planning to pass will be put into the base expenditures for 2013-14 and for subsequent years. He suggested that the future projections are not representative of what is likely to occur.

2012-13 Budget: Proposed Budget Reduction Plan

At the May 23 meeting, Allen reviewed the proposed budget reductions by category. See The Chronicle’s coverage of the board’s May 16 committee of the whole meeting for more discussion of the proposed reductions.

2012-13 Budget: Proposed Budget Reduction Plan – Instructional Services

Allen reviewed that the consolidation of the Clemente summer school into the district-wide Pioneer High program would save $80,000, but Green said Clemente has asked the board to reconsider this piece. She said that much of what Clemente is doing is more like orientation than credit recovery, and that they feel the structure is important to their entire program.

Stead said she could argue against every single one of these cuts, and asked where the $80,000 would come from if the Clemente summer school program were to stay intact. Green said her administration is still looking into it, and that for now, the reduction is still on the list.

Allen also noted that the site-based budgets, which fund individual building’s school improvement plans, will be eliminated for $250,750, and that a reduction of four FTEs (full-time equivalents) in counseling positions will save $400,000.

2012-13 Budget: Proposed Budget Reduction Plan – Operations

Allen reiterated the list of transportation cuts included in the plan, and commented on them:

• Changing the Skyline High start time by 15 minutes, which would entail a memorandum of agreement with the teachers’ union ($266,400);
• Eliminating midday shuttles at Community High ($230,184);
• Reducing costs for transportation to Ann Arbor Open by using middle school common stops ($98,800);
• Eliminating the 4 p.m. middle school bus, which significantly impacts after-school programs ($85,284);
• Combining the bus routes of Bryant-Pattengill elementary schools($16,560).

Regarding the 4 p.m. middle school bus, Allen said the district is looking at other ways to be able to fund that.

Regarding the combining of bus routes to Bryant and Pattengill, Allen noted that it could impact start times at those schools, which would lead to another memorandum of agreement with the teachers’ union. He said the idea of combining these routes has been discussed for a couple of years, and that Pattengill’s start time might have to shift by 15 minutes because there will be fewer stops. Allen said the consolidation could allow for the elimination of up to two of the nine busses that are dedicated to those schools’ routes. The worst case scenario, he said, would be the addition of 10 minutes to the length of some students’ bus rides.

Andy Thomas clarified that a student going to Bryant would not experience any additional time in the morning, but would in the afternoon because the driving time from Bryant to Pattengill in the morning or from Pattengill to Bryant in the afternoon would add 10 minutes. Allen said yes, 10 minutes would be the maximum addition.

Allen listed three additional reductions in operations: ITD (information technology department) restructuring ($200,000); the elimination of the early notification incentive ($40,000); and energy savings ($500,000 in 2012-13, and $700,000 in the future).

2012-13 Budget: Proposed Budget Reduction Plan – District-wide Reductions

Allen reviewed the following district-wide reductions that are proposed:

• Moving the Rec & Ed director and support staff positions to the Rec & Ed budget ($205,000);
• Reducing districtwide departmental budgets by 10% ($500,000);
• Reducing healthcare costs ($100,000);
• Eliminating police liaisons ($350,000);
• Outsourcing noon-hour supervisors ($75,000);
• Eliminating the district contribution to music camps ($60,000);
• Reducing the budget for substitute teachers by placing the management of substitute budgets in the schools ($200,000);
• Reducing middle school athletics ($37,500);
• Eliminating funding for athletic entry fees ($58,000);
• Moving lacrosse to a club sport ($93,000);
• Replacing 32 FTEs of instructional staff (retirements) with less expensive staff ($900,000).

Regarding the police liaisons, Allen said he had talked with the Ann Arbor Police Department and confirmed that reducing the liaisons would not mean a loss of employment for any of the officers. The biggest thing AAPS will lose, Allen said, is the relationships it has with these particular officers. Christine Stead asked how they could be absorbed by the city if there was no budget for them, and Allen said there are retirements that would allow the shifts to occur. Allen also noted that AAPS will still contract with the AAPD for extra-curricular events such as football games.

Andy Thomas asked for clarification on what the $60,000 of music camp funding represents. Allen explained that it is entirely supplemental teacher pay, including fringes. The district will adjust its supplemental pay amount by $60,000, and that is a hard number, Allen said, even though the exact amount spent on this pay may be higher or lower in a given year. He also noted that there is an option to fundraise the $60,000 outside of the district budget, and that the band directors are working with the central office on this issue.

The Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA) – the teachers’ union –has asked for two weeks to look at the entire middle school budget, Allen said, to see if there is a way to keep the middle school athletic directors but still reduce the overall middle school athletics budget by $37,500. He said there have been conversations about how Rec & Ed provides the same functions, and that perhaps middle school athletics could be done more efficiently.

Stead asked how confident Allen was about the savings anticipated by hiring less expensive teachers, and asked him to walk through the logic one more time. Allen said the district is currently expecting 24 retirements, and that retiring teachers are more than likely at the top of the pay scale. If you bring in new teachers to replace the retiring ones, he said, there is about a $25,000 to $30,000 differential in pay. Allen pointed out that there is a risk the savings will be lower if the district does not have additional retirements. Thomas said that if there are only 24 retirements, the savings will be $720,000 instead of $900,000.

2012-13 Budget: Proposed Budget Reduction Plan – Revenue Enhancement

Allen reviewed the four sources of revenue enhancement that are part of this budget: (1) School of Choice students ($1 million); (2) Medicaid reimbursement ($500,000); (3) best practices funding ($2.6 million); and (4) MPSERS offset ($1.8 million). MPSERS is the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System.

Allen noted that there are currently state Senate and House bills being entertained on MPSERS reform, and that it is not known at this time how the outcome of those discussions will affect the MPSERS offset in the future. Stead asked if the projected 31.2% employer contribution rate would increase if there were substantial layoffs across the state for FY 2012-13. Allen said he did not think AAPS would be adversely affected by the MPSERS reform bills.

2012-13 Budget: Proposed Budget Reduction Plan – Fund Equity

Allen then summarized that AAPS needs $10.7 million of reductions after the revenue enhancements are applied, but that at this point, the district will need to use $ 7 million of fund equity to reach that target. He added that the $7 million figure does not include the additional $1 million adjustment in health care savings he reported that night, so it’s really more like using $6 million of fund equity.

Stead asked if Allen anticipated an additional deficit in the fourth quarter, and Allen said very conservatively, he would estimate an additional deficit of $500,000, depending on what happens with additional retirements. Nelson said he usually thinks of increased retirements as saving money, and asked, “Why would something that accelerates retirements hurt the budget?” Allen answered that some retirees qualify for a payout bonus based on their number of years of service. AAPS, he explained, keeps those payouts held in the balance sheet, and the expense of distributing them has to be recognized in the year during which they are actually paid out.

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion

Board discussion on the proposed budget is grouped here into the following categories: administrative process, Roberto Clemente, busing, police liaisons, other cuts, fund equity, and revenue enhancement. The budget was brought to the May 23 meeting as a first briefing item. The final 2012-13 budget will be approved at the next regular board meeting on June 13.

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion – Administrative Process

Trustee Glenn Nelson complimented the administration and board president Deb Mexicotte for guiding the board through the budget process over the last few months, saying he “appreciated the spirit” with which the board whittled down an $18 million deficit to what he called “a budget which I can live with – it’s painful, but it’s a rational kind of thing.”

Trustee Simone Lightfoot said she liked that the middle school administration was weighing in on how to best cut middle school athletics, and asked “How much of that do we do?” Robert Allen replied that there are always ways to improve the process, and that input from all stakeholders is a good thing. “We do present these proposed reductions to our administration, and each year we ask for suggestions when we start the process,” he said, pointing out that some of the district-wide cuts proposed this year came from building administrators’ suggestions.

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion – Roberto Clemente

Lightfoot asked how many students attend Roberto Clemente’s summer school program, and noted that she has received many e-mails about the hardships those students will face if the summer school program is merged with the district-wide summer school held at Pioneer. Allen said the Clemente summer school program could be as many as 80 or 90 students, and Thomas pointed out that absorbing the Clemente students into the main summer school program will increase summer school class sizes.

Trustee Irene Patalan asked how many students who begin the school year at Clemente are still there at the end of the year. Jane Landefeld, AAPS director of student accounting, answered that 15 students left between October and February this school year. Nelson asked if the 15 who left Clemente returned to other AAPS schools. Landefeld said some left AAPS to attend other schools out of the district, some transferred to other AAPS schools, and some dropped out of school entirely.

Thomas asked where exactly the projected $80,000 in savings from consolidating Clemente’s summer school program would come from. Mostly from staffing costs, Allen replied. Trustee Susan Baskett suggested breaking out the cost of the transition/orientation part of the Clemente summer school program from the classes part.

Mexicotte said she wants the academic focus to be the driver of summer school programming, and that summer school has always been about closing gaps and academic recovery. She argued that the orientation pieces need to be accomplished during the regular school year – individually or in cohorts.

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion – Busing

Lightfoot asked if there was any concern about the mixing of ages of students on the Bryant and Pattengill buses, if they are consolidated. No, Allen said – all of the other elementary school buses mixed children from grades K-5.

Trustee Irene Patalan noted that there are a group of students who primarily attend classes at the comprehensive high schools but who come to Community High for part of the day – for those students, eliminating the mid-day shuttles will hurt. These students do not have organized advocacy, she said, but they do believe that coming to Community each day keeps their day intact as they are given support, self-esteem, or other help there.

Nelson said he would like reassurance at the second briefing that funding for the 4 p.m. middle school bus will be replaced, as it adds enough to the educational experience for enough students to be worth it. If at the second briefing on the budget on June 13, the board cannot be assured the money will be coming from elsewhere, Nelson said, he would like to explore not cutting the 4 p.m. middle school bus.

Stead requested data on high school bus ridership, particularly if there were changes to ridership this year.

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion – Other Cuts

Lightfoot asked if, in light of the cuts to police liaisons, there was a way to have some sort of arrangement with the city so that the city could be sensitive to the idea of sending AAPS officers who are already familiar with the district. Allen said he could have that discussion with the acting chief [John Seto], who has been very responsive. Lightfoot also asked what the cost is for AAPD coverage at individual, separate events, and Allen said that in the past it has been treated as overtime pay for the three dedicated officers. If those positions are no longer funded by AAPS, the AAPD would be paid an hourly rate for event coverage, said Allen. Baskett said, “AAPD are a good police force, but they are not cheap.” She asked Allen to look for other ways of providing security at events, or work to negotiate a lower rate with AAPD.

Mexicotte noted that cutting 4 FTEs from counseling staff concerns her because of the effect it could have on the district’s work closing the achievement and discipline gaps. “While it is an attractive cut because it’s large, and because it’s based on attrition, this is an area of particular distress for me,” she said. Mexicotte also noted that she had been sitting next to AAPS deputy superintendent of operations Alesia Flye at the May 16 committee meeting, and that she wanted to acknowledge Flye’s distress at the reduction in departmental budgets. “[Flye] said, very professionally under her breath,” Mexicotte reported, ” ‘Ouch – that’s really going to hurt our professional development.’”

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion – Fund Equity

Nelson said he was concerned about losing teachers in 2013-14 if the district digs too deep into fund equity this year to cover projected expenditures. He suggested bringing the idea of moving Clemente this year back to the table for discussion. “As we talk about the expenses related to [Clemente], and the performance as we know it, … I am not completely sure that investment is worth it,” Nelson argued.

Nelson said that for every teacher cut, roughly 300 students are affected by larger class sizes. By this logic, he explained, the $200,000 that would be saved by moving Clemente this year would save three teachers in 2013-14, affecting 900 students directly. “I am hoping we look really hard at this program because I think we need to,” Nelson said.

Stead responded that shifting academic programs warrants more planning time, and that she sees looking at effective program supports and results as the work of next year. “This is not about a move – this is about a thorough review from a program perspective,” she argued. She also pointed out that the achievement gap and discipline gap are not just Clemente problems, but district-wide issues, and that the program review needs to be comprehensive.

Stead explained her fear that without deeper cuts this year, AAPS could face the situation of not having enough fund equity to make payroll next summer, when the state aid payments are suspended. She noted that her concerns are based on the fact that the district ended up using $2.3 million out of fund equity this year to cover unanticipated spending, and that the MPSERS offset and best practices funding are not guaranteed to continue.

Stead said she is very concerned that using $8 million of fund equity this year does not position the district for financial sustainability next year, and suggested again that the board consider cutting all transportation out of the 2012-13 budget for a savings of $3.5 million. She argued that cutting transportation will require a “concerted effort from the entire community, city, carpools, everything you can think of,” but that so far, efforts at working on transportation have been “piecemeal.”

Thomas disagreed, pointing out that for the last three years, AAPS has been spending down fund equity at the rate of only $1.7 million a year, and that using $7 million this year is a reasonable and conservative way to address the current deficit. He said he had been present at the last AAPS Educational Foundation (AAPSEF) meeting, and that there was some discussion there of how the AAPSEF could offset some of the cuts. He also noted that the PTO thrift shop might be willing to make some kind of contribution, and that University Bank has come forward with $5,000 to help with the music camps. “What this illustrates,” Thomas said, “is that there is some willingness in the community to use private funding to help offset some of these cuts.”

Thomas said he would like to be able to sit down in October (2012), not April (2013) and hear the administration’s plan to eliminate another $14 to $18 million in 2013-14. He said he’d like to hear the plan in detail, similar to what was presented at this first formal budget briefing. It’s important to start the conversation in October [of 2012, for planning the 2013-14 budget], he said, because “we don’t have very many bullets left in our gun. What we are left with for next year is transportation as a whole, our contracts with bargaining units, reducing teachers by a truly drastic number, closing schools, and redistricting. And, closing schools has a ripple effect on transportation. These will all require a great deal of thought.”

Mexicotte asked Allen how much the district needed to keep in fund equity to be able to make payroll over the summer, and Allen said $9 million. “Then that’s the magical number – $9 million,” Mexicotte said. “It is the number after which we give money to the state to lend us money they should be giving us in the first place.” She argued that the difference between leaving $9 million, $10 million, or $11 million in fund equity “hardly makes a difference” because the district is facing $14 million more in cuts next year.

Mexicotte said that one of the visions she has kept in her mind all these years as a trustee is to keep AAPS above the line of solvency, and that she is comfortable spending $6-$7 million from fund equity this year.

Lightfoot agreed that she is comfortable with spending $6 million from fund equity if “we do nothing next year but plan, plan, plan.”

Patalan said that over the past six years, AAPS has made approximately $70 million in reductions – that’s just huge. “Of course, we’re all feeling fairly depressed,” she said. She added it also frightens her to allow fund equity to get so low, and that doing so was “truly a gamble. … You almost feel naked without something [to protect] against the future, and what the future could be.” The district’s ending fund equity balance for the current fiscal year is projected to be $18.73 million.

2012-13 Budget: Board Discussion – Revenue Enhancement

Nelson said the community does have other options – one is to keep pushing for legislative change at the state level, and another is to try again to pass a countywide schools enhancement millage. Passing such a millage, Nelson said, will require a very strong effort by citizens who care about education, “but one doesn’t get it done without starting. I urge the citizens out there who feel that education of the children in Washtenaw County is being threatened to not be as excellent as they deserve and need for the world they are going to live in, that we start talking about the enhancement millage.” [A countywide enhancement millage was on the November 2009 ballot and defeated, with 57.4% of voters voting against it, though it was supported by a majority of Ann Arbor voters.]

Stead said passing a revenue enhancement millage at the county level would be difficult, and that while she would support such efforts, AAPS also needs to keep working for a statewide solution. “There is a real structural issue,” she said. “Education should not be so subject to partisan politics that we compromise our entire future as a result… I would hope people would work with us… to focus on revoking Proposal A.” [Passed in 1994, Proposal A was a ballot initiative that aimed to create more equitable funding across all districts and to keep property taxes from escalating dramatically. Proposal A took away, to a significant degree, local control over school funding, though districts can still request voter approval to levy local millages for building construction, repairs, and maintenance.]

This was the first briefing on the 2012-13 budget. The budget will come before the board again for a second briefing and vote at the next regular board meeting on June 13.

2012-13 Budget: Public Hearing

Deb Mexicotte noted that the proposed budget has been posted on the district’s website, and invited anyone in the room to speak on the budget.

A parent in the Georgetown neighborhood spoke about the suggested consolidation of bus runs to Bryant and Pattengill schools. She pointed out that while adding 10 minutes to a bus route does not seem that long, it makes the run 40 minutes long at the end of the day for a 6-year-old. She also noted that the buses currently serving the students in her neighborhood are really full, and that it might not be realistic to think about eliminating a bus when you factor in fifth grade instruments needing space too.

A Clemente parent offered some perspective on the Clemente summer school program. She said that when Clemente first started in 1974, it was a 12-month program, and that the Clemente philosophy addresses the belief that students lose a lot over the summer. Students do take academic classes, and Clemente does offer Read 180 and credit recovery, she said, but it also orients students to the way classes will be conducted in the fall. Incoming 9th graders are offered an “intro to biology” class to prepare them to take biology in the fall and be successful. Also, students are given help with basic math, she said, to prepare them for the concepts they will be learning in the regular school year.

2012-13 Budget: Public Commentary

Eighteen people addressed the board during the regular public commentary period at the beginning of the meeting. Sixteen discussed Roberto Clemente Student Development Center, which had originally been proposed to be closed or restructured as part of the budget. Two other speakers discussed transportation services, which are slated for further reduction under the proposed budget as well.

2012-13 Budget: Public Commentary – Roberto Clemente

Members of the Clemente community thanked the board for taking Clemente “off the chopping block” for this coming year, but expressed concerns about board process, the district-wide achievement gap faced by African-American students, and the board’s “lack of respect” for Clemente students. Many students gave testimonials about how Clemente had changed their lives, and how it was stressful to live with the fear that their school would be taken away in the future.

Kathleen Ardon said she has not felt the board was listening during public commentary. She cited sidebar conversations, superintendent Patricia Green getting up to talk to another administrator, and the limited speaking time allowed. She suggested to trustees that they “try limiting your comments to 90 seconds each, as we have been made to do.” Lexanna Marie Lyons echoed Ardon, noting that at the May 9 board meeting, “a young white girl got to speak about her experiences at A2 Tech and read a letter.” Lyons noted that while that girl got to speak as long as she wanted, Clemente students were limited to a minute and a half each, and “they did not receive the praise this white girl received.”

Lyons said that as an African-American female, she has experienced many forms of racism and that she feels racism right now. Student Corey McDonald added, “Why set a time limit for speech when you stay here for…I don’t know how [long], but… a very long time.”

Student Mackenzie Caddell said she was “terribly embarrassed” and “mortified” when she saw the Clemente achievement data shared at the May 16 board committee meeting. However, Caddell continued, after reviewing data on African-American achievement district-wide, she “concluded that AAPS is only exceptional for students that are not of color…It isn’t black students’ failure – it’s a shared failure.” She noted that the positive impact that Clemente has had on students’ attitudes and behavior “cannot be seen on paper.”

Clemente teacher Mike Smith also addressed the achievement data discussed on May 16, and presented comparable data for African-American students at the three comprehensive high schools. Saying that he agreed that Clemente’s test scores were “abominable” and “damnable,” he noted that the achievement data for African-Americans students are very concerning across the district. Smith noted that only 53% of African-American 11th graders at the comprehensive high schools scored proficient in reading on the Michigan Merit Exam (MME), compared to 88% of their Caucasian counterparts. In math, the MME proficiency numbers are similar – Caucasian 86%, African-American 43%, Smith said.

Cierra Reese asserted that the achievement gap starts in elementary school, and Charlae Davis added that closing the achievement gap requires looking at “the big picture,” including the study of qualitative data, such as the information presented by students and their families.

Regarding a perceived lack of respect, parent Tara Cole referenced how a board member said she had felt threatened at the last meeting and that there had been a lack of respect shown for the board. Cole said the Clemente community feels the same way. Cassandra Parks said she is not convinced the board is concerned about these students, and reminded the students gathered, “You have to exercise our right and make sure the people in power really care about us.” After finishing her own comments, Parks also interrupted public commentary later in the meeting to call out teachers’ union president Brit Satchwell for distracting the board by typing loudly while people were speaking. Mexicotte asked Parks to be seated. Satchwell apologized for the perceived disrespect and closed his laptop.

Student Tyler Sheldon said students “feel that we have been kicked aside as lower-income minorities, so unfortunately, it makes us wonder, if we came from upper middle class two-parent households, would this have been considered?”

Public commentary on Clemente at the May 23 meeting also offered many examples of the qualitative data noted by Davis. Tia Jones and Alexandra Botello argued that the cost of educating Clemente students should not be relevant. Jones said she is finally getting the education she deserves and has been wanting her whole life, and Botello noted that the bullying and assault she faced in other AAPS schools was not present at Clemente.

Harmony Redding, Jermia Castion, and Caleb LeHuray noted the positive effect that Clemente has on students who have struggled elsewhere. “Roberto Clemente has been a gateway to education for many students,” LeHuray asserted. “You need to leave it alone as it is so the future students can see the value of their education and be successful later on.”

David Bullard and Corey McDonald warned that closing or consolidating Clemente will cause many students to drop out or return to their old bad habits. McDonald also pointed out that Clemente students will be looked at as “lower class” by students at other schools if the program is consolidated.

2012-13 Budget: Public Commentary – Busing

Jill Zimmerman thanked the board for allowing modified busing to continue to Ann Arbor Open, and said it will “make a huge difference in the lives of many families.” She also noted that it seems like eliminating busing district-wide is a “very real possibility” in the coming year. She encouraged the board to continue discussion with the community as this is considered. Zimmerman said the budget process in general should start sooner in order to realize the most savings with the least negative impact on families.

Patty Kracht urged the board to keep building administrators involved in the budget planning as it affects individual schools. She noted that when she heard about the consolidation of Bryant and Pattengill busing routes, she called the principal of her child’s school to ask if start times would be staggered. The principal did not know the answer and had not been included in the re-routing planning. “Please,” Kracht said, “if you’re not going to involve parents, at least involve administration.”

2012-13 Budget: Clarification on Public Commentary

Trustee Christine Stead spoke about the board process and structure surrounding public input. She noted that 45 minutes of public commentary is allotted at every meeting, and that the time is divided among all those who sign up to speak. [Each speaker is allotted 4 minutes. In the event that more than 11 people sign up to speak, the 45 minutes is divided equally among all speakers.] Stead also noted that student reports, given on a rotational basis by representatives from each of the high schools, are intended to be more in-depth reports, and that Clemente was on the schedule for the May 23 meeting. “Tonight, that person can take as much time as they would like,” she said, stressing that the trustees “absolutely want to hear students’ voices.”

Board president Deb Mexicotte offered clarification on the building of Skyline High School. She said the $92 million that paid for Skyline was part of a $240 million bond allocated by taxpayers to provide improvements to every building in the district, as well as to build the new school. Mexicotte explained that bond funds cannot be used for operating expenses. She said the district would love to be able to raise operating dollars from its taxpayers, but is legally prohibited from doing so.

Regarding disproportionality in discipline referrals, superintendent Patricia Green said she agrees there are disparities that parallel national trends, but said that it is being addressed. She noted that AAPS has instituted a multi-year plan to eliminate both the achievement and discipline gaps across the district.

2012-13 Budget: Roberto Clemente Student Report

Tia Jones volunteered to give the student report for Clemente, and started by simply saying, “We have said all we have had to say,” and reminding trustees that they are all invited to come see the school. Deb Mexicotte noted the concern expressed during public commentary that Clemente students have not had unlimited time to address the board, and explained that the student report is untimed. Jones asked if other students would also be given a turn to speak, and was told no.

Jones then shared some of her own story, saying that before Clemente, she had attended Dicken for all of elementary, then Slauson, Scarlett, and Eastern Washtenaw Multicultural Academy (a local charter school) for middle school, and finally Huron for 9th grade. “I remember teachers telling me never to try, that I would never be anyone,” Jones said. She said that in 6th grade, she did not know the Pledge of Allegiance, and that she felt out of place during her 8th grade year at EWMA, since the majority of students were of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, Jones recounted, “At Huron, I felt really bad due to an issue outside of school. Counselors did not know what to do with me.”

When she got to Clemente, Jones said, “Dr. E [Clemente principal Ben Edmondson] did not allow [me] to fail.” She told trustees that when the cuts to Clemente were proposed, it got to her because she knows what the school has offered her and her peers. “It shelters us, nurtures us. We spend most of our time at school.”

Board President’s Report

Deb Mexicotte reported on the board’s May 16 committee of the whole. In addition to going through a facilitated discussion to direct administration about board priorities during this trying time, she said, other topics discussed at the meeting were: how personalized learning is approached in AAPS; the possible creation of a transportation working group; and the superintendent evaluation timeline.

For full coverage of the non-budget May 16 committee of the whole agenda items, see Chronicle coverage: ”AAPS Begins Superintendent Evaluation.”

Transportation Study Committee

At the May 16 committee of the whole meeting, trustee Simone Lightfoot had suggested that the board convene a working group to study transportation sustainability in the district. After some discussion, trustees agreed to direct administration to convene such a group, and Deb Mexicotte said she would write up a request to do so, since the board does not take official action during committee meetings.

Transportation Study Committee: Formal Request to Administration

During the information section of the May 23 meeting, Mexicotte read a draft of the administrative request that she had written based on her notes from the May 16 committee meeting. Trustees subsequently approved the creation of an administrative working group “for the purpose of studying and reporting on the sustainability of school bus transportation for AAPS students.”

Mexicotte read the entire formal request into the record of the meeting. In summary, it outlined the board’s reasons for wanting to charge administration with convening such a group, saying it seems “prudent” to study the “short-term and long-term funding, support, partnerships, and solutions for school transportation” in order to understand AAPS’ role in the system, now and in the future.

In the request, the board charged the committee with examining three questions:

(1) Can we create a district-wide plan which includes short-term and long-term strategies, and that maintains district-funded transportation for students in AAPS? If so, under what circumstances (time, partnerships, delivery models, targeted student populations, funding strategies)?

(2) If not, what are the alternatives that might be considered or implemented (partial or complete elimination, privatization, partnerships, needs-based grants or services)? and

(3) What are the general and specific impacts on changing, reducing, or eliminating district-funded transportation as it relates to our strategic and educational outcomes and goals?

The request also asked the superintendent to be sure to include a diverse group of stakeholders on the committee, including administrators, representatives of other public and governmental entities, parents, students, and board members. It also said specifically that the working group could be made up entirely of members from an already existing committee, such as the Transportation Safety Committee or the City/Schools committee, or could be a newly created group, at the superintendent’s discretion.

Finally, it was requested that the board hear progress updates from the group on a regular basis, and that the process of completing the study and offering recommendations come back to the board by January 2013, in time to inform the FY 2013-14 AAPS budget.

Transportation Study Committee: Board Discussion

All of the trustees except for Christine Stead were immediately supportive of the creation of such a committee as outlined by Mexicotte. Stead suggested instead that perhaps a long-term financial planning group be assembled, and said that regarding transportation, she would rather have the district leverage the structure already in place rather than make a new committee. She also questioned the utility of having the committee vet the sustainability of school bus transportation without complete funding information, and asked, “Where does this tie into our strategic plan?”

Andy Thomas said there are specific issues regarding transportation that the board and the district need to address, which would make such a committee useful. He named the following as examples: “What is the impact of any reduction or the complete elimination of transportation to the district – which population will be affected? What is the impact on neighborhoods where schools are located? Will there be a huge increase in auto traffic? What are the environmental safety ramifications of this? What are the ramifications on specific programs; for example, what good does it do to keep Clemente open if there is not transportation to get to that location?”

Irene Patalan said the timeline piece was important to her, so that the committee can offer the board recommendations for the next budget cycle. Simone Lightfoot said it was important to her that the committee includes more than the “same people as usual,” and Susan Baskett added that committee members should feel free to bring their thoughts, comments, and questions without reservation. To Stead, Baskett answered that forming a transportation committee falls under strategic goal number six of the district’s strategic plan, which has to do with earning the public’s trust.

Multiple trustees and superintendent Patricia Green commended Mexicotte for the wording of her request, which noted the flexibility of the committee to define “sustainability” and other metrics. Green said, since she would be leading this effort, that she would “like to go at this not with a road map, but with a compass… All the stakeholders will develop the road map, while the compass sets the direction and keeps [the work] going in that direction.”

Mexicotte wondered whether the questions raised by Thomas would be addressed by the committee within the three study questions she had listed (see above) to define its work. Thomas said he did not think the request needed to be amended, but that it’s important not to lose sight of the interrelationship between transportation and other issues. For example, he said, “If we find that we find it necessary to close one or more buildings, students will be expected to travel longer distances to get to their schools. Are we going to still cut transportation? It’s hard to look at one piece of this without looking at the whole blob.”

Stead said she would like to see this group convene very quickly and meet a couple of times this summer, with the community, city, and police involved. Green said she would also like to move this very quickly, and is planning to dovetail with meetings that AAPS already has on the calendar with the city and Ann Arbor Transportation Authority because “once school ends, the momentum is lost.”

Mexicotte asked the board if it was amenable to placing the creation of this administrative transportation study committee on the consent agenda, and the board agreed. Mexicotte said she appreciated Green’s enthusiasm to move forward quickly, and also that she liked the template she created for making a nice, clear request to administration. “I like how it clarified my thinking when I wrote this up, and if we can do this in the future, that would be great,” she said.

Outcome: The creation of an administrative transportation study committee was approved unanimously by the board as a special briefing item on the May 23 consent agenda.

Sale of Technology Bonds

Superintendent Patricia Green thanked the public again for the passage of the tech bond millage and said the district is now moving on directly to the sale of the bonds.

By way of background, voters approved the millage at a May 8, 2012 election. The technology bond proposal is for AAPS to issue a total of $45,855,000 general obligation bonds to pay for acquiring and installing instructional technology and technology infrastructure. The estimated tax rate that would be required to service the debt on the bonds is 0.48 mill (or $0.48 per $1,000 of a property’s taxable value.) The estimated annual average millage rate required to retire the bonds of this issue is 0.51 mills.

Robert Allen, AAPS deputy superintendent of operations, said that the administration recommends using the same bond counsel, financial advisor, and underwriters as used for the recent 2012 bond refinancing, and noted that the tech bonds need to be sold before July 1. He said the district would like to get started this summer on the work approved by voters with the passage of the bond, and asked the board to consider approving the resolution for the sale of the bonds as a special briefing item.

Trustee Andy Thomas asked what the maturity date was for the first group of bonds. Allen replied that it varied among the $27 million in bonds in the first phase. Thomas also asked if Allen knew what the interest rate would be, and Allen said he did not know, but that market conditions are still good and he expects a favorable rate.

Christine Stead thanked Allen and his team for getting this put together so quickly and having this prepared for the board.

Outcome: The sale of the technology bonds was approved unanimously as a special briefing item as part of the May 23 consent agenda.

Anti-Bullying Policy

Dave Comsa, AAPS deputy superintendent of human resources and general counsel, responded to questions the board had asked during the May 9 first briefing of the district’s new anti-bullying policy.

Regarding the assurance of confidentiality in the bullying investigation, Comsa pointed to regulation 4.4, which indicates that confidentiality will be maintained to the highest degree possible. He noted also that retaliation against a “whistleblower” is explicitly prohibited by the policy, and is also addressed in regulations 4.2 to 4.22.

Regarding training for staff, Comsa noted that regulation 2.2 states there will be such training. He also said the policy would be published beyond the Rights and Responsibilities handbook, as requested by the board.

Comsa reported that in response to a request for a timeline for investigations, regulation 5.4.1 states that the goal will be to complete all bullying investigations within five school days of receiving a complaint.

He noted that cyber-bullying is covered by this policy too, as the definition of bullying it uses includes the phrase “any electronic communication.” And finally, Comsa said that the policy applies to everyone listed under “organizational units affected,” and that it does include parents.

Andy Thomas said he was not completely satisfied that a question he asked at the last meeting had been sufficiently addressed – how far does the policy go when the bullying is off school property? Comsa said that the key point to consider is whether there is a nexus in the school. He noted that “our control only extends so far,” but if the incident substantially impacts or interferes with the operation of the school, it would be covered by the policy. Deb Mexicotte added that if a fight between students outside of school causes intimidation in school, it would fall under the anti-bullying policy.

Thomas confirmed, “So there does have to be some kind of connection with the school?” And Comsa replied, “Yes, we are not a policing force for the entire community.”

Mexicotte opened up a public hearing on the anti-bullying policy but no one spoke to the board on this issue.

Outcome: Policy 5800, Anti-Bullying was approved unanimously as part of the May 23 consent agenda.

Washtenaw Intermediate School District Budget

Christine Stead reported that she had asked the board’s questions from the first briefing on the Washtenaw Intermediate School District budget, and WISD officials had sent a reply. Items included: a list of what is contained in “central services;” the AAPS portion of the transportation budget, totaling $6.9 million; a line-by-line breakdown of all budgets; a 3-year rolling budget table, noting the shift next year from a 67% to a 56% reimbursement rate for special education services; a list of local school improvement expenses; and a copy of their 2009-10 annual services report, which reviews the services they provide by region.

Deb Mexicotte referred to a binder that had been provided to each trustee, and pointed out that Tab 6 lists the teaching and learning initiatives of the WISD and indicates whether AAPS is involved in each one.

Glenn Nelson said that regarding the future, he would like to see the WISD budget provide more detail, particularly as it affects AAPS, and that the board members would like to be informed constituents of the WISD. In the resolution supporting the WISD budget, Nelson suggested adding an amendment to be sure his suggestions were addressed. He noted that the one-time provision of information since the first briefing on May 9 had mostly addressed his concerns for this time, but that he would like to see such information provided regularly in the future as well.

Nelson’s amendment was included in the final resolution, and Mexicotte asked board secretary Amy Osinski to include the amended language in a color other than black and to make the WISD aware of the amendment.

Simone Lightfoot lauded the WISD for providing a detailed breakdown of transportation costs, and Christine Stead added that getting this amount of data together in a week was appreciated.

Outcome: The WISD budget was supported by a resolution included on the May 23 consent agenda.

Consent Agenda

In addition to the items noted above as being contained in the consent agenda (transportation committee formation, sale of tech bonds, anti-bullying policy, and WISD budget), the consent agenda also contained a set of policies, and requests from the city of Ann Arbor for two property easements for the replacement, maintenance, and repair of water mains.

There was virtually no discussion on the easements, or on policies 5160 (Student Classification and Retention), 5170 (Elementary Reclassification and Acceleration), 6120/6100 (Pilot Projects/Curriculum Development), 7800/5200 (Parental Involvement/Progress Reporting), 7810 (Parental Involvement Title I), 5300 (field trips), and 7400 (donations).

Deb Mexicotte thanked superintendent Patricia Green and her administration for looking hard at the policies and said she appreciated in particular the “reinvention” of the Pilot Projects policy in the manner presented. Simone Lightfoot said she had raised concerns about student transportation in the field trip policy, and deputy superintendent Robert Allen said that was addressed in the policy’s regulations.

Outcome: The May 23 consent agenda, including the above-noted items, along with minutes approval, passed unanimously.

First Briefing: Millage Resolution and 3rd Quarter Financial Report

AAPS director of finance Nancy Hoover presented the millage resolution that will allow the district to levy taxes on the AAPS district area property owners. She noted that for the third year in a row, there was no Headlee rollback, so the millage rates will be as follows: homestead – 4.7084 mills; non-homestead – 18 mills; debt service – 2.45 mills; and sinking fund – 1 mill.

Andy Thomas asked how the refinancing of the district’s debt instruments affected the debt service millage. Hoover answered that the district’s debt service millage was $15.8 million before the refinancing, decreased to $15.3 million after refinancing, and then increased to $18.2 million after the recent passage of the tech bond. She stressed that the tech bond affects only the debt service millage, not the other three millages.

Hoover then continued, presenting the board with the third quarter financial report, which showed an overall decrease in expected revenues of $280,000 due primarily to changes in special education reimbursement. Allen added that the staffing and expenditure summaries were similar to last year at this time, and said the revenue adjustment would be made through the use of fund equity. Therefore, the district’s ending fund equity balance for the current fiscal year is projected to be $18.45 million.

Outcome: These items were brought to the board at first briefing, and will be voted on during the next regular meeting on June 13.

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 a student representative from Roberto Clemente Student Development Center (see budget section above), as well as the AAPAC, PTOC, and AAAA.

Association and Student Reports: AAPAC

Scott White reported for the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC). As the district looks into staffing for next year, he asked that it considers hiring additional Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) to provide support for students with autism and other behavioral issues. He argued that behavioral expertise is integral to implementing Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) for students with autism. White also noted that with the passage of autism insurance coverage in Michigan, AAPS might be able to seek reimbursement for the BCBA services.

Association and Student Reports: PTOC

Amy Pachera reported that the Parent Teacher Organization Council held its last meeting of the year, and had a great celebration. She noted that a larger number of schools have attended PTOC meetings this year, and said the new slate of executive board members reflects a wider representation as well. Pachera also gave “kudos” to all citizens who voted yes on the recent tech bond millage.

Association and Student Reports: AAAA

Haisley Elementary School principal Kathy Scarnecchia reported for the Ann Arbor Administrators Association. She said that as a unit, AAAA members rely significantly on the police liaisons, who support the administrators in many different roles. The liaisons visit homes; talk with younger students about behavior and safety; help at athletic events; and watch over parking lots, among other things, Scarnecchia said. To make up the budget difference of retaining the police liaison positions, Scarnecchia suggested considering refiguring the truant officer, homeless liaison or other community service positions.

Superintendent’s Report

Patricia Green’s report highlighted a documentary she had recently seen: ”Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game.” She said it was “timely and poignant” and that she would like each AAPS high school to show it to students before the end of the year. Green said the film depicts the story of a football game between Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan in 1934 when star UM player Willis Ward was benched, and his best friend and then-future president Gerald Ford took a stand against that decision. Green said the movie was a very powerful demonstration of what character is, and of the longstanding impact people can have on society.

For the remainder of Green’s report, she offered numerous commendations of students, staff, and schools across the district, noting that “our students really distinguish themselves.” She noted the dedication of the Pioneer track to two longtime staff members – Don Sleeman and Bryan Westfield – and thanked the supporters who came to honor these educators, noting that “people came from generations.”

Agenda Planning

Andy Thomas suggested that the budget reduction plan for the 2013-14 school year should be brought forward to the board in October of 2012, with as much detail as is possible at that time. Christine Stead also suggested shifting to a longer-term approach to budgeting, and Deb Mexicotte said perhaps the board should discuss it at a committee of the whole. The board’s next committee of the whole meeting is scheduled for July 18.

Susan Baskett said she would like to hear about how possibly redistricting would impact transportation. She also reported hearing concerns about the new graduation requirements disproportionately impacting certain subsets of the AAPS population, especially special education students, and asked how that is being addressed. Mexicotte noted that the possibility of crafting a personal curriculum exists, but Baskett said her concern was that children are not coming out with a diploma at all.

Items from the Board

Simone Lightfoot said she was late to the meeting due to attending her daughter’s spring concert at Skyline High, and she thanked the orchestra director there for a job well done. She also thanked Scarlett Middle School principal Gerald Vasquez for inviting her to participate in Portfolio Day at Scarlett, saying it was nice to interview young people and to “have the opportunity to work with them on firm handshakes and lowering their hemlines.” She also noted that Scarlett had done a good job of calling on retired staff to participate in Portfolio Day, and she urged the district to look into “ways to tap into our retirees.”

Glenn Nelson said he also attended and very much enjoyed Scarlett’s portfolio day. He also noted the AAPS student art exhibit at the University of Michigan Slusser art gallery, and the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce’s honoring of two AAPS teachers. Finally, Nelson lauded the homebuilding program, which just purchased 12 new lots for the next 12 houses to be built. He noted that the program’s 2012 house has already sold, and thanked the staff and advisory board who support this program.

Susan Baskett said she can’t believe it’s graduation time – she congratulated all the graduates, especially those at Skyline High, who will graduate its first class this year. “Have fun, but be safe,” Baskett said.

Andy Thomas called attention to the upcoming Ann Arbor Marathon on June 17, as well as to Mainstreet Ventures’ “marathon meal” offer: For $26 from now through race day, you can purchase a marathon meal at Real Seafood, Gratzi, Palio, and a number of other restaurants and $5 of the price of that meal is contributed to the AAPS Educational Foundation.

Deb Mexicotte said graduation season was a “thrilling and joyous” time and that she was looking forward to seeing her fellow trustees at the five graduation ceremonies this year. She also said she had the pleasure of accepting an award on behalf of Baskett from the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB), certifying Baskett as “a master board member in the state of Michigan for continuing to educate herself around boardsmanship.”

Present: President Deb Mexicotte, vice president Christine Stead, secretary Andy Thomas, treasurer Irene Patalan, and trustees Susan Baskett, Simone Lightfoot (arrived at 8 p.m.), and Glenn Nelson.

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, June 13, 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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The AAPS budget forum was held at Pioneer High School. (Photos by the writer.)

Community members who attended the presentation heard a presentation of the full budget proposal almost identical to the one presented to school board members last month.

Highlights of that presentation included a core budget proposal that calls for a reduction in staff by 32 full-time positions, the elimination of some busing services, and the closure or merging of one of the district’s alternative high schools. Roberto Clemente Student Development Center is one of the district’s alternative high schools.

Community members at Monday’s forum were asked to break out into small groups to discuss their concerns with the potential budget reductions and brainstorm additional revenue enhancement ideas.

In addition to concerns about Clemente’s possible closure, community members also expressed concern about the rise in class sizes that would be associated with the elimination of 32-64 teaching positions, the elimination of funding for music camps, and the proposed cuts to transportation services.

The district will host a second budget forum Monday, May 14, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Huron High School. The board is not required to approve the budget until June 30.

Budget Presentation

AAPS superintendent Patricia Green welcomed just over 40 community members, and roughly 17 administrators to the forum, and later singled out board trustees Glenn Nelson and Christine Stead, also in attendance. She introduced the budget by saying that the district doesn’t want to make any of the cuts.  But she said that until state funding changes, AAPS will continue to face drastic reductions. Green described the budget proposal as split into three parts – A, B, and C, which progressively increase the degree of cuts and decrease the amount of fund equity used to address the $17.8 million budget deficit.

AAPS deputy superintendent of operations Robert Allen then reprised the budget presentation he had given at the April 25, 2012 board meeting, with a slight revision of one slide. He reviewed the funds held by the districts and their restrictions, expenditure categories as a percentage of the total budget, how AAPS is funded, and assumptions underpinning both revenue and expenditure projections.

Allen’s presentation highlighted the effect of rising retirement costs on the structural deficit facing all school districts throughout Michigan. That highlight had been a suggestion from trustee Andy Thomas at the board’s most recent meeting. Finally, Allen reviewed the proposed $6 million in revenue enhancements and $13-$19 million in reductions that had been presented to the board at its April 18, 2012 meeting.

Community Response

Community members attending the forum were asked to work in small groups to answer the following three questions:

1. Given the budget realities facing the Ann Arbor Public Schools, what is your main concern with the proposed budget for 2012/2013?
2. Based on revenue options, do you have any suggestions on how the district could raise revenue, such as private giving or increased marketing?
3. What other questions to you have that were not answered this evening?

They were then asked to report out to the whole group. Meeting handouts also stated that AAPS would post further information on the district’s website after the community budget forums to answer questions from participants, and also invited forum attendees to submit their concerns or questions in writing.

Community Response: Concerns

All of the groups reported significant concerns about closing Clemente. Participants said that board members do not understand the Clemente program. They questioned how the board could be considering closing a program so central to the district’s mission of closing the achievement gap. They also expressed worry that Pioneer and Huron high school teachers would not be accepting of Clemente students, if they were returned to the comprehensive schools.

They also contended that this possible closure was coming too late in the year for Clemente families and staff to respond effectively to the dramatic changes. Participants noted that if Clemente is closed, programs that work to prevent learning gaps in earlier grades would become even more essential, and that the district has an obligation to protect its most vulnerable students.

Another theme that ran through the community’s responses to the proposed budget was that it “cut from the bottom instead of the top.” A few references were made to excessive administrator pay, including extra pay for completing regular duties, and the “cavalier nature” of the raises given to top administrators.

Regarding the proposed transportation cuts, it was noted that eliminating high school busing would have a negative impact on who could participate in the lottery to get into Skyline High School. Another community member suggested that transportation cuts should be looked at holistically – in the context of community health. That person suggested that transportation cuts would encourage people to walk, which would fight obesity. It was also noted that cutting busing would likely increase Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) ridership and that that was a good thing. However, shifting the cost of transportation from the district to the students was also stated as a concern.

A suggestion was made to frame budget decisions by asking the question, “What is the return on investment?” of various expenditures, and to stop emphasizing that this is the “state’s fault.” Several groups expressed concern about higher class sizes resulting from possible cuts to teaching staff. And, regarding the summer music camp expenditure of $60,000, it was noted that the cost is relatively small for the large number of students it supports.

Community Response: Revenue Enhancement Suggestions

Community members suggested the following strategies for bringing in additional revenue:

• Sell Clemente and its property
• Sell Community High School and its property
• Across-the-board pay cuts or step freezes (on the teacher salary schedule)
• Graduated across-the-board pay cuts – 10% for highest paid employees and smallest percentage coming out of teachers’ paychecks
• Use more fund equity
• Use recognition of the district’s “Julliard-type” music program to draw in students from surrounding communities
• Sell advertising space at athletic fields
• Study building utilization to see if other buildings could be closed
• Eliminate supplemental pay for high school department chairs
• Deepen cuts to non-academic extracurricular activities
• Reconsider attempting a countywide enhancement millage
• Make “pay to participate” fees cover the entire cost of participating in an activity, not only provide a subsidy
• Eliminate 7th hour at the high schools
• Increase grant writing and fundraising

Community Response: Questions

Table groups asked a number of questions which were not answered formally for the whole forum group, though administrators did walk around and answer specific questions individually during the small group discussion and after the forum.

Many of the questions asked during the reporting out of small groups related to Roberto Clemente Student Development Center:

• How much will the budget be affected if the tech bond does not pass? [The bond was approved by voters with around 70% support.]
• Do all employees have similar health insurance benefits?
• Why were there no cuts proposed to central administration?
• What happens if SB 1040 [state retirement system reform] passes and how will that affect the district’s budget?
• How much money is being spent on administrators’ extra pay if they achieve their goals?
• How much is the district spending on outside consultants?
• There is an interest in seeing the whole budget – what was cut and what was not cut.  Could the district provide line item detail on consultants and all budget items?
• Exactly how does fund equity function to maintain the district’s cash flow, and how much of the fund could be used without impacting cash flow needs?
• How does the student-teacher ratio change if teachers are cut by 32 FTEs [full-time equivalent positions], 48 FTEs, or 64 FTEs?
• Is there an update on a possible collaboration with AATA?
• Are there any contractual issues that would arise if cuts were made to the summer music program?
• Why give sports [lacrosse] a year to plan [to become a club sport], but not give a school a year to plan to close?
• What will happen to graduation rates and dropout rates if Clemente is closed?
• Would Clemente’s closure cause of loss of revenue from School of Choice students?
• Why was closing or restructuring Clemente in all three plans [Budget reduction plans A, B, and C]?
• What is the impact to the community of having uneducated children if Clemente is closed?
• Why was combining Community High School with other schools not considered?
• What was the rationale for closing Clemente or A2 Tech? Did the district consider all the buildings and real estate when it suggested this reduction?
• How was the decision made to possibly move Clemente students into A2 Tech rather than shifting the A2 Tech students or other AAPS students out of their buildings?

Allen said that AAPS plans to put answers to these questions on their website after the second community budget forum, to be held May 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Huron high school.

Green thanked everyone for their input, and praised Allen for his candid responses and financial expertise. She announced that the second AAPS forum would be held next Monday, and that the detailed summaries of each forum would be forwarded to school board members for their consideration.

Next regular board meeting: May 9, 2012, 7 p.m., at the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104.