Fighting for Proper Funds
On Monday, when I attended my monthly School Governance Team (SGT) meeting I found that piece I had been searching for to demonstrate my work in order to improve the teaching and learning at my school. The SGT is working on a presentation for our December meeting with two directors from the Magnet office. It is being held in order to express our concerns that our school is not accurately funded in order to meet to goals set in our mission statement.
At this meeting we were given data from a member of the SGT, which showed our school was in the lowest 5% of elementary schools within the district on the amount spent per student. The figure per student includes regular school budget money, magnet funds, and title one funds. In fact, our magnet funds have decreased in the past 12 years even though the population of the school has almost doubled. How is it equitable to spend drastically more on a student at one school compared to another, when they are both public schools? Because of the decrease in magnet funds, one item on our proposal is to ask for sufficient funds to account for our growing population.
Another issue at the Language Academy is textbooks. The state requires that we have a textbook for each student for each subject area. I am in support of this law, but I now have cabinets full of books that are written in a language that I don’t teach. Because of this law, the state provides my school with English textbooks. Any books that are purchased in the target languages must be purchased with school funds. What has happened is that we may have a couple of books written in the target language that are used for copies or put on a document camera. If the law was written to put textbooks in students’ hands, I don’t feel like it is working. Our proposal is for The Language Academy to have our own textbook adoption. This will allow us to use those state funds to purchase a book for each student and use school funds to purchase supplemental materials.
Finally, we are requesting that the uniqueness of The Language Academy be examined. Although we are all one K-8 school, there are separate Spanish and French programs. Currently, all the students for each grade level are counted and we receive the number of teachers based on that count. The problem is, that each program may not always have equal numbers. For example, this year in Third grade there are two French classes and two Spanish classes. The problem is, that all of these classes are over the maximum of 20 students. But because of the languages that are taught these extra students cannot all be grouped together in order to justify another teacher, according to the district. We will be requesting that although we all work under the same roof that we are considered two schools for staffing purposes.
I have stated many times that I am constantly impressed at the amount of public school options that are available to students in California. I am a firm believer in our program and know it is a great opportunity for our students. But I also feel that if we are going to offer all these wonderful options to students than they need to be funded in a way that is equitable to all. A student should not receive fewer materials because he or she attends a magnet school. I am very excited about our December meeting and the direction that is The Language Academy is headed.
At this meeting we were given data from a member of the SGT, which showed our school was in the lowest 5% of elementary schools within the district on the amount spent per student. The figure per student includes regular school budget money, magnet funds, and title one funds. In fact, our magnet funds have decreased in the past 12 years even though the population of the school has almost doubled. How is it equitable to spend drastically more on a student at one school compared to another, when they are both public schools? Because of the decrease in magnet funds, one item on our proposal is to ask for sufficient funds to account for our growing population.
Another issue at the Language Academy is textbooks. The state requires that we have a textbook for each student for each subject area. I am in support of this law, but I now have cabinets full of books that are written in a language that I don’t teach. Because of this law, the state provides my school with English textbooks. Any books that are purchased in the target languages must be purchased with school funds. What has happened is that we may have a couple of books written in the target language that are used for copies or put on a document camera. If the law was written to put textbooks in students’ hands, I don’t feel like it is working. Our proposal is for The Language Academy to have our own textbook adoption. This will allow us to use those state funds to purchase a book for each student and use school funds to purchase supplemental materials.
Finally, we are requesting that the uniqueness of The Language Academy be examined. Although we are all one K-8 school, there are separate Spanish and French programs. Currently, all the students for each grade level are counted and we receive the number of teachers based on that count. The problem is, that each program may not always have equal numbers. For example, this year in Third grade there are two French classes and two Spanish classes. The problem is, that all of these classes are over the maximum of 20 students. But because of the languages that are taught these extra students cannot all be grouped together in order to justify another teacher, according to the district. We will be requesting that although we all work under the same roof that we are considered two schools for staffing purposes.
I have stated many times that I am constantly impressed at the amount of public school options that are available to students in California. I am a firm believer in our program and know it is a great opportunity for our students. But I also feel that if we are going to offer all these wonderful options to students than they need to be funded in a way that is equitable to all. A student should not receive fewer materials because he or she attends a magnet school. I am very excited about our December meeting and the direction that is The Language Academy is headed.
