Minutes—LSRT January 8, 2010

Present: Present: MKim, CMostoller, MPhilip, PSweeney, Elerum, DNeal, MDacoba, CHumes, JAlbright, MPodesta, , JKatz, DForester, KMcadoo, JMeroney, DTorresen, RWattenberg

BUDGET REPORT FROM Principal and LSRT Chair: DCPS held a series of budget training sessions for LSRT members. At the session, attendees were told to expect about the same dollar amount per student this year as schools received last year.
Principals are scheduled to receive their budget allocation Thursday, January 14. The LSRT will meet again on the morning of Friday, January 15 to discuss the school budget.
As part of the budget process, DCPS projected Deal’s enrollment for next year at 882. Because this was a little lower than what Dr. Kim expects, she filed a “petition” to change the projection to 891. We will find out next week whether the petition is accepted.

PROPOSED LETTERS FROM LAST MEETING ON RENOVATIONS AND BUDGET: As discussed at the last meeting, a letter was drafted to the contractor working on Deal’s renovation, indicating the need to finish the job and including an extensive punch list. Since the December meeting, however, the contractor has made substantial progress, and the letter is on hold for now. A larger concern now is the completion of the field, which is now in some jeopardy. Principal Kim is seeking to resolve this.
Also, per last meeting, a letter was drafted to the Chancellor. The purpose of the letter was to recount the way in which DCPS budget formula penalizes larger schools and remind the Chancellor’s office of the need to adjust the Deal budget accordingly. As of mid-December, it was decided that it was not necessary to send that letter either, as discussions with DCPS on the Deal budget were going well so far.

BUDGET PROSPECTS—Report of the Principal
As of January 14, the school will be notified of its budget allocation. Dr. Kim expects, as in the past, to use that allocation first of all to “buy” the necessary personnel. Once the personnel is budgeted for, the school will proceed to budget the remainder of the allocation to support the purchase of supplies, professional development, and equipment (The school still needs additional smart boards.).
The school currently has a master schedule in place that is working well. The administrative team believes that the first priority in any budget should be to maintain and support the staffing structure that underlies the master schedule, which is the staffing of grade-level teams. One area in which additional staff is needed is in world languages, where classes are currently larger than desirable. If for any reason the budget allocation wasn’t adequate to support the team structure, it would be necessary to have a full discussion to reassess the school’s structure. But no one expects a budget shortfall that would require such a change.
Deal does have a small number of staff positions, especially in special education, that were funded through the stimulus. If that money isn’t available in the future, the school will want to figure out how to maintain those positions in order to continue Deal’s “inclusion” program, in which special education students are enrolled primarily in the regular classroom and provided extra support in those classrooms. The inclusion program is currently very well-regarded by faculty, students, and parents. In fact, if it was possible, it would be desirable to add special education staff to the faculty so that every team would have a dedicated special education teacher. It was further noted that if resources were available, it would be helpful to hire a teacher who would specialize in helping students struggling in math. We currently have an intervention specialist in reading, and her work has been a huge help to students. There is also interest in hiring a technology expert, who could help keep the school’s technology running and also help teachers explore how to use the technology in optimum ways. Once we have the budget numbers, the LSRT will revisit these and other supplementary staffing ideas.

OUTREACH MEETINGS At previous meetings, the LSRT discussed the usefulness of holding one or more parent meeting in areas outside of the immediate Deal neighborhoods. It is assumed that it is harder for parents in these neighborhoods to attend regular meetings at the school. Neighborhood meetings would be an opportunity for parents in these neighborhoods to talk informally with Dr. Kim and other Deal administrators about any issues or concerns that they have about Deal. The meeting dates were set. The first would be held at Orr Elementary School on January 21 at Orr Elementary School. The second would be held at Turkey Thicket Rec Center or at a home nearby. LSRT members volunteered to call parents in Wards 6, 7, and 8. In addition, information would be sent out in a listserve announcement to all parents. .
There was a discussion about whether there should be a third meeting in a third neighborhood. It was agreed that given the sites of the two meetings, most parents who were not close to Deal would e near one of the other meeting sites and that we should start with just these two meetings. Phone calls would be made to parents who lived in wards 1 and 4 as well.
There was discussion about how the school community, including the LSRT, could better communicate with parents outside the immediate Deal feeder area. It was agreed that a flyer would be prepared and handed out at the meeting that would set forth the many ways in which parents could contact the school and learn what was going on in the school (e.g. Edline, the PTA website, the listserve, team email addresses). A refined agenda will be drafted by Dyana who will then discuss it with Dr. Kim.

MISC Deal may get an enrollment jump as a result of the situation at Hardy with administrative changes. This could result in more students coming to Deal from Shepherd, which has traditionally sent many students to Hardy. This in turn could affect Deal’s ability to accept out-of-bounds students.
Questions were raised about the long term issue of feeder school boundaries, when or if they might change, and how Deal could maintain its diversity in the light of such changes. The consensus was that while these are long-term concerns, any shift in boundaries does not seem to be “on the radar screen” of DCPS for now. But the LSRT should return to this topic.

Adjournment.