May 26, 2010 in City

Spokane schools funding plan makes dropout prevention a priority

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Jesse Tinsley photo

Outside the On-Track Academy in northeast Spokane on Tuesday, Ricky Thomas works on his concrete sculpture project, which combines art and math concepts. Although he admits to skipping a lot of classes throughout high school, Thomas will graduate this spring. This year’s Spokane Public Schools budget will allow at least 100 more students to enroll in the dropout-prevention program.jesset@spokesman.com
(Full-size photo)

A little savings, slightly higher property taxes, some conservative projections and $54 million in cuts during the last eight years means Spokane Public Schools will be able to avoid trimming much from its budget for 2010-’11.

Instead, the region’s largest school district will be beefing up its dropout-prevention programs, adding new curriculum in math and science, and increasing its online course options.

“Those are some of the things the community wants,” said Superintendent Nancy Stowell.

At least 100 more students will be able to enroll in the On-Track Academy, a dropout-prevention program that focuses on high school juniors and seniors who lack the credits needed to graduate. Most of the students in the program say they were destined to drop out, and so far the program has a 95 percent graduation rate.

Rogers High School will add a program that’s had success at Lewis and Clark, which identifies struggling freshmen and pairs them with teachers who guide them academically and socially through at least two years, Stowell said.

The district also plans to create a position to track students who leave to conclude whether they’ve actually dropped out of school.

The district’s dropout rate of nearly 29 percent is “unconscionable,” Stowell said. “We just have to do something to keep kids in school. The cost to the community is huge.”

Several initiatives are under way to address the soaring dropout rate, including a push by one group to address middle-school issues and a signature-gathering effort to put a levy on the ballot to fund prevention programs.

In addition to putting money into dropout prevention, Spokane Public Schools’ other planned upgrades include new science textbooks and curriculum for seventh- and eighth-graders; some new math materials for high school; and up-to-date reading materials for elementary school social studies.

Some of the money to maintain or improve programs will come from reductions in maintenance, travel and public relations publications, said Mark Anderson, associate superintendent. But the district will also use about $6 million from its savings, and collect more taxes from property owners.

During the last legislative session, state lawmakers agreed to let school districts collect an additional 4 percent in property taxes. The estimated tax rate for 2011 is $3.29 per $1,000 of assessed value, compared with the current rate of $3.01 per $1,000 – still below the voter-approved rate of $3.42 per $1,000, district officials said. The increase is expected to raise about $7 million.

Meanwhile, many Inland Northwest districts are faced with major cuts, some devastating. Mead School District, which decided against collecting more money from taxpayers, will lose faculty and staff and scale back its extracurricular activities.

Kellogg Joint School District in Idaho must close an alternative school and eliminate softball, baseball, wrestling, cross country and cheerleading. Central Valley students will pay a participation fee for sports to make up revenue.

Spokane Public Schools started cutting its budget in 2002-’03, and cuts were made during each successive year. The biggest reductions were in 2003-’04, of $9.1 million; in 2007-’08, of $10.8 million; and this school year, of $8.6 million, according to Anderson.

The biggest cuts have been in personnel – $29.4 million, which includes a 14.43 percent reduction in administration and 8.84 percent in teaching positions.

The largest part of the district’s budget is payroll.

Before the 2010-’11 schools budget is adopted this summer, there will be numerous opportunities for public input, including two forums next week.

The proposed budget was presented to the Spokane school board last week.

“They were impressed with our savings,” Anderson said. “They were also glad to see we were proposing to direct resources toward programs that needed it.”

Four comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Ninch on May 26 at 6:35 a.m.

  Regarding “drop out” prevention…. where is the research to justify this mixed bag of proposed programs? Spokane SD needs to concentrate on effectiveness and not willy nilly throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks?

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  lewis8457 on May 26 at 7:18 a.m.

  slightly higher property taxes. it will soon be a determent to own property in this town. My property taxes go up at 10% a year, and what do we have to show for it.

  every year the schools want more and more while the drop out rate never goes away.

  I dropped out of school because I hated living at home with a abusive parent..how is raising my property tax going to help those kids?

• 

  west on May 26 at 11:18 a.m.

  More feel good, warm and fuzzy logic from Stowell. More and more money…just wait untill the economy is booming again..it will be huge jumps in taxes to get dist 81 back to the dollars they got in 2006…and same crappy results..hey, face it some kids are doomed to failure in life….30 percent? That means hundreds possibly a thousand kids drop out in Dist 81? And only a few will be touched by this new enhancement program.

• 

  bbetzen on May 28 at 8:35 p.m.

  The School Archive Project is a new method of using an old dropout cure to focus students onto their own story, their own plans for the future. It cost less than $2 per student, and works!

  In 2005 a 350-pound vault was bolted to an inner-city middle school lobby floor to function as a time-capsule and hold letters written by 8th graders to themselves. These student letters are about their lives, their story, their achievements, and their 10-year goals. Parents are also encouraged to write a letter to their child about their dreams for their child. The child brings that letter to school to be placed with their own letter into the same envelope.

  Students know they will return to retrieve these letters at their 10-year class reunion. At that reunion they know they will be also be invited to speak with then current students about their recommendations for success. They prepare for questions from decade younger students such as, “Would you do anything differently if you were 13 again?”

  Archive Project achievements since 2005 as of April 2010:

  1) Pinkston and Sunset, high schools who have received almost all the Archive Project students since 2005, have improved their graduation and upper grade enrollment rates dramatically! From 2005/2006 to 2009/2010 the DISD enrollment for 11th and 12th grade students grew over 5% for a total increase of 758 more upper class students. However, 55% (417) of this 758 student increase for all 32 Dallas ISD high schools happened at only Pinkston & Sunset!

  2) The first Archive Project Classes of 2005 were members of the Graduation Class of 2009, the largest graduating classes in over a decade!

  2) The second and third Archive Project Classes of 2007 and 2008 are now members of the largest 11th and 12th grade classes in history at both Pinkston and Sunset!

  5) This active focus on the future has been accompanied by a drop in the Quintanilla student pregnancy rate of over 50% since 2005!

  More details at http://www.studentmotivation.org