Tavares, FL - May 2, 2011 - Below is an early alert I sent out to FiscalRangers insiders. The topics at today's Lake County, FL School Board meeting are School Uniforms (at left is one option for school uniforms -our nomination), Budget Updates & new staffing levels, the "no body will say the true cost" wellness centers, and new Charter school policies where staff also fail to disclose how much they have lost per kid in charter schools by not charging for various services. (At left is one option for school uniforms -our nomination).
I since have been able to review attachments on the District website for some of the issues, and have added updated comments in RED below. I will post more comments AFTER the meeting in GREEN.
vj
Here is a link to the agenda:
If you want document supporting the agenda items, you have to go the the Board menu, select Board Docs, ( http://www.boarddocs.com/fla/lake/board.nsf/Public )then click the agenda for today’s meeting. Any supporting documents (not always provided) for the agenda items will be available as attachments. I have NOT had a chance to review the supporting documents, so my text below might not match what is actually discussed.
The meeting will be at the School Board Board Room on HWY 441 (NOT the County admin building).
Here are my comments about the topics:
Item 1: Charter School Procedures – It will be interesting to see if this is a follow up on prior discussions where the District had no idea how much they were absorbing in costs for each kid that went to a charter school. They also disclosed that
Update 11am: I reviewed the attachments on the Board Docs copy of the agend and 1) The policy for applying to be a charter school was revised significantly. One change was that any new school will have to hire their own staff and teachers who will NOT be in the District payroll and perks system. 2) Another huge change is a new Charter School Administrative Services policy that list MANY services the District must provide to the Charter schools, but it also lists optional services that must be paid for via a separate contract and using a fee schedule at the end of the policy. This is good. HOWEVER, nowhere does the staff show the total costs by school for services and non-billed services , nor is there a forecast of expenses and potential recoveries based upon the new policy. Thus they are HIDING the true losses of the old laissez fair policy. Thus, we still won't know how much the School District will lose for each new charter school kid.
Item 2: The wellness center issue Update will probably talk about spending more funds to setup independently run health clinics JUST for school staff (and possibly with some nearby cities?). Awhile back, it seemed that enough questions arose about the quality of the cost justification and whether this wasn’t just another perk for staff. Then it came back at a recent meeting as if the questions were never asked and the Board voted to spend over $130,000 to order a special clinic building. So, this might be related to the other TWO clinics they want to setup. I figure the spendthrift three, Debbie Stivender, Rosanne Brandeburg and Kyleen Fischer went for it, and the others caved. So, I will be watching in the future for clear data about whether this is a boondoggle or not. I never saw any clear objective data other than information from the contractor who will be running the clinics.
Update 11am: The attached single page document is very hazy about the true costs of the program. They talk about savings from a prior policy of changing from "fully paid" health insurance to "self funded" insurance, and now the plan is to use the UNSPECIFIED savings to fund the clinics - they don't talk about any cost justification anymore. The memo describes an "attached contract" with the vendor, CareHere, LLC, but it is not on the website for public review. The memo does NOT specify a total cost of the contract, but only that a fee of $23 per employee per month will be paid, plus all direct costs of the program. The memo does not discuss HOW AMNY CLINICS the program covers (the Board has approved one building, which is separately paid for by the insurance company). The memo says the "annual cost to the District is estimated to be approximately $3-MILLION and is to e paid for with a corresponding reduction in claims costs and a projected savings of $400,000." That statement is not clear to me. AND, this is a PERK for employees and should be part of offsetting wage and benefits negotiations.
Item 3: Budget Update: Since the State budget is now pretty well known, this discussion should narrow the final available funding and we will see how much of a funding hole or reserve exists. Knowing the budget means they will modify the “District Staffing Plan” which means we will know more clearly if layoffs are possible. Additionally, I do not know if the Board has settled on salary and benefit negotiations yet, and the available revenue could affect that. (They were at an impasse two weeks ago because the Board wanted the staff to contribute to Health benefits, which is commonly done in most private firms, and the unions would not agree.)
Update 11am: I reviewed the attachments, and they basically describe staffing levels for the next year, not financial budget info. By reviewing both attachments, it seems like employee counts were mostly retained the same, except for a reduction of 8 staff employees AND a reduction of 8 Assistant Principal II (APII) positions at schools where attendance had dropped slightly. Thus staffing is not hit very hard. However, those 16 people might want to know why the District is spending $3-million on clinics rather than retaining staff.
Item 6: Uniform Dress Code: Board member Jim Miller has been championing this study. I doubt he plans on the fancy preppy duds at left, so don't freak out. He proposed it once, assuming the other Board members understood the available data to justify it, and he was wrong. Board members Kyleen Fisher, Debbie Stivender and Rosanne Brandeburg didn’t even let the discussion continue. So, Miller came back with more info, and got more emotional answers even though his data was more solid. So, now , today, is probably the last chance – if the three big spenders resist putting the item on the agenda to discuss, there won’t even be a vote (I think). Miller has the support of Board member Tod Howard, and even the notorious “Right Side of the Lake” blog supports this after reviewing the success of school uniforms in reducing discipline problems in other schools. So, this could be the the item that gets on the 5pm or 10pm news tonight. Miller has said he will have 70 copies of his documentation available for the public. Some members of the public have also questioned the lax dress code for teachers, but I don’t think that is part of this presentation. There were no attachments, although I have some sent out by Miller via email last week. They clearly indicate that adoption of school uniforms would improve attendance and discipline, so you wonder why three Board members don't want it.
Conclusion
If any of these issues are important to you, come to the meeting and give public input. Fill out the card for the agenda item you want to discuss, turn it in, and get your 3 minutes of fame to talk.
Vance Jochim
Lake County Fiscal Rangers