Budget Quick Takes

On February 24, 2022, Dr. Durán presented his proposal for the FY 2023 budget. As the result of an additional $46 million in funding from the County and $18 million from the State, revenue increases more than offset the reduction of Federal funds after last year’s ESSER III funding. APS also saved nearly $10 million from reduced enrollment, and was able to replenish some reserves last year after showing $60 million in unspent funds from FY2021. However, Dr. Durán's presentation proposed leaving APS with current reserves of approximately $25 million.

As a result, APS states that its budget this year increased 6.4% over last year’s budget, which had also increased 5.1% over the 2021 budget. So, with $75 million (11%) more in budget than two years ago, how is APS doing in terms of providing students with better instruction in the form of smaller class sizes, more teachers and more instructional time? In that regard, APE finds the proposed budget to be a disappointment. Even the bright spots in the budget are at best half-steps toward improving instruction for Arlington students.   

The Bright Spots: 

·        Teacher pay.  APS’ 2021 compensation study reflected that even though APS’ cost per student is the highest in the region, our teachers' pay is middle-of-the-pack at best, and “APS is ranked last among eight local area school divisions for teacher starting salaries.” APS hoped that adopting a new pay structure would put it among the top two school systems in the region across every category, and budgeted $33.5 million to accomplish that goal. Unfortunately, other districts in the region had the same idea and have also made plans to increase teacher pay, so APS’ rates will still likely represent the median among its peer districts despite having a higher cost of living. APS should invest more in order to successfully move to the top in the region. 

·        Class Sizes.  APS will reduce class size planning factors across both elementary and secondary.  This is a necessary first step to undo the increases from prior years. But, our average class sizes will still be the same as they were two years ago, when they were some of the highest in the region.  Although the proposed reduction in class sizes would add 80 elementary and secondary teachers, APS’ reduced enrollment from the last two years resulted in a reduction of 87 teacher positions, which more than offsets the need for additional teachers. Thus, the total number of teachers will not increase; in fact, it will slightly decrease. APS needs to do more to truly reduce class sizes, which will require hiring more teachers.

·        Students with Disabilities.  APS plans to increase staffing for students with disabilities by 76 FTE, for a cost of $8.7 million. 

The Disappointments:

·        Additional Instructional Time. APS continues to ignore the need for additional instructional time or tutoring to overcome learning loss that resulted from decisions made during COVID.  Many of our neighboring districts have invested millions for such tutoring and after school programs, but the budget reflects no funding nor prioritization for such instruction.

·        Summer School.  APS continues its plan to invest $5mil into a summer school program that will host one of the smallest classes in recent years and only run for half-days and one to two weeks less than constitutes best practice. APS’ 2021 summer school enrollment was the lowest enrollment of any year in the last six years.

ASEAC Update

At the February 22, 2022 ASEAC meeting, APS provided an update on the “recovery services” being provided. “Recovery services” is not a legal term under federal special education law, but in Virginia it is a concept designed to address the reality that some children fell behind during pandemic schooling. It is separate from “compensatory services,” which may have legal implications.

As shared during the ASEAC meeting, APS is currently providing “recovery services” to a little over 300 students with disabilities (SWDs) out of roughly 4,200 students with IEPs. APS’ data on reading shows that approximately 61% of SWDs in K-8 are in need of moderate or intensive support for reading (based on Fall DIBELS scores). Thus, it appears that APS is vastly under-providing these recovery services.

Learning Loss Update 

Student performance has been raising red flags, as noted in this space over and over again. Data obtained through FOIA requests confirms we were right to worry. Math Inventory (MI) scores this year show a dramatic increase in the percentage of students scoring “below basic” in grades 5 through 8. DIBELS data indicate a large percentage of students are “at risk” for missing literacy benchmarks and may require intensive support, including 27.8% of all kindergartners and a quarter of all first graders. The level of academic need reflected in the data is greater at Title I schools than at non-Title I schools.

APS has been too slow to respond to learning loss and has taken a business-as-usual approach. This stands in contrast to our neighboring school districts, which are allocating more dollars to interventions such as high-dosage tutoring, extended school year/expanded learning time, and strong summer program planning. APS is not doing these things. APS expects to release a dashboard soon of student assessments; we hope that quickly leads to concerted recovery efforts.

To date, APS has only pointed to “accelerated learning,” described on the APS website as a 14-item list of goals for teachers, and a 7-item list of goals for students, without any indication that teachers will receive additional support or students will be given extra time needed to achieve these goals. Indeed, several of the expectations tacitly acknowledge that “accelerated” means content will be skipped. For example, teachers are to utilize “reframed APS curriculum documents that emphasize the most critical skills and knowledge for each course or grade level,” prioritize “power standards” (presumably at the expense of non-power standards), and “utilize scaffolding strategies” to help students “master the key concepts.” This is a recipe for rushing students along without truly addressing pandemic-induced deficiencies, as well as for teacher burnout.

APS should promptly prepare and publish a comprehensive and evidence-based plan to address learning loss. This will invite widespread and much-needed attention to the problem, foster community engagement and involvement to address the problem, and encourage community partnerships. For instance, APS should partner with the County for coordination purposes and to establish additional funding beyond what is required in normal times. In the meantime, please read our longer report here.

Email APS administrators and Board Members to request an evidence-based plan to address learning loss.
Read a letter we sent APS in September on the topic here and other letters and remarks here.

APS K-12 Math Resource Adoption: A Unique Opportunity

On Wednesday, March 16th from 1:30 PM - 6:00 PM at Kenmore MS, APS is offering the public a chance to review and provide feedback on a variety of the math curricular resources under consideration. This is a great chance to learn more about the available options and hopefully have a chance to pose questions to the vendors themselves. Hope to see you there!

APS Wants Your Feedback!

APS is currently soliciting community feedback on Draft School Board policies. You can make your voice heard on the APS Engage website and through the survey specifically on Gifted Services here. Comments can be provided for each individual policy until the deadline listed on the website. Here are some of the policies being revised, which all have a deadline of March 17th:

• I-7.4.1.32 School Special Activities

• I-7.2.2 Gifted Services (Of note, the Gifted PIP text still does not mention intensified courses as an option for MS students despite the fact that APS currently offers intensified math courses.)

• I-8.1 Grouping

• J-5.1.30 Attendance

• J-5.1.31 Full-Day Attendance
  
  Tell APS your thoughts on Draft School Board Policies.
  Tell the School Board your thoughts on Draft School Board Policies.
  Forward to a friend or neighbor.