The School Board of Broward County, Florida 600 Southeast Third Avenue • Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301-3125 • Tel 754-321-2600 • Fax 754-321-2701
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THE SCHOOL BOARD OF BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA 600 SOUTHEAST THIRD AVENUE • FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA 33301-3125 • TEL 754-321-2600 • FAX 754-321-2701 SCHOOL BOARD DR. FRANK TILL, BENJAMIN J. WILLIAMS Superintendent of Schools BEVERLY A. GALLAGHER CAROLE L. ANDREWS ROBIN BARTLEMAN www.browardschools.com DARLA L. CARTER MAUREEN S. DINNEN STEPHANIE ARMA KRAFT, ESQ ROBERT D. PARKS, Ed.D. MARTY RUBINSTEIN September 7, 2006 Dear School Board Members: I am pleased to submit the following budget for your approval. The 2006-07 budget reflects the Broward School Board’s commitment to student achievement. This letter highlights some of the budgetary challenges faced by the District this year and identifies some of the school accomplishments made despite the funding difficulties experienced during the past several years. Research shows that student achievement is directly influenced by the quality of the teachers in the classroom. As such, despite the many district funding challenges identified below, the School Board has agreed to a 6.45% salary increase for teachers. This commitment will ensure that the district can maintain a competitive salary to attract beginning teachers and retain more experienced teachers so that our students can continue to excel. The School Board members’ commitment to student achievement has paid off in the previous year’s test results. In both reading and mathematics, Broward County Public School students performed as well or better than students from across the state at all grade levels on the FCAT-NRT. In addition, our students equaled or exceeded the results in both mathematics and reading in all grade levels when compared to the four other large districts, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange and Palm Beach Counties. Also, statewide there were 17 high school principals recognized for outstanding achievement by increasing two or more letter grades on the statewide tests. Six of the 17 principals (35%) were from Broward County. As further evidence of our student achievement, 68% of our schools earned ratings of “A” for the 2006 school year, 84% earned “A” or “B” ratings, and 97% earned an “A”, “B” or “C” rating. No Broward County Public School received an “F” rating this year. In order to continue along this pathway to success, the School Board has embraced the “One Voice” plan. This initiative builds on the successes achieved through programs that have been identified through research as being successful. Intense training ensures that the entire district speaks with “one voice” and provides the best education for our students. As stated above, finding the dollars to remain competitive with teacher salaries has been a challenge. Funding for Broward County Schools has been negatively impacted by the state for the past several years. This is the third and final year of the transition to the new Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) calculation of the District Cost Differential (DCD). This change has resulted in a cost to Transforming Education: One Student at a Time Broward County Public Schools Is An Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Employer Broward Schools in the amount of $38 million for 2006-07 on top of the $16 million 2004-05 reduction and the $24 million 2005-06 reduction. Because of this adjustment, Broward County did not receive the same percentage increase as the majority of Florida school districts. While statewide the average funding increase over 2005-06 was 10.76%, Broward received just 7.28%. In fact, 44 of the 67 school districts received more than the statewide average. To compound the funding problem, most of the funds that were received came with strings attached leaving little flexibility in spending. For example, of the $122.3 million in additional funds received by Broward County, more than half ($61.8 million) was designated to hire new teachers to comply with the Class Size Reduction (CSR) mandate. In addition, $15.1 million will only be funded by the state if the District can negotiate a performance pay plan (STAR) with the Broward Teacher’s Union and have the plan approved by the state. If successfully negotiated, these funds may only be used for teacher bonuses. There was also $8.7 million in categorical funds that can only be used for very specific purposes. Implementation of CSR began in 2003-04 and requires that by 2010-2011 the maximum number of students per teacher be reduced to 18 in Pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade, 22 in Grades 4 to 8, and 25 in Grades 9 to 12. Since the inception of the program, the State has allocated more than $2.1 billion statewide to reduce class sizes. This will be the first year that districts must meet the mandated class sizes on a school-by-school basis as opposed to a district-wide average. Although we anticipate that Broward will be able to comply with the 2006-07 mandate, looking forward to the future we expect difficulty in meeting the class-by-class requirement beginning in 2009-2010. Operational funding to hire the necessary teachers is only one of the concerns in future years. Other considerations include teacher shortages as well as facility constraints. CSR has put a strain on the capital budget as more classrooms are needed to accommodate smaller classes. In order to meet the 2006-07 goals to reduce class sizes by two students per category, the District has used a Total Program Management (TPM) construction delivery method to expedite the delivery of the required classrooms. The District also continues to utilize programmatic changes such as making use of music rooms, computer labs, art rooms and media centers for classrooms. Relying mostly on building classroom additions, we project that the district will house several hundred new teachers. While the state so far is funding the operational needs to meet the mandate, capital funding is not keeping pace. For the 2007 fiscal year, Florida legislators have allocated statewide capital funds of $1.1 billion. However, due to the distribution formula in statute that is heavily weighted towards growth, Broward’s share is only 3.7% ($40.5 million). To add to the funding difficulties, Broward County was hit by two hurricanes during the 2006 school year, Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. Wilma was the most destructive of the two, causing some form of damage at every school and administrative site. The cost of repair and clean-up was approximately $64 million. As would be expected, property and general liability insurance costs have increased this year by $8.5 million while, at the same time, the amount of the insurance coverage that the district is able to obtain has decreased. Everyone is feeling the pressure of increased fuel costs and the School Board is no exception. We anticipate that gasoline and utilities will increase at least $9 million in the coming year. In order to meet the budget requirements, the district has been directed to operate even more efficiently. There have been budget reductions in schools and departments, as well as staff reduction and a budget freeze for departments, and changes in business practices to free up additional dollars. For the 2005-06 school year, the Budget ForecastCommittee was establishedto review and realign funding and district personnelto make sure that we are making the best use of limited resources.This committee,consisting of principals and district staff, continuesto meet in order to ensurethat the district is providing the necessaryresources to schoolsso that our studentscan continueto succeed. For 2007 and future years we will continue to focus our efforts on improving studentachievement and shifting resourcesas necessaryto meet this goal. I look forward to the coming year and meeting the challengesfacing the District. With every challengecomes an opportunity for improvement. am pleasedto presentthe 2006-07budget for your considerationand adoption. .. Till Superintendentof Schools FT/lBUJT:kt CR>~IOO.20-I3&2 Broward County Public Schools Published by: The Budget Office Division of the Chief Financial Officer The School Board of Broward County, Florida 1643 North Harrison Parkway, Building H Sunrise, FL 33323 Phone: (754) 321-8330 Facsimile: (754) 321-8198 Copyright © 2006 by The School Board of Broward County, Florida All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America The School Board of Broward County, Florida, prohibits any policy or procedure which results in discrimination on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, national origin, marital status, race, religion or sexual orientation. Individuals with disabilities requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may call Equal Educational Opportunities (EEO) at (754) 321-2150 or Teletype Machine, TTY (754) 321-2158. Acknowledgements This book is dedicated to all of the students and employees of Broward County Public Schools, citizens of Broward County, and to all of those committed to “transforming education, one student at a time”. We also wish to extend our sincerest gratitude to those who have contributed to the completion of this publication and continued success of our organization. Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Executive Summary Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1 School Board Members ...........................................................................................................16 Senior Management.................................................................................................................22 Innovation Zone Facilitators....................................................................................................23