Schools struggle to pay for No Child

By JILLIAN JONES
Napa Valley Register

Accountability is not free, according to local educators.

In fact, for Napa Valley Unified School District, it costs about $2 million a year.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, schools and districts can be required to comply with state- and federal-mandated programs that cost up to millions of dollars. But with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $14.8 billion cut to public education, educators say they’re in a lose-lose situation: accountability on one hand, reality on the other.

Toscano said the district spends “at least” $1.5 million a year on costs related to No Child Left Behind, with realistic estimates probably closer to $2 million. The district’s total budget for this year is $116 million.

Those expenses are related to requirements resulting from NVUSD’s inability to meet federal standards for two consecutive years, thus launching the district into a probationary status called Program Improvement (PI). Sanctions and requirements under PI increase every year that a school or district fails to meet federal standards, and at its worst it could mean takeover by a separate entity.

“What happens,” said Toscano, “is in PI there are some essential program components that a district is required to explore with an external team and implement.”

NVUSD is in the second of five levels of PI. Students must meet minimum federal standards this year to exit PI; otherwise it will enter stage three, subject to even stricter requirements.

Requirements, she said, include after-school programs, training for teachers, developing pacing guides for classrooms, and tracking data against standards.

“There are huge hidden costs,” said NVUSD Superintendent John Glaser, such as parent notification, curriculum changes, monitoring and the cost of alternative governance teams.

Earlier this month, he said, administrators and district officials attended an all-day meeting about PI. “That’s lots and lots of staff time,” said Glaser, adding, “When you start adding up the many, many meetings we’ve had, the curriculum costs, the supervision costs, monitoring curriculum, evaluation costs, it really does add up.”

“This is all good stuff,” said Toscano, “but it means less money that goes to each site.”

“You can only spend that dollar one time,” she said.

“If we were fully funded for what we need to do under No Child Left Behind … we’d have that many more resources to spend,” said Glaser, noting, “The budget takes on different meaning when you’re under sanctions.”

The irony, said Glaser, is that next year the district will have even fewer resources, as the governor’s proposed budget cuts would hit NVUSD with a $7.5 million budget reduction.

On the chopping block are academic coaches, training for teachers, and the district’s current data tracking system — all requirements under NVUSD’s PI plan.

“Unless they figure out a way to give us money to cover what is in our plan,” said Toscano, “we may not be able to continue providing what is in our plan.”

“How can we do it?” she asked. “We can’t do it. It’s like saying, ‘You have to do these things, but we’re taking away the money to provide you the opportunity to do it.’ It leaves you with a sucker’s choice.”

Until the final state budget is released in May — and even then it could take months to get the governor’s signature — NVUSD won’t know how much money will be available for mandates under No Child Left Behind, she said.

In the meantime, Vintage High School Principal Eric Schneider said he’ll do everything he can to make sure programs under PI don’t suffer as a result of budget cuts.

“I don’t see PI mandates as being affected here, frankly,” he said.

“Those mandates are top priorities and we need them to be successful,” he said. “We will use whatever site budgets we have.”

Schneider said there is the possibility that individual schools could be asked to reorganize their budgets “to make sure these initiatives are successful.” He might also have to look at funding PI programs with the individual school’s budget, he said.

“The PI mandates for me, those are site priorities,” said Schneider. “In my site budget that I control, those mandates will get funded first before we do anything else. ... It’s the stuff that falls below PI, like our arts program ... that’s where we have to get really creative.”

Noting the significant improvements in test scores over the past four years, Glaser expressed frustration about the impact cuts could have on the district’s ability to exit PI.

“It feels a lot like you’ve gotten this car up to speed, and you’re really starting to feel like you’re making a difference, and it feels like we’re headed toward a brick wall,” he said. “It’s hard to imaging that our momentum won’t be significantly diminished by the potential funding cuts.”

“It’s a momentum killer,” said Schneider. After so much improvement, he said, “that momentum just falls flat.”

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