D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey presented his first comprehensive plan for the city's troubled school system yesterday in a proposed 2005-06 budget that lays out several initiatives but acknowledges that there is not enough money to fund all of them.
He also proposed to change a master plan to fix many of the system's dilapidated school buildings by scaling back the amount of new construction in favor of rehabilitation projects -- an approach designed to provide help to more schools more quickly.
Superintendent Clifford B. Janey says initiatives lack funding.
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Both plans reflect Janey's priorities and the serious financial constraints he faces in trying to improve the 63,000-student system after a succession of permanent and interim superintendents has been unable to achieve lasting improvements.
"We've had seven superintendents in five years," Chief Financial Officer Thomas Brady told a meeting of the D.C. Board of Education yesterday. "How can we have a vision if we have seven leaders in five years . . . and an 80 percent turnover in principals?"
In his budget, Janey proposed spending $775.5 million provided by the city government; the federal government gives about $180 million. It is a 1.97 percent increase over approved funds for the current school year, a boost explained largely by inflation.
School board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz said school officials were told by the mayor's office not to seek a larger increase.
"We were given a mark by the mayor. We were told it would be basically a waste of our time to exceed the mark," she said. "In the past, we've been beaten up for exceeding the mark, and I'm really torn."
Janey's proposed budget envisions saving money in such areas as special education and increasing revenue by winning millions of dollars in grants. Whether those savings can be achieved is an open question.
Personnel costs amount to about 62 percent of the budget, a figure that has been shrinking as the system relies more on outside contractors. At least 30 percent of the budget is eaten by the costs of special education, which serves about 18 percent of the student population. Those costs continue to balloon because of high transportation expenses and tuition to the private schools that many special education students attend at city expense.
The budget document says literacy and numeracy are the system's top two priorities and emphasizes the importance of teachers' professional development.
It spells out a three-phase "educational investment" plan that includes spending $6.2 million to improve science laboratories and other equipment to meet national science standards in 85 schools, $5.5 million for reading and math intervention and $11.5 million for a professional development institute. But the budget document also says that there is not enough money for all of this and that all stakeholders in the city will have to work hard to find the funding.
Cafritz said she supports Janey's approach.
"I think the initiatives are very solid, and I see them as integral. But there isn't enough money to do everything," she said.
The current facilities master plan calls for $300 million a year in spending, although less than $100 million is available -- a reality that prompted Janey to propose the revision to emphasize renovations. His approach would cost $641 million from 2006 to 2011. It would allow for the completion of construction projects now underway but would reduce the scope of work planned for a number of schools.
Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, which works to educate the public to push for renovation of school facilities, said the new approach would be an improvement and would allow more schools to be helped.
