Janey to Ask for Extra $83.5 Million

One day after giving a long speech about his ambitious plans for improving the schools, D.C. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey said last night that he will seek $83.5 million from the city to pay for those initiatives and several other expenditures.

As part of his plan to boost lackluster student achievement, Janey has proposed a range of changes, including year-round schools, teacher training, expanded programs for gifted and talented students, vocational education courses and 10 semiautonomous "innovative" schools.

Those programs would cost $34 million a year -- money the school system doesn't have. Other expenditures -- which would be in addition to the schools' operating budget -- would include teacher raises, restored art and music programs, and utility cost increases.

"We're prepared to make a strong case for some additional funding to meet all our expectations in terms of educational improvements," Janey said. "There are costs beyond what our means are."

Janey made those remarks after a meeting at which his fiscal expert presented the proposed 2008 operating budget to the Board of Education.

The $808.5 million proposal, which is about $210,000 more than the current budget, represents the amount that would be covered by the city, said Nicole K. Conley-Abram, the system's director of resource allocation and management. With federal funding, the system's budget would reach about $1 billion, she said.

Conley-Abram projected a $51.9 million shortfall in the proposed budget, largely because of the loss of allocations made last year by the city and Congress.

In addition to the money to cover that shortfall, the system will ask city officials to increase per-pupil funding by 10 percent, to $8,846, Conley-Abram said.

Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty did not return a phone call seeking comment on whether he would support the school system's request for the additional $83.5 million.

Given that city officials are projecting $300 million in unanticipated expenditures over the next two years, Fenty may be unable to help the system, said Mary Levy, director of the Public Education Reform Project for the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

"I was more optimistic before Gandhi made his announcement about a hole in city revenues," Levy said in an interview, referring to D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi. "I think it will be very hard to get all of [the $83.5 million] from the city."

The school board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed operating budget Dec. 11 and to vote on it Dec. 20. But board Vice President Carolyn N. Graham suggested that the board hold off on the vote until January, in part to allow time to lobby city officials for the additional money.

In another matter, Graham announced that Fenty appointed school board member JoAnne Ginsberg director of policy and legislation. She is the second school board member chosen to serve in the Fenty administration. The mayor-elect appointed Victor A. Reinoso (District 2) deputy mayor for education.