Magnet School Tuition Back On Table

With all due respect, Mr. Goldson, are you seriously asking NHBOE Central Office to study something?? That's like asking City of New Haven to produce a complete/accurate budget of anything!

Why can't we just equalize the funding around the state and let each town educate---- their own children!!!! Cities like NH will soak up the remaining taxpayer dollars in the pockets of the taxpayers, squander the money, and have nothing to show for it except fat contracts for political pals.

@ CityYankee

"are you seriously asking NHBOE Central Office to study something??"

🤣🤣😂

Is that really the president of the Board of Education, whose job it is to set policy and approve budgets, using emojoi's in online comments to disparage and make fun of the central office educators employed by our school system? That is one of the most unprofessional things I have ever seen.

I happen to agree with you on the issue, but I am really disturbed by the way you treat people.

Do it.

Total and complete incompetence! Hannans and Co would have been fired months ago if this were the private sector.
Show everyone the DETAILS!!

Dennis Serfilippi

>>> "I haven't talked to one person," he said, "who thinks that this [magnet school] experiment has not failed."

Yes you have: me!

The magnet program was an attempt at voluntary regionalization and integration, shifting the burden of busing onto suburban students. It brings $35 million into New Haven schools, all of which benefit indirectly from the added funding. The magnet program has given thousands of students a great education in interesting and useful thematic areas, while giving children of all backgrounds friends and teachers from all other backgrounds. It's perhaps a success that hasn't gone far enough.

That $3000 per resident student is on top of their ECS, so more like $10,000. Penalties for racial balance should be ended -- of course! of course! -- and I am in favor of exploring the benefits and detriments of suburban tuition.

CityYankee's call to let each town educate its own kids just leads to property-tax-based inequity, and NHPS kids will lose. A better focus would be to get full funding of ECS and Pilot. What could an extra $3000 per student do for the neighborhood schools?

Give Goldson credit for a relentless effort to hold central accountable and only provide advice when they do not meet deadlines or discover what most of us know on our own. Here we have a part time board member out working a whole staff of "professionals." He and at least three others are the only hope we have. What is with the new guy Bart?

By the way who is the superintendent Hannans or Birks? Maybe it does not matter in a Delta universe.

The fact we still don't have a spreadsheet that outlines the budget deficit IN DETAIL..that is, by LINE ITEM, tells me one of two things is at play. Either (1) It doesn't exist or (2) It does exist but the powers that be don't want us to see it. Not sure which is worse. To the extent possible, we should furlough the administrators and invest the savings in hiring an outside accounting firm to review the numbers.

Dennis Serfilippi

Jill,

You are right, I may have exaggerated that number a little, I have spoken to you.
I agree with you on several points:

Incompetence or inefficiency is the top reason (of 5) for terminating the superintendent's contract (for cause = no payout). Board members should get ready to work harder and step up to do the work of and/or manage the superintendent and company if unwilling to terminate and hire a team who can/will. For example, last year, the superintendent's school opening announcement got some school opening dates WRONG. The BOE needs to vet the information coming from the central office so such mistakes don't happen.

This year, the superintendent announced a NEW summer reading program (in a botched communication: a letter dated 5 June attached to an email sent nearly 2 weeks later) without seeming to consider, or to know about the long-established and highly successful summer reading program operated by New Haven's award winning library system. As of a July 5 update, the Superintendent's program devolved into distributing (how? when? where? what?) 40,000? books and a reading log coupled with a visit to the library bookmobile! BOE members, this was a missed opportunity for a fiscally-sound, great-for-our-students collaboration between city agencies.

BOE: you've got to play a larger role in managing the NHPS system so that educational opportunities are not missed and fiscally unsound programs and policies are flagged. It's going to be a tough year ahead, good luck.

>>> "shifting the burden of busing onto suburban students." There is no burden on the suburbs. They get to send their kids to another school district and keep the money for those students. That doesn't seem much like a burden to me.

Under early busing schemes, urban black children spent too much time on a bus commuting to integrate unfamiliar, possibly unwelcoming, schools. The magnet program reverses that, so that the suburban (though no longer mostly white) kids spend up to an hour each way on the bus. I was not talking about the financial burden on the towns, which you're right, isn't much of anything.

I applaud the NHI in its comprehensive coverage of the NHPS and the actions of the NHBOE. If there is one deficiency it is that the articles present numerical information without providing context to understand the numbers. In this article, it is stated that 8,000 students are in the magnet programs. Since the student population is roughly 22,000, are you stating that 40 % of the student come from out of district. I think that the 8,000 number is a combination of in district and out of district students. I am also glad to see that the excessive amount of money to pay for busing is being addressed.

@ Jill-- perhaps I was not clear in my remarks. I think that the State should divvy up money collected from all the towns and divide it equally amongst all the towns, by number of students. I recognize the fact that there are poorer and richer towns. But you will find waste and corruption in them all. If the money is evenly shared; every town is responsible for educating their own resident students.

I also question the wonderfulness of the magnet programs. They have done good but the price tag is high for feel good solutions of togetherness. I would rather see high quality schools everywhere and vocational/apprenticeship options, rather than making colleges and the College Board rich.

>>> "If the money is evenly shared; every town is responsible for educating their own resident students."

If the money were evenly shared, say $7,000 per student, then Cheshire might be able to add $10,000 per student and New Haven only $1,000. And that is a huge advantage, in a world where the New Haven students might have greater need for the extra support that goes along with $17,000. You at least have to balance against tax base and student needs.

Not only is the state SDE funding New Haven directly in Magnet funds, the state has also built the 15 or more magnet schools paying at least 85- 90% of construction cost. what's worse, however, is that the state partially reimburses the city for the share the city bonded as it's match. The problem here is that the state reimburses for both school construction and extraordinary school maintenance cost, and the city instead of applying the monies back into the school construction fund, it spends the money on general fund line items or line items ahead towards deficit.

Since 2016 the BOE has had the option to seek reimbursement from the suburban for student and transportation cost, However, at the risk of suburban schools dropping out of the magnet program.

Therefore Darnell, just take the $35M and act like it never happened.

Sounds like Trumps trade wars; fire a first salvo, China escalates, and back and forth, and nobody wins - especially the taxpayers.
NH charges tuition, Towns stop participating, State stops paying NH for magnet schools, and nobody wins - especially the students!

Racial balance is the reason the state funds magnet schools, largely to comply with Sheff. To work, magnets need to offer education not available in suburban schools, themes with would appeal to wealthier, whiter children. An example would be the original Sound School's water theme, with the chance for sailing and boat building. Its website shows the type of activity not available at Amity or Branford. Note, when it comes to busing, at least half, and maybe most, suburban parents drive their children to school, even high schoolers. Branford's new middle school will have two main entrances, one for buses, and one for drop offs.

Our special education team went out for lunch this week. PPT chairs should be canned. Lack of professionalism, have special ed teachers run their meetings while they take four day cruises and vacations. They drink tea and make tea and coffee during meetings. They do nothing. they report teachers who they dont like to their principals. The teachers they r complaining about are teaching, unlike ppt chairs who talk on phones, text, facebook, and tweet all day.

@1644: It says, something, not sure I know what, when an exemplar of what a magnet school should be is not a magnet school. The Sound School, although originally founded as a magnet, has been a regional Agriculture Science and Technology Education (ASTE) center since the late '90s. Therefore it has admissions requirements, funding structures, and regulatory compliance responsibilities unique to the state system of ASTE centers (the oldest system of schools of choice in the state, BTW.)