In addition to my post below two excellent articles that were published in today, Friday, May 09, 2014, Citrus Chronicle. One was on The Renaissance Center by Eryn Worthington (click here for article) and the other on Silver River Mentoring and Instruction, Inc. by Logan Mosby. (click here for article)

Renaissance Operations

“Renaissance will be open for 2014-2015”

This coming 2014-2015 school budget season is in full swing.  As a school board, we now have the figures and projected funding to determine what funds we will have for the 2014-2015 school budget.  During the April 22^nd Workshop, the finance department presented the anticipated funding needs for the 2014-2015 school year.  (click here to see presentation) The presentation on April 22, 2014, demonstrated that the district is facing a net shortage of ($1,093,018); this has since been revised/update after the legislation to be approximately ($1,200,000).

Over the last four budget years (since I have been in office), the district has not only lost funding with FEFP base allocation revenue but has also made significant cost reductions.  Because those reductions were not enough to balance the budget and still provide essential educational and classroom services, the board chose to use our Reserves to balance the budget.  This has resulted in reducing our reserves from $15.5million now down to $3.7million.

We now are at the point that our reserves are the minimum required to meet board policy to of 3.5%; we are close to the state’s required 2%. If the board goes to 2% then the State Department of Education steps in and forces districts to make mandated cuts at FL-DOE’s directive.  That clearly is not something I intend to let happen.

Therefore again this budget year the Board has asked the Executive team and the finance department to find ways to reducing operational cost which has the most minimum effect on the classroom while maintain the level of services to students.  That is not an easy task.  An option that the Executive team and the finance department offered to the School Board at the April 22^nd workshop was information about a Not-For-Profit organization, Silver River Mentoring and Instruction, Inc. to staff and operate The Renaissance Center located at the Lecanto Educational Complex which includes our alternative school, first-time offenders school, and the alternative to expulsion school.  Silver River has operated a 200 plus student secondary alternative school for Marion County Schools for near 19 years.

What is Renaissance Costing to Operate?

For the 2013-2014 the state’s Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) funding per student was approximately $6,815. For the upcoming 2014-2015 budget year the state’s FEFP will allocate $6,937.23 per student.  For the 2011-2012 school year Renaissance cost $ 1,793,701 for 105.65 FTE (students) or approximately $16,900 per student to operate.

For the 2012-2013 school year Renaissance cost $ 1,610,593 for 81 FTE (students) or approximately $19,930 per student to operate. For the 2013-2014 school year Renaissance’s projected cost $ 1,411,326 for 128 FTE (students) or approximately $11,025 per student to operate.

Therefore Renaissance average operational cost for three years is $4,815,620 for 314 students for an average cost of $15,313 per student or approximately 220% of the state allocated FEFP.  Silver River has suggested an arrangement fee similar to what they current charge Marion County Schools which is directly tied to the state’s FEFP of 90% of the state provided FEFP or meaning about $6,245 per student which is an approximate $600-700,000 annual savings to Citrus Schools.  Silver River’s arrangement would be an annual 12 months renewable agreement that is direct tied in cost to the state’s FEFP so there is also no large fluctuation in fees from year to year and that Citrus School District could choose to stop using Silver River’s service at the end of each school year if it desired.

The next question then has been what is Silver River’s program like and how does their program compare to The Renaissance Center given the significant difference in operational cost.

Visit to Silver River

It was agreed that the Citrus School District would send a delegation to Silver River in late April and the board agree to send me as the Chairman with the delegation.  Our group included Assistant Superintendent of School Operations Michael Mullen, Executive Director of Curriculum Mark Klauder, Director of Student Services Regina Allegretta, Director of Exceptional Student Services (ESE) Nancy Hayne, and Assistant Principal of Renaissance Earnest Hooper.  This group represents nearly every department and district expert who make the critical decisions now regarding placement of students to The Renaissance Center.  In addition to this group a Citrus County Chronicle Reporter accompanied us.  The time was spent asking a great deal of questions and asking about options or alternatives to how The Renaissance Center and Silver River operate.  Among the many differences Silver River has a “door to door” busing services for students.  This means that the challenges we have faced at Renaissance regarding student might be better addressed with Silver River.  Their students are required to provide the janitorial services of the school as part of their behavioral program.  Silver River has a Saturday consequence school where students participate in both behavior classes and community service.  Like Renaissance now, Silver River does not provide ESE services.  Renaissance does not have an on campus ESE specialist or other ESE therapist as those services are currently provided on Renaissance campus but by another school.  These services would continue to be offered by another school but on campus at Renaissance.  Silver River does not have a physical education teacher as Renaissance currently has but  offers other opportunities including a ropes course which teaches team building and problem solving.  At this time Renaissance does not provide students an option to take the GED course as a graduation option; Silver River does.  I found that while the schools had differences, many of the core elements were in place at both Renaissance and Silver River– they just used different tools to achieve the same expectations.

Outsourcing is not new to Citrus

Outsources of students services is currently done now in our school and classroom services for many students in Citrus County Schools. As an example, for a number of years in our schools speech therapists and signing services have been outsourced.  The current outsourcing also affects hundreds of students in our district.  Renaissance will be open for 2014-2015; the question is who will manage the day to day operations and how much it will cost to operate the school.

Voice your thoughts

I would encourage parents, students, educators to attend this Tuesday’s board meeting to voice their concerns or opinion on the outsourcing of Renaissance.  The workshop will begin at 10:00am and the school board will then convene at 4:00pm for the regular board meeting.  At 4:00pm the will be an opportunity for the public to speak about issues that the board will be voting on, this would be the opportunity to share any thoughts you have on the Renaissance issue.

In the end, whatever happens please know that as a school board we take discussions and decisions like this most seriously. We have and will continue to weigh all the information carefully to make the best decisions for our students.

 

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