[Mpls] School enrollment & accounting gimmicks)

[Socialist2001 at cs.com]

So, according to Strib education beat writer Steve Brandt, there were 1600 
fewer actual students than budgeted students enrolled in the district's schools 
in the fall of 2003. (Steve's clarification regarding the district's 
accounting methods are pasted below my closing) How many actual teacher positions were 
actually filled by the end of December 2003? Why doesn't the district tell us 
how many teacher jobs were actually eliminated after the end of the 2003-2004 
school year?

There were fewer actual teacher jobs filled by the end of 2003 than there 
were budgeted teacher jobs prior to the start of the 2003-2004 school year. The 
district usually cuts teacher positions where it can after the start of school 
if enrollment is significantly below projected levels, such as by combining 
students from 3 under-enrolled classes into two fully enrolled or slightly 
over-enrolled classes. And there was a 4.5 million dollar emergency budget cut in 
December 2003, which resulted in the elimination of some teacher positions and 
some mid-year teacher layoffs.

Right now, and not a few weeks from now, the district should be able to 
report how many students are actually enrolled and who showed up for school on 
September 1. The district's funding is based on how many students show up for a 
head count day in October.

The administration and board are shutting the public out of the 
decision-making process by withholding information. And the board is making decisions which 
cannot be justified by the data, which is being concealed from the public. (I 
have not gotten any response from the district to recent requests for data). 

-Doug Mann, King Field
Mann for School Board
www.educationright.com

In a message dated 9/2/2004 11:45:47 AM Central Daylight Time, 
sbrandt at startribune.com writes:

<< The district is estimating that this year's enrollment will be down 3,000 
from the number of kids enrolled last year.  Doug asks if that's good news, 
considering that this year's budget projects 4,600 fewer students than last 
year's budget.  It's easy to confuse these two numbers.  One compares 
before-the-fact budget estimates--that's the 4,600 number.  The other compares this year's 
budgeted enrollment estimate with the number of kids who actually showed 
up--that's the 3,000 number.  The number of kids who showed up last year was 1,600 
fewer than budgeted last year.  So this fall's budgeted enrollment is down 
3,000 from the number of kids counted last year, but down 4,600 from the number 
budgeted last year.  We'll know in a few weeks the size of this year's actual 
enrollment.
Steve Brandt
 Star Tribune >>