Baltimore City Schools Message

March 10, 2004

After a very long weekend of thinking, punctuated by tragedy – and talking with parents, teachers and legislators – I have come to the conclusion that we can better reform Baltimore’s school system by taking more responsibility, not less.

I am proposing:

More local control
More local responsibility
New accountability that was left out of the original city/state partnership;
And reform of the school board to make it more accountable.

The citizens of Baltimore and Maryland, who are investing in our children’s education, should know: New accountability will come with this new investment. What has occurred in our school system is unacceptable. If there is waste… If there is overspending… If there is mismanagement… and if there has been corruption, it will be stopped. It will be corrected. Fiscal discipline will be restored.

There is a myth that emanates that because we are a poor jurisdiction, we are also incapable. We are not incapable. We can reform our own public institutions. We have done so in the rest of city government with CitiStat, and we will do it in our schools. If you look at the academic progress that has been happening in our school system, you will see the early evidence.

Where some see a dysfunctional “system” that needs to be bailed out, I see highly functional children who need adults to support their achievement. Where some see an intransigent union that must be broken, I see dedicated teachers reaching into their own pockets to pay for school supplies. Where some see a morass that must be destroyed in order to be rebuilt, I see a foundation of progress – real academic progress by parents, teachers and children – that must be reinforced and built upon.

This morning, The Baltimore Sun’s news story used the phrase “short on details” to describe our initial ideas for a memorandum of understanding. Obviously, more specifics will be forthcoming, but you can read below the measures we have offered, to date, to achieve heightened accountability, and judge for yourself. There will be dramatic reform. And the terms of our loan will insist on transparency – a turnaround plan that will allow the public and the press to hold our schools accountable.

Here are the basic steps we will take:

We will create – and all parties will sign off on – a fiscal recovery plan, with monthly targets and public accountability. A framework will be done in 10-14 days; the plan within one month.
We will set a date by which the school system will be back in the black.

We will be transparent – not just for parents, but also for the bond rating agencies that will be watching how our schools adhere to the turnaround plan. We are and will remain in constant contact with Wall Street.

We will have to make tough decisions. There is going to pain from top to bottom for the adults in this organization until we have eliminated the deficit. Our first priority has to be preventing our children from suffering anymore.

The options for reducing costs are these: attrition (including retirements), layoffs, concessions, rebidding and efficiencies. Almost 80% of the system’s costs are personnel. We are going to sit down with the unions to discuss options.
And the most important thing we must do moving forward is to ensure this never happens again:

We must safeguard taxpayers’ investment – for Baltimore residents and for the citizens of Maryland who invest in our children’s education.

We must ensure accountability – so that every dollar possible goes to the classroom, for quality teachers, for textbooks… for learning.

Part of this is building on the hard decisions Dr. Copeland and former Senator Neall already have made. And we will make a public commitment through a Memorandum of Understanding, that will be posted on our website, which will ensure that greater accountability comes with greater investment. The accountability measures in the MOU will be largely the same as in the Governor’s proposed legislation.

Document the financial success of Phase 1 and 2 cost containment plans. Through independently audited monthly close-out reports, we should illustrate how these savings are being annualized in BCPSS’s fiscal year 2005 budget plan. These savings, yielded largely through the previously implemented layoffs, will yield approximately $15 million in savings during the current fiscal year and an annualized savings of $30 million.

Augment BCPSS’s submitted plan to include a month-by-month schedule of specific steps to be taken to achieve the savings outlined in Phase 3 of the cost containment plan and the assorted initiatives planned for fiscal year 2005 with precise estimates and quantifiable targets: expenditures, filled position levels, to reduce and eliminate the cumulative deficit.

Address systemic deficiencies through immediate remedial assistance from the City’s Department of Finance and Mayor’s Office of Information Technology, and the full implementation of the recommendations contained within the Greater Baltimore Committee/Presidents’ Roundtable report and the Ernst & Young independent audit report.

Other measures in the MOU should include:

The City’s Director of Finance approving, with signature, the BCPSS’s monthly close-out/progress reports. An independent auditor will co-sign these reports to assure accuracy.
The City Finance Department agreeing to convene quarterly progress meetings with senior BCPSS finance officials.

The City Council President, in conjunction with the leadership of the Baltimore City Delegation, preside over regularly scheduled financial hearings to monitor progress in reducing its deficit.
Our Administration will send representatives to participate in all School Stat accountability sessions.

BCPSS will produce an affordable, downsized staffing model based on projected attrition, monitored at quarterly meetings. If desired attrition fails to materialize, a corresponding number of layoffs will be implemented prior to the start of the 2005 school year.

BCPSS specifies new budget making and monitoring processes with specified dates and formal public (e.g., board notification/approval for expenditures of a certain threshold or that deviate from previously approved plans) disclosure.

We also will send our staff here to North Avenue to help Dr. Copeland and her staff meet the challenges they face. Nothing is more important at this point of time. Baltimore must step up for our students.

Our local cable channel is currently running the press conference where we publicly announced these measures. Please tune in to Channel 21 if you would like a first hand account of this action.

We will reform our schools. We will hold adults accountable for public investments. And most importantly, we will educate our children. We have a lot of work to do. This will be a very difficult job. But with our parents… with our teachers… with our principals… with our administrators, and with our community, it will be done.

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