BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Money would follow students if they change schools in the middle of a year under a student-based budgeting plan Cincinnati Public Schools leaders unveiled Monday.
The effort is to ensure equity in a district plagued by high student mobility rates.
Officials will measure enrollment three times a year, so schools will lose funding if they lose students.
"When the student walks out, the money walks out," said Kathleen Ware, associate superintendent for instruction and strategic planning. "The reason we are doing this is not because it's what's faddish or the in-thing. The reason is: We need dramatic improvements in student achievement."
Officials aim to phase in the plan during the next two years. School budgets now are prepared in the district's central office using formulas for allocating staff. That method has spawned an equity gap, in which per-pupil funding at neighborhood elementaries ranges from $2,900 to $5,900 per student, district Treasurer Richard Gardner said.
Under the new plan, schools would have more control over how they spend their allocated money, Superintendent Steven Adamowski said.
School board members said they welcomed a more equitable system of funding. And Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney said he appreciates the plan's concept, although he hasn't digested its specifics.
In other business, school board members:
- Approved the layoffs of nine carpenters and painters. The district by law is required to contract out some repair work and doesn't have enough other jobs to retain the workers, Mr. Adamowski said.
- Heard from about 30 parents, students and community members who urged board members to postpone their Dec. 7 vote on the $697 million facilities master plan.
An Academy of World Languages administrator urged the board to consider moving the school near the University of Cincinnati, where students could learn from other foreign-language speakers. The plan recommends moving it to the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Over-the-Rhine.
Shroder Paideia parents and teachers requested that it remain a seventh- and eighth-grade school, instead of converting to kindergarten through eighth-grade.
Mount Washington School students and parents asked to retain their college-preparatory program, which wouldn't be offered to seventh- and eighth-graders.
