Some asked for smaller class sizes. Others wanted to keep trainers who help teachers use laptops in their lessons.
Faced with competing needs, Shoreline School District officials and teachers have finalized a plan to spend $3.5 million in Initiative 728 money.
I-728 money is voter-approved money that can be used to lower class sizes and for professional development, among other things.
“We have so much pressure on I-728 funds,” said Marcia Harris, deputy superintendent. “We have exactly the same amount of money we did last year, but this year costs are going up.”
A group of parents from Shorecrest High School asked the Shoreline School Board Monday, April 28, to give more money to reduce class sizes. They expressed concern about math class sizes of over 30 at the high school.
This year, about 75 percent of I-728 money went to lower class sizes in Shoreline, with about $2.6 million spent. Next year, that will drop to about 70 percent, with about $2.46 million planned to be spent.
Conversely, spending on professional development, including technology training, will rise next year to $864,000, or 25 percent of I-728 funds. This year, the number was $584,000, or about 16 percent of I-728 funds.
How many technology integration specialists, or TIS’s, the district should fund has been an issue.
Voters approved a laptop program in February 2006 as part of a $149 million bond. In 2006 and 2007, district officials gave every district fifth- through 12th-grader a laptop.
The TIS’s help teachers learn to use the technology and integrate it into their lessons.
Next year’s funding for those positions must, by law, be different than this year’s.
This school year, 11.5 TIS’s were paid for with $625,000 from the capital fund, which has a healthy balance, and $280,000 from the general fund, which is struggling to build up a reserve.
Capital fund money pays for new projects and buildings, while general fund money pays for ongoing costs.
Starting next year, capital fund money can no longer be used to fund TIS’s.
Officials propose to spend $391,000 in I-728 money on 4.6 full-time-equivalent TIS’s next year, down from 11.5 this year.
Next year will see less technology training for teachers, though more general fund money will go to them.
Different teachers fall on different ends of the spectrum over how the money should be spent, but there has been a lot of concern about the reduction in TIS’s, said Elizabeth Beck, co-president of the Shoreline Education Association, the teacher’s union.
“It will be a huge reduction in tech support for the district,” she said. “It’s going to be felt by the teachers in the buildings. There will not be as much support available for those teachers who are trying to increase their skills and integrate technology.”
On the other hand, Mary Jane Goss, a Shorecrest High School PTA member, asked the board Monday night to reduce spending on TIS’s and other areas and spend more of it to reduce class size.
She pointed out the drop in I-728 money used for class size reduction this year.
As for the reduction in tech training next year, officials are looking for ways to combine training in subject areas like math and English with tech training. The details are being discussed.
In total, the I-728 plan allots $629,000 for professional development jobs, including the TIS’s and teachers on special assignment, or TOSA’s. The TOSA’s could train in both math and technology, special education and technology and science and technology, for example.
The plan funds those TOSA’s as follows: writing (.6 full-time equivalent, or FTE positions), math (1.2 FTE), special education (.4) and science (.6).
“For instance, when we hire math specialists to support the elementary and the secondary program, we will look for people probably with some tech skills as well so that the laptop can be part of the training,” said Harris.
A committee met to determine how to spend the I-728 funds. Its 21 members included administrators and representatives from the teacher’s union.
“I think that the committee process was really valuable and that there was good dialogue,” said Beck. “The difficult thing is that there are limited dollars and there are lots of very necessary things that we’d like to be able to do.”
The I-728 plan has not yet been adopted by the board. It will be voted on as part of the general fund budget in August.
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