By Angela Hatton
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Clarksville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Education is beginning to distribute the money from its Race to the Top grant. Clarksville-Montgomery County School System has nearly $5 million coming its way. That allotment is broken down over four years, which means the school system gets $1.2 million for this school year. At the same time, the district has had to accommodate a $16 million deficit, the most severe in their history. As officials move forward with new initiatives created from Race to the Top, they also struggle with some tough financial decisions. Angela Hatton has more.
Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools begin this school year with nearly 30,000 students. Clarksville is the fifth largest city in Tennessee. School system Chief Financial Officer Dr. B. J. Worthington says they add an average of 400 students every year. Keeping up with the needs of those students isn't easy, and Worthington says officials started thinking of how they'd like to use Race to the Top money as soon as Tennessee applied.
"We had, I think, a list of 24 ideas, and so what would we want to do if Tennessee, if we, if Clarksville was awarded the money without any idea how much money was going to be coming to Clarksville."
When the RTTT award became official, school leaders learned the money came with stipulations. They could only use it for new innovations and programs.
"It doesn't allow you to take some of your innovative programs that are in existence and fund them. You have to look at other avenues to take. And so, that's probably the greatest limitation that we've seen. Because we're grateful to have the money, don't get me wrong, the funds are great to have. But it's almost . . . it's almost a two-edged sword."
Clarksville-Montgomery County is using RTTT to fund a Science Technology Engineering and Math or STEM Academy for high school students. They've hired five new specialist teachers and will begin this year with 50 students, a number that they hope to grow to 150.
"We had had STEM in the background for a couple of years, y'know looking at how we could improve our science and math instruction. So we really have the opportunity to do what we wanted to do in the first place. So what it's done, it's allowed us to do those things we hoped we could have done had we had the money five/six years ago."
More teacher training is on the list too. But while efforts move forward to improve instruction, the crunched budget is a barrier. Director of Schools Mike Harris says a number of factors came together to create the $16 million shortfall.
"The biggest one was health insurance costs, employee health insurance costs. We had a surprise on that last fall to the tune of almost five million dollars that we knew that we would be hit with. There was an increase in retirement costs as well. We also had a bit less in student enrollment growth than expected."
As a result of these and other constraints, the budget approved last month eliminates 37 positions, some after school programs, and one program for at-risk students. District officials also chose to only buy new textbooks for their Algebra I classes. Harris says cuts to technology will likely hurt the most.
"Basically, we've cut 90% of our technology budget. We've done this for several years, and what I'm seeing is machines, equipment beginning to fail."
According to school records, there were 6,900 requests for repair in 2008-2009. Last year, requests went up to more than 10,000.
"Next year, we're expecting that to increase quite significantly because we just aren't replacing equipment in a timely fashion, and we're also not going to be able to run newer software programs."
School officials agree it's a conundrum to cut technology, while increasing the focus on STEM subjects. But Harris says the district worked to preserve as many programs as they could, including Middle College, an academy for juniors and seniors where students take both high school classes and free classes at Austin Peay State University. The school budget reflects the investment in learning. Seventy-six percent of this years' budget goes to academic instruction and support, as opposed to only five percent going to administration. Again, CFO B. J. Worthington.
"We've been focused on rigor and relevance for about the past three years. And rigor is really looking at their level of questioning, how they test, how they ask questions, how they the strategies that they implement, looking at that. And the relevance is how does it tie together?'"
State records show their efforts have paid off. In the past six years, the district has managed to raise its graduation rates by 14 percent to 90.8 percent in 2010. Worthington says they have also made strides in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students. Like many schools, though, Clarksville-Montgomery County noticed a dip in achievement after Tennessee strengthened testing standards last year.
"Our first benchmarks were extremely low and everyone in the county just took a sigh and went oh no.' But I will say this. It was one of those moments in time everybody had to realize, the standards are tougher. This is our first assessment; this is a good leading indicator. Let's dig it in."
Director Mike Harris hopes next years' budget will be easier to handle. He says, for one healthcare and retirement benefits won't be an issue. Harris' concern is for the upcoming state elections. Governor Phil Bredesen is stepping down after two terms, and Harris doesn't know if the new governor and the new legislature will offer the same support Bredesen has for education.