Manning Money from Where

Judge Howard Manning continues to exact judicial influence on public school policy in North Carolina.  He has ruled that about $750M in fines and forfeitures owed to the schools over several years be paid.  Further, he has ordered that the money go towards technology.

The response is both predictable and understandable:  “From where will the money come?”

More details at the N&O—“Schools Windfall May be a Bust”

Here are my related entries on this topic:

• Merry Christmas from Judge Manning ( Dec 07 )
• Out on a Limb, Part I ( Mar 08 )

NC Joint Sub-Committee Release Draft of Ed Budget

What does this draft signal for Public K-12 Eduction? Here are some highlights–

• Much concern about transportation fuel costs
• The elimination of funds to support writing tests in grades 4, 7, and 10
• Reduction of funds for Learn and Earn On-line (a response to low participation levels)
• Continued modest support of 1:1 pilots in 8 high schools
• Additional funding for the school connectivity project
• Increased funding for AIG services and drop-out prevention

Corporate or Revisionist History?

This time last year, I was beginning side conversations with county government to correct the course of our school system’s technology funding. I supplied sufficient data to show how erratic local funding over nearly a decade had created an aging computer inventory in schools.

As a result of inconsistent funding, 42% (or 1,243) of our computers are 7 years or older. Besides being unreliable and high maintenance, these computers are inadequate for handling up to 85% of the objectives in the Computer Skills Curriculum.

Faced with the reality that we would be maintaining computers for over seven years, our operational philosophy necessarily shifted toward power and durability as key factors to consider in purchasing computers. Cheap, late model computers from the bargain racks simply wouldn’t endure our typical computer lifespan.

Hence, the expensive durable laptops.

This argument resonated with county manager John Langdon as quoted in the News-Times on 6/22/07:

The county and school board also agreed to pursue a $2 million financing plan to replace computers in the schools.

In an e-mail sent to commissioners Tuesday, Mr. Langdon stated it was clear technology needs at the schools had been under-funded during the last seven years and as a result, the schools’ computer fleet was obsolete.

The data allowed Mr. Langdon to arrive at an alternative solution—stabilize funding and buy less expensive computers. His thoughts were captured in the Jacksonville Daily News (6/21/08):

The request includes $1.2 million to replace 780 outdated computers and other technology, but County Manager John Langdon sent out an e-mail Tuesday to school officials suggesting that amount may not be the most affordable or realistic route to take.

“That number may be too much for annual funding and won’t significantly improve excessive obsolescence (of computers) soon enough,” he said in the e-mail.

Langdon has proposed a financing plan much like one it just adopted for Carteret Community College improvements. The county would finance a $2 million loan to go toward school system technology needs.

Langdon said tight budget years and no technology funding in 2002 caused the technology replacement cycle for the schools to go astray over recent years. But he doesn’t see the practice of buying more expensive, higher-end computers to extend their lives somewhat longer as a good answer.

By buying computers at a lesser cost and implementing a more realistic replacement cycle, the proposed plan would purchase 1,475 computers, he said.

Then in August the final deal was struck for technology. This opened the door to a creative and beneficial partnership between the Board of Education and County Government.

Through creative bidding and setting a five-year replacement cycle, the county and the school system have struck a plan that both replaces computers and upgrades technology in schools and saves big money for taxpayers.

“It was a real incredible partnership between the school system and county government,” said Joe Poletti, director of technology and media for the school system, on the arrangement.

Here’s the entire News-Times article as documentation of the deal.

Why, even the erudite editors of the News-Times weighed in in support of significant technology funding in Mea Culpa.

Having had our minds opened to what school officials propose, we thank the individuals mentioned above for pointing out our blunder. We also second the schools’ request for “technology” needs, voicing a preference to lease rather than to purchase.

. . . and this is another benefit of Haulin’ ‘Net blog. It helps to preserve some corporate history no matter the turns in the blogger’s professional roadmap.

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So, it was with great intrigue, but little surprise as a new budget year approaches, that I read the print editorial from Mr. D. L. Darden in today’s News-Times (4/18/08):

Remember the $1500 laptop computers that school officials assured the taxpayers were the best price possible? Somehow the county manager found them for under $1,000.

No, Mr. Darden, we never said it was the best price possible. The above citations clearly demonstrate that we proposed durable and expensive laptops as the best value solution given the protracted computer lifespan into which our school system had been forced.

Mr. Langdon and the county commissioners agreed with that and moved to stabilize funding so that computers would be on a five-year replacement cycle. This is what opened the door to the less expensive models.

Mr. Darden’s feeble attempt to revise history and discredit the current Board of Education in the area of technology funding simply does not jibe with the evidence preserved here in the corporate record.

Out on a Limb, Part I

As reported in the N&O, much has to be reconciled prior to the state making good on the $660M restitution of fines and forfeitures to public schools as ordered by Judge Manning.

The exact amount each district would get hasn’t been determined, but it would be based on the number of students they have. School districts would have to use the money to buy computers.

Simple math divides the $660M by the state’s 1.4M students to come up with a per student allotment of $471. Multiply that number by the number of students in an LEA—say 8250 in Carteret, for example—to get an idea of what kind of money we’re talking about. For Carteret, it comes to just under $4M.

There are a lot of “ifs” here. But if the deal comes down, and if the funds are distributed equitably, and if it takes five years to do this — Carteret would be looking at about $777K per year. That is right at the number that we have always targeted as necessary to do a good job of maintaining our current inventory. It does not factor in growth.

The other part of the “if” equation is “then.” If the money is allocated for computers, then where in education does the money come from? More from the N&O:

But the districts are worried that the state could comply by taking money out of existing education funding. Michael Crowell, the lawyer representing the N.C. School Boards Association, said Friday that the group is trying to negotiate a settlement.

“We don’t want to be in a position where the state says, ‘You want $650 million, you can have it, but we’ll take it from somewhere else,’ ” Crowell said.

The bigger concern I see with this deal is that the focus remains on stuff, rather than substance. The most challenging part of the technology build-up in schools is not in the acquisition, but in the application.

The heavy lifting, therefore, is what we do with technology to enhance teaching and learning for 100% of our students and staff.

Stay tuned . . . a radical thought on that is coming up in Part II of “Out on a Limb.”

The Good Stuff

This year has been a good one for technology infrastructure in our school system. All schools are benefiting from the creative partnership struck up with the county to fund technology at levels that haven’t been seen around here in a long while.

But as more and more of the “stuff” gets situated, our true heavy lifting—what we do with technology to enhance teaching and learning for 100% of our students and staff—begins in earnest.

A recent e-mail from our school system’s Director of Technology Millie Temple shows some innovative ways that various schools are using technology to support teaching and learning.

A good exercise to build upon this info would be to link each of the following datapoints to a digital artifact that represents it. Further icing on the cake would be to show the percentage of student body and staff who use it and the effect it has on academic achievement, 21st century preparation, and/or personal growth.

Media and Technology Advisory Committe
MEETING NOTES

1/29/08

Agenda Item #1: Time for Sharing
Members shared the following information regarding technology initiatives that have taken place in their schools this year:

Morehead City Middle School

• All data projectors are being used
• Guitar Hero used for a math class (Deanne Rosen, 7th Grade Math)
• Airliners used in Science classes
• Teachers love wireless presenter mice (software eliminates the need for airliners/SMART boards)
• Portable labs/wireless canopy have been great
• Investigating the possibility of posting podcasts without using MP3 players (call-in process)
• Web Cams being used in 6th grade Social Studies

Broad Creek Middle School

• Podcasting w/ MP3 players
• Downloading books on MP3 players
• Use of Senteo presentation systems
• Use of 19 SMART boards
• New telecommunications system allows virtual field trips
• Creating digital yearbook
• Purchased GPS systems
• Purchased “Wii” game system for adaptive PE
• Held a “Technology Silent Dance”—students listened to their own music on MP3 players and iPods; Purchased splitters for students who didn’t have an MP3 player so they could share with a friend
• Teacher laptops have been great!—can work at home while still spending time with family (E-grades, e-mail, etc.)
• Teacher PowerPoint presentations are being added to teacher web pages (using a wireless presenter—records video and sound—can be purchased from Best Buy for approx. $50.00)—great for students who are absent or for remediation
• Investigating new projection system (projects keyboard on table—projects monitor on any flat surface)

Croatan High School

• Moodle (can be used to replace teacher web pages). Students can submit assignments electronically to the teacher. Students who are absent don’t get behind.
• Tablet PCs for Math teachers; Teacher dictates while working the problem; problem is recorded and can be accessed afterwards on the teacher’s website (great for absent students or for remediation!)

Harkers Island Elementary School

• Researched an alternative to tablets/air writers–$100 pen to be released possibly in Feb.-March that can be used to digitally capture what is written by a teacher/student

Bogue Sound Elementary School

• Had to change computer scheduling due to demand for more time on laptops–cart is being used 1.5 hour at a time instead of smaller increments
• 3rd-4th grade podcasting (Jason Vanzant)

White Oak Elementary School

• Laptop cart has been a huge plus
• New version of SuccessMaker has been installed and students have been enrolled—started using it this week—students love it!
• Using SRI-Scholastic Reading Inventory (to find lexile levels)
• Lab with new computers is staying full
• Teachers are enjoying the new projectors!!

Newport Middle School

• Studio/Morning Broadcast is being used as a model for Jones Middle School who has recently received a grant for that purpose

Basketball Racing

This is the first time in over six years that I have not been intimately intertwined with fashioning the local school system budget. The five-year tech deal we struck last year continues to bear good fruit—not the least of which is a renewed and reinvigorated partnership between the board of education and the board of county commissioners.

The Report Card from Carteret County Schools television show is shown on Time Warner Cable TV 10. Carteret County Public School System Superintendent Brad Sneeden and Carteret County Manager John Langdon are featured in the show that will be aired January 7 and January 14 at 7:30 p.m. and January 10 at 6:30 p.m.

Mr. Sneeden and Mr. Langdon discuss the budgeting process. They share information about the preparation of the school system’s budget request and about the county’s work when the school system’s budget request is received.

Monday night, I caught Report Card w/ Brad Sneeden and John Langdon. It was a nice piece of work! I especially took heart with the significant segment on the tech deal. The effect of that deal on local politics has been significant.

And translation to the classroom is simple. Recently, I observed a science classroom. Topic: volcanoes, specifically the topographical contour lines before and after the event. After some teaching and a hands-on project, the teacher projected two You Tube videos of Mt. St. Helens blowing, and then used Virtual Earth to hone in on the post-event topography of the mountain.

Such valuable visual resources are now a touch of the button away in many of our classrooms—much to the advantage of kids today. I rejoice that this deal (and my previous job) happened!

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I love sports. As an assistant principal of a big high school, I go to a lot of games. My exchange student from Thailand especially likes basketball, so she goes with me to all home games. In her English linguistic conventions, she calls all competitions “racing.” Therefore, a basketball game is “basketball racing” and a cheerleading competition is “cheerleading racing”, etc . . .

Last Friday night, our varsity boys played the best game of their season. We lost, but to a superior team. Thing is, much to the delight of the fan base, we were in the game all the way. In fact, we were up by 2 with 1 second to play. This from the News-Times:

With one second remaining on the clock and West Carteret up by two points, 69-67, South Central in-bounded the ball into the corner to Nobles, who proceeded to hit a three-point shot at the buzzer with two defenders on him as he was falling out of bounds.

Before the ball fell to the floor, Nobles was swarmed by his teammates in front of the heartbroken Patriot bench as South Central escaped West Carteret with the one-point victory.

West Carteret, which did everything but win Friday night, now has to regroup and prepare for its next game.

Even in defeat, what a shared experience for the high school community! And to be a part of it—whether a player, coach, parent, student, faculty/staff, stakeholder, exchange student, etc. is to be a part of something big, something unifying, something that transcends the individual.

So, yes, I have shelved county politics for “basketball racing” this season. There is enough action in both arenas for all!

Merry Christmas from Judge Manning

From the N&O:

Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. said Thursday he will make the state surrender as much as $768 million that will be used to buy new computers for every school district in North Carolina.

He rejected most arguments aimed at limiting the payout and the number of districts that would receive money from a pot of civil fines collected by state agencies for almost a decade ending in 2005.

Under state law, the pool of civil fines must be used to pay for new technology.

The total payout, along with the amount each of the state’s 117 school districts will get, is still to be determined. Money will be paid based on the number of students in each school district.

State officials did not say Thursday where they will find the money, but Manning said he expects it to be paid over several years.

Add this good news to the jumpstart we have received through this year’s local technology partnership with County Government (and its five-year commitment)—and maintaining modern technology assets over time will not be the most critical of our technology-inspired discussions.

As I said of this deal in The Heavy Lifting and reiterate now in light of Judge Manning’s decision—

We will have to address how these 21st century tools are going to impact 21st century teaching and learning for 100% of our teachers and students.

That is a much different and higher-concept, higher-value conversation than the “stuff” conversation. This is the time and the opportunity for divergent thought leadership.

Have You Seen These Guys?

The new computers are arriving in schools, and will continue to do so over the next three weeks. This is significant because it somewhat culminates an aggressive budget request process that began nearly a year ago with the submission of 06-07 School Technology Plans.

It also sets the bar for a creative and beneficial partnership with county government.

Tech support, school-based media and tech personnel, and some hired hands are busy unboxing, assembling, ghosting, and placing the much-anticipated new hardware assets. They are doing great work and are being as least disruptive to the educational day as possible.

Placement of new inventory requires substantial shifting about of existing inventory. And right much of our long-suffering antiquated technology is heading out to surplus.

So the projectors are in, half of the computers—including many laptops—are in the process of arriving, and the Request for Bids on printers has just been OK’d for release. To finish this entire deal, we will get some new printers in November and we will fine tune the order for the remaining 690 computers in December. Those computers will arrive sometime in February or March.

As an added benefit—the first wireless canopy has been installed at BCMS. The plan is to do nine more schools this year and the rest next year.

As I said of this deal in The Heavy Lifting and reiterate now:

The logistics are nothing short of complicated. Ordering, installing, mounting, moving electricity, and shuffling old inventory toward surplus will be crushing.

In short, once the procurement and implementation stages are complete, we will have to address how these 21st century tools are going to impact 21st century teaching and learning for 100% of our teachers and students.

And that’s when the heavy lifting begins.

Backlash

In “An Unfortunate Reality,” NCDPI southeast technology consultant Acacia Dixon cites an article about current trends in school technology funding:

As school technology infrastructures have become larger and more complex, the percentage of their technology budgets that schools spend on tech support has doubled in the last four years, according to a new report.

School leaders reported that items such as professional development and instructional applications are among the first tech-related expenses they cut when budgets are tight.

While we can’t do 21C without the technology, we have to be careful here about priorities and what will get us to the pinnacle of the 21C mountain. In The Heavy Lifting, I backlash that our biggest challenge is not in procuring and deploying technology assets. Rather, it is in how we use them to impact teaching and learning for 100% or our students and teachers.

The September-October 2007 issue of The Futurist has an article that should resonate with education professionals caught in the current climate of high-stakes testing and data-driven decision-making. The article is entitled “Not with a Bang: Civilization’s Accelerating Challenge.”

It backlashes our information culture. And it is worth reading as a counter-balance before we rush headstrong into the data-driven frenzy.

There is a growing awareness of the negative aspects of having too much information and of having systems to gather it that are too elaborate and too prone to error and breakdown. Being too dependent on information is seen as addictive.

Businesses and all other organizations continue to devote resources and money to building ever more complex information-gathering systems. The difficulties created by the enormous quantities of information generated, may, at least in some cases, no longer be outweighed by the benefits.

But when you have invested millions in an IT system, you use it whether or not it is the appropriate tool.

The point is we are in a people business and we can’t be reduced to an over-reliance on data as we make decisions. The argument is this: instinctive judgments, or judgments based on “thin slices of information,” are better than judgments based on gathering and over-analysis of more information.

Obviously, we must gather and interpret data to guide our broad progress. The problem with data is that it can get as granular as we want it to be. And it is fast becoming an end-all. What then becomes of human instinct, judgment, gut, intuition, experience, wisdom, sense? These human qualities risk becoming ever more valuable and rare in a culture that has an over-dependence on data.

That’s a little TMI for such a human enterprise as K-12 education.

Stay tuned for Part II, which swings towards teamwork . . .

A Creative and Beneficial Partnership

Through creative bidding and setting a five-year replacement cycle, the county and the school system have struck a plan that both replaces computers and upgrades technology in schools and saves big money for taxpayers.

“It was a real incredible partnership between the school system and county government,” said Joe Poletti, director of technology and media for the school system, on the arrangement.

Here’s the rest of the story published in the 8/29 edition of the News-Times: Savings Made on Tech Deal