California Association of School Business Of f icials
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What you need to know to meet the new ESSA reporting requirements
Creating safe havens
How schools are innovating to serve immigrant students, families
Set the stage for committee success
10 tips to help school leaders work effectively with citizen committee members
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The California Association of School Business Officials is the premier resource for professional development in all aspects of school business. Founded in 1928, CASBO serves more than 24,000 members by providing certifications and training, promoting business best practices, and creating opportunities for professional collaboration. CASBO members represent every facet of school business management and operations. The association offers public school leaders an entire career’s worth of growth opportunities.
As the recognized authority in California school business, CASBO is a member-driven association that promotes ethical values; develops exceptional leaders; advocates for, and supports the needs of, members; and sets the standard for excellence through top-quality professional development and mentorship, meaningful collaboration and communication, and unparalleled innovation.
For the past 15 years, CASBO has been dedicated to the organizational planning discipline as a method for guiding the association into a successful future. This year, the association embarked on its sixth such plan, CASBO by Design 2.0. This living, breathing document guides the association in its long-term planning process, which is grassroots in nature, invigorating in procedure and motivating in outcome.
CASBO has long been committed to organizational planning because the approach has consistently helped the association envision its future and determine the clear steps to get there. The road map that strategic planning provides has allowed CASBO to remain focused on its unique mission, goals and objectives and to respond effectively to a continually changing environment.
For more information on CASBO by Design, visit casbo.org > About > CASBO by Design.
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Many years ago, a seasoned and wise leader told me, “How you do business is as important as the business you do.” The way we treat others, the way we communicate basic values of respect, courtesy and professionalism, along with our behavior and demeanor, all make significant contributions to the work we do. This wise leader also modeled the proper behavior, proving that powerful leadership is always accompanied by action and reinforcement.
Let’s face it, leading schools is difficult. We have turnover in our employee and leadership ranks due to retirements and the changing marketplace. And many organizations have four or five generations working side by side, putting some of the most tech-savvy employees alongside folks who grew up with black and white TVs. Our generational differences can be difficult to blend because each generation has pride in its contributions and may think its skills and expertise are superior to others. Along the way, assumptions about each generation are shared in the workplace. Too young, too old, no work ethic, no boundaries, great boundaries, no respect for leadership, respect for personal contributions – these are just a few of the stereotypes out there. Add to this mixtureracial, ethnic, religious and political differences and you have the perfect opportunity to court either conflict or cooperation!
When I apply the idea that how we do business is as important as the business we do to the situation above, I’d add that how we welcome, onboard, train and embrace the skills of our new employees has never been more important. We provide a service to public schools that truly supports student achievement and success. Without us, the instructional side of the house couldn’t deliver an educational program that meets the needs of students and supports the teaching staff.
We should be proud of our accomplishments, our training and our professionalism. We promote the profession and the people who work tirelessly for our schools and county offices. Our new employees need to understand while also feeling valued and respected from their first day on the job. But we also need to address the elephants in our rooms: things like interpersonal conflict, lack of appreciation and understanding of cultures and generations, poor communication skills, and a sense that school business is less important than other aspects of the educational world. Addressing these elephants requires that we offer professional development, both internally and externally, for our teams.
Like the workforce, CASBO is evolving. With over 24,000 members, we know that to reach new ones, we must think about how we do business as well as the business we do! That’s why we’re expanding the leadership opportunities we offer. We’re working with section and professional council leaders to provide professional development, certifications and mentorship to all members. We’re enhancing our social media, technology and delivery of online professional development and expanding our training opportunities. We’re embracing the elephants in the room that can derail us.
Daily, I’m empowered and inspired by the opportunities before us! CASBO is living its mission statement: The mission of CASBO, the trusted authority on school business operations, is to support the success of all students through leadership, innovative professional development and advocacy.
How do we do business? We do CASBO business that is leader-directed, professional and focused. The business we do is to represent you with local, state and federal advocacy, and to provide you with opportunities for leadership and professional development and training. Thank you for being our inspiration and our trusted partners in school business and operations! z z z
Molly McGee Hewitt CEO & Executive Director
It’s amazing to me that in an age when we’re more connected than ever before, successful communication is still an issue. We’ve got smartphones, land lines, email, text, voicemail, Skype, Viber, Zoom Rooms, u.s. Mail, overnight delivery. Our watches and fitness bands can track us with gps and provide us with emails and voicemails. We’ve got 24 -hour news coverage of local and world events and thousands of online sources of information. We can be in contact with our families around the world or in the back bedroom with technology. And, also thanks to technology, we can work from anywhere.
With all these tools, it would seem communication would never be an issue!
The truth of communication is that quality trumps quantity. We focus on the things that are important to us and that bring value to our lives. We all have personal filters that enable us to cut out the sheer volume of information we receive and strategically direct our attention to what’s important to us. If you question this, notice how many folks have special ring tones for the key people in their lives.
This year, as I promote my theme of “Cultivating Connections: Collaborate, Communicate, Create,” I’m reminded that good communication is honest, clear and delivered in an appropriate manner. The message must be more than words –it includes the manner of delivery, the reputation of the communicator and the value of the information. And we must understand that to support our districts and county offices, we need to effectively communicate with a variety of audiences both internally and externally.
Remember, communication is a twoway street with senders and receivers, and to be great at it, you must not only
be able to deliver a message, you must be able to hear and understand the message. A strong message that falls on deaf ears is not successful communication.
So much of my work and that of our casbo members is centered around communication. Interpersonal communication, all forms of written communication and our verbal communication affect our public image. A presentation at a staff meeting, a one-on-one with a colleague, a board meeting discussion and even participating in a committee provide us with opportunities to communicate.
It also educates and informs us. Every day, from the moment we arrive at our workplaces, we begin communicating! Our dress, our behavior, our attitude, our energy and our words send powerful messages. The attention we give to a speaker or a message also conveys our ability to listen and engage.
My career has given me the opportunity to work in two very different but excellent school districts. Each district has its own culture and communication challenges. Visiting our casbo sections and events gives me insight into different protocols and expectations within our state. Representing you at national events provides me with another unique venue to communicate and to listen. Each of these experiences informs the value and importance of being the best communicator I can be and reminds me that our methods of delivering information need to be appropriate for the organizations we serve. Communication is never one-size-fits-all; it’s an ongoing effort to enhance our service through effective communication.
casbo accepts and embraces the challenges of good communication. Through our publications, email, social
media, events and meetings, we employ a variety of methods of communication. We strive to communicate clearly and effectively with our members and to listen with that same intensity to suggestions and new ideas.
We also work as a team to offer opportunities to improve communication through regional workshops and Annual Conference programs. We understand that to assist our members in cultivating connections, we must all work to become even better communicators.
After all, advancement in our profession is often directly tied to our ability to communicate. That’s why I’m inviting each of you to join me in focusing on communication this year as, together, we work to cultivate connections. z z z
Christina Aguilar President
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By Nicole Krueger
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STOP BY ANY SCHOOL IN LINDSAY, and you might catch Grant Schimelpfening serving on the cafeteria line, lunching with a group of students, or attending instructional training side by side with teachers.
Such tasks might not typically be on the to-do list for a chief business official, but CASBO Organizational Subscriber Lindsay Unified School District is far from typical. For starters, the district’s “performance-based system” has no grade levels. Learners progress at their own pace on 1:1 Chromebooks and iPads. Almost every student has 24/7 access to personalized learning via the district’s community-wide Wi-Fi network. And it’s all because the district has a laser-focused vision and a moonshot goal: to end the cycle of poverty in Lindsay. As the one responsible for making financial ends meet, Schimelpfening’s philosophy is simple. “We can afford to do anything we want to do. Its just a matter of prioritizing,” he says.“Instead of using barriers as excuses, we tackle the barriers.”
Since joining Lindsay Unified’s mission in 2014, Schimelpfening has expanded his sphere of awareness beyond accounting to explore what teachers – called “learning facilitators” –actually do in the classroom. While he puts in
his share of office hours wrestling with budget reports, he also aims to spend as much time as possible among the kids he serves. “I need to know what’s going on in the classroom so when we’re talking about resource allocation, I have a better idea of what gives us the biggest bang for our buck,” he says. “My purpose is to make sure everybody has what they need so they can focus on the learning and teaching. I want them to walk in and work with learners in the highest capacity they can, without worrying about all the other stuff that can distract them.”
As president of CASBO’s Central Section Board of Directors and its representative on the CASBO Legislative Committee, he also appreciates being able to talk shop with other school business professionals who face similar challenges. He sees CASBO as an extension of his personal mission. “It’s really about developing people and relationships and making sure people have everything they need to succeed,” he says. “It’s right in line with my core beliefs about making other people successful.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of California, Northridge, and his master’s from Pepperdine
Graziadio Business School, Schimelpfening worked in the credit account industry for several years before walking away from a job he hated, despite having two small children to support and a mortgage to pay. He sought work at a temp agency, and one of his temp gigs turned into a permanent position as a budget analyst for Farmersville Unified School District. When that district’s CBO retired a year later, he stepped into the role, staying another six years before eventually landing at Lindsay Unified.
Now with four sons ranging in age from 14 to 21, Schimelpfening spends his free time volunteering for the Boy Scouts of America, taking his kids camping in the desert and helping them earn their Eagle Scout rank. Living 30 minutes away from Lindsay means his boys attend a more traditional school in a different district – something he and his wife considered changing but ultimately decided against so as not to move them away from their friends.
For his part, Schimelpfening says he would be happy to remain at Lindsay Unified for the rest of his career. “It’s probably the first job I’ve had in life where I look forward to going to work,” he says. “It’s so rewarding.” z z z
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By Nicole Krueger
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Paper records are rapidly disappearing as the world goes digital. Yet in schools and warehouses across the state, thousands of boxes of permanent school records continue to pile up – some of them decades old. With no digital backups, they not only take up space and cost money to store, they remain vulnerable to fires, floods and other natural disasters.
Aftab “AJ” Jiwani helps California districts that have been left behind by the digital revolution. As the chief executive officer and founder of EdFiles, a CASBO Premier Partner, he works with school staff to scan, store and organize educational records.
“Ten years ago, I stumbled into the education industry and discovered that there’s a huge problem when it comes to records retention and management of permanent records,” he says. “Our goal is twofold: We archive and back up their current stuff, and we help school districts put in place a system so any new papers are archived, scanned, and easy to find and maintain.”
Inspired by his grandfather, also an entrepreneur, Jiwani started his first business when he was a teenager, printing and selling forms to
hotels in the 1990s. “I grew up in very humble surroundings,” he says. “I’ve been pretty much self-employed since I was 16 years old. When you’re self-employed, you control your own destiny. You have nobody else to blame if you screw up.”
His forms company evolved into a full-fledged printing business, which he later sold before starting an online printing company during the dot-com boom. From there, he branched out into medical forms, developing an electronic filing system just in time to help healthcare organizations make the transition to digital medical records.
That’s when he realized education had a records problem. “A small district might have 300 to 400 boxes of permanent records stored away, and we’ve seen a large district that had 6,000 boxes in a warehouse that were costing them thousands of dollars to store,” Jiwani says. “People think it’s too expensive to scan, but if you’ve got to keep things forever, at some point those costs are more affordable than paying for storage every year.”
Since joining CASBO, EdFiles has helped the association eliminate its own long-term paper storage by hosting and maintaining a digital
records library. While attending CASBO events, Jiwani often hears members express a similar need within their own districts.
“The overwhelming majority of them say, ‘We really need this in our district. We need to handle this because it’s a big, growing problem,’ ” he says. While he admits that digital records management isn’t the most alluring career, “it’s one of those necessary evils – something that has to be dealt with.”
When he’s not busy managing his business or starting a new company, Jiwani spends most of his time with his three kids, all of whom play basketball. A former high school tennis player and club basketball coach, he’s been a sports enthusiast his entire life –although his kids’ games are the only ones he has time for these days. Between work, raising a family and volunteering to help lowincome families with funeral arrangements, “I literally don’t have time to watch anything anymore.” It’s all worth it, though, he adds.
“It’s not sexy, but I love what I do. I’ll keep doing it until something else comes along.” z z z
By Jennifer Snelling
Immediately following the 2016 presidential election, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson declared California schools are “safe havens” for students and their parents. The statement has proven important, as the topic of immigration is part of the fabric of California.
content, and it’s our responsibility to keep these students safe and make sure their needs are met.”
The tension between the federal government’s crackdown on immigrants and California as home to one of the largest immigrant populations in the nation puts school districts in a difficult position: how to effectively serve immigrant students who face an increasing variety of obstacles.
u.s. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has said that schools and local communities can decide whether to report students to u.s. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She walked back her remarks after civil rights groups pointed out that the practice is illegal.
To date, 120 districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District and Sacramento City Unified School District, a casbo organizational subscriber, have taken the additional step of declaring themselves safe havens, meaning they’ve committed themselves to reassuring students, parents and educators that everyone is welcome on school sites, regardless of immigration status.
The tension between the federal government’s crackdown on immigrants and California as home to one of the largest immigrant populations in the nation puts school districts in a difficult position: how to effectively serve immigrant students who face an increasing variety of obstacles. Among these obstacles are language barriers; interrupted schooling; financial worry; fear about whether they or their parents may be deported; and bullying around their status, language or the color of their skin.
“These students are all our responsibility,” says Tatyana Kleyn, associate professor and director of the Programs in Bilingual Education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at The City College of New York. “Schools have to teach more than
Immigrant students in California schools are made up of a variety of subgroups. The Education Trust-West estimates that there are 250,000 undocumented children ages 3-17 enrolled in California schools. Some of these are undocumented minors who have come to the u.s. without a guardian. Many are citizens, but 750,000 California k-12 students have undocumented parents. These are mixedstatus families. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients find themselves in a particularly precarious position while they wait for Congress to decide whether the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (dream) Act will continue.
Schools must verify a student’s age and residency, but they have extensive flexibility in how documents are used and do not need to use any pertaining to immigration status. No records can be released to law enforcement without a parent’s written permission, a court order or subpoena.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1982 in Plyler v. Doe that the right to a free public education extends to all young people, regardless of immigration status. Federal courts later ruled that compelling teachers to report students to immigration authorities violated the ruling, as did forcing students to disclose their immigration status, because it could make students fearful of attending school.
Since schools often do not know which of their students are undocumented, districts look to other groups that often overlap with immigrants, documented or not, to serve this population.
New students who have not attended school in the u.s. , English-as-a-secondlanguage ( esl ) learners and migrant students are some of these overlapping populations.
“When our students enroll, they have the right to be here, they have the right to learning, education and a positive environment. We don’t question our students’ legal residence status,” says Lucy Gomez, director of curriculum and instruction at Hanford Elementary School District, a casbo organizational subscriber. “If parents or guardians want to know about resources, we will support and provide them.”
There are a variety of ways California schools are supporting these students. The first is making sure that all students know they are welcome and safe. This may include posters with that statement, classroom lessons on immigration or keeping a close eye out for harassment of these students. But sometimes this also means caring for students beyond school walls.
Several years ago, while Gomez was serving as principal, a student started having severe stomachaches that were affecting her ability to stay at school. Gomez made some home visits and realized that the student’s grandparent
No records can be released to law enforcement without a parent’s written permission, a court order or subpoena.
was the primary caretaker since her parent couldn’t stay in the country due to immigration laws. Gomez realized the student’s stomachaches were due to worrying about her parent. The student was provided some phone cards to communicate with the absent parent.
Many of Hanford Elementary’s immigrant students are Spanish speakers. In some cases, their families had returned to Mexico, but sent their children, often u.s. citizens, back to the u.s. “Families want a good education for their kids in their
country of birth,” says Gomez. But the emotional stress of arriving alone with a language barrier can hamper these students’ learning.
Migrant students are also an important part of California’s population, which often crosses over with the immigrant student population. Hanford Elementary has 169 migrant students this year, down from around 400 students each year for the last four years. The district’s state and federally funded program provides migrant summer school, a migrant stem -related academy, higher education information, language tutoring and free meals regardless of income.
In order to qualify, families are required to demonstrate that they relocated due to work in the agriculture, fishing or dairy industries. In the current climate, many families are reluctant to come forward because they would have to be interviewed.
A former migrant student herself, Gomez says one of the first and most visible challenges immigrant students face is language. There are 1,271,150 esl learners, which make up 20.4 percent of the total enrollment in California public schools; 42.3 percent of the state’s publicschool enrollment speak a language other than English in their homes. For these students, the vast majority (82.19 percent) speak Spanish; but Vietnamese, Mandarin, Arabic and other languages are also represented in California schools.
The California Department of Education provides assistance to local schools and districts to ensure that esl learners acquire full proficiency in English, attain parity with native English speakers and ensure they achieve the same rigorous grade-level academic standards that are expected of all students. All esl learners are provided with English Language Development (eld) instruction. When possible, enrolling students in dual-immersion schools with other esl learners and Englishonly speaking students can help ease that transition.
One of the more innovative ways schools are implementing this mandate is happening in El Centro at Central Union High School District, a casbo organizational subscriber. For newcomer students who qualify through English Language Proficiency Assessments for California testing, Central Union offers Supporting Academic Instruction and Language, which are language-support classes specifically designed to help
students through their courses. As students gain proficiency, Central Union offers mainstream English courses with an Academic Language and Support course that provides resources so students can be successful.
Bringing immigrant families into the schools can be a challenge, says Patricia Quijada, Central Union’s director of instruction and esl learner programs. To get families involved, Central Union holds quarterly English Learner Advisory Committee (elac) meetings for parents and invites them to learn more about different programs and services offered at individual sites. The district also holds two District elac meetings per year so parents can participate in decisions about district offerings, reclassification criteria and other important programs to enhance student learning outcomes. Additionally, site teachers hold eld parent-orientation meetings to help parents understand the system of education their students are entering.
At Central Union’s Southwest High School, the teachers have extended this orientation into four parent meetings
Migrant students are also an important part of California’s population, which often crosses over with the immigrant student population.
The goal for all schools is to help their students become engaged, productive citizens.
to provide continued support and information, as well as an English Language Advancement Via Individual Determination session to help students prepare for college and encourage them to participate in advanced placement and International Baccalaureate classes.
The district also purchased Chromebooks with hot spots that immigrant students may check out so they have internet accessibility. In the near future, Quijada says the district hopes to provide devices that will link with the k-12 High Speed Network to provide low-income families with the internet connections they need to work within this 21 st century framework.
The goal for all schools is to help their students become engaged, productive citizens. This goal applies to immigrant students as much as other students. In the Fresno Unified School District, a casbo organizational subscriber, 40 percent of the district’s 74,000 students speak a primary language other than English.
Raine Bumatay, principal of Fresno Adult School, was disturbed by the number of students who were under the threat of deportation. In 2012 , Bumatay reached out to Fresno State University and nonprofits in the area that provided help with the naturalization process. This is how The dream Resource Center began, as a collection of vetted resources for immigrants.
In 2012 , the center received an immigration and citizenship grant from the u.s. Department of Homeland Security to help legal permanent residents through the naturalization process. With that $250,000 grant, The dream Resource Center teamed up with San Joaquin College of Law and provided services from the entire valley, although it did not have a brick-and-mortar location at the time.
In 2017 , The dream Resource Center found a permanent home at Fresno Adult School, where it serves about 120 people per month, providing help with the entire naturalization process, esl classes, test preparation and mock interviews for citizenship tests. The majority of clients are parents of children in the district or former students who are now adults.
“I really believe that the schools, whether we like it or not, reflect the needs of the community, the good and the anxieties,” says Hanford Elementary’s Gomez. “We know there’s a lot going on in the political arena, but our schools are safe havens for our kids to thrive in.” z z z
Jennifer Snelling is a freelance writer based in Eugene, Oregon.
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The cover of his most recent book, “Wildflowers: A School Superintendent’s Challenge to America,” doesn’t fit the mold of the typical nonfiction educational advice book. The hand-written script and brightly doodled flowers suggest more whimsy and a good story than academia’s stodgy reputation.
And it’s entirely fitting because author Jonathan Raymond, a former school superintendent and, until recently, president of the Stuart Foundation, is a different kind of education leader himself.
His pedigree is solid: Raymond was a fellow at the Broad Superintendents Academy; completed the Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School; and holds a juris doctorate from the George Mason Law School in Arlington, Virginia, and a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he also earned his bachelor’s.
He worked for a time as a labor law attorney and went on to lead the Commonwealth Corporation, a nonprofit organization for at-risk youth in Boston. He then served as a chief accountability officer with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina and was the superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, a casbo organizational subscriber, for four and a half years. In some instances, the experience put him on the outside looking in – which gave him a fresh perspective on how to energize the education system.
But the Stuart Foundation turned out to be the right vehicle for the “whole child” philosophy these experiences fostered in him – a perfect fit for a man whose standard question is, “How is this good for kids?” The organization is the brainchild of the man who founded the Carnation Company, an entrepreneur who understood firsthand what it meant to fail and how education made the difference in lifting himself up by the bootstraps. Raymond could relate.
In the sixth grade, young Jonathan’s principal informed his parents that he showed signs of a learning disability because he wasn’t reading at grade level, and the official recommendation was to demote him by a grade. But his mother instead had
Raymond tested. The official verdict? “There’s nothing wrong with this kid except that he’s bored. He needs to be challenged and pushed.”
Today, a big part of Raymond’s philosophy is that “we need to start expecting more from our kids and believing they are capable, competent and responsible.” And he includes the student in that equation. Educators, policymakers and parents all need to ditch the “I’m right and you’re wrong” stance, he advocates, in favor of preparing children to thrive via a “both/ and” approach. That one re-framing alone led to a home-visiting model for education and lowered the dropout rate at Sacramento City Unified.
“To succeed in our increasingly complex 21 st century world, both academically and in a career, our children need an increasingly complex set of skills, and it is essential we use social and emotional learning [sel] to support that success,” he told education reporters in 2016
“Wildflowers” focuses on this idea of centering education around each child’s unique needs. Raymond recently teamed with FableVision to expand that message through an animated trailer, a website and marketing collateral.
And late last fall, he left the Stuart Foundation to focus his professional efforts on promoting his whole-child approach with national stakeholders and to be closer to family.
We sat down with Raymond to dive into why he feels educators need to embrace this sel approach:
Who do you think are the giants in education today?
I wish I had a ready answer, but I don’t. So many of the great superintendents, like Tom Payzant, Ray Cortinez, Laura Schwalm, Mark Johnson and my former boss Pete Gorman, have retired. We have a dire need for bold, courageous and imaginative leadership.
Two educators that fit the description are John White, commissioner of education in Louisiana; and Josh Garcia, deputy superintendent in Tacoma, Washington. They’re both extremely bright and committed leaders.
Who are your mentors?
Tom Payzant; Ray Cortinez; Pete Gorman; and Tim Quinn, who ran the Broad Center when I was a fellow. I was fortunate to be coached by both Tom and Ray. As great as these gentlemen are as educators, they’re even better human beings.
From them I learned important lessons on leadership, like bringing love, humility and courage to this work.
Education was your third profession. What experience in other fields was helpful in your role as a superintendent?
It’s hard for me to pinpoint one experience because it’s the totality of my experiences that shaped my perspective. My upbringing and the selflessness of my parents. My exposure to my first great teacher, Harry Boyajian, who believed in me. My time spent in politics and, of course, being a dad. So much of what I’ve learned as an educator I’ve learned from children: the thousands I’ve served and the three I live with.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned from your time as a superintendent?
Superintendents have an extraordinary opportunity to lead and make change for children. We can change the life trajectory for children, yet, too often, we don’t act with courage and conviction and it’s a squandered moment.
Your new book is called “Wildflowers: A School Superintendent’s Challenge to America.” What’s the challenge you’re issuing?
I’m challenging all of us to tell and share our story. We all have one and it’s a powerful way to share and spread ideas and make connections.
I’m also challenging superintendents and other educators to lead – to take risks for kids. And I’m challenging families and community members to support and to keep the pressure on their local educators to believe in and embrace all children under their care and stewardship.
The proceeds from the book will support what you call “whole child education.” What is your definition of whole-child education? What groups or initiatives will book proceeds go to?
Whole-child education places children at the center and asks a simple question: What does he or she need to thrive? At its most basic level, whole-child education ensures we are educating the head, hands and heart – giving children essential skills to succeed in life, making sure they can see and touch and feel the relevancy in what they are learning through hands-on and real-world experiences.
It’s also making sure that children understand that learning differently is natural and how important it is to be able to have empathy and compassion for others, to walk in someone else’s shoes.
All proceeds from the sale of books will support programs and organizations that support children in the above-mentioned efforts.
You’ve blogged about the lack of joy in education. How can we begin to bring joy back to education for students, school leaders and teachers?
Let’s get back to focusing on the importance and value of relationships. Can we show our colleagues and the children we teach that we really care about each other? Are our students more than a number? Will we love them and push them to be their best? Can we make learning so exciting and fun that children want to come to school and be in our classrooms?
When the answers to these questions are “yes,” we’ve brought the joy back to education.
You’ve also written on what brain science tells us about how students learn. What should school leaders be doing today to bring what we now know from learning science to today’s schools?
Let me be direct: We now know that learning is both social and emotional – meaning that children come from backgrounds and experiences (family, community, culture) that shape their ways and abilities to learn. We have to know and understand this context to meet them where they are and provide what they most need.
We also know that children will learn what they are excited and passionate about. How do we make the learning so real and juicy that they can taste it? These are the challenges the adults charged with creating the conditions by which students learn are responsible for ensuring.
You actively mentor aspiring administrators and superintendents. What one piece of advice would you give them?
Know your black and white. In other words, what are the values that you live by? Be clear about them when it comes to educating children. Do you believe in all children? And if you do, what actions are you going to take to demonstrate and support that?
Be bold, have courage and take risks for children!
And, finally, listen, listen, listen – particularly to your students and families. If we listen carefully, we’ll find the lessons are in the communities we serve. z z z
Julie Phillips Randles is a freelance writer based in Roseville, California.
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What you need to know to meet the new ESSA reporting
requirements
By Jerry Fingal
It’s a number elegant in its simplicity: How much do districts spend annually to educate students at each of their school sites?
But arriving at that number is no simple task. And the implications of that number once it’s made public are difficult to predict. Questions about the equitable distribution of resources seem certain, as do concerns about how state and federal funds are being used. The numbers will also provide districts with a way to evaluate student outcomes by dollars spent.
So the new educational requirement could be both a mighty agent of change and a source of misdirected criticism.
School districts have never before had to break down expenditures to the individual student at each school site. But now a provision of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (essa) , passed in 2015 , requires that school districts across the country do exactly that: report how much they spend on each student at each school. It also requires that per-student expenditure to be broken down by the
Data required
There is work to do in every California school district to determine how to reach the per-pupil figures, because neither the federal law nor the state guidance offers an exact equation.
source of funding: local, state and federal dollars. The requirement begins with expenditures for the 2018-19 school year and will be reported sometime in early 2020
It’s a big deal and a big undertaking, all done in the name of transparency.
Jeff Carew, managing director of the financial analytics firm Forecast 5 Analytics, a casbo Premier Partner, says the new reporting requirement will create a “data set that will foster questions school leaders have never, ever had to answer.”
School districts are now going to be in a position where they may feel exposed, says Carew, who has been focused on the new essa reporting requirements for the last six months and has given countless presentations on the topic to national and state education groups. “School district business is a very, very complex business, and financial reporting is a golf scorecard. One thing you cannot put on a golf scorecard is a story. Yet in each one of these differences in expense level, there’s a story that’s connected to that, and [school] boards are going to have to be really good at telling that story.”
The requirement was supposed to go into effect for the 2017-18 school year but was delayed to allow school districts more time to prepare the data. Still, the requirement may not yet be high on every school district’s radar.
“The fact of the matter is that this is going to catch most people off guard,” says Matt Phillips, director of management consulting services for School Services of California, Inc., a casbo Strategic Alliance Partner. “When it comes around, people are going to say, ‘I have to do what?’ They’re going to be so wrapped up in trying to figure out how to do it that I don’t think they are going to
be thinking about what the implications will be until they’re hit smack in the face with them.”
In California, the state’s department of education expects to collect the numbers in early 2020 but has not yet set an exact deadline. Experts say school districts shouldn’t wait to begin the process.
Here’s what districts can do now to prepare:
> Develop a methodology for determining the per-pupil expenditure. Federal and state guidelines for reaching the number are not precise and offer school districts plenty of leeway.
> Use current year figures to at least develop a snapshot of per-pupil expenditures. Since these are new figures, there may be some surprises, and using current year data will allow time for analysis.
> Use that current year snapshot to develop a narrative for the figures. The raw numbers will need context and explanation. Develop a strategy for presenting the numbers to the public, and ensure that district staff members are fully versed in the information.
> Consider the implications of the numbers. Equity issues will be inevitable, as will questions about how state and federal funds are used. The numbers also could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs.
Here’s a closer look at those steps:
There is work to do in every California school district to determine how to reach the per-pupil figures, because neither the federal law nor the state guidance offers an exact equation. Potentially, every school district in the state could have its own way to arrive at a per-pupil figure.
In a guidance letter on the new reporting requirements issued in August, the California Department of Education (cde) recommended that school districts consider “how the local financial system will capture the information needed for school-level reporting.”
“They have all the financial data; they just need to figure out the best way to come up with the per-pupil expenditure number,” says Christine Davis, an administrator in the cde ’ s Office of Financial Accountability and Information Services.
The cde identifies costs – including teacher salaries, support services, transportation and plant maintenance – to include for each site. On top of that, schools can add a share of districtwide
expenses, but the state does not specify exactly which district costs should be included. It advises, however, that “overexclusion of expenditures should be avoided.” The goal is consistency across a school district.
The method for calculating enrollment to determine per-pupil spending is also left to the districts. The state recommends total enrollment instead of average daily attendance. Again, consistency is the only requirement.
Developing a methodology as early as possible will also allow for some fine-tuning.
“There may be things from an accounting and coding standpoint that cbo s [chief business officials] would be able to do to more accurately
reflect the expense level,” Forecast5 ’s Carew says.
For example, a school district could change the way it codes federal Title I money to better reflect site-based expenditures.
“They’re going to want to make that change now,” Carew says. “They’re not going to want to wait until the last hour to figure that out and then have to go and do that. There is some science or strategy that may be possible to be employed.”
The state is awaiting feedback from school districts before issuing further guidance, the cde ’ s Davis says.
“We’re going to have some more conversations with our lea [local education agency] stakeholders,” Davis says. “We’re kind of waiting for some questions to come in to us that might be a springboard to some frequently asked questions to post to our website.”
Once a methodology is established, districts can use previous-year data to develop preliminary numbers.
In its guidance letter, the state suggests districts “use prior year financial data, e.g., 2017–18 , to prepare test (per-pupil expenditure) data in order to make preliminary assessments of the outcomes and whether those outcomes meet expectations.”
“The possibility exists that once the lea s run these numbers, they’re going to become aware of some spending patterns or ways they allocate funds to the school level that they’re not even aware they’re doing,” Davis says.
Carew, whose company makes financial forecasting software, seconds the recommendation that districts run preliminary numbers.
“What I think is the most important thing school districts can do is get to the results now,” he advises.
“You just don’t want something that’s this transparent and this important to be something that you wished you had prepared for more.”
He recommends projecting current monthly data out to the end of the year, use that forecast to figure per-pupil expenditures, and repeat the exercise through the end of the fiscal year.
“Once you have those results, it becomes a working document,” Carew says. “That really positions a school district well, from the board to the administrative team and even down to the teachers, to be able to explain the difference in the expense level.”
Inevitably, the per-pupil expenditures are going to vary from one school to the next. If a district spends $12,000 a year on pupils at School A and only $10,000 at School B, that is going to raise questions from just about everyone, from parents to teachers to education advocates. There are bound to be stark differences between schools, and the raw numbers are ripe for misinterpretation.
That’s why school districts are urged to get a handle on the per-pupil numbers as early as possible so they are prepared to tell the stories behind the numbers.
“If you just follow the letter of the law and you just report information as required under essa using the guidelines that the cde has provided, every single district is going to be subject to scrutiny with how these numbers are reported absent some other framework, whether it’s a narrative about what the numbers mean or how the numbers got there or
some other numeric metric to help frame the conversation,” says School Services’ Phillips.
There are many variables in education funding that aren’t evident in the raw number. One school might have more special education students, more English language learners and more students receiving free and reduced-price lunches.
“So all of those reasons are generally easy for the public to understand. Resources need to go to those kids for them to be successful,” Carew says. “And then you peel back the onion a little bit more and it might be that the teaching staff in that school is more experienced than the teaching staff in that other school.”
Higher paid teachers at more affluent schools might result in a number that makes it look like a district is unfairly divvying up resources. But that’s not necessarily the case, and districts need to be prepared to explain.
“We know from research that more experienced teachers are going to be higher on the salary schedule and they’re often going to be employed by more affluent schools,” says Patti Herrera, School Services’ director of governmental relations. “Just as a mathematical function of the salary schedule, it’s going to look, on a per-pupil basis, that the expenditures are higher at those more affluent schools even though you might have more teachers at the lower income school. But they are teachers at the lower end of the salary schedule.”
The result might be that the teacherstudent ratio is lower at the lower income school, which is a positive. But that’s the opposite story of the raw numbers.
School districts will have to develop narratives for their numbers on their own. The cde doesn’t expect to offer specific guidance.
“You just don’t want something that’s this transparent and this important to be something that you wished you had prepared for more.”
“Locals are in the best position to provide that context, so while we’re trying to be helpful, it definitely cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach,” Davis says. “As we continue discussions this year with some of the lea s , they may offer us some examples that they’re willing to share. That’s definitely a possibility, but right now we don’t plan to put out anything specific about how that narrative should look.”
Once the numbers are out in 2020 , the implications could be profound. Possible flashpoints include equity between affluent and non-affluent schools and the proper use of federal and state funds. And by linking outcomes to money
spent, it could be a powerful tool for school districts to evaluate programs and allocate resources.
“It’s hard to say how the districts will respond to it and what level of analysis they’ll put in to see what patterns they have,” says Debra Brown, cde director of governmental relations. “It’s also hard to say how it will be used by parents and other community stakeholders and whether they will use it to push for different decisions to be made. It will probably be different for each school district. Again, it depends on how they communicate why they allocate resources the way they do.”
School Services’ Herrera foresees the numbers shining a light on federal Title I funds and the requirement that they supplement and not supplant
local support. Comparing expenditures between affluent and non-affluent schools could raise compliance issues. The same is true with California’s Local Control Funding Formula and its supplemental and concentration grants that target low-income schools.
“There are some very, very interested and litigious organizations that want to curb some financial behaviors in school districts by asserting that districts are not using them for the purposes for which they are designed,” Herrera says. “I think this per-pupil expenditure reporting requirement could shine a light on that issue in a way that, without an alternative explanation, is going to make it look like districts are not using their supplemental and concentration grants for purposes for which they were intended.”
For school districts, the numbers could provide another way to correlate academic results with money spent.
“The beauty of this process is that when we get past stage one – that is, … being transparent to our public – we are now going to have such a rich data set that’s going to afford us the opportunity to truly evaluate the success of all of these different programs,” Carew says. “It will enable us to say we can’t continue that program because it’s just not successful. Or let’s replicate that program at our other schools because it is successful. And then I could cost that out as a cbo and really start to understand what my resource needs are and how I should allocate my resources for the greatest level of success in my district.
“It’s going to be powerful, but sometimes that first step is a doozy.” z z z
Jerry Fingal is a freelance writer based in Eugene, Oregon.
Get more information on the ESSA per-pupil expenditure reporting requirement in the CDE’s guidance letter at cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/co/essappeltr.asp.
Then, learn more with these resources:
> Building State Capacity and Productivity Center –Financial Transparency and Reporting (www.bscpcenter.org/FinancialTransparency/)
> Edunomics Lab Financial Transparency Research (edunomicslab.org/our-research/financial-transparency/)
Has your district taken steps yet to meet the new requirements? Tweet us at #CASBO to share what you've learned so far!
A journey where the people you meet and connections you make will serve you for a lifetime. Where the skills you hone will give you a hand up in your career. Where you will always have a voice in public education.
That's our mission: to provide exceptional professional development and advocacy services to you, the committed professionals who dedicate yourselves to California school business operations, and to the children, families and communities you serve.
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Because that’s not just a dream waiting at the end of your journey … that’s something that we can achieve together.
10 tips to help school leaders work effectively with citizen committee members
By Jennifer Fink
Investing in the development of citizen committee members will save you time and trouble in the long run.
School districts are duty bound to seek input from the public. Facility advisory and bond oversight committees must include citizens, and citizen in-put is crucial to Local Control and Accountability Plans (lcap s ) . But often, well-meaning community members volunteer for committee appointments without fully appreciating the scope –and limitations – of their involvement.
“As citizens, they don’t often understand the complexity and constraints,” says Elliot Duchon, superintendent of Jurupa Unified School District and a member of the American Association of Superintendents. “We spend a lot of time educating people about what they can do, what they can’t do and what the district can and can’t do.”
Investing in the development of citizen committee members will save you time and trouble in the long run. These 10 tips will help you set the stage for success:
1. Provide orientation and training.
At Jurupa Unified, a casbo organizational subscriber, the onboarding process for new citizen committee members includes a review of the laws that govern the committee. During their first committee meeting, district staff review the Brown Act and “Robert’s Rules of Order,” as well as the purpose and purview of the committee.
“None of our committees operates without training. Even when we go out to the community with our lcap , we begin with ‘These are the eight areas the state wants us to address,’” Duchon says.
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is another casbo organizational subscriber that follows a similar process. “One of the things we do to onboard new members of our Citizens Oversight
Committee – and reiterate with existing members – is review the scope of oversight and what the bylaws state,” says Ryan Altemeyer, associate superintendent of business services. Providing that information at the beginning of a citizen’s tenure can help you ensure that citizen committee members don’t “get off into the weeds or overstep their bounds,” he says.
2. Clarify roles and expectations.
All too often, new members of a citizens’ oversight committee “think they’re going to have an opportunity to decide what the district does with bond money,” Duchon says. “It’s important to let them have their say but also explain very clearly what their charge is: to do an annual audit of the bond proceeds and how they’re being spent.”
Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of committees and citizen committee members will go a long way toward minimizing conflict and maximizing effort. This includes sharing what committee members don’t have input on (like daily school operations), as well as what they do.
“Before you set up an ad hoc committee, you need to establish parameters and guidelines up front; that should all be laid out before the first meeting,” says Marci McFadden, chief of communications and engagement for MontereyPeninsula Unified.
Prior to each meeting, district staff should create an agenda that includes an expected outcome. “It’s important that committee members understand what we need to leave the meeting with. It may be information or a decision,” says Jim Novak, chief business officer of Palo Alto Unified School District, a casbo organizational subscriber. For example,
the agenda for a bond oversight meeting may indicate that the end of the meeting will include a vote to approve expenditures discussed during the meeting that comply with the ballot language.
Such specificity can help you keep meetings on track. “If somebody has an ulterior motive or wants to hijack a meeting, you can always bring them back by saying, ‘That’s a very good point and valid concern, but it’s not what we want to accomplish at this meeting. Let’s not address this now, so we can get to our expected outcome. I’m happy to meet you outside of this meeting to discuss it,’” Novak says.
To be effective, citizen committee members need a solid understanding of the district’s mission, vision, assets and challenges. They also need specific knowledge regarding their committee’s previous projects.
“When we have new members come onboard, we try to front load them with all the background information, so they can see what we’ve covered,” says Monterey Unified’s Altemeyer. District personnel share the minutes of previous meetings, as well as basic information
about the topics typically discussed during meetings, with new members. “We give them access to all of those resources so they can review them and have an understanding, when they step onto the committee, what their role will be and what kind of reports they’ll be looking at,” Altemeyer says.
Constantly check for understanding. During committee meetings, pause frequently to ask “Does it make sense? Is there anything we can clarify?” says Jayne Christakos, chief business officer of San Bernardino City Unified School District, a CASBO organizational subscriber. “If you don’t take the time to get everyone on board, you’re going to spend more time in the end trying to make up for it.”
The more lay members on a committee, the more important it is to involve a district leader with solid meeting facilitation skills. In most instances, the district leader will be responsible for running the meeting and keeping it on track.
“You need kid gloves, but you also need the iron fist of good policy,” says Jurupa Unified’s Duchon. A deft facilitator can acknowledge citizens’ ideas while
pointing to strong, clear policies that outline why certain ideas are impossible to implement. “We’ve had some people on our Citizens’ Oversight Committee with some really crazy ideas,” Duchon says. “That’s fine, because that committee is pretty well defined in the law. We make sure the bylaws of that committee are proper and run that committee very much like we run our board. That formality gives some containment to it.”
5. Avoid jargon.
Make sure that any information you share with citizen committee members is easily understandable. Be sure to define any acronyms; educators and school business personnel love acronyms, but most of the public don’t know what a SIPSA is, for instance. (By the way, for anyone who might not yet know, it means School Improvement Plan for Student Achievement!) You may want to consider creating a glossary of frequently used acronyms and terms.
When preparing for committee meetings, run your presentation past a colleague or friend who does not have specialized knowledge of the topic at hand. “If I’m doing a budget worksheet, I won’t pick my director of fiscals to review it,” Palo Alto Unified’s Novak says. “I might give it to my assistant instead.”
It can be difficult to find the sweet spot; citizen committee members are generally intelligent and motivated, so you don’t want to dumb things down, but neither do you want to risk misunderstanding. “The challenge is to provide high-level information in a way that is understandable,” Novak says. Watch citizen committee members’ nonverbal language; if you sense a lack of engagement or confusion, pause and check for understanding.
Take the time to get to know the citizen members of your committees
6. Be transparent.
“There’s some risk in disclosing things and having everything on the table, but I think the rewards outweigh the risks,” says Michael Johnston, associate superintendent of administrative services at Clovis Unified School District, a casbo organizational subscriber.
All citizen committee members need to know both the problems and opportunities facing their committee; they also need to understand the district’s position so they can see how their committee fits into the larger picture. It’s not always easy to share unflattering info, but it’s important to not whitewash harsh truths.
“We always try to provide more information than required,” Duchon says. “For our Citizens’ Oversight Com-
mittee, we provide full descriptions, pictures of all the construction sites and updates. We’ve even given them reports on non-bond projects.”
If a citizen committee member asks for information you don’t have, “never make it up,” says Novak. Instead say, “Here’s what I think the answer is, but I’m not sure. Let me get back to you.”
Then, find the relevant information and share it via email.
7. Build relationships.
Take the time to get to know the citizen members of your committees – their occupations, passions and skill sets. Build relationships with important community organizations and partners as well; your next citizen committee members could come from their ranks, and strong
relationships often equal support in tough situations.
“When tragedies and controversial things happen, individual committee members and community partners may not always agree with us, but they understand our journey and know what we’re trying to accomplish,” says San Bernardino City Unified’s Christakos. “You have to be out there celebrating, growing and communicating together to weather those storms.”
8. Respect members’ time and knowledge.
“Citizen committee members are obviously there because they’re passionate about public education or the topic of their committee,” Monterey Peninsula Unified’s Altemeyer says. “From a district standpoint, our responsibility is to make sure we’re in compliance with all the laws and regulations and providing the best environment for our students. But we also need to take into account our committee members’ passions. Take advantage of every opportunity you get to align the district’s goals with what your community members want to do.”
Respecting citizen committee members’ time and knowledge includes beginning and ending committee meetings on schedule and listening carefully to opposing ideas and opinions. “You have to remember that our schools are their schools. You create more problems if people think you don’t respect their opinions. It’s better to respond in a way that validates their concern and acknowledges that you care about it too,” Novak says.
9. Use their ideas.
As a school business official and education professional, you likely have
a lot of good ideas about how to move your district toward its goals. But good ideas can – and do – come from outside the education community.
“We have to always be open to new ideas,” says Clovis Unified’s Johnston. “If we get 100 ideas, maybe 10 of them are good ideas and 90 aren’t, but we have to be open to discussing all those ideas so we can explore our options and see which work and which don’t.”
At San Bernardino Unified, Christakos posts a confidence line – with numbers from one to 10 – on the wall during committee meetings, and at the end of the meeting asks members to indicate how confident they are that the district will accomplish the actions they’ve discussed. (A 10 indicates extreme confidence; 1 means they think the district won’t follow through.) “They line up, so no one is singled out,” Christakos says. “If they pick a low number, you can ask the group, ‘What would it take to move you up?’”
Acting on citizen committee members’ comments builds trust.
10. Recognize contributions and memorialize the work.
Community members who serve on committees are donating their time
and expertise, and their contributions should not be taken for granted. You can thank members at the beginning or end of committee meetings and at the end of their term. Whenever possible, draw attention to their accomplishments. “When we recently passed a bond, thanks to a lot of hard work by members of our Facilities Advisory Committee, we recognized them publicly and thanked them,” Johnston says.
Even challenging citizen committee members make valuable contributions. “They care,” Christakos says. Instead of griping about their presence, “we should be thanking them for their questions.”
We should also be saving the artifacts of committees’ work so it doesn’t have to be recreated in the future when a similar issue or topic arises. Creating a way to store committee knowledge, reports and outcomes is a must. z z z
Jennifer Fink is a freelance writer based in Mayville, Wisconsin.
Do you have a different tip for committee success? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!
If you believe you’re most productive when your revved up, veteran coach and management consultant David Allen says you’ve got it all wrong.
Instead, he argues, human productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Get to the place where your mind is clear and your thoughts are organized and productivity will soar. And from that same space, creative potential will be unleashed.
Allen makes these points in the book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity,” a primer on how to, as he puts it, “pick up the pace without wearing things down.”
Getting there involves steps like applying special rules to get to an empty inbox, being able to reassess goals as situations change and getting to a place of feeling OK about what you’re not doing.
The book is a combination of teaching on core principles and sharing some proven tricks. Readers say while it’s not a quick fix, Allen’s tips and strategies are practical and do help with setting priorities and organizing to-do lists.
Among the favorite tips from the books are using “the 2-minute rule” to quickly sift through emails and creating a decision tree on actionable items that requires you to “do it, defer it or delegate it.”
If you’re tired of feeling like you’re always behind, check out “Getting Things Done” and jump-start your productivity.
By Molly McGee Hewitt CEO & Executive Director
In addition to their day-to-day duties, school business leaders are tasked with managing a workforce and sometimes being supervised themselves.
For many, the personnel administration aspects of their positions are more challenging than all other duties combined. Unlike spreadsheets, budgets, accounting, bus routes, meal preparations, or administering contracts and projects, dealing with superiors and subordinates can be difficult.
After all, the workforce comes with a variety of personal needs and agendas. And today’s collaborative approach to getting things done means workers expect to participate in decision-making. Along the way, rules about dress codes or use of vacation and sick time are evolving. We live and work with a variety of generations, and diversity is the norm, not the exception.
Examining our personal beliefs regarding supervision can provide insight into our values and personal preferences. How you treat your own supervisor is also telling. The best advice for being both an exceptional supervisor and subordinate is simple in concept, yet challenging in implementation.
Invest in your team.
As you think about assignments, workflow and operations, think about how these will affect your team. Will they add to a workload? Will additional training or assistance be needed? Do they play to the strengths of your team members? Will a team member understand the “why” behind an assignment? Do you communicate clearly what’s expected and do you listen carefully for understanding and feedback? Do you
in turn understand what your superior expects from you?
Investing in our teams is about investing in positive relationships. It includes being appreciative, sharing successes, and being aware of what is going on both in the office and in employees’ lives. Like all good relationships, to build your team, you must have authentic relationships that foster collaboration and respect.
That can be as easy as making sure you practice courtesy every day – saying “hello,” checking in both personally and professionally, or asking, “How can I help?”A personal note, acknowledgement in a public meeting or a birthday card also show you care.
improvement or resolution. We must also create environments where we lead by example and quash rumor and gossip.
Learning to communicate with our direct reports and supervisors always requires us to be professional. Even if someone resorts to name-calling or unprofessional activities, an ethical leader remains above the fray.
Leadership is never about being a bully or being bullied. It’s about making sure that no one on your team bullies anyone else. A leader sets the standard and the expectations and monitors the environment.
Successful school business officials know their professional success depends on the success of their superiors and
Finding what works in your own organization, with your own people, is the key to success.
Finding what works in your own organization, with your own people, is the key to success. No external method will build your team long term without your personal investment of time and attention.
To create a positive dynamic among your team members, you also need to be clear in your communication. How we share information, whether positive or critical, must be done with care and compassion for both the work and the employee. If we’re sharing information that’s negative or will be perceived as negative, it especially needs to be delivered with clarity and compassion. We must learn to have courageous conversations that deliver a message but don’t defeat the intent of seeking
subordinates. A supervisor who recognizes that you value and appreciate their leadership will return the favor.
And employees who recognize that you sincerely care about their successes and their careers will go the extra mile when needed. As simple as it sounds, the more you invest in your team, the more successful you’ll be. z z z
We
We
Please contact SISC by calling 800-972-1727 for more information or visit our website at www.sisc.kern.org A Joint Powers Authority administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, Mary C. Barlow, Superintendent
word of
And our dedicated CASBO leaders have been in action!
Determine NOW if an Early Retirement Incentive is Feasible for your District
The PARS early retirement incentive known as the Supplementary Retirement Plan (SRP), offers school districts a constructive and appealing tool for reducing labor costs, restructuring your workforce, avoiding layoffs and retaining skilled employees. PARS will work with you to customize a solution that fits your district’s individual needs and objectives.
PARS offers a no-cost comprehensive fiscal analysis that will help your district determine whether an incentive is feasible this year.
Other innovative solutions offered by PARS include:
• OPEB Solutions Program, in partnership with CSBA for prefunding retiree healthcare liabilities
• Pension Rate Stabilization Program (PRSP), for prefunding pension
• Social Security Alternative for part-time employees
For more information, please contact us at: 800.540.6369 ext. 127 info@pars.org | pars.org
In a world where an orange grove can turn into a housing development in the blink of an eye, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with change. California is constantly changing around us and schools and colleges are not immune to those changes. What wasn’t even on the radar yesterday, can become the greatest risk of today—and your next big claim.
One thing that hasn’t changed is SELF’s commitment to its members. For more than 32 years, SELF has been protecting schools and colleges from the financial devastation of catastrophic losses.
California is an ever-changing landscape and the liability landscape changes with it. Let SELF help you navigate the new liability terrain. 866-453-5300
Aeries Software Inc. (888) 487-7555
American Fidelity (760) 917-1158
ASCIP (562) 404-8029
Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo (562) 653-3428
Bay Alarm Company (800) 610-1000
Financial Services (707) 544-7800
California Schools Joint Powers Authorities (909) 763-4900 csjpa.org/contact-us
California's Valued Trust (800) 288-9870 cvtrust.org
CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (626) 857-7300
DecisionInsite (877) 204-1392
Horace Mann (866) 999-1945 horacemann.com/workshops
Login Logix (833) 618-6600
DEPOT (888) 263-3423
Piper Jaffray (800) 876-1854 piperjaffray.com Inside Back Cover
Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS) (800) 540-6369 x127 pars.org 52
School Outfitters (800) 260-2776 SchoolOutfitters.com Inside Front Cover
School Services of California, Inc. (916) 446-7517 sscal.com 23
Schools Excess Liability Fund (SELF) (866) 453-5300 selfjpa.org 52
Sehi Computer Products, Inc. (800) 346-6315 BuySehi.com 48
(855) 654-5290 peppm.org 7
Self-Insured Schools of California (SISC) (800) 972-1727 sisc.kern.org 50
Smartetools Inc. (866) Smarte-1 smartetools.com 40
Sourcewell (877) 585-9706 sourcewell-mn.gov 50
Stifel, Nicolaus & Company (415) 364-6839 stifel.com/publicfinance Back Cover
TerraVerde Energy (888) 316-2597 tvrpllc.com 23
Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co., LLP (909) 466-4410 vtdcpa.com 12
”One of the things that’s really remarkable about what is happening today [in regard to immigration enforcement] is how much it stands in contrast to the core principles of public education.
79%
In 2016, 79 percent of students had a parent who attended a school or class event and 43 percent had a parent who volunteered in school or served on a committee, compared with 67 and 39 percent, respectively, in 1996.
Child Trends
”
Immigrants and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 86.4 million people, or 27 percent of the overall U.S. population.
2017 Current Population Survey 27% 22%
” District leaders who get a jump on starting to understand the story behind their schoolby-school data are better positioned to proactively and accurately communicate that story to their board and their public.
School Administrator
Without positive, mature and authentic relationships with people throughout the district, especially, parents and teachers, a superintendent cannot lead successfully. Relationships are the ‘currency’ in school districts and need to be built and maintained if a superintendent is going to take their district to a better place.
Patrick Sanaghan
The estimated effect of a 22 percent increase in per-pupil spending throughout all 12 school-age years for low-income children is large enough to eliminate the education gap between children from low-income and nonpoor families.
UC Berkeley School of Public Policy
Piper
• General Obligation Bonds
• Certificates of Participation
• Mello-Roos/CFD Bonds
• Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes
Timothy Carty
Managing Director
310 297-6011 timothy.p.carty@pjc.com
Rich Calabro
Managing Director 310 297-6013 richard.n.calabro@pjc.com
Jin Kim
Senior Vice President
310 297-6020 jin.y.kim@pjc.com
Piper Jaffray
• Interim Project Financing
• Debt Refinancing/Restructuring
• GASB 45 Liability Funding
Ivory Li Managing Director 415 616-1614 ivory.r.li@pjc.com
Elaine Reodica Associate 310 297-6034 elaine.v.reodica@pjc.com
Gauhar Bauyrzhankyzy Analyst
415 616-1627 gauhar.x.bauyrzhankyzy@pjc.com
Trennis Wright Senior Vice President 310 297-6018 trennis.l.wright@pjc.com
Ilya Barats Analyst 310 297-6016 ilya.x.barats@pjc.com
Mark Adler Managing Director 310 297-6010 mark.j.adler@pjc.com
Pam Hammer Office Supervisor 310 297-6023 pamela.a.hammer@pjc.com
Let us help you achieve your financing goals.
Visit www.stifel.com/institutional/public-finance or contact a member of our School Finance Group:
Northern California | San Francisco Office
Bruce Kerns
Managing Director (415) 364-6839 bkerns@stifel.com
Erica Gonzalez
Managing Director (415) 364-6841 egonzalez@stifel.com
Roberto J. Ruiz Director (415) 364-6856 rruiz@stifel.com
Southern California | Los Angeles Office
Dawn Vincent Managing Director (213) 443-5006 dvincent@stifel.com
Robert Barna Managing Director (213) 443-5205 rbarna@stifel.com
Stifel is the leading underwriter of California K-12 school district bonds.* We assist local districts in providing financing for facility projects and cash flow borrowing, including new construction, modernization, renovation, and technology improvements. Our work with California school districts includes general obligation bonds, Mello-Roos bonds, certificates of participation, leases, bridge financings, TRANs, and the refinancing or restructuring of previously issued bonds.
We give back to the communities we serve by providing college scholarships to graduating high school seniors through Stifel’s annual Fabric of Society essay competition and by supporting school-related foundations and functions through the Stifel Education Program (“StEP”).
* Source: Thomson Reuters SDC, by par amount and number of issues for negotiated transactions in 2017. Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated | Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com/publicfinance