On Tomorrow night's school board agenda is a an item labeled, 7.08 Summer School - Summary Report 2009/Planning for 2010 .Remember when we were young? Summer school was what you wanted to avoid...right? Not so any more. Now summer school is so cool, we want to EXPAND enrollment! We're thinking a new slogan could be,
" You just ain't cool if you don't attend summer school! "
In a recent article in the STAR, Director of Instruction Alice Murphy is quoted as saying,
“We want summer school to grow and it did [last year]..."
Of course, she adds that they want to add more staff and another school (those fall on the COST side of the equation for those following at home.
Since when do we WANT to see more students enrolling in summer school?
Well...since it's all about the benjamins, kiddies. You know...there's this little thing called the "Revenue Cap", which limits the amount of money a school district can spend. So...if you want to spend more money (can you see the Pavlovian response SPASD has to that!), then you need to increase the revenue cap.
How exactly does one increase the Revenue Cap (spending limit)? Simple. Add kids.
That's right. It really is "all about the kids", because each one of your precious cherubs brings in about $6500 in state aid! That's why you see all these advertisements now for open enrollment. If a district can "snatch" away one of your ids, that's about $6500 more in their coffers and %$6500 LESS in yours.
But there's another little bonus income source, and it's none other than...you guessed it...summer school enrollment! You see the DPI allows a district to include 40% of its summer school enrollment numbers to it 3rd Friday count!
Since when do we WANT to see more students enrolling in summer school?
Well...since it's all about the benjamins, kiddies. You know...there's this little thing called the "Revenue Cap", which limits the amount of money a school district can spend. So...if you want to spend more money (can you see the Pavlovian response SPASD has to that!), then you need to increase the revenue cap.
How exactly does one increase the Revenue Cap (spending limit)? Simple. Add kids.
That's right. It really is "all about the kids", because each one of your precious cherubs brings in about $6500 in state aid! That's why you see all these advertisements now for open enrollment. If a district can "snatch" away one of your ids, that's about $6500 more in their coffers and %$6500 LESS in yours.
But there's another little bonus income source, and it's none other than...you guessed it...summer school enrollment! You see the DPI allows a district to include 40% of its summer school enrollment numbers to it 3rd Friday count!
" Compute a "current" three-year membership average. This average uses the 2 previous year's membership plus membership for the current year, the year for which the limit is being calculated. (Again, districts are allowed to add 40% of their FTE summer school membership to the FTE September membership before computing the three year average.) "--Wisconsin DPI Publication
So...while it used to be that summer school wasn't really viewed as a good thing, NOW we wrap it up in a shiny wrapper and call it "enrichment" classes.
Ultimately...they want the money.
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