Dear Mayor Johnson:

On May 12, 2005, the Rochester Board of Education adopted its budget for the Rochester City School District for school year 2005-2006. This budget totals $578,725,214, representing a decrease of 1% from the District’s 2004-2005 amended budget.

This budget supports the goals approved by the Board of Education for the work of the Rochester City School District in three areas:

• Achievement. Maintain growth in identified schools, reverse the trend of declining achievement, and drive academic improvement.

• Fiscal & Organizational Management. Improve financial management, reporting, budgeting, and forecasting and maintain and enhance our fiscal credibility.

• Quality, Service & Accountability. Provide stability and promote improved morale, communication, responsiveness, and accountability in all that we do.

The budget for school year 2005-2006 supports all of these areas, with student achievement our top priority. Our progress in this area is evident:

• More students are passing New York State exams. Results in 2004 include double-digit increases in grade 4 science, grade 5 social studies, and grade 8 math, among other increases.
  
• More of our schools are meeting annual targets for improvement in English language arts: 76% of elementary schools (up from 61% in 2003) and 33% of secondary schools (up from 22% in 2003).
  
• More of our high school students are passing Regents exams.
  
• Sixteen of our elementary schools were among the most improved in New York State in 2004.
  
• More students from all ethnic groups are scoring higher on state tests, and we are closing the achievement gap among those groups.

The 2005-2006 budget invests in programs and supports to enable our students to continue this progress. It maintains our support of essential elements found in high-performing schools, including:

• Full-day kindergarten
  
• Small class sizes
  
• Effective instructional programs
  
• Arts and athletics
  
• Extended-day and summer learning programs
  
• Alternative learning environments
  
• Student support and intervention services

         (nurses, counselors, librarians, support centers, youth advocates, tutors, mentors, volunteers)

• Parent involvement
  
• School-community partnerships
  
• Professional and leadership development for staff
  
• Use of student performance data to enhance instruction
  
• Continued emphasis on effective management systems using technology

Further, it provides for continued emphasis on our school redesign to provide smaller learning environments and more personalized, focused instruction for students.

ACHIEVEMENT: ENHANCED FOCUS ON GRADES 5-9

Preparation for Secondary School

Two new elements are being added to our strategy to ensure student success at the secondary level and to keep students on track toward graduation.

The Transition Year Program will serve students who are significantly below grade level as they enter the Foundation Academy (grades 7-9). Specifically, we will delay the comprehensive seventh or eighth grade program for these students and devote a full school year to intervention in reading, writing, and math.

The Summer Literacy Institute will serve students in grades 7 and 8 who require additional support in reading, writing, and math. Those who successfully complete the intensive 32-day program will advance to the next grade level.

Model Classroom Teachers

In collaboration with the Rochester Teachers Association, the District is establishing a new position known as the Model Classroom Teacher in nine schools in 2005-06. The goal is to encourage more experienced, effective teachers to support schools with lower levels of student achievement in English language arts and to teach in grades 7 and 8.

Attendance Initiative

District project workers are identifying students with 20 or more consecutive absences and reconnecting them to their schools with assistance from families and community resources.  The project workers enroll students in their School Health Centers and Student Support/Wellness Centers and complete applications for free and reduced-price meals. The objective is to identify barriers to good attendance and eliminate those barriers through appropriate supports.

Wilson Expansion

During our annual school choice process, many more students apply to Wilson Magnet High School as their first-choice school than can be placed there. In response to this, and to address needs expressed by families in southwest Rochester, the District will expand Wilson in 2005-06, with the James Madison Educational Campus as a part of that expansion.

The goal is to build a strong education foundation along the “Genesee Street Corridor,” provide more opportunities for students to attend their first-choice schools, and serve southwest-area students with proven educational programs and services.

Textbooks

We will continue to support our Five-Year Textbook Adoption Plan to maximize State funding for textbooks and provide up-to-date materials to our students. In 2004-05, we adopted upgraded textbooks in Math (grades K-5), Chemistry, Living Environment, Physics, Integrated Algebra, U.S. History & Government, and Foreign Language.

In 2005-06, we will adopt upgraded textbooks in:

• Grades 6-8 Math
  
• Grades 7-8 Social Studies
  
• Environmental Science
  
• Pre-Calculus
  
• Elementary English Language Arts

Program Evaluation

The District is increasingly using program evaluation and data to drive its strategic planning, policy formulation, and budget decision-making.

Last year, upon assuming responsibility for providing school nursing services, the District contracted with the University of Rochester School of Nursing to evaluate our delivery of those services. The evaluation will help improve our ability to provide timely, integrated, and cost-effective delivery of health services to students. 

In 2005-06, we will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of our Bilingual Education Program to improve service to students and families. We will also evaluate the best practices and effective school reform models of our high-performing schools; the impact of our math and ELA specialists on instruction; our Parent Preference/Managed Choice policy; customer satisfaction; and the parent component of our Title I programs.

FISCAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT

Comptroller’s Audit

To build public trust in the District’s budgeting practices, the Board of Education called for the New York State Comptroller’s Office to audit the District’s adopted budget for 2004-05. Released on March 22, 2005, the Comptroller’s audit concluded that the District has taken important steps to improve its financial condition, including monitoring its budget more closely.  It also stated that the District has “enhanced (its) financial oversight practices in the past few years” and that its budget is “reasonable.”

The audit confirms that our budget practices are sound and our budgets reasonable and structurally balanced. The District has become a fiscally prudent, accountable organization that makes responsible investments in education for the children of Rochester.

Blue Ribbon Panel

In addition, a Blue Ribbon Panel was convened by the Superintendent in September 2004 to make recommendations on issues raised in three previous reviews of the District’s financial operations and on fiscal and operational areas in need of improvement. The panel includes nationally recognized experts in academia as well as leaders from business and the community. Its report is expected to be publicly presented in June 2005.

QUALITY, SERVICE & ACCOUNTABILITY

School Choice

Rochester’s Parent Preference/Managed Choice Plan allows parents of children entering kindergarten to choose from among all the elementary schools in the zone in which they live as well as from several citywide schools. In 2004, the first year of the new process, more students registered for school early and more received their first-choice schools. Of the students who registered early:

• 94% were placed in one of their top three choices; 86% received their first choice.
  
• 100% of those requesting to be placed in the same school as a sibling were placed in that school.
  
• 100% of those who chose their neighborhood school as their first choice were placed there.

The District is also expanding its outreach to parents to encourage greater awareness of and earlier participation in the kindergarten registration process.

Diversity Initiative

The District will launch a five-year Diversity Plan to achieve a working environment that is more inclusive and reflective of our student population, with the goal of better serving our students.

Elements of the plan will include:

• Establishing accountability standards for diversifying the District.

• Recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse teaching and administrative staff.
  
• Collecting and sharing best practices on diversity and inclusion.
  
• Providing diversity education for staff.

Customer Service

Our customer service initiative will continue in 2005-06. Its purpose is to identify our strengths and challenges, determine how well we are meeting the needs of our customers, and enable us to improve customer satisfaction.

In 2004, surveys were distributed to all staff, parents, and select students in grades 7-9. Questions pertained to administration and management, learning environments, communications, service delivery, engagement, and overall satisfaction. Results are being used in the development of departmental and school improvement plans for 2005-06. In addition, some of the investments made in our budget for 2005-06 address concerns raised in the survey responses.

Customer satisfaction surveys specific to each school have also been developed and distributed to parents.  Results will be used in the development of school improvement plans for 2005-06.

CONCLUSION

This budget for 2005-06 advances the District’s priorities as approved by the Board of Education. It was developed following a thorough review of the effectiveness of our programs and services to determine which are best meeting the educational needs of our students. It supports those that will allow us to continue our progress toward becoming a high-performing school district and a model of academic achievement.

We have a plan in place for the future of this district, and we know what we must do to get there. We will remain accountable for improving student achievement and will continue to be a performance-driven school district.

Sincerely

Darryl W. Porter	Manuel J. Rivera
President, Board of Education	Superintendent of Schools