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To:
Subject:
Date:

Potash, Nina H
Fischburg, Paul R
RE: Budget Proposal - What do we want for Monday?
Monday, March 09, 2015 9:33:06 AM

Could you resend the one that David converted to excel out to the dept. chairs? I have to leave in
about 30 minutes. RCW 42.56.230(3)
Im hoping to be back for the budget meeting after school.
ELL and SPED FTE are completely separate from Gen Ed FTE. One thing to know is that SPED FTE is
based on ratios that determine caseload. For every 22 resource level (SM1) students, 1 case
manager is funded. What classes, if any, that case manager might also teach is an admin/dept.
decision. There are full inclusion schools where the same # of case managers are funded, but they
do not teach their own classes. They may follow a co-teaching model, or inclusion support, or
resource pull-out, or any variation.
But SPED students also fund Gen Ed FTE. At this present juncture, our projected SM1 population will
fund 4.6 Gen Ed FTE. Thats based on the districts average of 80% of their time in Gen Ed
classrooms. However, at Sealth, that number is, in reality, closer to 60%, which means our students
generate 1.2 Gen Ed FTE that they dont use. Thats why Gen Ed has been able to have such a
number of smaller classes. Ironic our SPED students are partially funding small IB classes.
From: Fischburg, Paul R
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2015 11:16 PM
To: Potash, Nina H
Subject: RE: Budget Proposal - What do we want for Monday?

Dang Nina, I hope that wasn't a lot of work. I can't open it. I specifically sent the
document only to dept chairs with core classes. It's not yet ready for general
consumption of the budget committee and since ELL and SPED (as I understand it)
are not funded from the District pot of money, I didn't think it made sense to look at
that.
Am I wrong?
Paul Fischburg
Social Studies Teacher
Chief Sealth International High School
2600 SW Thistle Street, Room 251
Seattle, WA 98126
classroom phone: 206-252-8623
From: Potash, Nina H
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2015 10:56 PM
To: Perkins, Gary A; Katz, David H; Fraser-Hammer, Aida; Fischburg, Paul R; Sallee, Clint J; Syvertsen,
Carrie E; Zeichner, Noah C; Autenrieth, Carolyn J; Munoz, Delfino; Rahsaan, Khaleelah; McCluskey,
Faith; Ezeonwu, Humphrey; Allison, Amber; Patterson, Jeffrey D; Martin, Sarah S; Douglas, Lori;
Maughan, Andra
Subject: RE: Budget Proposal - What do we want for Monday?

I hope the attached spreadsheet, with courses, # of sections, # of students, and

how each course counts toward grad requirements can help with what Gary
proposes..."to really look at all our #s". I'm sure I made some errors so could Dept.
Heads please review your department's info and send me corrections? (And should
we send it to those depts not represented on the budget committee?)
For the class of 2016 onwards, cross-credited classes become even more valuable,
because they are now allowed to have the course count for both requirements. The
full 21 credits still needs to be earned, so it's not a total double-dip. When we
allocate FTE, we have to be careful to make sure the 4.1 (+1.1 PCP) allotted by the
district for CTE courses, actually goes to CTE courses.
I used Open Office on my Laptop to create the spreadsheet - I'm hoping it translates
through to Excel intact!
From: Perkins, Gary A
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2015 12:14 PM
To: Katz, David H; Fraser-Hammer, Aida; Potash, Nina H; Fischburg, Paul R; Sallee, Clint J; Syvertsen,
Carrie E; Zeichner, Noah C; Autenrieth, Carolyn J; Munoz, Delfino; Rahsaan, Khaleelah; McCluskey,
Faith; Ezeonwu, Humphrey; Allison, Amber; Patterson, Jeffrey D; Martin, Sarah S; Douglas, Lori;
Maughan, Andra
Subject: Budget Proposal - What do we want for Monday?
I try to think I'm good about not bringing my work home but I'm not and I admit it. I have to be
honest though, I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I'm extremely concerned that we will move
backward and not forward in this budgeting process. I spent some lengthy time on Friday with Mary
Davison who is the head of CTE for all Seattle Schools and I was able to confirm what I already thought
but what Nina pointed out, for a school that says it does so much, we do so little when it comes to
electives and truly meeting the needs for all our students. When a school like Garfield or Ballard offers
twice as many electives as us or WS which still offers 50% more with 200 less kids, that is a sad state
of affairs. I hope its not too late next year but I really hope we can start this process early in 2016
and spend some meaningful time to discuss the type of school we would like to see ourselves in the
future. I think there are wonderful items on the table that would be great to fund but there just isn't
enough money...or is there? Is the core being overfunded at the detriment of electives if we are
looking at a population now that, lets be honest, is projected to shrink but will see a growing # of SPED
students. If everyone is willing to commit the few extra days to really look at all our #s including FTE
counts for ALL departments, then maybe we can find those extra $s to keep the electives and wish list
of unfunded items that we would like to see. Dance, arts, mariachi, labs, a full time IB coordinator so
we can finally grow the program, lets challenge ourselves to find those $s.
If we are committed to do that, then a couple of things have to happen.
1) We need to look at every department and every job as being expendable. We say we are not
looking at preserving people but so far that is what we have done with the #s. We need to truly know
how many sections of EACH department is required to meet the new projected #s and start from there.
2) Unless circumstances are warranted, we need to reduce the # of classes that are half filled. If you
have two subjects of 15-17 students in one class, that class HAS to be reduced to 1. How many classes
or combined FTE (I know that Academy contributed to .1) were lost due to scheduling issues. I would
like to see the dept heads included as part of the master scheduling process to ensure that is done
properly going into 15/16.
3) There need to be equity in the # of preps that a teacher does. Why is it that Carolyn has 3 preps
going in 1 class but the Chinese class is given a free pass and allowed to teach extra courses. Again,
we need to focus on courses that meet our needs, not the needs of Clark or some outside 3rd party
entity. That .4 that Art lost included ceramics courses that are perfect for our SPED students.
4) And finally, if we can finally figure out how much many teachers we actually need and how to ensure
full classrooms (See #1 and #2 above), then maybe we can start going down the checklist of unfunded
items. Heck, we might even find some extra $s that we did not think we had before.

Most of you have seen at least one Ken Robinson video on TED Talks but I provided a link to a website
with a few of his postings. I spent twenty years in the private sector and it was one of Ken's earlier
videos that really got me to thinking about making that career change and I'm all the happier for doing
so. If you have never seen his first video in 2006 or maybe just the 2nd one (the cool artist one) then
you are really doing yourself a disservice.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
http://www.ted.com/search?q=ken+robinson
We can't have a repeat of 14/15 with scheduling and we need to really start working together. That
means both sides need to ask each other for help (we cannot keep working in silos). I thought we made
some good progress this year with mending the admin/teacher relationship and I would hate for this
budget process to derail all that positive momentum. If we don't get this right, we will be back to the
table next year except the lower students #s won't be because of a boundary lines but the school's own
self inflicted wounds because we put our own individual and department agendas before the needs of
ALL our students (SPED included). I'm committed to the extra time to make this right, are you?
From: Katz, David H
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 8:42 AM
To: Fraser-Hammer, Aida; Potash, Nina H; Fischburg, Paul R; Sallee, Clint J; Syvertsen, Carrie E;
Zeichner, Noah C; Autenrieth, Carolyn J; Perkins, Gary A; Munoz, Delfino; Rahsaan, Khaleelah;
McCluskey, Faith; Ezeonwu, Humphrey; Allison, Amber; Patterson, Jeffrey D; Martin, Sarah S; Douglas,
Lori; Maughan, Andra
Subject: RE: Budget Proposal

Dear Aida,
I came to find you in person to tell you how angry and disappointed I am. Ill confine my comments
in e-mail to that. I do not feel that one-on-one conversations with you are a reasonable approach at
this juncturethere are too many of us, and you are spread too thin. My guess is that the fourteen
people on the team who are not administrators share my feelings. I think we will need to talk
further as a group before we are able to move forward, a phrase I use while holding my tongue.
Sincerely,
David
From: Fraser-Hammer, Aida
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 7:20 AM
To: Katz, David H; Potash, Nina H; Fischburg, Paul R; Sallee, Clint J; Syvertsen, Carrie E; Zeichner,
Noah C; Autenrieth, Carolyn J; Perkins, Gary A; Munoz, Delfino; Rahsaan, Khaleelah; McCluskey, Faith;
Ezeonwu, Humphrey; Allison, Amber; Patterson, Jeffrey D; Martin, Sarah S; Douglas, Lori; Maughan,
Andra
Cc: Fraser-Hammer, Aida
Subject: Budget Proposal
Importance: High
Friends,
After thinking about it overnight, I have decided that I do not want to go on another side trip. The
group seems to be focused on the unfunded staff and projected numbers. These areas tend to sidetrack
the budget process. Whereas I understand its importance (for transparency), please remember that if
we focus on these areas, we still have to come back to the discussion of WHAT (not who) do we have
to fund to run the school and provide the needed services to our students. The WHAT determines the
WHO - positions. not people. Once again, I would like to point out that this phase of the
budget planning is totally arbitrary. Whereas I tried to spread out the "unfundedness" among the

departments, I could just as easily have "unfunded" the entire social studies department. I say this to
point out that "fundedness and unfundedness" can change by the click of a mouse (or even by the
mood of the mouse clicker). With that said, I am going to focus on to moving us forward. If
individuals want to focus on current staffing, those numbers and the specifics are available
through individual research.
So ... Below are 2 proposals I have for the budget and my rationale for funding the items. Please
review them. Let's plan on coming on Monday prepared to talk about these options as well as others
you may have.

ITEM
.2 FTE for ELL Sheltered Math
.2 FTE for Counselor to keep at 3 full
time
.2 Art
Woodshop
Sports Medicine or Similar Oc Ed
Credit Retrieval
IB Co-coordinator
IB Costs
Spanish Immersion
Social Worker
Teacher Shortfall
Supply/Salary reserve
Building funded Truancy Coordinator
Tutors
Academy
Sub International Travel/Hosting
Sub PD
Sub IB Testing
Link Crew

Option 1

Option 2
$0
$0

$0
$0

18,431.00
98,950.00
$0
$18,431
59,370.00
15,000.00
$0
$98,950

$0
$98,950
0.00
$0
59,370.00
10,000.00
$0
$98,950

$40,000
$35,000

$40,000
$18,000

$5,000
$1,000
$2,000
$8,000

$2,000

$4,000

Sum of Proposals

$400,132

$351,060

Discretionary Funding Currently

Available

$400,146

$352,000

$14

$940

Surplus/(shortfall)

OPTION 1
1) ELL - These classes are small enough that we can serve our students with the allocated amount.
2) Counselor - We will have to redesign the counseling assignments to mate the allocation work.

3) Art - .2 increase will add options for our students, especially our growing special education
population.
4) Woodshop - This class offers options for our population. Teachers are willing to accept higher class
size to absorb the limits in this class.
5) Sports Med - No need to increase these offerings if we keep woodshop.
6) Credit retrieval - This is good to offer as an option during the day for students who need to make up
credit.
7) IB coordinator - .6 is doable. This person is endorsed in SS and LA
8) IB costs - IB comes with costs that cannot be avoided.
9) Spanish Immersion - We will maintain the FTE of the required classes. If possible, we can assign the
teacher to other disciplines since he has multiple endorsements.
10) Social Worker - It is important to have these services. There is a great need.
11) Teacher shortage - Unfortunately we cannot fund all the teachers we currently have.
12) Salary reserve - This is needed in case we have emergency needs, especially at the beginning of
the year.
13) Truancy - - .5 person to address this area of service
14) Tutors - We will have to solicit volunteers.
15) Academy - This will be paid out of available funds.
16) International Travel - This is a small amount so teachers will have to add the cost of subs in the
fundraising that students do to cover travel.
17) PD - This covers some costs to allow teachers to go on PD or do visitations.
18) IB testing - This will cover some of the costs to pay for subs during testing. We will also have to
add the cost of administration into the cost of the test. AP testing is done this way.
19) Link Crew - This may run a bare bones program. This program provides a much-needed service.
OPTION 2
1) ELL - These classes are small enough that we can serve our students with the allocated amount.
2) Counselor - We will have to redesign the counseling assignments to mate the allocation work.
3) Art - No addition or reduction in the offerings we currently have. We have been meeting the needs
of our students we what we have now.
4) Woodshop - This class offers options for our population. Teachers are willing to accept higher class
size to absorb the limits in this class.
5) Sports Med - No need to increase these offerings if we keep woodshop.
6) Credit retrieval - Students will have to take credit retrieval outside of the school day.
7) IB coordinator - .6 is doable. This person is endorsed in SS and LA
8) IB costs - IB comes with costs that cannot be avoided.
9) Spanish Immersion - We will maintain the FTE of the required classes. If possible, we can assign the
teacher to other disciplines since he has multiple endorsements.
10) Social Worker - It is important to have these services. There is a great need.
11) Teacher shortages - Unfortunately we cannot fund all the teachers we currently have.
12) Salary reserve - This is needed in case we have emergency needs, especially at the beginning of
the year.
13) Truancy - - hourly person to address this area of service. No benefits.
14) Tutors - We will have to solicit volunteers.
15) Academy - This cost will be paid out of available funds.
16) International Travel - This is a minimal amount so teachers will have to add the cost of subs in the
fundraising that students do to cover travel.
17) PD - Will have to continue doing PD the way we do and look for creative ways or outside funding to
provide subs if we need to take teachers out of classroom to attend opportunities..
18) IB testing -. We will have to add the cost of administration into the cost of the test. AP testing is
done this way.
19) Link Crew - This may run a basic program. This program provides a much-needed service.

Aida Fraser-Hammer, Principal

Chief Sealth International High School
2600 SW Thistle St