COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ‘THE JOHN A. WILSON BUILDING 1350 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20004 David Grosso Committee Member Councilmember At-Large Government Operations Chairperson, Committee on Education Health Human Services Labor and Workforce Development December 28, 2019 The Honorable Muriel Bowser Mayor of the District of Columbia John A. Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. Washington, DC 20004 Dear Mayor Bowser, ‘Over my 5 years as Chairperson of the Committee on Education, | have collaborated with agency heads within the Education Cluster to ensure they have had the resources needed to support the academic and social-emotional needs of our youth. More recently, | have spent significant time talking with school leaders and teachers about the resources needed to accelerate the academic achievement for all youth. | have and will continue to work tirelessly in this space because as a city we will not close the achievement gap if we do not identify, understand, and meaningfully invest in both the academic and social-emotional well-being of our students. In the past, | have submitted to you a panoply of budget priorities. While | will continue to advocate for various issues throughout the budget process, the purpose of this letter is to share with you my top education budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2021, Just last month, the Committee on Education held a hearing on Academic Achievement in DC Public and Public Charter Schools. During the hearing, the Committee heard from researchers stating how daunting the task is before the city when it comes to closing the achievement gap But within that data, there was reason for optimism as many school leaders are seeing amazing growth from all students they serve. More action is needed to close the achievement gap and | know that you are as committed to that goal as | am. To achieve that goal, | respectfully request that you include these priorities in your budget submission to the Council. Below, | have specified my request and highlighted a possible means to allocate the funding. | am happy to meet with you and your team to discuss this in more detailIncrease investment to support hiring additional school support staff. Ihave visited nearly every school in the District of Columbia, talking with teachers and principals about the challenges they face-both academically and with school climate-and how we as elected leaders can support their efforts to prepare our youth for success. When asked what they need in order to close the achievement gap faster, school leaders request more funding to hire additional staff like social workers, interventionists, and instructional coaches that can support their students’ needs and their teachers’ missions. Roughly one in five children experience the signs and symptoms of a diagnosable mental or behavioral health disorder each year.* As Chairperson of the Committee on Education, | have worked collaboratively with government partners, community organizations, parents, students, and others to cultivate trauma - and adversity - informed environments. These environments recognize that a student's ability to learn and grow is impaired if they suffer from trauma, toxic stress and other adverse childhood experiences. To your credit, you included $9 million in the FY20 budget to help expand the Department of Behavioral Health program for more school-based mental health clinicians; however, those funds still have not been released and, though they will unquestionably be impactful, greater investments are necessary. Finally, as the Committee on Education continues to hear from parents, school leaders, and most importantly students about the hurdle that getting safely to and from school on a daily basis presents to academic achievement and attendance. While I recognize that the Deputy Mayor for Education has worked on this issue, | do believe we need to further expand and institutionalize this work. If we are to put every child in the best position to learn, itis imperative that we ensure students get to school safely, are loved and supported once they are at school, and receive rigorous and engaging instruction in the classroom. This must be available in every public school, both DCPS and public charter, in the District of Columbia For these reasons, | request that you include the following in your FY23 budget submission: ‘+ Aug increase in the UPSFF as a significant investment towards the hiring of new school support staff and trauma-informed training. * $8.3 million for trauma-informed training for all school staff. Addressing the mental health needs cannot be the sole responsibility of our teachers or mental health professionals. It requires equipping everyone in the school building with the language and tools necessary to improve outcomes. For this reason, all https/fchildmind.org/downloads/2015%20Childrens%42oMental%s2oHealth*2oReport.pdfschools should provide training on trauma-informed and restorative practices for all school staff. * Increased investment for professional behavioral support staffing in schools. Through the work of DBH, the School-Based Mental Health Task Force and the subsequent DBH Coordinating Council on Schoo! Mental Health, we have gained significant insight into the needs and challenges in delivering high- quality mental health services to our students. There are many approaches to address funding behavioral health staff but irrespective of the chosen path, a significant additional investment is needed. As | continue to hear from school leaders, behavioral health is the utmost importance. Through an increase in UPSFF, school leaders will have the resources needed to better support our youth * $3 million for the successful early literacy grant program housed at OSSE that gets students at or above reading level by third grade to continue and expand upon gains made during this school year in literacy, * $2.5 million for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education dedicated to safe Passage in order to conduct a comprehensive study on all modes of how youth travel to and from school, evaluate current safe passage pilot programs, and scale up those that, are effective. '* $250,000 in grant-making authority for the Deputy Mayor for Education for arts and humanities education data collection and visualization to support the work of Any Given Child. This analysis supports an equity approach to inform and guide future arts and humanities education programming investments for underserved communities. Increase the city’s capital investment for DCPS to accelerate PACE schedule. Since the enactment of the Planning Actively for Comprehensive Education Facilities Amendment Act of 2016 (PACE), schools have been prioritized for inclusion in the capital improvement plan (CIP) for D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) based on data, not politics. | continue to believe that this is the best, most equitable approach for school modernization, We have worked closely together to bring stability and predictably to school communities regarding modernizations. While we should be proud of these accomplishments, | do have concerns regarding the level of funding for the DCPS CIP. In the FY5-FY20 CIP, DCPS capital funding totaled over $2.2 billion including reprogrammings. The current FY20-FY25 CIP contains just over $2.3 billion in capital investments, a 37% reduction. During this same time, the entire D.C. government CIPfluctuated between $9.5 billion and s10.s billion. Let's work together in the FY2023 budget to ensure our school communities enjoy safe, healthy, and modern facilities by restoring $825 million to accelerate modernizations where we can and include more schools from the PACE ranking list in the CIP. While making this investment, please also consider strong investments in the small capital project lines at DCPS. Over the last five fiscal years, capital reprogrammings have jumped from $24.6 million in FY35 to nearly $42 million in FYag, much of which has been for small capital projects. | commend you for these needed investments, but | believe we should be budgeting higher amounts from the outset, given what the Facility Conditions Assessments have illustrated about the true state of many of our school facilities. By restoring this funding, we could give certainty to more than half of the communities on the PACE ranking list regarding their much-needed full modernization. Investing in our small capital project lines will also give communities more confidence that their school facilities are maintained for 22" century learning environments. | know there may be some logistical challenges given the geographic distribution of the remaining schools, but | also know the modernization team at DCPS is incredibly talented and creative and could certainly make this investment work. Freestanding Parklands-Turner Branch Library. Finally, as we prepare to celebrate the re-opening of the central Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in the heart of downtown D.C,, | urge you to include full capital funding in the FY23-FY26 CIP to provide the Congress Heights community assurance that a free-standing, modern Parklands-Turner Library branch is on the way. The District of Columbia Public Library recently completed a site identification study for a free- standing Parklands-Turner Library. Parklands-Turner currently occupies 4,500 feet of store- front space near Turner Elementary School. The space constraints mean that there is no community meeting space, no study rooms for students, and an inadequate number of computers for users during peak hours. Despite the small footprint, the performance indicators illustrate the value of this library to the community. It consistently ranks among the top libraries for computer sessions and number of Wi-Fi connections. Parklands-Turner has the among the highest utilization of free copies and printed pages, and student computer use. Ward 8 has the second highest number of Books from Birth Enrollment, and the second largest number of active accounts. This community deserves a full-size free-standing library branch. | urge you to work with DCPL to identify which of the five sites from the site-study would best suit the needs of the CongressHeights community and fund a land acquisition or transfer District ownership to DCPL, whichever is necessary. While a District-funded option is one approach, | also implore you to examine if this is a prime opportunity for mixed-use affordable housing combined with a free-standing library branch The West End Library is part of a mixed-use development and could be a model to adapt for greater public housing while reducing the overall direct cost to the District. Thank you for your consideration. Please feel free to contact me or my Committee Director, Mr. Akeem Anderson throughout the budget process at 202-724-8285 with any questions or thoughts and | look forward to working with you. Sincerely, Burt David Grosso Councilmember, At-Large Chairperson, Committee on Education Council of the District of Columbia Ce: Rashad Young, City Administrator Jenny Reed, Director, Office of Budget and Performance Management