The Providence School Department’s proposed $274 million 2001-2002 budget is nearly 17 percent higher than a year ago, but asks taxpayers to pay only slightly more in property taxes, with the hope that nearly all of the $35 million increase comes from outside resources.
The largest portions of the $274 million budget come from state aid ($161 million) and local property taxes ($82.7 million). The budget also identifies a revenue/expenditure gap of $22.9 million.
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According to the budget document, much of the new spending will come in added jobs — 117, with 72 of those teachers’ positions, 17 teaching assistants, three administrators, and the remainder clerks and other employees.
Included are new initiatives proposed to retool the district’s mathematics program and new measures to reach out to the district’s 26,000 students and their parents.
The largest of these new initiatives is the $3.7 million the district hopes to spend on the re-establishment of the district’s mathematics program.
“The major focus of the math department in the Providence School Department is to make certain all our students are meeting or exceeding the standards,” said Claire Pollard, acting director of mathematics, at a recent (April 10) budget hearing.
These funds will be used to design, support and implement a standards-based mathematics program in kindergarten through twelfth grades, including $1.3 million for a new textbook adoption.
Professional development for all mathematics teachers and training in new materials and technologies is a major component of this initiative.
Funding for this program is spread among funding sources such as Title I (which is supplementary funding for students performing below prescribed standards) and Title II (which is allotted for teacher and stall development).
The district also hopes to reinstitute its Saturday support sessions to help students and parents with math. Many schools already have a “Family Math Night” to assist with mathematical concepts, Pollard said, but it is hoped that the program will expand to every school.
A transformation is also proposed for the student relations office, which according to Acting Youth Development Facilitator Kai Cameron, “in the past has been primarily involved in attendance and disciplineThose are really symptoms and outward behaviors of other issues.”
The new student relations office will host artistic and cultural programs and offer academic assistance, counseling, mentoring, scholarship programs and college awareness and readiness programs.
The core piece to the new office, said Cameron, is youth leadership.
“Through youth development, we can touch on other types of concerns, like character building,” she said. “Also, we would be looking at alternative education programs and some of our disenfranchised youth – some of our youth who have dropped out of the system and are not being successful.”
“Working with the whole child will give us the opportunities to work with students once they have been connected with the student relations office, as opposed to being referred.”
Also included in the budget is $241,000 to establish a communications department and a department for Community and Family Partnerships.
“Community outreach is not a short-term project — it’s a long-term commitment,”
said Patricia Martinez, Facilitator for Community and Family Partnerships. “The
creation of this department will give us the opportunity to move forward.”
Martinez said she was hired six months ago and has since been the only person handling outreach for the district on a full-time basis.
Two new positions are proposed for the department — one in charge of outreach,
the other a family coordinator.
The program is designed to inform the community and encourage parent and community involvement and participation in school and district-wide decision making.
“More than anything, we are building the capacity of our parents to make informed decisions,” Martinez said. “They need to know what it means to be part of the team.”
