Operating Budget → Question and Answer Archive

Budget Question and Answer Archive

Q1

As we start to look at this FY 2020 Operating Budget, can you please report on the status of a plan to expand mental health supports through more psychologists, social workers and greater access to a mental health support system for our students?

Q3

Please provide an overview of how schools, specifically Barnsley Elementary School, include neighborhood students in the “Center” activities to allow for more enriched program opportunities.

Q4

Please provide information on how the 27 instructional specialist positions that were added to the budget in OSSI are deployed and how they are providing support to schools? How do we monitor the work and the impact?

Q5

Please provide turnover and vacancies data for the Watkins Mill cluster and provide actions MCPS is taking for improving permanent staffing assignments in the cluster.

Q6

How are we working to fill world and foreign language teaching positions especially in schools that have struggled keeping these positions filled? What are the plans for this work in the future to ensure that we do not have ongoing vacancies in some schools?

Q7

What is the full cost of putting a Middle Years Program in a middle school? How many middle year programs do we have and where are they? How many high schools with IB programs do not have middle schools’ programs articulating to them? Have we evaluated the programs for effectiveness?

Q8

What are we doing to address substitute teacher shortages? Are there plans in the future to use technology to address vacancies that have not been filled or teacher absences where a content substitute cannot be identified?

Q9

Please provide update on the fan issue at Richie Park Elementary School.

Q10

How much does it cost (on average) to provide an MCPS bus for one field trip? What would the budget be to provide a field trip for every student?

Q11

Please provide a report on all field trips taken last year by school.

Q32

Please provide disaggregated and school level data for 5th and 6th year seniors.

Q33

What is the cost of adding 136 elementary school counselors?

Q34

How has MCPS addressed interpreter availability, specifically for parent/teacher conferences? What barriers are there to providing communities interpretation services?

Q35

Please provide an overview of how we differentiate staffing for schools. Specifically, how does staffing look different in Title I, focus, and non-focus schools?

Q36

What are the criteria for acceptance to the Early and Middle College programs? How do we inform the community about the programs and the necessary preparation steps for the application process? What are the demographic breakdown and home school for the students participating in the Early and Middle College programs?

Q37

Please provide a list of the elementary schools that do not have an assistant principal and the enrollment for these schools (K-5). Please provide a list of the largest ten elementary schools and their administrative staffing.

Q39

Please provide the costs to date and the overall impact of Dreambox. What would it cost to put Dreambox in all focus schools and what would it cost to put Dreambox in all elementary schools?

Q40

What does “AD” as noted on page 35 of the budget book mean?

Q41

Please provide the number of students receiving English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services (by proficiency level) for the past three years for elementary, middle and high school.

Q42

Is there an administrator position budgeted for the new pre-k program?

Q43

Please provide an overview on the work MCPS is doing to provide support to students with dyslexia.

Q44

Where are the elementary Learning and Academic Disabilities (LAD) programs? Which schools do each LAD program serve?

Q45

What is the process used to identify an English Language Learners (ELLs) who also need special education services?

Q46

Please provide an overview of the special education staffing at Ashburton and the ratios of students to staff compared to guidelines.

Q47

Please provide a list of the different types of stipends that are available.

Q48

Please provide information regarding who will receive the extra school staffing when those decisions are made (Focus Schools, etc.).

Q49

Please describe what the Middle Years Programme entails. Do students take better or different classes? What do they do as students that is different than what they did when they were not part of the Middle Years Programme? How does a student in the Middle Years Programme without a high school 9-10 component look different than a middle schools Middle Years Programme with a 9-10 component?

Q50

What are the current responsibilities of the executive directors in each of the offices? What will the responsibilities be of the additional executive directors?

Q51

How much time do the instructional specialists in the Office of School Support and Improvement (OSSI) spend in the classroom co-teaching or coaching teachers? How do these instructional specialists help teachers improve instruction? How does their work differ from that of a resource teacher? Provide a breakdown of the amount of time the instructional specialists spend in schools in classroom, in schools doing other work, and not in schools?

Q52

Please provide a job description for information for the new climate specialist position including how this work is different from the work directors do in schools. What are the intended tangible outcomes for the position?

Table Of Contents(TOC)

A
Accelerated and Enriched Instruction 18
Advance Degree - "AD" 40
After School Program - Support for ESOL and Under Performing Students 21 52
Assistant Principal - Positions 12
B
Bilingual Employees - Filling Vacancies 65
Bilingual Pupil Personnel Workers, Psychologists and Parent Community Coordinators Staff 61
Bilingual/Multilingual Employees 62
C
Career Information Coordinators 27
Center Based Enriched Opportunities for Students 3
Communication - Pathways for Assistance 30
Counselors - Cost for Additional 33
CREA Program 31
D
Dreambox 39
Dyslexia - Student Support 43
E
Early and Middle College Programs 36
Employee Perception Survey 53
ESOL - Students Receiving Services 41
Executive Directors - Responsibilities 50
F
Field Trip - Cost for MCPS Transportation 10
Field Trips - Opportunities By School 11
Foreign World Language - Teaching Positions 6
G
Greencastle Elementary School - Facility Maintenance 20
Guidance Counselors vs Social Worker - Credentialing requirements 15
H
High School Students - 5th & 6th Year Students 32
I
IB Testing - Exam Funding 14
Instructional Specialists - Central Office School Support 4
Instructional Specialists - Office of School Support and Improvement 51
Interpreters 34
L
LAD Programs - Serving Elementary Schools 44
Lunch Hour Aides - Training 24
M
Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) - Requests 67
MCPS - Information Line 23
Mental Health - Resource Availability 16
Mental Health Support - Psychologists, Social Workers, and access to service 1
Middle School - Enriched Programs 17
Middle Years Programme - Cost, Location and Evaluation 7
Middle Years Programme - Program Description 49
N
New Curriculum - Article Response 22
O
Office of School Support and Improvement - Measuring Impact of Work 54
P
Pre-K Program - Administrator Position 42
R
Rachel Carson ES - Recess 25
Richie Park Elementary School - Facility Maintenance Request 9
Ride On Bus Program for Student Use 26
S
School Repair & Maintenance 28
School Staffing Allocations 35
School Staffing Allocations - Additional Funding Support 48
School Volunteer - Building Access 29
Special Education - English Language Learning Support 45
Special Education - Staffing at Ashburton 46
Springbrook High School - Facility Maintenance Request 13
Stipends - Types Available 47
Substitute Teachers - Vacancies 8
Summer Programs - Support for Reading & Mathematics 19
Summer R.I.S.E. 69
T
Technology Devices - Student Availability 64
Translation Services - Languages Supported 66
Translation Services - Level of Demand 68
W
Watkins Mill Cluster - Permanent Staffing Assignments 5