Differentiated Instruction… From the Business Office?

The finance leader of suburban district devises creative tools for overcoming public skepticism

I remember vividly the challenge I faced when I arrived for a central-office job interview in Ossining, N.Y., five years ago. Amidst a climate of public disengagement and distrust over management of public funds throughout the state, district personnel asked me a question that seemed central to the interview: “What strategy would you use to alleviate this issue with the public?”

My response was brief: “I would meet with them.” The interviewers seemed taken aback by my simplistic answer about dealing with the critics, but weren’t inclined to dig deeper and instead moved on to the next question. 

Now, I’m in the middle of my fifth year as assistant superintendent for business in the 4,500-student Ossining Union Free School District, 25 miles north of New York City.

Ossining prides itself on its diverse community and its accomplished students. In 2012, Ossining High School received the Intel School of Distinction and Star Innovator Award for its rigorous and hands-on project-based science, including its robotics programs. Our high school’s girls’ basketball team has won three consecutive state championships.

“Always Budget Season”

The Ossining school district’s operating budget is about $116 million, and I can honestly say, “It’s always budget season here.” Consequently, addressing the public’s distrust toward public agencies requires thoughtful strategies to enlighten, engage and empower school communities about public school finances beyond the immediate budget cycle.

In this diverse socioeconomic community, I meet with school district staff and community members throughout the year, welcoming any ideas they have about how the district can save money or operate more efficiently.

Through these meetings, I learned much about the values and perspectives of this tightly knit community. I discovered the school district was paying staff overtime to safeguard a tent that was kept on standby for the outdoor high school graduation and middle school moving-up ceremonies in the event of inclement weather.

When I asked whether these ceremonies could be held indoors, thus eliminating the cost of overtime pay, I learned the district’s rising enrollment precluded this option. When I raised the possibility of using a nearby university as an alternative site, I quickly discovered the community’s strong feelings about graduation traditions in the village. Community members and parents looked forward with great pride and joy to high school seniors pouring out of the customary venue onto Ossining’s main street. Some described the graduation as a parade.

The community eventually agreed to move the ceremonies to a suitable indoor facility in a nearby town — the prospect of air conditioning, the elimination of tight limits on the number of invited guests and the indoor venue’s handicap accessibility played a role in the decision.

Enlighten and Engage

During the three years prior to my arrival, Ossining had eliminated about 100 staff positions due to budget cuts and stagnant state aid allocations. The district also suffered through a failed operating budget vote and a failed bond vote. As a result, staff members, parents and the board of education were eager to find efficiencies to avoid any further cuts in personnel and educational programs.

To understand why the $69 million capital bond issue, tied to building additions and renovation, had been defeated, I invited some of the school district’s harshest critics to meet with me in my office. At these face-to-face meetings, I discovered two key reasons for the decisive defeat.

First, community members believed the school district’s proposed bond amount was excessive. They pointed out that the interest payments on the borrowing would double the total amount paid over the term of the bond, and because the district did not include interest expenses in the proposed bond amount, they perceived the district as being dishonest and lacking transparency.

Second, community members did not believe the proposed capital improvements — additional classroom space to accommodate the increasing student enrollment and serious facility maintenance and repairs — were necessary.

If we were to rally the community behind us, we needed to enlighten them about the complex field of school finance management. We never had explained to the public that, with the passage of the bond project, the school district would receive building aid funds from New York state. The estimated amount of aid would cover the interest expense in its entirety. We illustrated this point with a simple pie graph that we shared with the community.

With regard to maintenance and repair needs, one of the main focuses related to the frequent breakdown of the district’s boilers. Although critics of the bond issue faulted the district for lack of maintenance, in actuality the frequent breakdowns were caused by the thick fuel oil that powered the boilers and the age of the equipment.

To help community members better understand the reason for the breakdowns, the district’s maintenance supervisor and school facilities and operations director produced a two-minute video that showed the complexity of the parts in the boiler system and how the thick fuel oil quickly hardened within the boiler system. We posted the video on the school district’s website so community members could better understand how the fuel oil that flowed through the complex boiler system could lead to breakdown.

The district further explained that the new boilers could be fueled with gas or more-efficient fuel. The cost of gas was less than oil, and the reduction in oil costs would lead to budget savings. Opposition to replacing the boilers quickly abated.

The pie chart and the video produced by our staff members helped to refute misperceptions about the bond issue and simplified the complexities of school finance management. And, in response to the concerns of the community, we reduced the size of the bond to $41.5 million, an amount that would not increase property taxes.

The original $69 million bond included additions to schools for which rapid increases in student enrollment have been projected by our demographers. The reduced bond did not include the additions. A year after the community voted down the first bond proposal, it approved the new measure with 60 percent of the votes.

Combating Confusion

District officials cannot rely on Power-Point presentations and newsletters to explain complex concepts to the community. Akin to teachers who differentiate instruction according to the needs of the students in their class, school district officials must differentiate the way they present budget and finance information based on their audience.

In New York state, the majority of large city school districts are required to have their budgets approved by the voters every year. In one of my first years in Ossining, the state introduced a new formula that state officials said would cap property tax increases. The formula was complex and confusing to community members and even to staff. Attempts by public officials and the news media to simplify the process for the public resulted in erroneous information about the tax cap formula.

To combat the confusion, not only did I have to explain the formula to a perplexed public, I also had to explain why the other interpretations of the formula were inaccurate. Additionally, I anticipated the community would be displeased and even more confused when Ossining’s proposed tax levy increase surpassed what they believed was the cap, when in fact, the increase would be below the cap.

Initially, when I did presentations to the community, I tried to explain the formula in its simplest terms. However in the end, no one seemed to understand the formula any better.

With help from the school district’s communication committee, I developed a flyer titled “Five Fast Tax Cap Facts” to help the various stakeholder groups understand the formula. The flyer included the image of a hand, with each finger representing one of the five facts. This simple visual had the desired effect. When staff and parents saw me during the budget season, they often held up a hand with all five fingers stretched open — a sign that they understood the tax cap formula.

We also used experiential learning to help attendees at a school board meeting understand the budget development process. I created an activity called “Puzzling Budget Priorities,” in which I used large pieces of rubber typically used as protective floor covering for preschool children. I separated the attendees into groups of five and gave each group nine puzzle pieces, each representing a budget priority and its cost. For example, one puzzle piece was labeled Restoration of Afterschool Programs at a cost of $100,000. Each group’s task was to use the puzzle pieces to develop a budget that did not exceed $1.5 million.

This activity helped parents, staff and community members understand how difficult it is to meet all of the stakeholders’ priorities while staying within the budget. Enlightenment led to community engagement. When community members understood the issues and, more importantly, how the issues affected them, they transformed from critics to knowledgeable collaborators.

Relationship Building

The value of creating and sustaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders cannot be overstated. Members of the school district’s budget advisory and citizens advisory committees represent every external and internal district stakeholder.

These committees contributed to substantial successes during the past four years. We garnered the highest budget voter approval rates in recent memory; reduced transportation expenses by more than $1 million; reduced employee health care costs by more than $2 million; and increased state aid by more than $400,000 in one year.

Most importantly, the community has demonstrated its support for the district. We are humbled and grateful that the most recent budget vote was approved by approximately 70 percent of the voters.

As we look forward to this spring’s budget season and beyond, we continue to seek creative ways to engage and enlighten our community about stagnant state aid funding and the impact on the district’s budget as well as unprecedented increases in student enrollment.

Last spring, my office introduced Live Chat through the business department website. Live Chat serves as a communication medium to answer questions about the proposed budget a few weeks before and on the day of the budget vote.

I hope to relaunch Live Chat as a mainstay through the spring to address common questions at pre-set hours as well as during voting day.