1. The quality of transportation service to this district has dropped considerably in the last couple academic years, while its costs are clearly unsustainable. Is this not the direct outcome of outsourcing transportation management to CESO and the majority of its busing to CST? There were and still are many other options available to the District Administration to address the bus driver shortage and bring these costs under control, why hasn't anything been done? The challenges with our transportation shortage have been growing for years and are not localized to our district. This is a national shortage. We are continually working to explore additional vendor partners who can support our district's needs.
2. Is there any other means for transportation for our students? It seems like this has taken up a lot of our funds in this budget. We are in discussions about expanding the no bus zone around our campuses as it has remained well below state statute for years. We are also implementing a pilot program in partnership with Metro Transit for Go Passes for our high school aged students at the ECA. We have also consolidated our activity route stops to conserve distance and time.
3. How do the department budget cuts account for the high rate of daily staff absences? It seems like we can hardly afford a decreased foundational number of staff when we already work at a deficit because of absences. Staff absences are generally unplanned. The budget cut staffing changes are a result of planned changes that are based on student enrollment and/ or current district priorities. Simply put, we cannot keep an excess of staff to cover for potential absences that may occur in the different areas of the district. Good attendance from our staff is essential to support our students. We continue to follow up on attendance concerns and promote regular attendance for all employees. We work with Teachers on Call to provide subs for licensed teachers and education assistants and partner with them to continue to grow our substitute pool.
4. What is being done to reduce absences and increase retention even in the midst of these cuts? Good attendance from our staff is essential to support our students. We continue to follow up on attendance concerns and promote regular attendance for all employees. We work with Teachers on Call to provide subs for licensed teachers and education assistants and partner with them to continue to grow our substitute pool. Employee retention is a continued focus as we work to listen and respond to the needs of our staff. We have established regular communication practices to keep employees informed and engaged. Sites and departments hold regular meetings to engage staff and be able to respond timely to questions and concerns.
5. Some of the program offerings mean that there are classes of 10-15 students and classes of 30-35 students. How will building principals deal with some of these programs ("College in the Schools", for example) that at times lead to lopsided class enrollment, which may be impacting staffing needs? Strong course registration and master schedule development processes at the building-level are integral to ensuring that the appropriate number of course sections are available to meet the needs of the student body. Specialized and/or singleton courses, like CIS or PLTW Biomedical Innovations, will typically have fewer students enrolled than required core classes.
6. What are our options for bringing in more University of Minnesota students and AmeriCorps volunteers to supplement instructional support? Brooklyn Center Elementary and Early Learning will continue to be Americorps Reading Corps sites for the 2023-2024 school year. Our Reading Corps Tutors provide essential one on one and small group literacy intervention services and will continue to do so next year. BCCS will continue to host practicum students and teacher candidates in all licensure areas at each of our school sites throughout the 2023-2024 school year from multiple colleges and university education programs. The presence of practicum students and teacher candidates is mutually beneficial in that it provides the college/university students with in the field learning opportunities while also bringing additional caring educators into our buildings. However, we must remember that our first responsibility to practicum students and teacher candidates is to provide them with opportunities to learn and practice in supervised settings. As such, bringing additional practicum students and teacher candidates in to supplement instructional services is not the primary goal of our college and university partnerships.
