Feature
Saving our Marquette Area Public Schools: Citizens' Advisory
Committee Charts a Course - Geoff Hineman
It's a steamy afternoon
in early June as I enter the office of Dr. James Hendricks in Magers
Hall on the Northern Michigan University campus. He's tapping at the
keyboard in front of him. "Welcome," he says. "Could
you give me just a second? I'm working on a graduation speech and
I just want to finish this idea."
It's already after 5:00 and everyone else in the office
has gone home for the evening, but not Hendricks. The commitment that
keeps him working when others have called it a day is in full display,
just as it has been in his thirty-plus year career with NMU. His motivation?
Education.
It's only natural that he be included as one of the major
players on an external review committee requested by the Marquette
Area Public Schools (MAPS) School Board in July of 1999.
NMU Vice President of Finance Michael Roy chaired the
committee. Roy called fourteen key members of the community together—members
who (including their children) have over 275 years experience with
MAPS. They are Richard Anderson, Harley Andrews, Rex Buettgenbach,
Tim Downs, Jim Grundstrom, Dan Hannigan, Jim Hendricks, Esther Johnson,
Laurel Kniskern, Betty Jo Locicero, Mike Roy—Chairperson, Darcy
Rutkowski, Sal Sarvello, Judy Watson-Olson and Chris Zenti.
The mission of the review committee was two-fold. The
first goal was to identify short and long-term opportunities for revenue
enhancement, cost reduction and operating effectiveness. The second
was to review MAPS' operation with a future focus on financial challenges
and opportunities faced by the district.
Hendricks saves his document and takes a seat opposite
from me.
"Well, where should we start?" I ask.
"To really understand where we are right now, we
have to look at the last ten years," he says.
Those last ten years include the closing of K.I. Sawyer
Air Force Base, a change in state school finance, a dramatic shift
in demographics and a lack of peer institutions in the U.P. by which
MAPS could compare relative changes within the system.
In 1991 MAPS were enjoying a time of prosperity. The enrollment
was at its all-time peak of 5,052 students. In that year, voters approved
construction bonds for Cherry Creek Elementary and Superior Hills
Elementary to meet the growing demand for the increased population
in those areas. In fact, it passed by a two-to-one margin.
Cherry Creek opened in the fall of 1993. Superior Hills
opened in the winter of 1994. From 1990 to 1994 MAPS enjoyed a slow,
steady rate of growth, both enrollment-wise and financially. All of
that would change starting in the second half of 1994, with a chain
of events that begin with the passing of Proposal A at the state level.
"Previous to 1994," says Hendricks, "schools
were funded by property taxes. In 1994 when Proposal A passed, the
state established a ‘foundation-base' system for school funding."
The change seemed to be exactly what the growing MAPS district needed.
The school district, until that point was working with $3,477 per
student. After Proposal A, funding rose quickly to the current level
of $5,784 per student. However, the growth was short-lived.
When K.I. Sawyer AFB closed it doors, enrollment in MAPS
decreased. A decrease in enrollment was expected, but what wasn't
expected was the continuous decrease in enrollment that has occurred
over the seven years since the base closed. To date, MAPS have lost
779 students from the time Proposal A was passed. The result? The
MAPS budget has lost more than $4.40 million in funding. What's worse
is that current projections don't look hopeful.
From 1990 to 1998 Marquette's population decreased by
thirteen percent and the birth rate has decreased by thirty-two percent.
The correlation is direct: people of family-starting ages are leaving
Marquette and taking their yet-to-be children with them. If the trend
does not reverse itself—and according to Hendricks, there is
no reason why it would under the current practices—MAPS will
see a continued decrease in enrollment of nearly thirty-five percent.
That decrease will mean a projected loss of 673 more students, for
an enrollment total of 3,500 students by 2005; that's a loss of 1,452
students in just eleven years.
Although Gov. John Engler has proposed to increase the
foundation base minimum in Michigan to $6,500 per student, the increase
would be negated in the MAPS due to the decrease in enrollment. So
much so that in 2005 MAPS would have nearly $2 million less to work
with than the current budget.
Hendricks adds, "When each student is designated
by the state as $5,784, it only takes a loss of ten students to eliminate
a teacher's salary and benefits. The worst part about that is that
you don't lose ten students in one classroom; you lose them in each
grade. When you lose a teacher, it affects more than just ten students."
Currently, Marquette is not the only school district in
the U.P. to be impacted by a population decrease. Escanaba community
schools currently are struggling with the same problem. There is talk
of closing a school in those parts, just as Marquette closed Parkview
Elementary in 1998.
Hendricks says that "the decreasing population, coupled
with foundation-based funding, affected Marquette first because it
is the largest school district in the U.P. It's only a matter of time
before other schools in the U.P. start to deal with the problems with
which we're dealing. It was difficult to see this coming because the
MAPS system has no peers in the U.P. Knowing what we know now, we
are faced with the task of managing our current numbers and trying
not to become victims of this situation."
For more information on our current numbers, I was directed
to Dr. Roy. Roy is no stranger to numbers and finance. His career
with NMU extends back over twenty years and currently includes the
responsibility of Treasurer to NMU's Board of Control, in addition
to his daily tasks as a vice president.
Once a short history of the MAPS had been established,
Roy's first task was to find a group of peer institutions and see
how we fare compared to other schools. In the broadest sense of peers
(public high schools), MAPS revenue was 7.5 percent lower than the
state average of $6,251 per student. Furthermore, MAPS revenue was
12.7 percent lower than the U.P. average of $6,628 per student.
Since no other school district in the U.P. can match MAPS
enrollment numbers, Roy found fifteen schools from the Lower Peninsula
that shared similar enrollments and per-student funding. The next
step in the process was to find how our spending compares to our peer
school systems. In categories such as Instruction, Instructional Support
and Administration, MAPS finished in the middle range. In areas of
Operation & Maintenance and Transportation, MAPS ranked on the
low end.
A determining factor of performance in the state is the
result of Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) scores. MEAP
scores are a standardized state test given to measure students' abilities
at each grade level. Even though MAPS spending is in the middle-lower
end among peer institutions, our students' performances are anything
but lower-end.
In the twelve areas that MEAP scores are recorded, MAPS
students finished third or higher compared to our fifteen peer institutions
in half of the categories tested. We finished first in fifth-grade
sciences and first in eleventh-grade writing. Those two scores in
particular show that our students are performing well across the entire
curriculum at both elementary and high school levels. If all categories
were averaged together, MAPS students would rank in the upper level
among peers (3.9 on a scale of sixteen).
"What this tells me," says Roy, "is that
our students are getting a great education for their money compared
to other schools in our situation. With a little more effort, our
schools could easily move from above-average to top-notch."
Another factor figured into MAPS current situation is
competition from external educational resources. MAPS biggest competition
comes from parochial schools and home schooling. MAPS have ninety
percent of the student body market, but that number is slipping. Roy
adds, "While increasing our share is important, the loss of enrollment
can only be corrected by reversing the population decline. There simply
aren't enough students currently in the area to make a big impact
by increasing our market share."
A third factor that plays into the current situation is
the immediate retention of students currently enrolled. In a system
that is suffering through a population decrease, student dropouts
are a potentially crippling threat. To keep students enrolled, schools
need to meet the demands of students and parents.
Data supplied by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE)
shows that students are more likely to stay in school and, more importantly,
do well, if they like school. Contributing factors to students satisfaction
include safety; a sense of pride from parents, friend and neighbors
in what they accomplish; and if they feel that someone actually cares
about their efforts.
In addition students need reasons, other than proximity,
to attend particular schools; to not feel as they are being treated
as a captive market; and to get personal attention—that one solution
does not fit all students.
After gathering and assessing population trends, revenues
and expenditures and student/parent demand, the Citizens' Advisory
Committee was left to develop the most opportunistic response. The
committee agrees that it would be in MAPS' best interest to respond
by managing the current declining enrollment to the best of their
ability and moving forward to make MAPS top-ranking. By managing student
performance, MAPS can turn out some of the most top-ranking graduates
in the state, which can then be used as assets to local economic development.
With economic development comes the growth needed to reverse the declining
population trend and stop the MAPS bleeding budget.
The key is to make our schools "top-ranking."
The Citizens' Advisory Committee outlined a list of five
things that MAPS need to move from above-average to top-ranking. First
on the list is a single-minded commitment from civic leaders in business,
public and private institutions, faith leaders and unions. That same
single-minded commitment is expected from teachers, staff, parents
and ultimately students.
The second need is for the school board to focus on outputs,
not inputs; we need to turn out the best students possible, period.
The third need, which really captures the essence of the
situation, is a realization of shared destiny. Students who are happy
with their education and who receive a good education are more likely
to reinvest themselves in the community where opportunities are available.
Currently Marquette loses some of its most impressive students to
other communities with greater opportunities for them. When you lose
your most capable citizens, it starts a downward spiral throughout
the entire community. By realizing the shared destiny of our students
and their future in our community, we can start to really approach
our potential.
The fourth need is to reestablish a trust between the
school system and the community. Some issues that recently have crept
into the trust relationship include an accounting error that occurred
during a shift from paper-based accounting to a software system—the
error was then corrected. Other issues that seemed to have clouded
the relationship, in the eyes of the committee, were the closing of
Parkview Elementary, and the Marquette Redmen logo issue. Roy comments,
"[Those issues] tended to take more of the focus recently."
And the fifth need was a sense of responsibility from
all community members: teachers, administrators, superintendent, school
board, business and civic leaders, and parents and students.
Richard Anderson, a Citizens' Advisory Committee member,
has seen other communities in this position before. As Head of I Point,
a national community development corporation primarily working in
New York and Minnesota, and former Head of Northern Initiatives from
1985 to 1997, Anderson has made a career of helping communities optimize
their potential. One such community is Tupelo, Mississippi.
Thirty years ago, Tupelo was a small rural community functioning,
below the poverty line. Says Anderson,"Tupelo chose to build
their community by investing into their schools. After forming partnerships
within the city, student performance levels started to increase. Soon,
students in Tupelo were outperforming schools in the rest of Mississippi.
When that happened the economy in Tupelo grew as businesses began
flocking to the area because the system was working."
Today Tupelo is a model for communities fighting decline.
A city that, just thirty years ago, was nearly in ruin is now home
to dozens of Fortune 500 businesses. The attitude toward education
in Tupelo has held strong as well. Just recently, a millage for an
eighteen million bond designated for technology came up for vote;
it won at eighty-nine percent. The following morning the Tupelo school
board held an emergency meeting to find out what they did wrong; they
weren't expecting as much as eleven percent opposition.
As businesses came to Tupelo, they brought eighteen-to-twenty-dollar-an-hour
jobs with them. High school students already had established relationships
with businesses during their schooling and as a result stayed in the
community upon graduation and raised the families there, reversing
their decline and prospering.
"I think we're in better shape than most communities
for this kind of change," says Anderson regarding the impressive
performance of our students. "I think what's happened is that
the attention of business and civic leaders has been on other issues,
not on schools. I don't think it has been malice or opposition as
much as simple oversight. We just need our leadership to be a little
more engaged in schools."
The formula seems simple enough in its essence. When a
community invests in its schools, its schools will graduate students
who can reinvest in the community. When students see a job opportunity
awaiting their skills, they perform better. When businesses need to
hire, they need look no further than their local schools where they
have established relationships with students who have the skills required.
When the system works, other businesses want to be a part of it, thus
stimulating growth and prosperity.
So how do we do it? The committee has established a set
of seven recommendations that outline immediate steps toward that
goal.
"The way I see it," says Anderson, "our
community has two choices: we can be treated as victims of population
decline or we use our schools as an asset to enhance our community."
In a follow-up interview with Jim Hendricks, he offered,
"To me it's a matter of realizing the potential of this community.
Everything we need is right here; there is so much talent."
For a complete look at MAPS Citizens' Advisory Committee
report go to HYPERLINK http://www.maps2000.k12.mi.us/cac/start/frame.htm
http://www.maps2000.k12.mi.us/cac/start/frame.htm for an online presentation
of the report.
