Dear Supporters,

Although we have been quiet this week, there has been some significant work going on regarding our campaign to secure funding for New Song Academy. I'll give you the highlights:

• Several of our Board members and one of our supporters from the business community met with Commissioner Buzzy Hettleman this past Monday. The outcome was less than encouraging and can be summarized by Mr. Hettleman's assurance that we would never get 59% of the BCPSS per pupil expenditure. Many of the budget concerns that we had he dismissed saying that he wouldn't look into them. According to Mr. Hettleman, the CFO is short staffed and overwhelmed. He doesn't want to make more work for him. Mr. Hettleman did agree to ensure that the funding formula for our school for this year and next is the same as that used for other "similarly situated" schools even though we are able to document that one school in the System gets 6 times what our school received this year. Mr. Hettleman refused to discuss that school. Mr. Hettleman also agreed to look into the $400,000 for consultants that is part of the Board of School Commissioner's $1.5 million budget. If you are interested in seeing the '07 budget, you can find it on-line on the BCPSS website. It seems evident, even to the untrained eye, that there are many pools of funds that could and should be redirected to schools instead of central office.
  


• On Tuesday, Congressman Elijah Cummings visited our school and has offered his full support to help us obtain the funding we need. The channel 11 report covering his visit can be seen by clicking the link in another posting from our blog. The Congressman is arranging and attending a meeting with Dr. Nancy Grasmick and members of our Board to see how we might get assistance from MSDE for our efforts.



• As part of the channel 11 report, the Chief Academic Officer, Linda Chinnea, was interviewed and clearly stated that the traditional funding formula for schools has not been changed. That same day, we got our staffing allocation form from BCPSS documenting that next year in addition to not having 5 th and 8th grade teaching positions, we will lose our 3rd grade teaching position. We will also lose our half-time allocation for an assistant principal. The new allocation provides us with 16.5 positions or a .5 increase from the current year number of 16.
  On Wednesday morning, there was a report on WYPR about our campaign. You can find that on our blog, as well.
  

On Wednesday, our Board of Directors met and decided that we will continue our organizing efforts even though it is extremely time consuming and oftentimes discouraging in terms of outcomes. At some point in the near future, though, we will have to decide whether or not we can continue operating New Song Academy next school year.

NEXT STEPS:

1. It's letter, fax and phone time again. This time, we need to contact Mayor O'Malley. The school board budget goes to the Mayor for approval. We need Mayor O'Malley to demonstrate the leadership that will ensure that children in Baltimore City are getting the direct benefit of funds they are entitled to receive in their schools. If Mayor O'Malley fails to respond, we will make our appeal to Doug Duncan and Governor Ehrlich. The Mayor's contact information is Mayor@baltimorecity.gov, 410.396.4897 phone and 410.396.9568 fax. Please get everyone you know to contact the Mayor during this coming week since this is his last chance to act before we attempt to get support from other government officials.


2. Propose to Congressman Cummings and Dr. Grasmick that they either promote a new national effort to create a referendum for every school district in the country (starting with Baltimore City) that 65% of the per pupil expenditure in every district go directly to classrooms or that the state designates all or part of their 9% increase in funding for BCPSS this year for schools that meet the city and state standards for success.
   

The pressure you have been putting on our various representatives is working. Even though many of them don't like our message, or the fact that we won't go away, we are getting through to them. We need to stand firm for what we know is right and not "grow weary in well doing." Please keep the discussion alive among your network of congregations, businesses, friends and relatives. Together, we can bring about great change for the children in our city!

Susan Tibbels