Designing and Funding Quality Schools
Designing and Funding Quality Schools: Berkeley Studies the Options
In January 2005, the Berkeley Unified School District began a year-long study and planning process to evaluate district operations. In order to design and fund quality education, Berkeley knew it must comprehensively study the options available. Berkeley Schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence explains her reasons for initiating this study.
As a series of budget problems shook the district during the past three years, the district was in the mode of revive and resuscitate. Now that the budget is balanced, the district realized it must be proactive in sustaining its educational programs and financial stability. Now is the time to "plan, imagine, and document" new ways of bringing improved achievement to Berkeley students. The study will be centered around research on programs that have been proven to improve achievement, as well as exploring how those programs could be financially sustained in these difficult educational times.
If this study is not undertaken now, Lawrence cautions, the combination of decreasing state support for education coupled with rising costs, especially benefit costs, will put the district in financial peril again in just two or three years.
On the positive side, she says, the Berkeley community has a wonderful tradition of supporting education. One example is the participants (both staff and community) devote substantial amounts of their time to the process of putting the district on a positive educational and financial path for the coming decade.
"I am approaching this work with great anticipation," noted Lawrence. "Many districts are watching their educational programs flounder in the face of decreased state funding coupled with ever more onerous reporting and compliance requirements. I am pleased that Berkeley, both as a district and as a community, is confronting these challenging times by meeting the task of improving education for its children."