State of Shutdown: Impact on Tonka Schools

State aid to school districts must continue during ashutdown of Minnesota state government, according to a ruling Wednesday morning by Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearing.

That news came as relief to the Minnetonka School District, which receives 78 percent of its $89 million annual budget from state funds. 

STATE AID EXPECTED—BUT ONLY IN PART

Because the Minnesota constitution requires a “general and uniform system of public schools,” the ruling makes funding education a critical core function of government. Consequently, many—but not all—education aid payments will continue to flow to school districts, even during the shutdown.

While the payments for general education aid, property tax credits, and debt service equalization aid, will come in to schools during the shutdown, the state will not fund a handful of other programs, including special education.

And without the approval of a K-12 budget bill at the statehouse, state school districts might be left picking up the slack for unfunded programs, like special education, should the shutdown continue into the start of the school year.  

Special education funding alone is a sizeable chunk of the Minnetonka school’s district’s annual budget, according to Minnetonka Schools Spokeswoman Janet Swiecichowski. During the 2010-2011 school year, Minnetonka schools spent more than $14 million on special education services for local students.

CONTINGENCY PLANS

Mere hours before the shutdown went into effect, the Minnetonka School Board passed a cash flow borrowing plan, approving the use of $6 million in Aid Anticipation Certificates to make up any gap in state funding. Also, the district has a previously authorized $7.5 million line of credit with Associated Bank. In total, the district has just over $13.5 million in emergency cash access to use through August 2012—and that’s above the $8 million in other funds the district maintains on a continuous basis.

In a statement at Thursday’s meeting, the school board concluded, “It is prudent for us to ensure that we utilize all options available for school districts to have cash on hand to meet our obligations during the pending State shutdown.”

Last night, the Minnetonka School Board also passed next year’s operating budget. Spending will remain flat, even with a 2 percent increase in student enrollment.

“In spite of these difficult economic conditions, it is likely that Minnetonka ISD 276 will be one of the few school districts in the state not needing to access its Unreserved Fund Balance [savings] to fund operations in 2011-2012,” the board said in a statement.

LICENSING WOES

Besides hitting school district budgets, the state shutdown has essentially closed the doors to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). And with only a skeleton crew remaining today at the MDE, some schools across the state will now have to contend with expiring teacher licenses.

But Minnetonka’s nine schools won’t be among them.

Teachers must regularly renew their licenses with the Minnesota Board of Teaching, showing that they met certain professional development milestones since their last renewals. Even teachers who have been in the classroom many years need updated licenses to run classrooms. No current license—no classes.

The same goes for new teachers. And since many school districts across the state do much of their new teacher hiring during summer months, many new teachers may find themselves with a job but no license. 

But unlike many other districts, Minnetonka conducts most of its hiring in March and April. That means that new and existing teachers in Minnetonka had ample notice of the looming shutdown to apply for and receive their teaching licenses. With more than 600 teachers on staff, only seven new graduate teacher hires have licenses pending and 11 teachers have provisional licenses. The result: when school starts, few, if any, Minnetonka teachers will be without valid teaching licenses, according to Swiecichowski.

Hiring teachers early, she said, means securing the intellectual capital essential to a well-performing school district.

“The number one impact on a student’s learning is the teacher that is standing in front of them,” Swiecichowski said.

STATE TESTING

Critical student test scores would be delayed with a shutdown because the MDE would be operating with a six-person crew. That would prevent schools using those assessments to address student needs.

The results from these “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) and Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) essentially drive instruction at Minnesota schools. Since many districts decide on curriculum changes in August, after those tests results are published, schools across the state will be without a way to see where educational gaps exist and correct any problems that may be evident.

But Minnetonka schools don’t rely on state tests for feedback to set their curriculum. Instead, the district contracts out independent student testing, NWEAs, which are administered locally each fall and spring. Because those tests have a turn-around time of just 24-hours, Minnetonka administrators and teachers are able to use the data for curriculum changes right away.

“They really tell us about a child," Swiecichowski said.

The statewide tests, however, are also important. These tests are used under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to determine whether a school has made AYP. If districts and schools receiving Title I funding fail to meet AYP goals for two or more consecutive years, they are classified as “in need of improvement” and face a battery of potential consequences.

The Minnetonka School District doesn’t have any schools in danger of failing to meet their AYP goals, so the test results for the 2010-201 school year will have no impact on the schools in the short-term future—with or without the shutdown.

But the same can’t be said for many schools across the state, including in the Hopkins School District, which had four schools that missed AYP targets in at least one area last year, including  and  elementary schools, both located in the city of Minnetonka.

The State of Minnesota is responsible for submitting the local test results to the Department of Education for evaluation. Without the staff to submit those results, an extended shutdown could mean Minnesota schools would miss the federal deadline to turn in their AYP scores—set 14 days before school begins.

MDE Acting Director of School Improvement Steve Dibb spoke to Patch just a few hours before the department’s doors were to close Thursday and said, “We’re not feeling very positive [around here].”

He said it was unclear exactly how the shutdown would affect or delay test scores from getting into educators’ hands because the impact was contingent on how long the shutdown lasts.

“If [the shutdown lasts] a day or two, there probably won’t be much of an effect,” he said. “If it turns into a few weeks of a shutdown then the reports would be delayed … How long? We don’t know … We haven’t had this happen before.”

But a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) told Patch that if the shutdown continues, the MDE can apply for a waiver of the federal reporting deadline, calling the shutdown an “unforeseen, mitigating circumstance,” and predicting that the a school district “would get a sympathetic review from the USDOE since it would get the same treatment as a natural disaster that impedes State operations.” 

The difference between a state shutdown and a natural disaster however, the spokeswoman said, is that in Minnesota’s current situation, no one from either the state or the local school agencies is communicating with federal education officials. Once the state government is back, she said, the USDOE would wait until MDE is operating and able to estimate when test analysis would be complete and the results disseminated to local school districts, before deciding on a new deadline.

For his part, Dibb went on to say his department at MDE had been working with its test vendors and clients to set up a contingency plan so when the shutdown is over, they can pick up where they left off.

“We’ll have to wait until the shutdown is over,” he said. “We’ll just take it as it comes and do our best.”

OTHER IMPACTS

Summer is the time when most school districts take on renovations to their buildings and grounds. But without state inspectors on hand to review construction, many of these projects have been put on hold or will have to be scrapped.

All of Minnetonka's summer construction projects, including the addition of an entryway addition to the west side of l, will be inspected by city inspectors, not state inspectors, and will consequently not be affected by the shutdown.

Follow the latest shutdown developments on Minnetonka Patch:

July 1: State of Shutdown: Replay of Final Hours

July 1: State of Shutdown: Impact on City of Minnetonka

July 1: State of Shutdown: Impact on Minnetonka Nonprofits

June 30: Countdown to Shutdown

June 30: Teen Clinics Await Their Fate During Shutdown

June 30: Does Shutdown Impact You?

June 29: Judge Rules on Essential Services

June 29: MnDOT to City: 'Work Must Stop for Shutdown'

June 24: Local Nonprofits, Hospitals Brace for Shutdown

June 23: 169 Project, Taxpayers: Political Pawns as Shutdown Looms?

June 23: State Shutdown Would Freeze DNR, Close State Parks

June 23: Hennepin County Battens Down Hatches for Shutdown

Share your shutdown photos or stories with Minnetonka Editor Katelynn Metz.

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