While other school districts like Fairfax County and states like Massachusetts are in the midst of slashing schools budgets and cutting funding for education initiatives, D.C. seems to have found ways to avoid such measures, at least for a while. As we mentioned in the Morning Roundup, yesterday Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee asked the Council to approve a relocation of $100 million from the approximately $750 million schools budget. According to a DCPS release, the money is to be distributed as follows:

$88 million will be used to align individual school budgets with final enrollment counts. Each school’s needs were determined in partnership with the school principals, and the additional funding will allow additional positions such as art, music, and P.E. teachers to be filled in over-enrolled schools, while under-enrolled campuses could lose staff. (The staff would not be fired, but assigned elsewhere in the system.)

$6.7 million will be transferred from the DCPS central office budget to be used directly in schools, including $4 million to assist in restructuring efforts mandated under the No Child Left Behind law.

Additional funds will be used to initiate new programs, including a new Office of Youth Engagement ($2.4 million) that would coordinate all health and mental heath programs in DCPS, and work to improve student attendance and behavior.

The Examiner points out that the transfer request came on the same day that D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray introduced a bill aimed at improving DCPS budget transparency and public input. Rhee will testify about the funding transfers at a public budget hearing on Thursday. Additionally, Rhee’s monthly community forum is scheduled for tomorrow evening from 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the Francis-Stevens Education Campus, 2425 N Street NW.

Photo by Rob Shenk