Thursday, March 16, 2023 Volume 17 Issue 23
We just finished our budget for next year and I wanted to share the details with you. The budget process is a lengthy one – really beginning in late fall of each year, as our Building Leadership Team (BLT) discusses our school’s needs and values, always keeping our students furthest from educational justice at the center of this conversation. We monitor the progress of our students and our interventions to see what is most effective for our students. Finally, we work hard to think creatively about how to best serve all our students with the limited funds that we are allocated. We seek input from our full staff and our full parent community. Seventy-two of you responded to the survey we sent out to families. We also have three parent representatives on our BLT who can share ideas and suggestions throughout our process.
Thurgood Marshall benefits from a few additional funding sources. Title 1 funding provides extra intervention staffing, funding for teacher professional development and family engagement. TM is also a Levy School which means we receive funds from the city to target specific initiatives to support our students furthest from educational justice. Additionally, we are one of six district schools who are part of the Learning for Equity Network, a partnership between the district, Seattle University, and the Gates Foundation. This Network is focused on math improvement and family engagement. Finally, our school benefits from the support of our Friends of Thurgood Marshall Elementary (FTME) group. We would not have been able to keep the same level of service to students without your help! FTME again funded 0.2 of Librarian Mr. Zetterberg’s salary, bringing our total Librarian time to 0.7, or 3.5 days per week.
The district is in a budget crisis, which impacted every school’s budget. This year, we had to get especially creative with our spending to make our reduced dollars cover the supports we need to help our students reach grade level standards and beyond. In addition to 20 homeroom teachers (1 more than this year due to increased enrollment projections), and continued Art, Music and P.E., here is what our budget is providing this year (positions are shared as FTE or full time equivalent. For your information, 0.1 FTE=1/2 day per week).
0.7 FTE – Librarian
1.7 FTE – Reading Intervention (spread across 3 Reading Intervention Teachers)
0.8 FTE – Counselor (maintaining the 4 days per week we currently have)
1.0 FTE – Multi-Lingual Learner Support (decrease of .2 FTE)
1.0 FTE – Family Support Worker
0.5 FTE – Math Specialist
0.5 FTE – Levy Coordinator (manages paperwork and reviews data for Levy, also champions our APTT program!)
Literacy Tutors (17 hours per week each) to support early literacy – as we finalize the budget and determine our Levy Performance Pay, we will know exactly what we will be able to afford in this area.
I am pleased that this budget reflects our current level of service to students. I appreciate the hard work and input that so many put into this. I feel confident that we will be able to do our very best for students next year with these resources.
