2013-2014 CEP Submission Date

Complete Your CEP or SCEP All schools / Deadline: December 6 You are required by the State to complete your annual Comprehensive Educational Plan (CEP) or School Comprehensive Educational Plan (SCEP) by December 6. You should have received an email from noreply@iplanportal.com on October 30 with login information to access your customized CEP or SCEP template in the iPlan Portal. You should work with your network and School Leadership Team (SLT) to complete your CEP or SCEP, and submit it in the iPlan Portal by December 6. For technical questions about the iPlan Portal, contact CEP-iplansupport@infusion.com. For all other questions regarding your CEP or SCEP, contact your network CEP point, listed on the home The above is from Principal's Weekly, week of Nov. 11th. The 2013-2014 CEP should of been completed last June and put in place in September. The yearly DOE extensions undermines the CEP process, upsetting the entire timetable for a team to complete its mission.The team's objective this year is to write the 2014-2015 CEP and align the budget with it in the spring, so that it is in place for Sept. 2014.

Things to Do At First SLT Meeting of the School Year

At the first School Leadership Team meeting in September, the following matters should be addressed. First, the Team should make sure it has an elected Chairperson (not the Principal or AP)and there is a 50% ratio of parents to staff. The PA President counts as a parent and the principal is included as an SLT member. Every Team member should be given a copy of the current CEP and bylaws. The responsibilities of the Team, to create the Comprehensive Educational Plan (CEP) and align the budget with it, should be reviewed for the benefit of new members. Tentative dates for future meetings should be mapped out. There must be one meeting a month for a total of ten. Each meeting should be held after school for a duration of at least two hours. There is no way a functioning Team can complete its mission if it is meeting less than that. There should be a stipend of ten dollars an hour for members,up to a maximum of thirty hours($300). Members' hours can be accumulated for work done on SLT sub-committees. The job of the SLT in the fall and winter,is to create the 2014-2015 CEP. This requires a needs assessment of the school be conducted, goals are developed, and action plans written. Don't let the principal dominate this process by stating the Quality Review will determine the goals. The Quality Review is just one sample of school data. All Team members should be active in the process. The work of the Team must be reported to the staff and parents through the minutes taken of the SLT meetings. If the 2013-2014 CEP has not been completed, members should review it and make sure the current budget is aligned. The Team must have copies of all budget allocations and line item spending, as well as the Organization Sheet, which lists staff expenses and Other Than Personnel Spending (OTPS). Best Wishes, James Calantjis

DOE 2013-2014 CEP Instructions

This is shameful to instruct principals in June to develop preliminary goals with SLTs that should have been completed collaboratively during the school year. You can not create a CEP from one SLT meeting in June.That is why there are ten meetings during the year. In addition, the budget should be aligned to the CEP goals. It is apparent that principals, with the help of their Learning Networks, are developing the CEPs without the SLTs.They have also allocated for the spending of their new budgets without the input of the SLTs as required. This is just another example of how the DOE has undermined the CEP process and SLT responsibilities.The 2013-2014 CEP should have been developed during the school year through conducting a needs assessment,developing goals and action plans,and aligning the budget with the action plans in May and June. Initial Plan Due for Your 2013-14 School Comprehensive Educational Plan or Comprehensive Educational Plan (Required) All schools / Deadline: June 21 As part of the annual planning process, you should develop preliminary goals and programs aligned to your budget allocations for the 2013-14 School Comprehensive Educational Plan (S/CEP) via the following steps: § Discuss goals, programs, and related budget allocations for the 2013-14 school year with your School Leadership Team (SLT). § Retain any related meeting minutes, agendas, and sign-in sheets. § Complete the Initial Goal and Budget Alignment form in the iPlan Portal and upload it to the iPlan Portal by June 21. If your school has been identified by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) as a school “In Good Standing”, you should develop three to five goals for your CEP. If your school has been identified by NYSED as a “Priority” or “Focus” school, you must develop five goals and address each tenet of the Diagnostic Tool for School and District Effectiveness (DTSDE) for your SCEP. You can find a copy of your most recent S/CEP on the iPlan portal if you need to use it as a reference. You and your SLT will have an opportunity to revise your 2013-14 S/CEP in the fall to ensure that your goals and programs reflect student achievement data from this year, once it is available. For questions about your S/CEP, contact your network CEP point. You may also find it helpful to refer to a new document that explains the budget process for NYC public schools, A Guide to NYC Public Schools’ Budget, as you discuss budget allocations with your SLT. Chancellor Walcott will be discussing the guide with members of the City Council this week. For questions about the guide, email budget@schools.nyc.gov.

Make Sure the Team is Setting Goals for the CEP

Principals have further reduced the role of the SLT in the development of the CEP by using the one or two day Quality Review by the DOE, as the means for completing the needs assessment of the school and setting the goals of the CEP.While the Quality Review should be one source for consideration, the SLT should establish their own needs assessment and add goals accordingly.

See a School Organization Budget Sheet

Access the following on Dropbox to view a school's(IS 049) Organization Sheet for the 2011-2012 school year. This is the view of the budget that shows the school's expenditures, including a breakdown in salaries and OTPS (other than personnel)spending.This is the budget that SLTs are suppose to have input concerning the spending of and to make sure the budget is aligned with the CEP. Ask to see this document which is a right of SLTs under CR B-801 and CR A-655.This document is on the school portal under "Budget Summary."However, the current year budget will only appear at the end of the school year. http://db.tt/mOk0nhh8 The first O is capital and the second is the sign for zero.

Remember to Hold SLT Elections Before the End of the School Year

Elections for School Leadership Team positions that are available for September,should be held before the end of June. New members of SLTs must be elected by their parent or teacher constituencies. The Parents Association President conducts the election for parent members. The UFT Chapter Leader conducts the election for teacher members. The term of service of a member should be stated in the team's bylaws. The PA President and Chapter Leader are core members of the SLT. SLT parent and teacher members generally can run for re-election, unless their bylaws prohibits it.

UFT Talks of Empowering SLTs

UFT supports a modified Mayoral Control over the NYCDOE. One of its points is to empower School Leadership Teams as "budget watchdogs" over school budgets and to re-empower SLTs regarding selection of principal candidates. Dear colleagues, Several months ago a group of UFT members volunteered their time to serve on a committee charged with drawing up recommendations for the official position of the UFT on school governance in New York City. I am writing you today because their work is now completed and their recommendations will soon be brought before the union’s executive board for debate and then to the Delegate Assembly for further debate and, hopefully, a vote to adopt them as our official position on school governance. I thank the members of the committee for the great job that they have done. Instead of waiting to begin this public debate with the sunset of the current school governance law in 2015, we felt it was important that the city begin having it now and that it be initiated by the UFT, the people who have served under the worst mayoral control system in the country. It is our intention that we set up a system of school governance that will allow us to become a great school system in which the voices of all stakeholders are heard and to create an environment in which all our children will achieve. I am expecting that some in the press may erroneously report the story as the UFT and Michael Mulgrew are trying to end mayoral control. I want to make sure you know that is not the case. We are not proposing to end mayoral control. We do not want to turn the clock back to 2001 or return to the chaotic days of the old elected school boards. Rather, the reforms we are proposing would create checks and balances on mayoral power over our schools. They are sorely needed to ensure that parents, communities and educators have some say in how their schools are run. Once adopted by our executive board and Delegate Assembly, we will immediately begin to lobby for them in Albany. In cities like Boston and Washington, D.C., mayoral control operates in a way that protects against possible abuses by mayors driven by politics and ideology rather than the best interests of children. In Boston, for example, a screening panel puts forward a list of candidates from which the mayor chooses a seven-member school committee. That committee, in turn, chooses the superintendent. In Washington, D.C., the mayor chooses the chancellor directly, but appoints only four of the school board’s nine members. Those four mayoral appointees must be approved by the City Council. The other five members are elected. These are the kinds of checks and balances on mayoral power that we have lacked in our city. New York City needs a system of school governance that supports schools and communities and helps teachers to help students. That is not what we’ve got now. Schools are community institutions; they function best when parents, students, teachers and other community members have a voice in how they are run. Our schools are at the same time pillars of our city. Their success is crucial to our city’s future. That’s why it is so important to balance community input in school governance with central control by the city and the Department of Education. While many decisions for schools can be handled at the school or community level, some cannot. The city has to have authority to step in when needed. In considering the governance changes needed in New York City, we debated whether to put forward only modest proposals now and to fight for more sweeping changes when the mayoral control law expires in 2015. But we decided that the need was too urgent for us to wait, and that it was best to start the process now. That is why we are calling for the following significant, system-wide changes now: A representative and responsive PEP: The Panel for Educational Policy has responsibility for a whole range of decisions in the school system, and so must become more responsive to parents, students, communities and educators. Right now, the 13-member panel includes eight appointees of the mayor and one appointee for each borough president. We’re recommending to the state Legislature that the mayor appoint five, borough presidents continue to appoint five, and that the city comptroller, public advocate, and City Council speaker also each appoint one. Panelists should serve three-year terms, that can be renewed and they should not be removable except with just cause. An independent, qualified chancellor: A more representative PEP should have a significant role in choosing the schools chancellor. Our proposal is that the PEP puts forward the names of three candidates, among whom the mayor must choose. In addition, the State Education Department should end the practice of granting waivers to allow non-educators to serve as chancellor. The chancellor should serve a renewable two-year term and be removable only for just cause during that term. Real authority for district superintendents and Community Education Councils: We also propose that the state’s Education Law be amended to restore some power and independence to high school and community superintendents so that they may advocate on behalf of schools in their districts, and to grant to Community Education Councils the power to make decisions that directly affect the schools in their communities. This can be achieved by giving Community Education Councils a role in selecting superintendents and by having superintendents serve renewable three-year terms, during which time they could be removed only for just cause. The Community Education Councils should also have decision-making power over all school co-locations in their districts. Empowerment for School Leadership Teams: We will also work to ensure that School Leadership Teams are given the authority they need to fulfill their role as budget watchdogs. This includes ensuring that they get access to full information on their schools’ finances. School Leadership Teams should also be re-empowered to put forward the lists of candidates from which new principals are chosen, a power that they had prior to the introduction of mayoral control in 2002. The changes we are proposing will establish a sharing of power and responsibilities for local communities and individual schools while retaining a significant role for the city’s top executive in running the school system. Our proposed reforms would help to ensure a balance of power, which our students, our schools and our city critically need. In solidarity, Michael Mulgrew United Federation of Teachers • A Union of Professionals 52 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 • 212.777.7500 • www.uft.org