Dear Lansing School District Community,
I hope that this newsletter finds you well. As promised, I want to use this iteration of communication to discuss a hot topic: count.
I will try my best to explain and explore "count" in some of its meanings and machinations today. However, I want this newsletter to be brief; it will already be a lengthy Superintendent's letter. I certainly look forward to further exploring the idea of how count works and how it impacts our district. I am happy to delve into this topic again in future newsletters. Right now, I will focus on count and attendance.
To begin, I want to try to explain the general expectations from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) for all Local Education Agencies (LEAs). In Michigan, school districts (LEAs) must have 180 days of instruction. In addition, all LEAs must have 1098 hours of instruction. This is generally referred to as the Days and Hours Requirement. Districts must complete both 180 days and 1098 hours. This way, the state sets a minimum of what a student and family can expect from all LEAs. For instance, a school can't have 180 days but only go to school an hour a day. Furthermore, an LEA can't have 10 hours of instruction a day but only 120 days of instruction. Districts must do both 180 days of instruction and 1098 hours of instruction. As a side note, many districts in Michigan go above and beyond this minimum expectation by having 182 days in the calendar or 1110 hours scheduled for instruction.
In Lansing, we are only at the minimum of 180 days and 1098 hours. In fact, we don't even have 180 days. Because of an agreement during a previous administration, the district uses (is able to count) 7 days of professional development as "instructional days." Thus, on paper, we have 180 instruction days but only 173 days of instruction with students. This is allowed and doesn't harm us in the eyes of the MDE, but it does make every day that school is open for kids much more precious and important.
To the credit of a wonderful agreement with the Lansing teachers' union, we will increase the calendar to 181 days of instruction (minus the 7 DPPD days) next year and all subsequent years of the labor agreement. Even one extra day can make a difference.
So, to reiterate, all districts start with a baseline of needing 180 days and 1098 hours. In Michigan, all districts are allowed up to 6 days for "snow days" if needed. As a reminder, these are not just snow days; they can be used for any necessary closure. Last year, when we had to close the schools the day after the horrible incident at MSU, we were able to use one of these six days and thus not be penalized for it. If we ever had to close the district because of COVID or another outbreak of something, we, too, could use one of these six days afforded us, with no punishment meted out by MDE.
In addition to the Days and Hours Requirement, there is an attendance requirement. The MDE, rightfully, wants to ensure that kids come to school. Thus, they set an attendance minimum of 75% for each day of instruction. This rule applies even on DPPD Days. Rather than student attendance having to be at 75%, the educators (who are "students" during PD days) have to have 75% attendance. A school district can be penalized if it doesn't meet its 75% requirement. And this is where some of the major concerns of staying open in bad weather seem to come from.
Why in the world would we have school if you know you are not going to make 75% attendance – won't that day not "count" anyway?
There are two ways I want to answer that question that has been asked many times over the last few weeks to me and, I am sure, over the course of years to many other district leaders. The most important answer is the starfish answer. There is an old story: During a storm, thousands of starfish are cast on the beach and poised to die because they can't get back to the water. An intrepid child is on the beach running around, taking each individual starfish and throwing them back in the water. An old man sees this and comes up to the child with a starfish in hand and says, "Child, what are you doing? There is no way you can help all these starfish. Your work here today won't matter." The child just looks at the starfish in hand and then the old man. And says, "Sir, it will matter to this starfish." And the child puts the starfish in the water. Of course, the point is that keeping schools open matters to the thousands of kids who we serve who make it to school. And, of course, any parent who doesn't want to send their child during bad weather is more than welcome to do so. But I have spoken and written of this on numerous occasions, so I don't want to belabor this point.
The other answer is that yes, even if we don't hit 75% attendance, the day "counts," as do the hours. So, both the Days and Hours requirements are met. The issue about not meeting the 75% is only a question about a possible penalty for poor attendance. There were days last year during the Omicron wave of COVID where we did not hit 75%, but we met the Days and Hours Requirement. This is really important because if you don't hit the Days and Hours Requirement, you are generally asked to then add extra days to the school calendar. And as you all know, we didn't add any extra days last year or the year before.
Now, you might say, but Ben, I appreciate you want to have school for those that want to come. I also appreciate that you want to have school so you meet the Days and Hours Requirement. But if the penalty is so big, maybe it is best just not to open? Great question. Here is the thing: the penalty is not that big, and if we don't use all 6 "snow days," we can use the snow days on paper to wash out any penalty we might have to pay. So, we get to have a day where thousands of kids go to school, conduct tens of thousands of hours of instruction, serve thousands of meals, and teach numerous skills and, in all likelihood, not have to pay anything. And if we do have to deal with some really serious weather before the end of the year, we will still have those unused snow days at the ready.
Even with all of this, you might still be asking, ok, fine, but how much would the penalty be? Because we are open, there is no Day or Hour penalty; there would only be an attendance penalty. The way that works is by taking our daily attendance and seeing the difference between that and 75%. Then, you take the difference and divide it by 75%. Then, you take the amount of payment we get from the state, divide it by 180, and then multiply the two numbers. I will use round numbers in the example, but please know that these are close to accurate. I am happy to provide exact numbers, but since MDE figures out those numbers, I wouldn't be able to give you the exact answer until MDE talks to us.
On Tuesday, the "non-snow day" our district attendance was around 69%. This is the initial report. Usually, the daily attendance will finalize a few points above that because of how we take attendance in Lansing. We only mark a student present if a teacher marks them as such. Many other districts do it the opposite way, where a kid is only absent if they are marked as such. Because of this, we lose a few % because of a teacher not marking a kid present or, a kid coming in late and not being marked present, substitute teachers not knowing exactly who to mark present, etc. Additionally, sometimes a student is still on the roster but has moved. Once that paperwork is finalized, certain days will be removed from the file, and thus, the attendance rate goes up. So, my hunch is that we will end up around 70% or 71%. Let's take the lower number to show a larger penalty. 75% minus 70% is 5%. 5% divided by 75% is .0667. Now, we take the state budget allowance to the district. It is around 100 million dollars. Remember, this is just the state allowance. Our district's budget is much larger. We have Federal grants, bonds, and other grants and monies. Our usual district budget over the last few years has been around 200 million. But the penalty is only based on about 100 million. Now, we have to divide 180 to get our daily rate: $555,555. We get about half a million dollars to pay everyone and run our schools. Now, take the .0667 and multiply by $555,555. You get $37,055. Again, these are not exact figures. But if we end up with only 70% attendance, we could have to give back to the MDE about $37,000. However, to put that in perspective, that is about .0002 of our district's budget. And we won't even have to pay for this if we don't use all our snow days. And even if we use all our snow days, we can ask for three additional days to be wiped from the penalty. Thus, the likelihood of the district having to pay anything is very, very small. When you put it all together, opening up school for any day, even if you think you are not going to make attendance, is almost always a good thing for the community.
I also want to mention something about "being paid." A handful of emails I received said that we stayed open just so we could be paid. I want to be very clear: almost all employees in the district are fully salaried, meaning that if school is open or closed, they still get their salaries. A teacher's or a principal's salary is not impacted if there is a snow day or not. It is true that a daily sub who only comes in when school is in session would forgo that day's remuneration, but please rest assured, no matter how much we love our daily subs, we are not making a decision to close or remain open based on their payment.
I hope this helps to answer some of your questions. I certainly look forward to continuing this conversation. Sadly, this district, like many others, doesn't usually take the time to try to explain all of these issues. I am always happy to do so. Please continue to send the questions.
Thank you so much for all of your incredible support of our district. Together, we will do great things for the children of Lansing.
Benjamin Shuldiner, Superintendent
Lansing School District
