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Don Stinson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Ladarius Young Meeting
Time: Jul 7, 2020 03:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75459231659?pwd=RUY4dGlwbkZheENnUzlKa3FPSzRhQT09

Meeting ID: 754 5923 1659
Password: 5Ewcyb

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Teaching Your Students Financial Literacy (posted 7/1), Due July 3

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Teaching Your Students Financial Literacy (posted 7/1), Due July 3

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I spend a day in class each year conversing about finances. We talk about taxes, LLCs, saving, retirement, and multiple streams of income. It usually comes up organically when one of my students get a holiday gig playing in the community. When I taught beginner lessons, we did not go as deep with this, but we did talk about things like taxes and cost of instruments, etc. Do you talk to your students about money? What do you wish you knew as a student and how might you deliver this information to your own class?

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Has anyone here had any experience with the CARES Act funds yet? I'm looking into how ours is being spent. Right now, it looks like a lot of these funds are going towards online programs (which makes sense). Our music programs are ordering Smartmusic and a Theory/Composition software package. We're hoping there is some money left for instruments to avoid sharing.

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Reading: Thoughts and Suggested Frequency of Communication (posted 7/1)

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Reading: Thoughts and Suggested Frequency of Communication (posted 7/1)

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Comments welcome but not required: An essay I wrote last year on communication methods and frequency pertaining to low-income high need schools.  I'll be working to update this for remote learning with suggestions on shorter directed feedback.  It's important during remote learning to make students feel like people and not distanced ID numbers; using names in feedback and continuing to put our personalities in our teaching, live or online, can help foster these connections.

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Discussion: Asking for Money: Proposals (posted 6/30)

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Discussion: Asking for Money: Proposals (posted 6/30)

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Attached is a folder of a few requests I had that were successful or are in progress. Despite administrators not having a lot of time to look over documents, I've found a lot of success with detailed proposals that present solutions and answer potential questions. We don't have an official process for asking for funds at our school, so I just went with this. Some of these proposals were sent to my school administrators. One year, our school did not have any funds left for additional summer programs, so I asked the city. I wasn't sure exactly who to send the proposal to,  so I just sent it right to the mayor.  It got approved.

Please feel free to utilize any of these documents if you think they might help.

If applicable: How do you ask for money, equipment, or programs at your school?  Do you know who to start with, where to look, and how to ask?

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RIFs (reduction in force/lay-offs) just happened at your school. The French teacher was cut and now only Spanish is offered as a foreign language. Two art teachers were also laid off, reducing the art department to one teacher. The district says they are needing to significantly cut back in some areas.

One month later, the school gets brand new windows. How/why do you think this happens?

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Some of you mentioned that you fund raise for uniforms. Here is a uniform proposal document that I made in 2016. Please feel free to use and adapt for any type of uniform. I formed a committee to make the selection to propose. Administrators love their committees.

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Heather Hamilton just got a job teaching grade 3-5 general music. Congratulations, Heather!

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Most summaries of Title I funding are either one or two lines or a 90--minute YouTube "summary."  Building level administrators need to know the ins and outs of this in order to stay within legal guidelines of funding allocation.

Thank goodness I'm not an administrator.

One of the interesting things with Title I funds is that some schools have a surplus at the end of the year.  This warrants a longer financial discussion, but a lot of principals are concerned with a few financial no-no's.  The first is mixing accounts.  You can't take the money from teacher salaries and use for building improvements, for example. Supplanting of grants is another no-no. In short, you can combine some grant sources to build upon (supplement) programs, but you cannot shift an existing expenditure that is funded locally to a grant. Financial mistakes can land administrators in a lot of trouble, hence the reason that some may be hesitant on what they think they can do with funds.

NAfME does a pretty good job summarizing what we need to know: Title I funding can be used for music programs.  In fact, the guidelines for Title I are somehow both verbose yet loose.  Title I funds can be used for instruments, technology, and even after school programs.

For those in Title I Schools: what questions, concerns, or experiences do you have with Title I funds? Do you need suggestions on accessing these funds?

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The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides national funds for primary and secondary schooling. It was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the current reauthorization of ESEA.
What is Title I?
Title I ("title one") is the section of ESEA that distributes funds to schools with high percentages of students from lower socio-economic households.
Title I and Music Education
Support for music education is absolutely an allowable use of Title I funds under the current iteration of ESEA. In a 2009 letter, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan articulated that "Title I, Part A of ESEA funds arts education to improve the achievement of disadvantaged students." Unfortunately, though, the language of the bill that speaks to this does not expressly articulate it as such, (it chooses to speak of funding purposes from a 40,000 ft. level), and so NAfME spends a great deal of time on Capitol Hill working to create clarity on this very issue.

The purpose of the Title I is "to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education" (Title I Sec. 1001). The Title I policy further establishes that programs using Title I funds shall "[implement] school-wide reform strategies that...strengthen the core academic program in the school" (Title I Sec. 1114(b)) and "help provide an accelerated, high-quality curriculum, including applied learning" (Title I Sec.1115(c)). As components of a quality arts education program, these elements support the suitability of using Title I funds to allow students fair and equal access to an arts education. While there is no explicit mention of music education, music is defined as one of the four disciplines that make up the "arts"-a core academic subject under ESEA.

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Pending 2013 ESEA Reauthorizations
Currently, three competing bills have been offered. In this Education Week article, author Alyson Klein compares the three proposals. Klein notes that while all three proposals move away from NCLB's emphasis on Annual Yearly Progress, the bills differ on their approaches to issues such as teacher evaluation and how to improve low-performing schools. The chart at the bottom of Klein's article offers a succinct comparison of how each bill addresses these and other important topics.

Each bill addresses music and the arts differently:

- Senator Harkin's bill, the "Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013,″ endorses the concept of funding a well-rounded education for all students, specifically mentioning music. It also mentions arts education in reference to specific programs, including 21st Century Learning, Expanded Learning Time, and programs that encourage involvement for all students, including those with disabilities

- Representative John Kline's (R-Minnesota) bill, the "Student Success Act," articulates Title I support for the arts, incorporates all core subjects (including the arts) in school turnaround provisions, adds "art and design" into the definition of STEM, cites the arts as an eligible activity for Extended Learning Time, and maintains current "Arts in Education" grant funding program in "well-rounded" section

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The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides national funds for primary and secondary schooling. It was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the current reauthorization of ESEA. What is Title I?

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Is there something that your program is looking to gain or do that costs a significant amount of money? If so, leave a comment. Class members can offer any help, suggestion or experience. I can be of particular help in ideas and resources for funding trips, commissions, and guest artists/speakers.

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Many teachers and directors have money and budget tips. If you have any that you would like to share with the course, please share in the comments. If you don't have any money or budget tips, feel free to either copy down all of the tips or ask a finance related question.

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Does your program have a strong and reliable parent organization?  Speak to them about considering applying for 501(c)(3) status through the IRS.

Major pros: tax-exempt; can accept donations that are tax-deductible to the donor; my program does not have to get any approval for fundraising since it is technically done by the offsite 501(c)(3) group.

Cons: application process is involved; must have a strong, reliable group; must work to maintain status and supervise the group; initial set-up may cost money for attorney, accountant, or other consultant.

My suggestion?  If you need to make some significant money for you organization and you can get this rolling, do it.  It does take a lot of time and effort to set-up, but the legitimacy of the status combined with the increased autonomy helps to pursue some significant financial help for your group.

Check out the FAQ below.  If you have more questions, please let me know how I can help.

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Frequently asked questions concerning 501(c)(3) and other nonprofit organizations.

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What do your school or program budgets look like (the ones that you know about)?

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Our first guest speaker for the course is Ladarius Young.  Ladarius was my student at Joliet Central and is now a music education major at Illinois State University.  This session will take place Tuesday, July 7 at 3pm CST over Zoom.  If you are unable to make it, I will record the session and post that evening.

Below is video to give you a brief introduction of Ladarius. If you would like to ask him a question regarding his time and experience in the public school system, experiences with current societal issues, or anything else related to the course, please type the question in the comments or email to me at donstinson83@mac.com. Ladarius is two-years removed from the P-12 public school system. This could be a good opportunity to ask questions you've wanted to ask some of your students or families but couldn't/didn't have the opportunity to.

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Reminder: Project 2/Final Project Information; Posted 6/23

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Reminder: Project 2/Final Project Information; Posted 6/23

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Based on school report card submissions and classroom discussion, I've replaced project two with a proposal for your final projects.  The original second project would have been redundant and low-level for where we are at. (Please take that as a compliment.)  Furthermore, the final project may take more time than I originally anticipated.

Project two is now replaced with a final project proposal that is due Thursday, July 2. This will segue directly into the final project.

PDF link for anyone that does not have Powerpoint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VjS-nH1oJkAIzopJYD2doGRpmkgoZOZy/view?usp=sharing

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Strategy/Tip: Shifting Your Repair Budget

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Strategy/Tip: Shifting Your Repair Budget

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Instrument repairs can eat up a budget quickly. If your instrument repair budget is too small or you work out of one budget for everything, consider investigating options under capital outlay. Capital outlay refers to the purchase and sometimes service of assets. Larger instruments may be covered under capital outlay. We were able to negotiate moving our instrument repair budget to the building repair budget. This freed up funds to be used in other ways and even increased the amount of repairs we were able to do. This also includes piano tuning.

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Dave Ramsey: Total Money Makeover.  The debt snowball method and information on taxes is something I've shared with many of my students.

I Want You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi; scammy-sounding title but some effective strategies for people looking to increase their financial literacy.  I've shared some chapters of this book with former students and student teachers for items such as retirement funds or making purchases like automobiles.

Your school's budget. OK - not technically a book, but some are as long as a novel. Even if you don't go deep into it, take a look at the full budget for your school or district at some point. You may be surprised at how much money is spent and where it goes. Typically available on your school district's website (but often tucked/hidden away).

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Comments welcome but not required.

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For your reference.

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This week, we'll cover and discuss most things money and communication.  Title I and Title IV funding, budget options, fundraising, to name a few. Updates will be posted Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Action items are marked with "Due."