(This article originally appeared in the April 2015 edition of Foxhall News, the newsletter published by the Foxhall Community Citizens Association, available at Foxhall.org.)

Burgeoning Wilson High School’s Budget Woes – And the Murky Big Picture

By John Bray

At Wilson High School, fast-rising enrollment is being met with a budget cut, setting off a scramble in the school community.

School community leaders are pushing for more funding, while school officials prepare to cut staff and programs, and increase class sizes.

The school’s 2015-16 budget of $15.6 million represents a $309,600 cut from the current year, according to the public school system’s school budget figures. With projected enrollment of 1,878, up 170 students, the funding amounts to about $8,306 per student.

The main entrance at Wilson High School, located near Tenley Circle in Northwest Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: John A. Bray

Leaders of the school’s Parent Teacher Student Organization and the Local School Advisory Team say the school is well past its original building census of 1,550 students, as well as its revised census of 1,660, and that packing in more students with less support only jeopardizes the order essential for student development and safe and productive community interaction.

For the coming year, according to parent group leaders, the projected enrollment used for the budget trails what they anticipate by at least 85 students.

The school has an interim principal, Greg Bargeman, who moved into the role in the wake of the abrupt mid-year departure after about six years of Principal Pete Cahall over conflict with DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s office about issues that included school progress. Bargeman says that the lagging funding tied to enrollment has a cumulative effect over multiple years that exacerbates the cut in store for the coming year.

The Foxhall Community Citizens Association area is within the enrollment boundary for Wilson. Wilson is located in Ward 3, but its enrollment reaches across the city, with students from all zip codes attending the school, according to parent leaders. School officials, to relieve enrollment pressure, say they plan to tighten policies for out-of-boundary student attendance at Wilson.

In a budget guide statement for 2015-16, Henderson promises to “invest heavily in high schools.” “High school improvement will be a multi-year project, but we are excited to begin the process of ensuring that all our high school students have great opportunities,” Henderson states.

The rationale and fairness of the budgeting for high schools is foggy, with gyrations in budgets showing the school system exercising substantial discretion in how it allocates money.

School budget allocations for the coming year leave Wilson with less funding per pupil overall than two magnet high schools with admissions tests located near the Foxhall community, School Without Walls and Ellington School for the Arts.

A special funding allocation for so-called “at-risk” students was new for the current school year, an added wrinkle to the more traditional designations of students targeted for extra funding, such as those with disabilities, students who are non-native speakers of English and have limited proficiency, and students who qualify for free or reduced price meals.

Under D.C.’s Fair Student Funding & School-Based Budgeting Amendment Act of 2013, at-risk students are homeless, in foster care, qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), and high school students who are one year or more older than the expected age for the grade. The law called for at-risk funding to be allocated proportionally based on enrollment of qualifying students.

Ward 3 D.C. Councilmember Mary M. Cheh, who is seeking additional funding for Wilson, released a statement that the school had been shortchanged for at-risk funding for 2014-15. Wilson should have received $713,097, or $2,079 for each of the 343 students considered at-risk. But the school only received $384,600, or $1,121 per at-risk student.

The DC Fiscal Policy Institute — working with Code for DC, a volunteer group of data analysts — posted a report on its website showing the distribution of the at-risk money across the city.

Among the findings, the analysis showed that Ward 7 schools, with 18 percent of the city’s at-risk students, received only 11 percent of the at-risk funding.

According to a report from the Institute, the schools have flexibility in how they spend the money.

The Institute found that the money went to “initiatives that were already planned, but were not necessarily targeted to improving the performance of at-risk students.”

A “small share” of the money, the Institute says, also went to comply with a D.C. law that says schools cannot lose more than 5 percent of their budget from year to year.

Henderson says some schools were overfunded for at-risk students for the 2015 fiscal year. The chancellor’s 2015-16 Budget Development Guide stated that programs would be harmed in redistributing over $40 million in at-risk funding and money could not “in good conscience” be taken back to meet needs of underfunded schools.

Henderson stated that, to find money to reinvest in underfunded schools, about $15 million was cut from the school system’s central office, causing a “modest” reduction in force, and certain per pupil funding was pared at schools with smaller concentrations of at-risk students, moves deemed as the least harmful course.

The Institute found that at-risk funds for Wilson for the current year totaled $384,600, or $1,121 per at-risk student, with 20 percent of the students at-risk. Wilson’s proposed budget for the coming year shows $1.1 million in at-risk funds, with 31 percent of the students at-risk.

How are some of the nearby high schools fairing with their budgets?

School Without Walls, a magnet high school located downtown by the George Washington University campus, faces a budget cut of about $130,000 for a total budget of $5.3 million for the coming year. The school has a projected enrollment increase of three students for a total enrollment of 588 students. That amounts to overall per pupil funding of $9,013, about $700 more than Wilson.

At-risk funding for the current year for School Without Walls High School was not shown separately by the Institute. The school’s budget for the coming year shows $164,600 in at-risk funds, with 15 percent of the students at-risk.

Ellington School for the Arts, also a magnet school located at the corner of Reservoir Road and 35^th Street, faces a budget cut of about $21,100 for a total budget of about $6.2 million. The school has a projected enrollment increase of 12 students for a total enrollment of 527. That amounts to overall per pupil funding of $11,764, about $3,458 more than Wilson.

The Institute found that Ellington received $51,500 in at-risk funds this year, or $468 per student, with 21 percent of its enrollment at-risk. The school’s budget for the coming year shows $323,700 in at-risk funds, with 33 percent of its students at-risk.

Both School Without Walls and Ellington have lower percentages of students with disabilities and so-called English Language Learners than Wilson, according D.C. public school system figures for 2013-14.

Wilson’s free and reduced price meal population for was 31 percent, while the figure for School Without Walls was 20 percent, and Ellington was 40 percent.

Regarding the enrollment mix by race, the 2013-14 DCPS figures show Wilson as being 46 percent black, 17 percent Hispanic/Latino, 25 percent white, 8 percent Asian, and 4 percent multiple; and Ellington 76 percent black, 10 percent Hispanic/Latino, 9 percent white, 3 percent Asian, and 2 percent multiple; and School Without Walls 43 percent black, 10 percent Hispanic/Latino, 36 percent white, 5 percent Asian and 7 percent multiple.

Regarding performance on DC CAS, the standardized student performance test, DCPS figures posted with school profiles show Wilson, in math, with 8 percent of students performing Below Basic, 23 percent Basic, 47 percent Proficient, and 22 percent Advanced, and, in reading, 10 percent Below Basic, 19 percent Basic, 40 percent Proficient, and 30 percent Advanced;

Figures show Ellington, in math, with 3 percent Below Basic, 23 percent Basic, 68 percent Proficient, and 5 percent Advanced, and, in reading, 3 percent Below Basic, 21 percent Basic, 45 percent Proficient, and 31 percent Advanced.

Figures show School Without Walls, in math, with 1 percent of students Below Basic, 2 percent Basic, 39 percent Proficient, and 59 percent Advanced, and, in reading, 0 percent Below Basic, 1 percent Basic, 28 percent Proficient, and 72 percent Advanced.

A petition drive to support Wilson is at (web address provided).

© 2016 John A. Bray