All Hands Meeting June 7, 2010

2. All Hands MeetingJune 7, 2010 LDOE Budget Reductions and Personnel Impacts LDOE Reorganization and Personnel Impacts

3. The Challenge: Declining Revenues • Government agencies facing serious budget crisis. • Louisiana facing $3 billion deficit over next two years. • All state agencies must identify cost savings. • Most school districts have had to reduce staffing levels. • LDOE has experienced cuts and will endure more cuts. • Our aim has been and will continue to be to make necessary adjustments with minimal impact to districts, schools and students.

4. The Challenge: Declining Revenues • Previous Reductions and Adjustments • State Funds for LDOE’s Operating Budget Reduced by $500,000 in FY 2008-2009, $4.9 million in FY 2008-2009 – representing a decline of 19 percent from FY 2007-2008. • Another $7.7 million adjustment to LDOE’s budget was required due to legislation that required LDOE to fund stipends for new nationally board certified teachers as well as previously certified counselors, social workers, psychologists, speech pathologists/audiologists. • Mid-year reductions and a proposed decrease of $5.7 million in state general funds for FY 2010-011 has resulted in a significant decline in funding, thus LDOE must reduce salary expenditures and other expenses.

5. LDOE Responds: Reductions in Personnel • Strategy One: Use Attrition to Minimize Reductions • LDOE has eliminated 35 vacant positions during the current fiscal year. • This strategy has been used throughout the last five years to meet budget constraints. • In fact, LDOE has lost more than 200 positions over the last five years. One vacancy after another has been closed to meet the target. • Achieves reductions, but not strategic – some of these positions in most critical roles and areas.

6. LDOE Responds: Reductions in Personnel • Strategy Two: Buy-Outs • In December 2009, 92 LDOE employees eligible for retirement were offered a lump-sum payment equal to 50% of what the Department would save by not paying their salary for the remainder of the year. • Only nine employees took advantage of this opportunity.

7. LDOE Responds: Reductions in Personnel • Strategy Three: Layoffs • Despite the extraordinary steps taken to avoid layoffs, the reductions in personnel achieved through Strategies One and Twoare insufficient to meet the necessary cuts. • Mid-year cuts and the proposed FY 2010-2011 necessitates the elimination of 50 positions from LDOE. • Regrettably, we announced last week that we have now had to lay off 31 of our colleagues. • Presently, we don’t anticipate further layoffs due to fiscal issues in the coming year.

8. LDOE Responds: Reductions in Personnel • Departments Affected by Layoffs • Regional Education Service Centers (RESC) (11 permanent positions; 5 job appointments) • Management and Finance (5 permanent positions, 2 probationary employees, 1 job appointment) • Office of School and Community Support (1 permanent position; 1 job appointment; 5 transfers to LCTCS) • Layoff Decisions Based on Consideration of Roles in Meeting Nine Critical Goals – Aligned with LDOE Reorganization

9. The Challenge Ahead for LDOE • Additional Budget Reductions • Based on proposed Executive Budget, LDOE’s Total Operating Budget will be decreased by $9M in the next fiscal year. • Pending issues and financial challenges in the current legislative session could negatively impact LDOE’s budget. • Additionally, personnel adjustments will be made during the next fiscal year in order to support LDOE’s reorganization.

10. LDOE Reorganization: Focusing on Students • WHY REORGANIZE? LDOE Focus Capacity-Building • LDOE Client Focus: 630,321 public school students. • Whatever our budget, LDOE’s resources must be assigned to most effectively help children reach high levels of academic achievement. • As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we must achieve our objectives through the most cost-efficient means possible. • First, we need to reorganize to keep our focus on academic achievement. • Second, we need to reorganize functionally so we are not at cross-purposes.

11. LDOE Reorganization: Focusing on Students • Reorganization to Meet LDOE Goals • LA Education Reform Plan • Builds on last 10 years of reform. • Lays out "the how" associated with how we are going to reach our goals: • The initiatives we are going to implement • How each part of LDOE will work together • How LDOE is going to focus on supporting districts • How LDOE is going to go from compliance to performance

12. LDOE Reorganization: Focusing on Students • Reorganization to Meet LDOE Goals • BESE has adopted nine goals (objectives) that are all student focused. • LDOE must meet annual targets to create a world class education system for all students. • The organization must become one that focuses on outputs and where inputs are means to the outputs.

13. LDOE Reorganization: Focusing on Students • What Reorganization Can Do • It can group staff responsible for shared outcomes together in one unit so they can better assist each other and our students. • It can identify functions that belong together rather than scattered throughout the organization. • It can more clearly identify who does what, when and why.

14. LDOE Reorganization: Objective 1 • Organized Around Critical Goals • Literacy • Students enter kindergarten ready to learn. • Students are literate by 3rd grade. • Students will enter 4th grade on time. • Students perform at or above grade level in English Language Arts by 8th grade. • These achievement goals must be met regardless of race or class.

15. LDOE Reorganization: Objective 2 • Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) • Students perform at or above grade level in math by 8th grade. • These achievement goals must be met regardless of race or class. • *Goals may be added. • Organized Around Critical Goals

16. LDOE Reorganization: Objective 3 • Organized Around Critical Goals • College and Career Readiness • Students will graduate high school on time. • Students enroll in postsecondary education. • Students will complete at least one year of college successfully. • These achievement goals must be met regardless of race or class.

17. LDOE Reorganization: Goal Leaders • Organized Around Critical Goals • Each of our Critical Goal Areas (Literacy, STEM and College and Career Readiness) will be led by a Goal Leader. • Each Goal Leader will oversee a team of content specialists. • We will need more content specialists in all Critical Goal Areas, both in LDOE Baton Rouge and in RESCs. • With a static employee count, we will have to do more with less in other Objective Areas. • Other Objective Areas (e.g. OMF, IT, etc.) remain important.

18. LDOE Reorganization: Goal Leaders • Organized Around Critical Goals • In order to increase content specialists, we will look for opportunities to reduce staffing in other Objective Areas in several ways, including: • Transfer staff in other Objective Areas to the Critical Goal Areas; and • Attrition in Other Objective Areas.

19. LDOE Reorganization: Becoming a Service Organization Transition Focus from Compliance to Performance • All Critical Goal and Other Objective areas must become focused on meeting the performance expectation of the Goals. • How do we move in this performance goal direction? 1. Staff assigned to specific performance objectives should work together. This will be accomplished through alignment of programs and functions. 2. We will focus on what matters in a data-driven organization. This will occur for some staff through intensive training.

20. LDOE Reorganization: Becoming a Service Organization • Staff • Our management objective is to put the right people in the right place to advance the performance goals. • We need to clearly identify who is responsible for meeting particular goals. • We need to increase our effectiveness at the school and district level.

21. Reorganization: Becoming a Service Organization • Improving Student Achievement • Executive staff in LDOE in the Goal Offices and the Other Objective Areas will hold “contracts” that specify annual targets. • Staff will be provided with very clear objectives. • LDOE will move from an input organization to one that focuses on outcomes. • Goal offices will need more staff to attack objectives rationally.

22. LDOE Reorganization: Becoming a Service Organization Focusing on Support to Districts and Schools • The offices working on goals are Literacy, College & Career Ready, and STEM. • Capacity building is provided through district services. • Finance and business services work to support those responsible for meeting goals. • Districts need to see that LDOE has services that are valuable in raising student achievement.

23. LDOE’s Client: The Student

24. LDOE: The Proposed Organization

25. LDOE Reorganization: Timeline • Presentation to BESE at June meeting • Realignment Department Meetings - July 1-7 • Staff Notification - July 12 – 14 • Goal Office Staff Fully Realigned - August 12 • District Service Staff Fully Realigned - August 18 • Remaining Realignments - September 15

26. LDOE: Helping the Reorganization Increasing Our Individual and Organizational Value • On average, reorganizations occur every 2.5 years. We are overdue. • If we keep doing things in the same old way we will get the same old thing. • No matter where we are working, we should think of all the ways to make our services more valuable. • Every employee matters in reaching our goals. Every one of us should ask those working on performance goals whether they are on target and how we can help.

27. Thank You, and Questions