Ferndale Schools

A collection of performance measures that a state, its school districts, and subpopulations of students within its schools are supposed to meet if the state receives Title I, Part A federal funding. In Washington, the measures include:

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The financial plan adopted by the governing body that forms a basis for appropriations.

Highly Capable Program in Ferndale School District

Funds that federal or state governments distribute to local education agencies or other governmental units according to certain formulas.

The difference between the combined interest rates on the investment of bond or note proceeds and the combined interest rates of the bonds or notes themselves. The ability of a school district to earn arbitrage is heavily regulated by federal income tax regulations.

These funds are one-time awards given under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Funds generated by the ASB must be spent on ASB associated activities.

The property valuation determined by the municipal (city, village, town, or county) assessor as of January 1 in any given year. It is important that property of equal value be assessed at equal amounts, but it is not necessary that the amounts reflect the true sale value of the property. State law requires that total assessments within a municipality be within 10 percent of equalized valuation no less frequently than every five years.

Basic Education Apportionment: Averaged amount each student in Ferndale generates from the state budget. This year's average apportionment for each students was $5122.43.

This account balance should reflect the district's recorded inventories and/or prepaid items on the balance sheet. These are assets of the district that are not in spendable form and are listed under the "nonspendable fund balance" portion of the district budget.

The amount of money the board has designated as being available to the district to cover the cost of emergencies, unforeseen circumstances much like your household "savings" account.

A school district bond issue is a bond issue used by a public school district, typically to finance a building project or other capital projects. It is a written obligation to pay a specified sum of money, called the face value, at a fixed time in the future, called the date of maturity. Bonds generally carry interest at a fixed rate, but may carry variable rates. Principal and interest payments are usually payable periodically. A bond can have a final maturity of no greater than twenty years

The amount of money left in building and department budgets at the end of the fiscal year. This money must be accounted for in the "restricted fund balance" category.

The actual cash on hand at a specific point in time. Many school districts will have a negative cash balance at some point in the year unless they borrow. Cash balance is contrasted to Fund Balance in that it includes only cash.

Aid which is intended to finance or reimburse a specific category of instructional or supporting program or to aid a particular target group of pupils. The district may use the aid only for the purpose for which it is paid. For example Title 1 LAP, Special Ed, ELL, Highly Capable Program are all "categorical programs" with specific requirements.

Certificated Administrative Staff

Certificated Instructional Staff

A condensed user friendly version of the FSD budget.

School employees who are not required to hold teaching credentials, such as bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, instructional aides, and some management personnel.

Career and Technical Education

For the payment of principal and interest on long-term debt.

Major repairs of buildings and equipment that have been postponed by school districts. Some matching state funds are available to districts that establish a deferred maintenance program to proceed with these repairs.

This is federal legislation that pushed $10 billion out to the states to help the nation's school districts to rehire laid-off teachers. However this month, the Washington State Legislature did what Gov. Chris Gregoire asked and took the money to help balance the state budget, rather than pushing it out to school districts. Technically the lawmakers didn't take that money, since it has already been shipped to the districts. Instead, it reduced the amount it had been planning to pay for basic education by an identical amount.

This represents the number of certificated staff we are able to hire based on the projected budget for the coming year.

The total number of pupils enrolled, whether part-time, full-time, resident or non-resident. For state reporting purposes, students must be enrolled in a qualifying program. A pupil is considered enrolled whether in attendance on a specific count date or not, plus pupils enrolled in home bound instruction and non-graduates enrolled in qualifying alternative programs. If a pupil is absent without excuse for more than 20 consecutive school days, his or her enrollment is retroactively terminated to the last day of attendance.

The number of students determined by an analysis of different mathematical models, agreed upon and voted on by the board, to base our prediction of state apportionment dollars which establishes the budget for the coming year. This year the board agreed to take the most conservative of five different projection models and decrease that enrollment projection number by approximately 48 students. The projected enrollment number is used to establish the educational program in Ferndale next year is 4775.

End of Course exams in math required by state legislature

Full day kindergarten. In Ferndale Central elementary generates state dollars to fund their FDK program. For our other elementary schools each kindergarten student generates 1/2 of the amount as a student in grades 1-12 as the state fund only a half-time kin kindergarten program. Ferndale offers a FDK in all of our elementary schools.

Free/Reduced-price Meals. Also used to determine the level of poverty in a school or district

Full-Time Equivalent Student or Certificated Employee: The result of a computation that divides the (FTE) Enrollment amount of time for a less than full-time activity by the amount of time normally required in a corresponding full-time activity.

Represents the cumulative of surpluses and deficits over the years. The fund balance is often equated with the financial condition of a school district, however, it does not take into consideration long-term obligations (see Net Assets). Fund Balance contrasts with cash balance in that it includes certain amounts that are owed to or owed by the school district.

An account used to segregate a portion of fund balance which is marked for an intended, specific use by management or the board of directors. These amounts are not legally restricted nor do they represent a formal commitment on behalf of management or the board of directors. For funds other than the General Fund, these amounts also represent the excess of the assets of the fund over its liabilities, restrictions, commitments and are in spendable form.

Available expendable financial resources in a governmental fund that are not the object of tentative management plans (i.e. designations).

An account used to segregate a portion of fund balance which is legally restricted for a specific use. (Uninsured insurance risks, arbitrage rebate, carry over, inventory, etc.)Nonspendable Fund Balance. Those portions of a district's ending fund balance that are not available for use, either because they are not in spendable form or they are legally required to be maintained intact. Examples include the Inventory for a student store (not in spendable form), and the corpus of a trust fund (legally required to be maintained intact).

This fund is used to account for all moneys and resources set aside for the acquisition of fixed assets through construction and remodeling projects.

The fund used to account for expenditures for the purchase, major repair, rebuilding, and related debt service incurred for pupil transportation equipment.

This refers to the loss of Federal revenue associated with ARRA funds which are one-time awards given under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). These funds were to be spent by the end of the 2011 fiscal year. There are no new funds being awarded under the auspices of the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds. Positions or programs associated with this revenue source will not longer be funded with AARA federal dollars.

The primary, legally-defined fund used by the state and school districts to differentiate general revenues and expenditures from those placed in other funds for specific uses.

Student Achievement funding was created by the passage of Initiative 728 in the November 2000 general election. There is no funding for Student Achievement for 2010-11.

Federal funds (unrestricted) paid to districts predominantly based on the number of federally (usually military) employed parents in the district or students of Native American descent. Impact aid may also be received as a payment in lieu of property taxes for federal forest land.

The rate used to recover a portion of the general expenses of operating the district (overhead costs) to a specific grant or program. School districts may assess indirect costs to some state and federal grants.

Kindergarten through 12th Grade

Kindergarten through Community College

Local Education Agency: A term used by the state and federal governments to identify school (LEA) districts and other local agencies that provide educational services. There is a numerical identification number assigned to each LEA. Ferndale is District #502.

Limited English Proficient

The total amount of real property taxes certified by each school board as necessary to provide funding for the annual school budget.

Funds allocated by the Legislature to address perceived inequalities and raise the funding level of school districts with lower revenue limits toward the statewide average based on size and type of district.

• Increases Local Effort Assistance (LEA) from 12 percent to 14 percent for 2011 through 2017.
• Lifts levy lid by 4 percentage points (from 24 percent to 28 percent for non-grandfathered districts) for 2011 through 2017.

The dollar amount that is determined by taking the total tax levy and dividing it by the value of property to be taxed. Normally stated in terms of dollars and cents per $1,000¬ósee Mill Rate.

The basic education allocation includes funding for the following fringe benefits required by law:(a) Employer contributions to OASI (social security). (b) Industrial insurance, medical aid, and the supplemental pension contribution.(c) Unemployment compensation. (d) Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) contribution. (e) Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) contribution.

Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs. Formerly known by the acronym NERC, or Non employee related costs.

Non employee related costs. NERC has a new accronym MSOC which stands for Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs.

Public Employees' Retirement System

A method of distributing funding according to the individual characteristics of each pupil. Weights or ratios are assigned for categories of pupil need or special costs and funds are allocated to districts based on their total weighted pupil count such as for special Education or ELL students.

Contracts we have with outside vendors.

Revised Code of Washington. Rules and regulations governing public education in Washington State

Reduction in Force. This represents the number of teaching positions that will not be funded in the coming year based on insufficient funds.

The Race-to-the-Top Incentive grants will reward states that have made significant progress in improving the equitable distribution of qualified teachers; establishing longitudinal data systems; enhancing the quality of assessments, including English language learners and students with disabilities in state assessments; improving the academic content and achievement standards; and providing effective support to schools identified for corrective action and restructuring.

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Federal funding available to school districts with demonstrated needs for special education funding in excess of state, federal, and local funding otherwise provided.

State Board of Education

State Education Agency - Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

Supplemental Services (under NCLB) Additional learning opportunities, such as tutoring services, that must be provided to students from low-income families who are attending schools that have not met annual performance goals for two years in a row under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Parents can choose the appropriate services for their child from a list of approved providers. The school district pays for the services. (See Adequate Yearly Progress.)

School Improvement Planning

Student Success Team. A team of school staff members often composed of the principal, school psychologist, teachers, and resource specialists whose task is to find solutions to identified problems that students are facing.

The basic education allocation formula allocates state moneys and consists of certificated instructional staff (CIS) units, certificated administrative staff (CAS) units, classified staff units, legislatively specified salary and employee benefit levels, and nonemployee-related costs (NERC). Staff units are generated by full-time equivalent (FTE) enrolled pupils, excluding Running Start FTE enrollment, reported to this agency

These funds are one-time awards given under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This revenue provides financial assistance to school districts for students in need of specially designed instruction.

The district is allocated revenue based on the years of experience and educational levels of the staff hired by the district. This means it is not a fiscal savings to hire teachers that have less experience and less advanced educational credentials.

State-collected excise tax imposed on all timber harvested from state, federal, or privately owned land distributed to local school districts based on a timber assessed value (TAV) formula.

Funds for educationally disadvantaged students, calculated based on percentage of students on free and/or reduced lunch.

Train and recruit highly qualified teachers and principals

The purpose of this program is to increase access to technology, particularly in schools served by high-need local educational agencies; improve student academic achievement; provide schoolteachers, principals, and administrators with the capacity to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction that are aligned with challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards; use technology to promote parent and family involvement in education; and support the rigorous evaluation of programs.

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Innovative programs / Public Charter Schools

Remote and necessary schools

Indian Education

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."

Transportation Vehicle Fund

Vocational Education

Washington Administrative Code

Permission from the State Board of Education to set aside the requirements of an Education Code provision or administrative regulations upon the request of a school district. The code specifies which laws can be waived.

New funding distribution formulas defined by the legislature to go into effect during the 2011-2013 biennium. Such funding distribution formulas change the elements of funding formulas used in the past to generate state dollars.

Washington State has 295 public school districts. The state also has nine intermediate Educational Service Districts, situated in different regions, providing services to all public school districts.

The fiscal year starts September 1 and ends August 31.

The total amount of real property taxes certified by each school board as necessary to provide funding for the annual school budget.

1. We need to provide tools that allow our teachers and students to meet state EALRs and Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) in Educational Technology, i.e., creating a classroom/student blog, wiki or web site. Previously we have not had standard tools to offer our staff and students to meet these expectations. Google Apps for Education will provide us with those tools and more in one suite of applications.
2. We need to meet the increasing need for staff and students to collaborate professionally online.
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• Improved  anti-spam and anti-virus protection
• Increased email storage capacity, Google Apps for Education offers users more than 7GB of  storage per user
• More efficient management of email system, as servers and storage are maintained by Google
• Reduction of electrical usage with the elimination our current email server and related storage servers

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Nothing for now. You will receive another email or emails over the course of the next few weeks with more specific instructions regarding preparation for migration to Google Apps for Education.

• Google Mail:  provides 7 gigabytes of email storage, highly effective spam filtering and powerful search
• Google Calendar:  allows easy coordination of work or class schedules, meetings and events online
• Google Docs:  allows users to create and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets in real-time

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In Fall of 2007, ESD189 conducted a Technology Program Review (TPR) for our district. One of the recommendations was to stick to a single solution for email and calendaring needs for all staff. Previously, our efforts to support a variety of email clients has hampered staff ability to communicate and collaborate across the district and has added unnecessarily to the tech department workload.

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No. In Google Apps for Education there are no advertisements in any of the applications.

Yes. Our annual savings will be approximately $8000.

We will eliminate the following expenses:

• Current email provider (Zimbra) contract: $4000/year
• Spam and Virus filtering contracts: $1000/year
• Server hardware maintenance and electrical needs : $3000/year

These cost savings will be used to provide for state mandated e-discovery needs through Google Apps for Education archiving.

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Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and within Google Apps Education Edition are guaranteed by Google to be available at least 99.9% of the time, ensuring that users have reliable access.

According to Google these are the two most common topics of questions regarding Google in general, and Google Apps for Eduation specifically.

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Data created and stored with Google Apps for Education is available until you remove it for as long as you maintain an active Google Apps for Education account. Online tools are provided to help import, export or download information from Google Apps for Education. After an account is deleted, Google removes the data associated with that account.

Aside from the cost savings involved in this standardization,our goal of district wide collaboration for our staff requires that we all be on "same page" in terms of the tools we are using. In addition, in terms of tech support and efficiency within the technology department, supporting multiple email clients is not best practice. This was confirmed with the 2008 district Technology Program Review that ESD 189 conducted.

By focusing on one set of tools we will now be able to be more effective with our professional development, support, and troubleshooting.

No. We can't host our email address (mail.fsd.k12.wa.us) in more than one location at the same time. When we switch to Google Apps for Education, we will be disabling our current Zimbra email server.

Many local school districts are using Google Apps in one form or another including:
Everett School District
La Conner School District
Orcas Island School District
Lake Stevens School District
Oak Harbor School District
Coupeville School District
Conway School District
Index School District
Mount Vernon School District
Burlington Edison School District
Meridian School District
Stanwood School District

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Yes, users are able to access their Google Mail account from a variety of "smart" phones. However, in accordance with our Tech Department policies regarding staff personally owned equipment (http://www.ferndale.wednet.edu/drupal/?q=node/434) Technology Department staff will not be able to assist you in this process.

Google does make a very easy to follow step by step instructions on how to do this process, please click here.

Currently Google Apps for Education has over 7 million users worldwide. This includes too many k-12 districts to list. Google Apps has been adopted at the higher ed level as well. In fact 59% of 4-year universities and colleges using hosted email named Google as their provider. For more information and case studies at both the k12 and higher ed level, please click here.

As an aside Google Apps is also currently used by over 2 million businesses and governments world wide as well with thousands more sign up daily. Some of these include:

Genentech,
City of Los Angeles,

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During Spring 2010, J'aime Lemmer or another member of the tech department will be attending one of your staff meetings prior to the end of the year to give you a preview of what Google will offer us as a district. J'aime will also be offering a "Google Boot Camp" (clock hours available) and open lab sessions before school starts to provide assistance. Staff may attend as many sessions as they wish. We will also be scheduling brief "mini" training sessions at staff meetings next fall, as well as posting online training opportunities and materials.

Google "BootCamp" Dates

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Yes. User created contacts and calendar items will be moved over to Google. With that being said there are some things to consider.

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The Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) will still be available for you to use on your computer and will not be affected by having access to Google Apps for Educators. Google Apps is a web-based application and can perform the majority of the same basic tasks as Office. Google Apps and MS Office are compatible and allow collaboration between users. Using Google Apps will provide accessibility to shared documents from any computer with Internet access.

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At 1:00 pm on Friday, July 2, 2010. It will be 24 to 48 hours before you will have access. Please do not access your email between 1:00pm Friday, July 2 and 8:00 am Tuesday, July 6. After that time, you will have access to your Google Apps for Educators account. Your older email will be migrated at a later date.

Directions on how to access the new Google Apps for Educators will be sent at a later date.

Yes and no.

We are moving to a standard email naming convention by using firstname.lastname@fsd.k12.wa.us. This will reduce conflicts with similar initial/names for email addresses.

Your old email address

[first initial][last name]@mail.fsd.k12.wa.us

and

[first initial][last name]@fsd.k12.wa.us

will continue to work and email will be forwarded to your new Google email.

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Laptop computers are provided to specified Ferndale School District employees
to use and if a staff member chooses, to use off the school grounds in order
to enhance, enrich, and facilitate teaching and learning, administrative duties
as well as school communications. Laptop computers are to be used for school-related
business, curriculum enhancement, research, communications and other instructional
purposes only. The following guidelines are provided to help manage the use of
this equipment.

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The Tech Department recommends that the staff does NOT leave the district issued laptop for use by short-term (1-5 days) substitute teachers. Due to security issues and related details involving the laptops, this in many cases, may be adding to the responsibilities of our substitute teachers. Tech Dept recommendation is to keep the district issued laptop secured in a file cabinet, desk drawer, closet, etc during these situations. We also have laptop cable locks available for use if requested.

In the case of a staff member going out on leave or an extended absence it will be treated as if this situation is the same as performing “Annual Laptop Maintenance”. Prior to the staff member going out on an extended absence or leave, the staff member will drop off the laptop (includes case, cords and dongle) at District Office. From here, one of the technicians will back up your data and prepare the laptop for whomever is filling your leave position.

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After a staff member receives a district laptop aside from the laptop, they may also be provided with:

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Most teacher workstations will be Intel-based Macs that do not support OS9. Therefore, any "Classic" or OS 9 applications will not work.

The short answer is no, read below for the rationale. Over the course of the school year, teachers will discover a particularly useful utility or software application that relates to a curriculum item or topic. At such times, it is very convenient to have everyone simply download it to his/her laptop for immediate use. On the other hand, this same capability also allows the unintentional downloading of viruses, malware and unlicensed and/or unauthorized software - much of which results in technical issues that consume precious hours of Tech Dept staff time.

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Daily use:

1. DO NOT place drinks, food, lotions and other harmful materials near the laptop
   *If liquids do come in contact with the laptop Leave lid open and immediately turn upside down to pour out any excess liquid
   *Shutdown the laptop and contact your Lab Para and FSD Tech Department (383-9219) ASAP
2. When connecting/disconnecting cables do not force cables into ports this will cause damage
3. Avoid creating a trip hazard when plugging in the laptop for power

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As another reminder:

***DO NOT PLACE DRINKS, FOOD, LOTION or other HARMFUL MATERIALS NEAR THE LAPTOP***

If liquids do come in contact with the laptop

1. Immediately turn laptop upside down to remove excess liquid
2. Leave the lid open
3. Shutdown the laptop and remove power supply
4. Contact your Lab Para and FSD Tech Department (9219) ****ASAP****

1. Keep in constant contact with the laptop
2. Be aware of the laptop's location and of those around you
3. Do not cover the district Identification decal
4. Secure the laptop at all times. When unattended lock in desk, cabinet, etc.
5. Protect and secure all sensitive information through back-up
6. Use the laptop's password features to protect data
7. Never leave the laptop in your car visible, lock in trunk to keep laptop out of plain sight

Loss, theft and/or damage of a laptop including power supply while being used on district property should be reported using the same procedures as with any other district property. If necessary under this circumstance, replacement is the responsibility of the school and/or district.

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The District will self-insure laptops to the assigned staff member. However, in the cases of "gross negligence", employees will be responsible for replacement or costs of repair, whichever is less.

1. Procedures for reporting loss, theft, damage or vandalism of an FSD laptop:
   1. Immediately notify your building principal/program administrator
   2. Building Principal/designee contacts Tech Dept (9219)

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Please follow our same process for getting tech assistance for the laptop; your building contact should be your first line of contact for tech help. Talk to them about any questions and problems you may have. After this contact you may be asked to create a BigWeb repair ticket by logging on to http://login.bigwebapps.com.

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We have an ample inventory of older keyboards and mice and will be re-purposing these existing keyboards and mice. In terms of external monitors, here too we have an inventory of units although much smaller. If you would like an external keyboard or monitor for your workstation, please contact your building contact or call 9219. Also, if staff is interested in purchasing either an external keyboard or external monitor via staff $100 allotment, please review district standards for technology hardware at http://www.ferndale.wednet.edu/drupal/?q=node/33.

The district CANNOT support any personally owned technology and does NOT allow any personally owned computers to be connected to the District's standard network for several reasons:

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The short answer is that distribution will begin during the 2009 school year but in a limited distribution. The Tech Levy, as approved by the voters in March of 2008, contains a budget line item of "Upgrade Classroom Technology" for the amount of $40,000 per year for the years 2009/10 through 2013/14. Based on this budget amount, a per student FTE building allocation has been developed in order to create an equitable distribution to our buildings and classrooms.

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