HIGH COST OF EDUCATION IN COVINGTON ADDRESSED AT RETREAT

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by Michael Monks 

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The administration of Covington Independent Public Schools along with the elected members of the school board discussed the high cost of educating a child in the district. The recent emergence of a small group of vocal critics of CIPS that often points to the more than $14,000 per pupil cost in Covington, one of the highest per-pupil costs in the state, has gotten the attention of the district's leaders. At its retreat Saturday morning, school board members Glenda Huff, Jerry Avery, Denise Varney, and Krista Powers joined superintendent Lynda Jackson at a table where they would spend approximately four hours discussing in-depth how the $14,000 figure is created and how the district is working to ensure better results in the classroom. 

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Addressing the budget
One of the first slides presented at the retreat inside the Instructional Support Center highlighted the per-pupil revenue from various sources for four local districts: Covington, Newport, Kenton County, and Boone County. The slide showed that Covington gets less than Boone County in local revenue per pupil but more from state and federal dollars. "One difference between the two, in Covington we only do property tax (for local revenue) whereas in Boone, about seven percent of their money, there is a payroll tax and utility tax involved," said Bill Grein, the district's assessment coordinator and former principal at Holmes High School. 

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He explained that state and federal money that comes into Covington is based on need and other factors such as special education. With their similar demographics, Covington and Newport school districts wind up with higher revenue from state and federal sources and a higher overall cost-per-pupil while Boone and Kenton Counties school districts receive less funding from outside sources. 

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With CIPS possible a couple months away from approving a 4% hike in its share of the city's property tax rate, more attention has been paid publicly to the district's budget and spending. "A community member may look at this chart and say it's smoke and mirrors," said board member Krista Powers. 

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Superintendent Jackson explained, "What I tell the (Covington City) Commissioners is we do have more property tax, but we're not taking the utility tax. We're only drawing revenue from property." Jackson noted that CIPS is one of only four districts in the state to collect local revenue solely from property taxes. "Kenton County has a smaller property tax but they are taking the utility tax." 

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"When you think about local revenue, the City of Covington, we generate about $2 billion in property," Jackson said. "Kenton County has about $20 billion. We don't get any revenue from the housing projects, so we're having a smaller amount of property to generate revenue from. There are a lot of areas in the City that we do not draw from."

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Addressing myths

Another slide on the screen read, "Myth: Covington Schools are not getting positive results, even though their cost per student is higher than most." The presentation than offered that a ten-year trend shows 264% growth in math proficiency and 86% growth in reading proficiency. "We've shown great growth, despite the fact that poverty has increased by 23%, special education students by 22%, and 35% of our students are transient. We have also eliminated 79 staff positions and closed two schools since 2008," the slide read. 

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The district's leadership has been heavily criticized for often countering indicators of low achievement with the fact that the district's demographics show a high concentration of poverty and special needs children. "There is a correlation between poverty and test scores across the region," said Bill Greine. A graph supported Grein's claim showing that districts with high percentages of students that pay for their own lunches have higher test scores while the scores drop steadily in districts as the rate of free/reduced lunch students increases. Covington has the highest concentration of homeless and free/reduced lunch students in the region as well as some of the lowest scores.
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Success in spite of some barriers

CIPS has made great strides in recent years according to multiple presentations Saturday, success that have come in spite of some serious hurdles. The district laid out what it views as barriers to learning: 1,400 students (35%) do not return to CIPS from one year to the next, 863 students (22%) have qualified for special education services, 645 students (18%) are homeless, 3,599 students (89%) qualify for free or reduced lunch, 1,189 students (32%) are considered truant, 66% of the district's teachers have ten or fewer years of experience.
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However, in spite of the barriers, 67% of recent graduates are in a 2-year or 4-year collegiate program within two years of graduation.