Hutto ISD's Jamie Lyn Muffoletto discusses her upcoming presentation at the PEIMS Academy and the implications of HB 3.
For the recent TASBO Report magazine, we touched base with Jamie Lyn Muffoletto, RTSBA, SIS/PEIMS Coordinator at Hutto ISD on her upcoming presentation at the PEIMS Academy regarding House Bill 3.
In your upcoming presentation at PEIMS Academy you described how HB 3 came out just before the next PEIMS Submissions. Were there any surprises from the new legislation?
After every legislative season there always seem to be a few surprises! For me, the new way we are looking at State Compensatory Education funding has been a puzzle. We are a fast growth district so many of our neighborhoods are not in the last census. Trying to estimate what we will actually get so we can spend 55% on SCE without really knowing a good number has been something my finance department and I are working on together. I also find it interesting that we no longer have a high school allotment per se and have an early education allotment that is K-3, but not PK. I guess I could say a lot of little things that unless you really read the bill you may or may not catch on.
Can you give an overview of what you plan on covering in your presentation?
> Early Education Allotment – what PEIMS report to use to ensure that all students are coded correctly for this new allotment.
> Full Day PK – what coding should look like.
> Dyslexia, Dual Language, Main Stream SPED, State Comp Ed – where to find the kids that will be used for funding.
> College, Career, Military Readiness Outcome Bonuses (not to be confused with CCMR) - what we need to look for and best practices for districts to maximize these bonuses. We call this free money we can get and we like free money! I have a love for all things CCMR!
> My plan is to have everyone leave with bullet points on what we know now in relation to HB3 and what reports we can run and give to people to make sure that we are maximizing funding.
You also describe how PEIMS coding will impact the new funding formulas? Can you give a quick explanation of what this means?
I am a big believer that the data quality of a district directly impacts both the instruction (teaching, learning) side of things and the non-instruction (coding, data entry, staffing) side of things. The accuracy of my PEIMS has always been what drives the money we receive from the state, but my data is now directing accountability, funding, program evaluations and so much more.
I believe with HB3 my data is being scrutinized more so we can maximize the funding we receive. Some of the things we may have taken for granted in the past such as our English-speaking students in the Dual Language program now have funding attached to their coding. Each of these students needed coding, but there was no funding associated so many districts either did not code them or were not consistent with the coding. Now we will receive 0.05 for these students.
This would be the same with our dyslexia students. I was around when we first started reporting dyslexia to the state. Anyone that knows me can tell you I have always been very vigilant about ensuring all kids get coded because I said one day there would be money attached to this. Now we have 0.10 attached. If your district has not been meticulous about this, there is a big mountain you will have to overcome to get it correct before snap shot.
Addresses and address changes for students were never really something we did a lot of thinking about in my district except at the start of the school year and the end. Moving forward, however, we will be figuring out what census block a student resides in on the last Friday in October (snap shot) and for our students eligible for free or reduced lunch that is what will drive our state compensatory education funding. If your district has some differing census blocks the campus will need to make sure that the address for each student is accurate so you will get the correct funding.
