ESSER Funding and MNPS Priorities
An interview with Dr. Keri Randolph of Metro Nashville Public Schools
Dr. Keri Randolph is the Executive Officer for Strategic State, Federal and Philanthropic Investments for Metro Nashville Public Schools. This interview was conducted by Sarah Evans via phone on August 20, 2021.
Keri Randolph is the Executive Officer for Strategic State, Federal and Philanthropic Investments for Metro Nashville Public Schools. This interview was conducted by Sarah Evans via phone on August 20, 2021.
Sarah: Thank you so much for making time, Keri. Could you describe MNPS’ approach to the distribution and use of ESSER funds? And what makes this approach unique?
Keri: We have worked very hard to use our existing strategic frame, and resource allocation concepts in alignment with ESSER. I haven’t had much time to talk to other districts, but as I have, I think they’ve thought about these funds as extra in a lot of ways and very targeted in a few areas such as facilities. ESSER funds have parameters around allowability and certainly are about response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. But we’ve really thought about them as a way to supercharge work that we do, scaling what we know works, or hospicing or sunsetting things, using this as an opportunity to reevaluate and reimagine and sunset things that haven’t worked for kids. Where are we not seeing the impact that we would hope to see? While at the same time, we are working to be creative and innovative for kids. We don’t often have the opportunity or additional resources. We tend to operate in K-12 from a lens of scarcity.
We’re still dealing with the pandemic which is so challenging for families, schools, and communities. So, we have tried to be really thoughtful with a decision-making frame of how we are deploying ESSER. Not in a different way than we deploy other resources to schools but in a similar way and concretely what that means is spiraling ESSER funds to schools. We are doing that through our student-based budgeting lens, with equity at the focus. Every school receives a $70,000 base allocation of ESSER funds for them to budget in the way, within the allowability of ESSER, that they think serves their students’ needs best. On top of that, for every economically disadvantaged student a school serves, they receive $450. We work to be thoughtful about attaching funds to the needs of students and for students who have more needs, a school generates more funds in order to meet those needs. We follow a similar pattern to our Title 1 funds, and we also do this through our student-based budgeting formula too. This methodology is baked into the way we think about resource allocation.
I don’t know of another district that is spiraling ESSER funds to schools. Most or all of the districts I’m aware of are holding their funds at the district level, and they’re deploying to schools and kids. We have spiraled or deployed a large amount of ESSER funds to schools. We provide guidance on what’s allowable and what’s not, of course, but they can budget in the ways that they think would have the most impact in response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic for their school.
Sarah: How does the distribution of ESSER funds in MNPS align to the district’s theory of action for student-based budgeting?
Keri: This was before my time in the district, but about 5 years ago we moved to a student-based budgeting system. This means that we take centrally provided services like transportation and nutrition, and then we take the remaining funds and deploy them to schools. We have a very lean central office, or support hub as we call it. We deploy resources to schools based on a resource allocation model that’s rooted in the needs of a student. An economically disadvantaged student receives a higher weight in the formula. So, a school receives additional funds for that student, or an English language learner or a special education student. We also have an academic marker in our formula. Students who aren’t on grade level generate slightly more funds. The school receives funds based on the students they serve.
It is often called the backpack model. If you think of every kid, toting the resources with them, that are needed to support them, to the school where they attend. We don’t think that every student needs the same supports. So how are we representing that in the way we think about resource allocation? We’ve copied that model, as I described with ESSER, in recognition that some students and schools have been more impacted by what’s happening in the world right now.
Let me back up for just a second to the student-based budgeting model. There are parameters or guidelines for schools like teacher to student ratios. For example, every school must have a librarian, and every school has to have a principal. There are guardrails and requirements. There is also some freedom in a school’s local budget or student-based budget for them to think strategically about what’s needed to support their school and students.
We’ve copied that again as I described with ESSER. So, it’s still kind of that backpack model. What is needed for these students in this case and how are we providing additional resources in recognition of the individual needs that students bring with them to a school community?
Sarah: That makes sense. Along those lines and building off of the idea of guardrails with freedom, how is MNPS planning to monitor the use of ESSER funds and longer term planning? In particular thinking about how you will hope to avoid any fiscal cliffs.
Keri: First of all, there is a federal mandate that we monitor these funds programmatically to show impact, that we’re evaluating the use of these funds, to make sure that they are being used in ways that are achieving the intended goals. We are investing ESSER funds, but we’re doing that really thoughtfully. We have a research assessment evaluation team, we are adding positions to that team because of the scope of the programmatic and fiscal evaluation, assisting with and monitoring of these funds. But we really want to be intentional about that and make sure that we are thinking very thoughtfully on the front end of how we design that evaluation and how we aren’t waiting to the end when these funds are gone, in 2023 or 2024. That we aren’t waiting until the end to ask, “well, did it work?”. We are really designing evaluation in a continuous improvement model. That’s the way we think about the work. We’re trying to be very thoughtful about measuring and considering how we will measure impact on the front end.
The fiscal cliff- this is a great question. Every district is concerned about this. I think most of us lobbied our Congress people to consider a longer horizon. We don’t think recovery from the pandemic is going to be over in 2024. We took the non-recurring nature of the funds into account in our decision-making frame. How are we using these to create proof points for our community? About investments needed in the long term to make a big difference for our schools? We are trying not to add a lot of full-time positions that can’t be maintained beyond the grant period, because that creates challenges both for the people in those positions to be frank, but also, we learned a lot of lessons as a state through Race to the Top. You create roles like that and then you pull them out from under the school or the community or a group of students. We, like many districts, are planning to use contracted services where possible.
We’re thinking about this through a “do now and build toward’ frame. I didn’t come up with it, but I really like it as an approach and philosophy toward ESSER funds. What do we need to do now to respond to, and provide relief from the pandemic? But also- how we are using this a real leap frog moment? These funds are unprecedented. We use that word a lot in terms of ESSER. In public education, we have often said we need more resources to support our students, and ESSER funds are calling the question. How will we take advantage of the opportunity? Let’s be super strategic and I’ll return to that word I used before which is “proof point.” How are we being thoughtful and showing what’s possible when we invest in the right ways for kids?
Sarah: What core beliefs about school finance guide your role as the Executive Officer?
Keri: I am an educator at heart. I am a high school teacher, that’s deep in my identity. That’s how I got into this and then I moved into education leadership because I had lots of ideas and wanted to try to put those in motion for kids. I think that’s important to mention, I don’t have a finance background, but a practitioner background. I was a scientist before I became a teacher. I bring all that with me to this work. Some of the most strategic work a district can do is around resource allocation and how it’s connected to strategy. If those things aren’t aligned, then you’ve got real problems and you can’t move things for kids. So, I was really interested to come work in Metro Nashville Public Schools, one for a great leader in Dr. Battle, but two because we are a student-based budgeting district. I believe in that as a theory of action — get the money as close as you can to kids and to the educators and the people who know the kids the best. Then support them in strategy and deployment of those resources. So, my role is really interesting because I don’t just deal with dollars and cents, I work on strategy as well. I think so often what I’m seeing in districts is that those are a bit divorced, they’re in different offices, they’re on opposite ends of the central office or sometimes in different buildings instead of being closely aligned and thinking together and working together. We need to think about what we want to do- what’s the strategy? What resources do we need to do that? We often are not working with brand new resources, right? There’s only so much in the pot. How are we thinking about strategically deploying the resources we have and aligning them to strategies? How do we know when something’s working? And when it’s not, we should change course. And when we change course, we also look at the implications for resources.
I mean as someone who thinks about grants, which I think is important to remember because ESSER is a grant. It has parameters. What are the outcomes that we want? What is our vision? What are our goals? How are we aligning that all along the way? And it’s not just about money, and this is a really important thing, it’s also about thinking about time and attention; it’s about strategic deployment of staff. It’s not always about starting something new. It’s about taking what you have and using it better for kids. I think sometimes in K-12, it’s not just relegated to K-12, it’s also higher ed, we’re not often good at that. I see ESSER as relieving some of the pressure, the pressure of lack of resources, for a short amount of time. I hope it allows us to get into that headspace as a field and truly reimagine and rework. We talk about that all the time; we just have not been able to do that as a field. If we don’t take advantage of this opportunity, it will be tragic for our kids, our country. I’m pushing all the time, let’s don’t just do the same. This is not that opportunity. This is a chance to do what we’ve always wanted to do, and we said we wanted to do.
Sarah: I think what you said really well is if we just do the same, it’s not going to work and we’re never going to get an opportunity like this again.
Keri: It’s that old adage, when you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results; whatever comes after that’s different but whatever that makes you. Let’s don’t be that.
Sarah: What do you recommend other districts consider as they plan for their use of their additional funds this year and in the next couple of years?
Keri: I would encourage districts to not just think about the stuff we’re going to buy. Don’t just think about how to use the funds, but also ask how we are going to use this opportunity to rethink the process? How are we going to use this opportunity to think about the structures in place to move outcomes for kids? This is the time not just to think about the basic things, like we are going to buy computers and we are going to get this or that. But how are we thinking about improving the teaching job? How are we thinking about these funds in terms of making sure every student is known, cared for, supported and respected? (which is one of our goals). How are we reimagining time and attention? And using these resources to help think about that? How are we using it to absolutely accelerate academics? What an opportunity to think about doing things differently, leveraging resources we’ve never had to think about structures and processes and the HOW versus just the WHAT. Those things can live beyond ESSER, and that “build toward” piece I was talking about so that kids are not just recovered and relieved from the pandemic, but they are in a better place than they were, and our K-12 system is serving kids better than in 2019.
Sarah: I am hopeful that’s what happens and at the very least we look at what was working and figure out ways to elevate those pieces and stop doing the things that weren’t working.
It was truly a pleasure to speak with Keri and we look forward to seeing the thoughtful use of and deployment of ESSER funds in MNPS. The alignment of ESSER fund use and student-based budgeting presents a unique approach; but one that keeps students at the center. We have a moment now that eliminates the excuse of “we don’t have funds for” and we are anxious to see how educators across the field seize this moment to reimagine what’s possible for schools and students.
