Budgets limit schools’ reopening options
As schools consider how and when to reopen their buildings during the pandemic, many are finding themselves overwhelmed by the potential expenses that would come with operating under social distancing guidelines: protective equipment, staff for smaller classes and additional transportation to keep students spread out on bus rides.
The burdens loom large in particular for urban, under-resourced districts that often have neither the space nor the budgets to accommodate new health protocols.
In Hartford, Connecticut, Superintendent Leslie TorresRodriguez shudders at the thought of how to afford a scenario where each teacher had dramatically fewer students. In some grades, she said, she has individual teachers with as many as 27 students in their classrooms.
“My budget would be nonexistent,” she said.
The vast majority of American school districts have yet to announce when they will resume in-person instruction. The trajectory of the outbreak remains uncertain, and many are waiting on direction from their states. Many are developing plans for at least some distance learning, and budgets are one of the factors that could determine how much they do from afar.
In Camden, New Jersey, one of the state’s poorest cities, Superintendent Katrina McCombs said costs for classroom cleanings, protective equipment and other virus-related expenses are a concern, especially because the city relies on cash infusions from a state government that is facing a $10 billion shortfall over the current and next fiscal years.
As schools reopen, it will cost the average school district about $1.8 million to make social distancing possible, according to an estimate published by the School Superintendents Association, which goes by the name AASA, and the Association of School Business Officials International. The expense will strain budgets of districts that are bracing for cuts because of the economic downturn and hoping for additional federal aid.
“You have a significant increase in costs for school districts at a time when school districts are going to have less money. Why? Because you see all of the states’ budgets are going to be decimated,” said Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA. “How is that going to play out?”
In the town of Stonington, Connecticut, school board Chairwoman Alexa Garvey said it would help immensely with finances if the state eased guidance in place for the summer that there should be only one student on each seat of a bus. There are also unresolved questions about providing masks.
“Does every child need a mask?” she said. “What are our obligations to supplying those masks?”
In Hartford, Connecticut, which has 14.7 students per teacher, the district serves many high-poverty communities and also brings in thousands of students from 60 other towns through school-choice programs. The superintendent there said the challenges associated with reopening are so severe, it may be time to come up with entirely new models for instruction.
“Is it that the entire ecosystem has to be examined?” Torres-Rodriguez said. “If we’re going to go to smaller class sizes, where are we going to get more teachers from?”
“We know that we have experts in our community right now. We have our corporate. We have our industry. We have higher ed,” she said. “So how do we leverage our retirees, for example? How do we leverage our soon to be college upper class students? Industry? I just think it is an opportunity.”