School chiefs: Spend more

Cumberland principals say district underfunded

CUMBERLAND – Bethany Coughlin would like to see a library media clerk and additional mental health support. Cindy Giroux is advocating for fixes to the broken concrete walkway and cracked recess yard and leaching field that can fill the school with the stench of sewage. Alan Tenreiro hopes for an end to the “inequitable practice” of asking parents to pay class dues and booster club fees.

At the second public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2016-2017 budget, held Monday night, rthe principals at five of the eight district schools in Cumberland advocated for increased school spending by telling the town council of their schools’ needs.

They were joined in their call by Superintendent Robert Mitchell, Community kSchool parent Steve Hess, and members of the school committee. Mayor Bill Murray’s proposed school budget is $63,103,069, whereas Mitchell requested $64,056,199. d At the first public hearing on the budget, held May 18, town council members and Murray asked more questions of school representatives and engaged in more impassioned back-and-forth.

While more people spoke at the second hearing, the town council had less to say in response. After the public comment, it voted 7-0 in favor of Murray’s proposed operating budgets for the general fund, water department, sewer department and recreation special revenue, on first vote.

The town council will have a second and final vote on the budget at its regular meeting on June 1.

Murray commented that such 7-0 votes are rare and it’s a perfect example of people working together.

“We’ve had a lot of questions. I hope we were very forthright in giving answers,” Murray said at the end of the three-hour meeting, adding that Finance Director Brian Silvia “especially has worked tirelessly on giving answers.”

Superintendent Robert Mitchell was the first to speak on the school budget, and he came prepared with handouts for the audience that provided numbers to illustrate his concerns.

Per his own admission, he has repeated “ad nauseum” that Cumberland has the lowest per-pupil expenditure of any public school district in the state, at $12,796. The only school systems that are lower are Blackstone Valley Prep and Nowell Leadership Academy, both charter schools.

Mitchell also pointed out that on top of money spent in the current fiscal year, the school department anticipates spending an additional $537,000 on charter school tuitions, $583,000 on transportation, $630,000 on teacher steps and $589,000 on health claims next year.

This echoed the frustration expressed by school committee members Lisa Beaulieu and Linda Teel that more and more dollars are going toward non-core expenses instead of into the classrooms.

Councilor Arthur Lambi commented that many taxpayers don’t know the difference – or care about the difference – in what the extra money for schools is going toward, whether it’s for buses or for salary increases. He also noted that residents have asked him why the town council isn’t decreasing school spending, considering the drop in student population in recent years.

School committee member Bill Dennen pointed out that some of the decline in enrollment is due to children attending charter schools, and the Cumberland School Department is still financially responsible for their tuitions.

Mitchell said that of $3.8 million in new dollars the town allocated for schools between 2008 and 2015, 63 percent went to the charter schools. That means charter students have been getting $762 per student from new money whereas the figure is $45.33 for those in the Cumberland school system.

He expects for the school department to pay $3.7 million in charter school tuitions next year.

“I wanted people to understand how much of an impact it’s having on us, and imagine how much of a difference it would make if the Cumberland School District had that $3.7 million,” Mitchell said. “I’m not taking anything away from the charters, but as you can tell, it has a pretty profound impact on us.”

He noted that nobody in the district has anything against charters and “they’re doing a fine job of educating students that go there,” but the issue for the Cumberland School District is funding.

Rep. James McLaughlin, whose district covers parts of Cumberland and Central Falls, said the General Assembly has to come to terms with the need to fund two systems, and the responsibility lies with the state to compensate.

He noted there are a few pieces of legislation in the state House of Representatives to address these issues, “so it’s not all gloom and doom.” McLaughlin also has sponsored a bill that would tax mayoral academies, who lease their buildings from companies in New York.

The heads of several in-district schools addressed the town council about what they would do with more funding.

North Cumberland Middle School Principal Bethany Coughlin and Community School Principal Cindy Giroux stressed the need for improved library services.

Students at both middle schools have been unable to access their school libraries because there are no library media clerks. Community School students only get the opportunity to visit the library every 10 days, Giroux said, but Mitchell’s proposed budget would have remedied that.

Cumberland High School Principal Alan Tenreiro said he’s been asked to put together a budget that may have to cut eight full-time employees. He also emphasized the need for increased mental health support; the high school has one school psychologist for 1,300 students.

JJM Cumberland Hill School Principal Debra Malcolm said the school is looking at opening a third kindergarten classroom.

“I very quickly realized that we were poor,” Ashton School Principal Nidia Karbonik said of her arrival at the school 15 years ago.

She commented that students were not meeting state-mandated physical education hours, and the school had to give up library services to increase time.

“There has not been one year that we looked at the budget cycle and said, ‘We’re in a good place,’” Karbonik said.