New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
School jobs on chopping block
Birks details plans to deal with $30M deficit
NEW HAVEN — School district brass Monday released more details on steps the district intends to take to reduce a projected $30.7 million deficit next fiscal year .
Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks said jobs would need to be eliminated or reassigned, and administrative buildings would need to be abandoned, as part of a crunch to eliminate about $20 million from that deficit before asking for a $10.3 million funding increase from the state.
“There are very difficult decisions we have to make with leadership and with the board,” Birks told the Board of Education’s Finance Committee during a budget presentation.
In the current fiscal year, the projected budget deficit has hovered around $9 million for months. Birks told committee members that some of the proposed savings — such as reducing transportation costs by removing buses from the fleet and eliminating stops, to the tune of $2 million in annual savings — would be disruptive in the middle of a school year.
As part of the approximate $20 million reduction to next year’s costs, Birks said two central office administrator jobs and one school administrator job would be eliminated for about $465,000 in savings, and 56 certified staff members and 19 paraprofessionals would be reassigned for about $4.5 million in savings.
Birks said the administrative jobs likely would be eliminated through attrition, but the structure is “fluid.” Reassigning staff is also based on attrition; she cited one example of a school that had an approximate ratio of 14 students to one teacher, saying it doesn’t match the realities of the larger class sizes that would be needed during a districtwide effort to remediate a gap in the budget.
“Given the fiscal constraints, we cannot maintain that model,” she said.
The district also has proposed renegotiating contracts, abandoning buildings used for administrative purposes to avoid paying the lease and taxes, and leveraging its grant funding to cover more functions.
For the leftover $10.3 million, Birks and staff presented three scenarios: either the state fully funds the increase; the state funds half of the increase; or the state does not increase its funding through the Education Cost Sharing grant.
In the second scenario, staff proposed $1 million in savings in school consolidation, the elimination of another administrative position and a reduction of 52 staff members in addition to the initially proposed reassignment of 56 staff. In the third scenario, the reduction in staff would be 172, including the 56 staff positions that would be eliminated in the first phase of the plan.
Birks said the unions are lobbying for a no-layoff clause, but she “cannot commit to that.”
Committee member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur said she would like to see staff furloughs discussed again as a cost-saving measure, although Birks mentioned that the unions did not go for furloughs during previous negotiations.
Assistant Superintendent Keisha Redd-Hannans said school closures are “not as easy as some folks may think it is.” According to the district, only three middle schools are below 80 percent of capacity, and every high school is above 90 percent of capacity.
Jackson-McArthur asked why the schools aren’t filled completely to capacity if there are such long waiting lists for the magnet schools; Birks said it is because every school must meet a certain integration quota to avoid being fined by the state.
“This is going to be a very tough year,” said committee vice chairman Joe Rodriguez. “It’s going to take all of us collectively, and I say that with our labor union friends as well.”
Rodriguez also noted that the three scenarios presented were precipated upon the assumption that an effort to reduce a $30 million deficit to $10 million would be successful.
“Is there a plan for a doomsday scenario?” he asked.
Birks said there must be some serious changes to the operating structure, and she is trying to prepare the community for it.
Although some parents on the organizing committee of an advocacy group called NHPS Advocates who were present at the meeting said they felt the meeting was more transparent than in the past, they still worry about the future.
“It’s very alarming,” said parent Maritza Casanova.