TPC plan pushed despite questions
Calls grow for action on schools merger, but issues may dog deal
If the unified school board would just “implement the Transition Planning Commission plan” for merging Memphis City and Shelby County schools, a popular refrain goes, everything would be fine.
The phrase popped up in a recent Commercial Appeal Viewpoint guest column by Christine Richards, an attorney who chaired the TPC’s human resources committee.
It came up again in a recent status conference before U. S. Dist. Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays on the topic of appointing a “special master” to light a fire under the school board, or at least monitor its progress on merging city and county schools by July 1.
It has been uttered any number of times, in fact, since the 21-member TPC submitted its 172-recommendation plan to the unified Memphis and Shelby County school board last June. What does it mean? School administrators have taken issue with a number of the plan’s assumptions — that $20 million could be saved by closing 21 schools, for example.
Although it’s clear that the school board could take a more vigorous approach to closing underutilized schools, a staff analysis of five proposed school closures projects a savings of $3.3 million.
The TPC plan, to list another example, projects a savings of $16.5 million from outsourcing custodial services. After interested contractors responded to a bid invitation, the savings had shrunk to roughly $11.5 million, which ad- ministrators said could grow slightly by closing the five targeted schools (out of a total of 215 buildings covered by the bid).
In addition, there is the not-inconsiderable issue of the TPC plan’s $57 million deficit.
As TPC chairwoman Barbara Prescott (who, along with Richards, is among the candidates for
special master) points out, the plan outlines “clear paths for the staff to follow to whittle that down to a reasonable amount.”
That path, however, crosses indifferent if not hostile territory.
For one example, it calls for the collection of $57 million awarded to Memphis City Schools from the city of Memphis for failure to maintain its educational funding effort in 2008 — a claim that the city continues to protest despite a court decision that favored the schools.
The plan also calls for the city to continue providing in-kind services such as free water, school crossing guards, school resource officers and the like — some $4 million in services the city has not agreed to.
“I don’t think that’s too much to ask of the city,” Prescott said. “There’s no reason in the world why the city of Memphis policemen should not, during school beginnings and ends, monitor city streets. That’s another million.
“So if you are doing those things that we recommended,” she said, “you would be whittling that $57 million down to where you would be in position to possibly be reasonable with the County Commission.”
According to several members of the County Commission who attended a budget retreat with school board members Feb. 23, reason was sadly lacking in the school board’s proposed general fund budget, with its $145 million deficit.
Most of the complaints came from the commission’s Republican minority, which has the votes and can be relied on, one of its members promised, to block any property tax increase that would exceed 10 percent.
A moderate tax hike targeted for the schools, said Commissioner Steve Mulroy, might be possible if the board would show more aggressive efforts to cut the budget. “Just meet me half way,” he said.
Judging from steps the board took Thursday night toward privatizing custodial services and reducing employee benefits, Mulroy said Friday, “If they haven’t met me halfway yet, at least they’re moving in the right direction, and that’s encouraging.”
Mulroy doesn’t expect the court to get involved in the funding issue any- time soon, although he, as well as attorneys involved in the case, say there are plenty of precedent cases, including school cases, in which federal judges have ordered public expenditures to fund their mandates.
Attorney Allan Wade, who represents the city of Memphis and the City Council on the issue, said it’s premature to suggest that there is a budget problem with the unified district until the board deals more aggressively with a number of issues, including school closures.
“We always anticipated there would be some deficit on the (combined district) at least in the early years,” Wade said. “That’s the primary responsibility of the County Commission.”
A special master, he said, could “help determine what steps should be taken to reduce whatever this alleged deficit is. … The plan itself is not like a cookbook, where you put in one cup of flour and a stick of butter to make the cake. You might have less flour or more butter, but you’re still going to have a cake. It’s got some flexibility in there, but doing nothing, not making critical decisions, doesn’t solve the problem.”