Board of Ed Passes 2011-2012 School Budget

The Board of Education voted 7-1 last night to accept Superintendent Michael Frechette's proposed 2011-2012 budget of $71, 952, 813. Board Member Corinne Gill was not present and Board Member Ryan Kennedy was the dissenting vote.

BOE Chairman Ted Raczka introduced the budget vote by saying, "I know these numbers are daunting...they are significant. But education is just very expensive. We really have to recognize that this budget represents a promise our community has made to our children for hundreds of years...supporting this budget is the only way to guarantee the success and prosperity of our community."

Board Member Sally Boske thanked the administration, teachers, staff, and especially Asst. Superintendent Barbara Senges for the hard work done on contract negotiations to keep costs down. Boske commented on how important it was for everyone to see "we're all a team together. Our bottom line is making sure students get the best education."

The 2011-12 Budget, depending on how you look at it and what Education Cost Sharing (ECS) actually comes from the state, is either a 7.11% increase or a 3.45% increase from last year's budget. The $2.4 million in federal stimulus funds Middletown received had to be spent on staff retention (to save jobs), so that money was used to pay the 45 lowest salary teachers. If the state doesn't assume responsibility for this funding, those 45 teaching jobs will have to be cut. Or, more generically, $2.4 million worth of salary is lost. This factor explains the possible 7.11% increase in funding that the BOE is asking the Common Council for. If the State steps in and covers this funding, then the BOE is only asking for a 3.45% increase.

For those of you who can't understand why the BOE would even ask for an increase in its budget in these economic times, consider the following: even though the budget is more actual dollars than last year's budget, it is technically a zero-increase budget when you consider that no services or programs were added. The increase in requested funds covers only those contractual cost increases the BOE must honor. So, for example, Classified Salaries such as clerical, custodians, maintenance staff, and nurses get an estimated 2% raise for FY 2011-2012 as outlined in their contract. To achieve a zero-dollar-increase budget, the BOE would have to make cuts in other areas equal to the amount needed for contractual increases.

On the subject of cuts, Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges pointed out that nearly 90% of the budget is fixed labor costs. "We have already cut just about everything that can be cut, so the only thing left is programs and the staff associated with those programs." Senges went on to say that the school budget has had no increase in supplies or materials in the last 3 years, that administrators have been cut in every possible place (so there is only a principal at each elementary school, for example), and she personally has taken on the work of five other positions in addition to her own. As far as supplies and materials go, this author has heard first-hand accounts of one Middletown elementary school where the principal personally hands out staples and other basic office necessities to control supply levels.

So in summary, this budget is not any different than the budget the Superintendent has submitted for the last two years. The only dollar difference is due to contractual increases, and even in that case, negotiations during last year's budget cycle resulted in a wage freeze in some instances. Now contrast this "bare-bones" budget with the Superintendent's "Wish List" for Middletown Public Schools, outlined in a memo to the Board of Ed dated January 5, 2011:

• Full-day, high quality preschoool for all students
• Increase length of school day
• Increase school year days
• Expand before and after school programs
• Literacy and numeracy libraries for all students
• Increase staff and materials for delivering Tier III SRBI
• Expand parent training and programs
• Expand Family Resource Centers and Family School Connect Programs (includes home visiting and parent education)
• Family Liaison positions at every school (includes Welcoming Schools and Parent Engagement/Leadership)
• Elementary world languages to elementary level

There are actually 33 items on the wish list...the above list was just the first 10 items. Clearly, there is much more the Superintendent would do if funding was available, but the top priority at the moment is just to cover the expenses he currently has, and without replacement of the federal funds and coverage for contractual increases, Middletown is facing a $5 million hole in its educational budget.

Author's commentary:

After the BOE meeting adjourned, I asked BOE Member Ryan Kennedy why he voted against the budget. Kennedy replied, "it's just not realistic. I think the administration did a good job to roll over the budget from last year, but we're still $5 million short, and the board has to take responsibility for that." Kennedy went on to say that the BOE won't look at the budget again until the middle of May or beginning of June, and he expressed much frustration with the budget process in general. "The board is approaching this budget the same way it always does budgets, and I think that's wrong." Since Kennedy is on the budget committee, I asked him why he doesn't do something different if he's frustrated with the process, and he replied, "when you have 2/3 of the vote, you can do what you want. I can yell as much as I want, but I can't force the majority to do something it doesn't want to do."

Kennedy is of course referring to the political split of the BOE: 6 Democrats and 3 Republicans. As a Republican, Kennedy seems to be taking a "worst-case" scenario, and he wants to work now on the plan for how the BOE will find $5 million in cuts if no state ECS is forthcoming and the Common Council doesn't authorize a 7.11% funding increase. Chairman Ted Raczka, on the other hand, said exactly the opposite in his comments before the budget vote. I quoted him earlier, and it bears repeating: "...supporting this budget is the only way to guarantee the success and prosperity of our community."

From my perspective, it looks like a game of pass the blame...the BOE says to the Common Council, "you have to give us the funds because that's what the Superintendent says he needs." Kennedy even said of the budget process, "the attitude here is let's see how much we can get and then we'll see what happens and worry about it later." If the Common Council doesn't provide the funding, then the BOE has a scapegoat for why it didn't provide a fully funded budget.

Maybe that attitude works when we're talking about a $500,000 budget difference, but not for a $5,000,000 one. Forty-five teaching positions represent a huge hole in the quality of the education provided by this town. While the number of retirements this year is yet unknown (and could ultimately make some difference in the number of positions that would have to be cut because higher paid teachers could be replaced with more lower paid teachers), it's not going to be a significant factor in filling a $5 million dollar hole. The timing of the hole couldn't be much worse either as Middletown finally is achieving adequate yearly progress (AYP) on the CMTs in Math and Reading for the first time since 2001-2002.

It's not like the BOE didn't know this was coming either. To his credit, the Superintendent has been saying for the last 2 years that this "cliff" was coming, and that someone should be thinking about what was going to happen when we got here. Well, we're here now, and it's unrealistic to dump the whole problem in the Common Council's lap (and all the taxpayers by extension). Yes, education is expensive, and yes, our community should value it. But we've elected the Board of Education to make the hard decisions that we the taxpayers can't do by virtue of how the system works. Now more than ever, leadership and innovative thinking are required, and it cannot be a "pass-the-blame" moment. Our kids' future depends on the decisions we make right now, and for their sake, we can't take the path of least resistance.

So let's get creative, and let's encourage our electived officials to do the same. What if we had a year-long school schedule, but students rotated their vacation time? Could we do with less teachers in that scenario while still preserving class sizes? Or, if we had to consider closing an elementary school, could we have "shifts" at other schools? Could some students go from 7-1 and others from 1-7 at the same school? Or what about parent volunteers? Let's be honest about how much they currently do to keep the system afloat, and then let's lay our cards on the table and ask what else parents would be willing to do to fill in the holes. Maybe we could save significantly on transportation costs just by asking parents to volunteer to drive their kids. It's not ideal, but then again, there's nothing ideal about the situation we're in.

That leads me to my final point: we have until the end of June to come up with a plan. There is plenty of time for the BOE to reach out to parents and have an honest conversation about where we're at and what can be done. It doesn't have to be an angry, defensive or divisive process. It shouldn't matter if we're Democrats or Republicans, and we should be having this conversation anyway, no matter what level of funding the State or the Common Council provides. This is our town and our children and our problem. There is no "them" to take the blame or to solve all our problems in one magic moment. So don't wait. Take a few minutes to send an email to the BOE with your thoughts and concerns. Attend a budget committee meeting. Attend a regular BOE meeting and use your 3 minutes to tell the board what your priorities are for your child's education. Go to your school's PTA meeting and brainstorm what parents can to do to be involved in the process.

One last thought...the loss of Aetna as a revenue source for the city isn't even a part of this discussion at this point, but it will be relevant at some point in the future. If the city is struggling now to fund the BOE budget, that struggle will only get worse in the future when Aetna is off the tax-rolls. If we don't do some hard work now, we are headed for real disaster in the not-to-distant future.