Schools CFO: Guv’s Budget “Devastating”

Anyone who has kept abreast of Connecticut’s development of the varioous plans to equalize educational opportunities and resources for urban public education, to be, in theory, on par with our wealthier towns and cities, would likely know that the State Legislators promise much and deliver less than promised.  I have seen every plan from GTB to ECS, and everything in between; none have ever lived up to the pormises that have been made.  You will recall it all started with HORTON v. MESKILL all the weay up to the Connecticut Supreme Court.

If the State of Connecticut cannot live up to the promises it makes to local communities, then the legislature should give muiciplaities the power to levy local taxes that can contribute to local schools; for example, cities like New Haven should have the power to levy a 1% tax on hotel rooms for each night of occupancy. This would be a source of revenue that would not be a burden to local residents as most of the people paying these taxes would be from out-of-town.  Just think of the increase in the occupancy of rooms at the OMNI, for instance, whenever Yale University has a big home game, or Yale’s Commencement events.  This would be a new revenue stream for municipalities; all that is needed is for the State Legislature to make it so.  All that is needed is for the State Legislature to empower local communities.

I believe this is a realistic proposal that deserves a fair hearing.

The state may be underfunding NHPS, but my questions seek a different set of answers to funding.
1. Have there been more or fewer students in NHPS over the past 5 years to ten years?
2. Are there more or fewer staff working in the NHPS over the past 5 to10 years?
3. Why does the NHBOE run a deficit every year? Is it mainly attributable to the rising cost of everything or something else?

owen@large :  NHPS runs a deficit every year because every year, the BoA bails out NHPS rather than leaving the BoE members to pay the bills themselves.  It’s what insurance companies call “moral hazard”.  The BoE members, including many past mayors, fail to balance the books because they don’t fear being personally responsible for the deficit, as BoE members in other districts do.As a result, when people like Birks propose ways to balance the budget, they reject those measures.  Instead, the BoE pretended a special committee of NHPS Advocates types would be able to find comparable savings that did not impact the classroom.  It was a complete failure.  Balancing the budget means layoffs and schools closures, larger classes, and, perhaps, a return to neighborhood school assignments to reduce transportation costs.  None of those things are attractive.  Instead, things like supplies and maintenance are cut, as those things are not as visible, and the impact is diffuse.  New Haveners today reject triage and embrace equality.  No one gets thrown from the lifeboat, even if that means everyone drowns.

Don’t worry guys. The Mayor can just raise property taxes again to make up the gap.

For what it’s worth not only did I teach in New Haven for over 30 years but I am a product of Edgewood school, Sheridan, and Hillhouse. Back in the day schools were neighborhood schools. Middle school and high school were melting pots although somewhat neighborhood in nature. Along came Sheff vs O’Neill and busing from one end of New Haven to the other. Integration now was taking place at the Elementary school level, but at what cost. Certainly different ethnic groups learning together is a great teacher about how similar we all are. However what was lost was between 18 and 24 million dollars for bus transportation back and forth across the city. I contend that if these funds expended year after year were added to each and every school for supplies, extra staff in the classroom, a return of music and art and theater and well you get my point. Integration happens, it’s inevitable, you can’t escape interacting with people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures, so why pay such a high price to bus children away from their home schools? Busing takes away from learning time and what it costs in dollars diminishes the potential for enrichment for those who live walking distance from their neighborhood school. I think that what education has lost $$$ is far greater than what it has gained.

The BOE does not need more money. They just need to be more fiscally responsible.

1. Why pay retired principal Bonnie Pachesa $125,315 for 6 months of work to substitute as principal? The BOE should publish how much money she has been paid since she retired. The amount could pay for 2 or 3 new teachers! Why not place any of the many assistant principals already on the payroll in that job?

2. Get rid of the dead weight at the BOE. There are too many people getting full paychecks who are incompetent, who do not show up for work and sleep on the job. Lisa Mack needs to do her job and stop protecting her friends and Dr. Tracey needs to stop allowing the threat of fraudulent lawsuits keep her from firing incompetent people.

3. Stop paying huge sums of money to outside companies for PD when there are qualified teachers and administrators who can do the PD.

4. Put some of those coaches back in the classroom.

My Thoughts- I was a student at Edgewood/Beecher, Sheridan and Hammonassett/HSC. Beecher was a diverse population, my middle school was mostly segregated by race in “tracking” and HSC was diverse. If I had gone to my neighborhood high school (Hillhouse) it would have been mostly segregated. What I loved about my elementary school was that it was diverse and a neighborhood school so we made friends from our area that we would be able to play with after school and during the summer without requiring a public bus ride or a parent to drive us. My overall experience at Sheridan soured me on wanting to attend large, mostly segregated impersonal schools, preferring smaller diverse schools. My brothers went to a magnet middle school, then one went to Cross and the other went to The Co-Op in Hamden and then HSC. I would agree that there are pluses to going to school in your neighborhood, but it doesn’t create diversity in student populations. There are many more pluses in attending schools that have diverse populations. If we can create that by having diverse housing in every neighborhood so that each has a mix of market rate, affordable and low income housing units, then we could go back to neighborhood schools without risking the re-segregation of our student populations. That would benefit reducing both our housing segregation and educational segregation for everyone’s benefit.

What is really ‘devastating’ here is the BOE’s constant inability to reign in expenses. Period.
At least point the finger at yourselves before you go picking the taxpayer’s pockets again.