Notes on School Funding from the March PTO Meeting

Gloucester School Committee members Jonathan Pope, Greg Verga, and Olympia Louise Palazzola attended the March meeting of the West Parish PTO on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 to talk about the current school funding crisis, the proposed closure of Fuller School, and the potential impact on West Gloucester.

What follows is my best understanding of their comments and may not be completely accurate or up-to-date.

If you want just a quick summary skip to WHAT CAN WE DO?

If you want more information, read on. . .

To maintain a level-services budget (meaning no cuts or increases from the current year), the schools need an additional 3.3 million dollars over last year’s budget.

This figure assumes that, although this is a in a contract year with the teachers’ union, there would be no raises for teachers or staff besides those already mandated.

Why are the schools short $3.3 million?
1) Fixed health care costs have risen 21.2% (this accounts for about 1 million)
2) SPED costs
3) A New ROTC instructor at the High School
4) Increased energy bills

Isn’t Governer Patrick increasing aid to cities and towns? Yes but the increased amount Gloucester would receive will be offset by School Choice increases and Teacher Retirement costs for a net loss.

It will be hard to get more out of the State. Last year the state’s revenues increased by 7.5%. This year only by 4%

More essentially, the formula for Chapter 70 funding is flawed.
1) Unfunded mandates: Gloucester has to pay SPED costs that the state does not reimburse.
2) The formula for distribution hits communities like Gloucester particularly hard, because we have a ring of expensive properties near the ocean, and little room for growth. If State funds were distributed according to a community’s income level instead of its property values, Gloucester would get much more help from the State.

City of Gloucester revenues are limited by Proposition 2 ½ which limits the amount taxes can be raised without an override, plus the relative lack of new growth.

The City can probably expect increased revues of only 2.1 -2.2 million this year. The School Committee has had no info to date from the City about what % the schools can expect, but are working with the assumption that they would get about $750,000 of the 3.3 million more they need to “maintain services”.

That leaves them with the need to CUT ~2.5 million dollars out of the Gloucester Schools Budget.

Roughly, it takes laying off 12 teachers to cut 1/2 a million dollars.

To avoid having to cut more than 50 teachers, the School Committee is proposing to close a facility to save costs, and they have chosen Fuller School.

Why Fuller? The Audit done a couple years ago recommended closing Plum Cove. The Planning for Effective Learning Committee has recommended the following.
1) no 2-site schools
2) keep the K-5, 6-8. 9-12 structure
3) 3 classes per grade, neighborhood schools (like WP) work the best.
Problems with Fuller
1) Too big
2) Kindergarten facilities need upgrade
3) Schools should reflect community (disproportionate # of children qualifying for free/reduced lunch attend Fuller over other K-5s)

GV: This is NOT about the new Mall – the School Committee can close Fuller but can’t sell it. They could declare it surplus and give to the city, but the city would control where any money from sales went to. (Also the city has had trouble selling old school property).

JP: High school is cut to the bone. No vocational director, only 1 gym teacher (also AD), barely enough staff to teach required educational hours.

O’Malley would lose 4 more positions.

Impact on elementary schools
Fuller School closed. The School Committee plans to shut down most of the building but leave part open for the pre-school, district offices, etc. What to do with the field and the Auditorium is still under consideration. There was a plan to restructure Plum Cove as a separate K-5, but the modular classrooms needed may not result in enough savings. Fuller 5th graders might be sent to O’Malley instead a year early to save money and minimize the number of transitions they would face,

New average class sizes to expect across the city
23 – Kindergarten, 1rst grade, 2nd grade,-
26 plus - 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade

22 Classroom Teachers laid off!
3 Specialist Teachers laid off (Art, Music, Gym)!
2 secretaries, 1 school nurses, 1 custodian, etc. laid off!

What could this mean for West Parish?
~88 new students to welcome
Loss of our art and multipurpose rooms to make way for new classes.
Any of our West Parish teachers or staff with less seniority could be replaced by staff from Fuller and other schools. We could lose some of the wonderful, innovative, and caring teachers and staff that make West Parish such a great place for our children.

There would still need to be potentially 800,000 in additional cuts to be found. If the School Committee could negotiate an early retirement plan with the Teachers and other unions, a couple but not many positions might be saved.

Next year will probably be just as bad! Is there any long term planning?

What does the School Committee wish parents would do about this situation?

1. Go to the Stand for the Children Meeting on Thursday, 3/14 at the Sawyer Free Library to learn how to pressure the State to prioritize children.
2. Put pressure on the State to fund unfunded Special Ed mandates, and come up with formulas that are more equitable to communities like Gloucester.
3. Consider pushing for a Proposition 2.5 override or debt exclusion.
   

The School Committee is doing similar presentations at other schools.

• Tuesday, 3/13, 5 pm Veteran’s Memorial School
• Wednesday, 3/14, 5pm Beeman Memorial School, 6:30 pm Fuller School.
  

Feel free to attend and listen, but please let those communities get their chance to comment or ask questions. Have ideas or questions you wish you had a chance to present? Feel free to direct them to Chairman Jonathan Pope at jpope@mezel.net

Want even more information? Chairman Pope has forwarded some budget documents that show the range of options, issues, and implications the School Committee is weighing. Email me at yoshitom@comcast.net if you wish to see them.