According to ARPS Director of Finance and Operations Rob Detweiler, who works with budget numbers every day, Tier 3 funding (aka "worst case scenario") is the BEST our school districts can expect next fiscal year and the reality is probably even worse. For the Amherst elementary schools FY10 budget projections as of March 17, Tier 3 cuts mean reducing the budget by $1.9 million. Tier 2 cuts would reduce the budget by $1.3 million and Tier 1 cuts would reduce the budget by $800,000. Under this proposal, Tier 3 cuts would mean losing the instrumental music program, 7.2 FTE worth of intervention teachers, 6 FTE classroom teachers, after school homework clubs, the science coordinator, and many other programs and services. Even the proposed closing of Marks Meadow would only save ~$700,000 (without the cost of potentially moving the portables) and this closing, if approved by the School Committee, would not take effect until FY11. So some serious cuts are going to have to be made to our elementary schools in this upcoming fiscal year.
Despite this prediction of Tier 3, or worse, available revenue, our Regional School Committe on April 7, voted a Tier 1 level budget. Even though Rob Detweiler, at that meeting--before he had seen the meagre $62,502 awarded to Amherst-Pelham in Round 3 of the Governor's education stimulus program--also warned that, at that point, we were "just hovering above a Tier 3 budget." A Tier 1 budget at the regional level represents $1.3 million in cuts, a Tier 2 budget represents $1.7 million in cuts, and a Tier 3 budget represents $2.1 million in cuts.
If there is only enough revenue to support a Tier 3 budget, why did the Regional School Committee approve a Tier 1 budget?! Part of the reason may lie in the regional district agreement, whereby if three of the towns approve a budget, the fourth town is obliged to adopt that budget as well. And at the April 7 meeting, Shutesbury representative Marianne Jorgensen stated that Shutesbury planned to vote for the Tier 1 budget and the implication was that Pelham and Leverett were also prepared to do so. If that did happen, Amherst would then have to abide by that budget level.
Where does the Regional School Committee think the Tier 1 money is going to come from? The difference between a Tier 1 budget and a Tier 3 budget is $800,000. In other words, a lot of money. Perhaps the Regional School Committee is hoping that the town of Amherst (and potentially the other three towns) will move some of the money from the already-reduced municipal budget (i.e. police, fire, DPW, LSSE, etc) to the regional schools? Or that money will be moved from the already-reduced elementary school budget? Possibily they are hoping for a menu override to support the regional schools to be voted on in some sort of special election? Or that the Finance Committe and Town Meeting might approve the use of reserve funds to support this Tier 1 budget? I am not sure, but after the meeting last night when Rob Detweiler downgraded his estimate of available revenue to "Tier 3 or slightly above" to "possibly worse than Tier 3," that decision to vote the Tier 1 budget at the regional level seems even more ill-advised.
7 comments:
Last time I checked, we were spending more per-pupil at the middle/high schools (the regional schools) than the elementary schools. Given that Town Meeting approved a higher percentage increase in the regional budget last year than the elementary budget, the gap is probably even wider than before.
That's exactly backwards from what the research shows we should be doing. We should be spending MORE on K-3; giving kids the best start possible in school helps them throughout the rest of the education.
Wow. The last meeting I was able to get to they were saying, oh its not that bad as Catherine was saying, oh yes it is! It was at the MS when they presented the redistricting options. They really need to get their heads out of the sand, make some decisions and DO something.
Gavin: Interesting about the per-pupil expenditures being higher for the middle and high schools. People, including our new School Committee member Irv Rhodes, have asked for the expenditures per pupil by school to be presented but have been told that the budget numbers are not kept that way.
I agree with you that we should be shifting the growth in class size from the elementary schools to the middle and high schools. My oldest, now in the middle school, was never in a elementary class smaller than 24 students. If that is fine for our youngest children, why is the goal of maintaining class sizes of 20-22 in the high school so crucial?
Anon 10:06AM: Yes, I definitely agree!
I really haven't been around long enough to know all the history of spending in Amherst, but when the regional SC passed (unanimously) the tier 1 budget, I thought they must have a clever plan. I am still confused by the idea of passing a budget that we don't have sufficient funds to cover. In your opinion, is it this kind of spending that led to the structural deficit that we are facing?
Cathy C: Yes, I think that spending more than we make is typical of the type of spending (and not just by the School Committee) that has contributed to Amherst's current structural deficit. From my work on the Facilitation of Community Choices Committee, I learned that our primary problem is that the rate of growth of expenses exceeds the rate of growth of our revenues (most of which is constrained by Proposition 2 1/2 and/or state funding). The vast majority of our budgets go to pay personnel salaries and benefits. Over the past five years, the annual personnel increase has been about 5% (partially in the form of COLA increases, partially in the form of STEP increases, partially due to new hires) which outstrips the rate of revenue growth in town. As long as that continues to be the case, we will continue to have a structural deficit.
ADV: "our primary problem is that the rate of growth of expenses exceeds the rate of growth of our revenues (most of which is constrained by Proposition 2 1/2 and/or state funding)."
Others in this thread have suggested that out of control spending is responsible for the budget problem, but ADV illuminates the two real issues.
First, let's dismiss the out-of-control spending theory. (1) The budgets that pass are required to be in balance and always are; and (2) for almost a decade we have funded education and other local services BELOW level funding---far from adding glitzy new programs, we've already cut into the bone.
Second, as ADV points out, we face costs growing faster than revenue. Part of the gap is health-care cost growth, which is largely beyond our local control. Part of the gap is declining state support for towns and cities (which has kept our state income tax bills low while squeezing local services. And part of the gap is a pure local choice to adhere to the artificial constraint of Prop 2 1/2 (to increase town property-tax revenue by more than 2.5 percent in a year requires a town-wide vote).
It's possible that we "can't afford" to fully fund level services (to keep the schools from getting worse each year) because of the first reason (health care cost growth), but the latter two reasons (state withdrawal and Prop 2 1/2) can be solved locally with the will to spend to preserve the quality of life.
So how can we turn the desire to fully fund our schools into a political reality?
The first step has to be to articulate politically the problem and the need. I applaud the SC for voting for something resembling the budget that our kids need. (Would that they had voted for level funding or more.)
These votes may represent the beginning of leadership to end the decade of Amherst decay.
Michael: Your point is well-taken. If it is the opinion of the School Committee that the town needs an override in order to afford the necessary services in our schools and if they think an override will pass, voting a Tier 1 budget might be the correct approach. One way to address our structural deficit is to vote regular overrides every few years. I am not in support of that approach but it is a valid one. I will be interested to see what happens in the upcoming Northampton override vote since the majority of that is going to go directly to their schools.
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