Worcester School Committee Criticizes Budget
Thursday, May 15, 2014
While the budget has increased, many are quick to point out that the budget has not expanded enough and will force the district to make some unwanted budget cuts. The school will also be losing two federal grants – Race to the Top and School Redesign – which account for a loss of almost $5 million.
“Since I became the superintendant, I have taken a zero based budgeting approach when coming up with a school budget,” said Melinda Boone, the Superintendant of the Worcester Public School District. “We really try to build a budget that starts with the students and works its way out. With that being said, this year’s budget is more of a sustainability budget. We are really trying to keep many of our efforts and initiatives alive.”
If the current budget is approved, some of the budget cuts could include getting rid of 44 teaching positions, 16 tutors, seven administrative clerical positions, three custodians, and two administrative positions. The budget is currently being analyzed by committee members for approval.
A Good Start but Lacking
There are many concerns as to not having enough money to craft a proper budget, Worcester School Committee member Brian O’Connell admits that the proposed budget is “a good start.”
The budget represents a good shell as to how funds could be allotted, but O’Connell acknowledges many other areas that that should receive more funding.
“This is a good beginning to budget deliberation,” said O’Connell. “I do not feel that this should be the final budget, however. There are many areas of this budget that should be examined and closely scrutinized. We really need to focus our attention on taking more money out of non-instructional educational practices so that the funds can be put directly into the classroom.”
O’Connell has noticed a trend in the budget, pointing out that there were 44 teachers cut while administration positions didn’t seem quite as affected by the budget. O’Connell calls for more funding attention to be made toward employees who have a direct contact and influence with the student body.
“I’m certainly not saying that we don’t need administrators, but we do need to scrutinize the positions more,” said O’Connell. “Anytime we see 44 teachers being cut, we really need to find areas that we could pull from to keep those teachers employed so that we can offer the best education possible to our students. I would be comfortable pulling $1 million from administration so that we could keep all of or more of these teachers employed.”
Another area of need within the budget is initiatives in place that are designed to help the student body, like tutoring and after school programs. O’Connell praises the work that churches and other community centers not affiliated with the school budget are doing to help students, but he wishes that more could be done in house.
“In addition to making teachers a top priority, I think that we need to examine some of our influential programs,” said O’Connell. “We have a lot of programs like tutoring services that are seeing cuts, but these programs are extremely beneficial to students. We really need to prioritize giving the students the best education that we can.”
Rather than having the school committee make most of the choices and recommendations, O’Connell encourages citizens to become more involved in the budgeting process.
“I encourage more people to make follow the budgeting process and call up the school committee members with any questions or concerns that they may have,” said O’Connell. “Any advice is helpful to us, regardless from who or where it comes from. I hope that as many people as possible will come out to meeting and offer their opinions.”
Creating the Whole Package
Creating a budget can be a very difficult process, especially for a large school district like Worcester. With that being said, some are calling for the budget to make sure that it keeps all students in mind.
While many focus their attention on the cutting of teachers or other issues, Hilda Ramirez, another member of the Worcester School Committee, says that a high priority focus in the area should be the transitional phases from one school to another.
Education is a very important thing in the lives of young people, but people don’t stop to think of the transitions. Worcester is a school district that has many elementary schools, but fewer middle and high schools. Because of that, students are often forced into larger class sizes which could alter learning.
“I think that there is a concern that we don’t have enough money right now to do everything that we need,” said Ramirez. “We need to look at the whole package though, not just learning. For me, one of the biggest concerns is that we have a large student body, but we are still faced with a lot of gaps, especially in the transitions from one school level to another.”
Ramirez says that there is data that points to a drop off when students are transitioning from elementary to middle school and from middle to high school. While the issue is a tough one to tackle – it would require a realignment of schools or building new ones – but she ultimately feels that it is a topic worthy of attention to help address all students at all levels.
“I think we need to look into whether or not we can create a better design for the education of our students,” said Ramirez. “The budget definitely has an impact because the issue that I am talking about would require more space for students. We really need to focus on closing gaps and making sure that education is level across the board for all students.”
Issues Outside of the System
Tracy Novick, a school committee member, acknowledges these outside forces contributing to the various shortfalls that people are pointing out in the budget. This does not, however, mean that she thinks that the budget is doing a good job in covering the issues facing the Worcester Public School District.
“I think that the budgeting shortfall issues are outside of the system,” said Novick. “I don’t think that I can name a single area of this budget that adequately funds something off the top of my head. In terms of areas that I think are concerning? I think that everything in this budget is a concern.”
Because of the lack of a proper budget for the district, Novick feels that students will be having fewer opportunities presented to them. Not only are school programs that help to foster learning being cut or reduced, but funding for school supplies are also being cut.
“We hoped to add some books for elementary math classes to the budget,” said Novick. “I didn’t see that part coming up anywhere in the budget, which is unfortunate; I think it might have been something that was deferred.”
Novick may offer a lot of criticism to the proposed budget, but she does acknowledge that certain programs and opportunities are seeing some much needed attention. Budgeting for students with disabilities and English language learners (ELL) will be helpful in keeping more students from being sent out to other areas.
“This budget will add positions to both ELL and special education programs,” said Novick. “These are two growing areas of need for our district. We have had to send a lot of children out of the district because we weren’t properly equipped to handle their needs. The district is trying to be more forceful in keeping our students here rather than sending them off.”
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