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Needless to say, my district has been embroiled in budget misery and strife for lo these past four years: ever since the crash of 2008.
(Horrifying that I feel compelled to write "crash of 2008." As if it's in the past, which it ... isn't.)
Anyway, the budget.
Every year since the crash, come January, when budget season begins, the district blows up. Without fail. For the next four months we stagger through a war of all against all until May, when we vote on the budget, and the budget passes. Then we do the same thing again the next year, and it doesn't get better; it gets worse. This year's vote was May 15, and I'm still recovering.
After the vote, calm returns and the summer comes, then the fall, then Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas -- and then bam! January is here again, and Oh no! Cuts! Layoffs! Oh no!
Of course everyone is expecting (and dreading) the news, but then, too, everyone is surprised and aghast, and the town convulses.
Why do we have to keep doing this?
I mean, I know why we have to keep doing this (because 4 is not 2), but why do we have to keep being surprised and bushwhacked each January when we find out which beloved young new teacher/guidance counselor will be saying goodbye this year?
Why can't we at least develop a clear picture of what the problem is, show it to everyone, let the truth sink in, and then go from there? With a shared understanding of reality (that being: 4 is not 2) if not a shared agreement on the solution.
Seeing as how nothing so informational seems likely to emerge from the administration or school board, I've decided to take matters into my own hands.
Get the party started.
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15 comments:
Wait--shouldn't you expect higher energy costs (at least) for the coming year? It may not be possible to keep non-personnel costs flat.
Our issue is that the union contract is negotiated separately from the annual budget crisis. When the budget battle begins, this leaves only other smaller areas for cuts. The town council gives the school committee and the school a dollar figure for the cuts, and they come up with cuts that push the most hot buttons for parents. They fire up their automated phone system and email list to rile up the parents and get them to the meetings. We get automated phone messages not just from the school, but from the chair of the school committee about the budget. The town council threatens to take control over the selection of the line items. However, the town council pays little attention when the school committee negotiates the terms of the union contract. Many towns desperately need professional help when those contracts are negotiated.
It may not be possible to keep non-personnel costs flat.
No kidding.
The situation is LUDICROUS.
Plus we have declining enrollment and increasing spending.
Per pupil spending hits $29,400 next year.
They fire up their automated phone system and email list to rile up the parents and get them to the meetings.
I am on the warpath re: robo calls from schools.
THEY ARE USING THE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM, for god's sake.
Ed pointed out the other day that if the school uses the EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM to make junk calls, people are going to stop picking up the call when there actually is an emergency.
In fact, that happened to me the other night. The GOTV call came in at 7:22, I looked at the caller ID, figured it was just a robo call, and didn't answer.
If there actually had been an emergency I needed to know about, I wouldn't have gotten the message.
Many towns desperately need professional help when those contracts are negotiated.
Our district has lawyers doing the negotiating, but they have no one telling them how to manage the public component of negotiations, which have been badly blown.
Last year two board members (one of whom just defeated my friend R. for re-election) announced publicly that there would not be layoffs this year.
So now we have layoffs.
The ONLY leverage BOE has is threat of layoffs, and if you publicly announce you won't have layoffs, then...you have layoffs.
Of course, this year the same guy announced that next year we will break the tax cap. "The folks in the press can quote me," he said. (Ed said that's like Gary Hart daring the press to follow him.)
If history is a guide, that means we won't break the tax cap....
I have to get out of here.
Trouble is, that's how everyone feels. There are something like....gosh. Is it 26 houses on the market? More? (6500 people)
We went to New Jersey on Sunday, and when we drove back into town - and this is a very pretty, lovely place - I thought: "This is the town that blew itself up."
It's true.
This tiny little town responded to the housing bubble with a property tax bubble, and now the whole thing is blown.
The other crazy thing here is the BOE signed the contract in January, issued a press release hailing the thing, and then 5 seconds later we had layoffs -- which were, of course, blamed on the board, not the union.
For passers-by, I mentioned 'blame' entirely as a tactic and tool in normal negotiations, which have to involve a public component here in NY.
BOE can't sign a contract, hail the contract, thank the union profusely for its good sense and concern for the community ---- and then 5 seconds later start laying people off.
It is ludicrous!
Everyone needs to know exactly what we're looking at, which is: 4 is not 2.
Some parents and, presumably, most of the union will line up on the side of 5% to 6% annual tax increases. Everyone else will line up on the side of capping raises at 2.
The battle lines will be drawn, but at least people will agree on what the problem is, and what the very limited set of solutions is, too.
I'm pretty sure that would be helpful to everyone, on both sides. There are certain mathematical realities that can't be argued or obfuscated away.
What are we going to do about them?
Actually, it sounds like your school may be overstaffed, and laying off people is the right thing to do.
Of course they are overstaffed. But guess who is available to be laid off? The expensive or the inexpensive? The administration or the teachers?
This is a place where they can't have a parent volunteer run a math club or photography club, because the union has said either a union member does it or no one does.
Catherine, you can't get ahead of the curve on this because most of the country is shouting "LA LA LA I can't hear you!" while their fingers are in their ears.
Sadly, I disagree that the realities can't be argued or obfuscated away. The next thing that will happen is people are going to claim they were stolen from--that the money WAS there, but now they've been defrauded. It will tear your state apart.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/nyregion/fragile-calculus-in-plans-to-fix-pension-systems.html?_r=1
In our town (5400 people with 75 houses on the market), the problem is that even though the school population goes down, the school budget continues to go up. However, your taxes are probably triple (!) our taxes for the same value house, and the house is nowhere near as good. That is on top of the fact that our town is one of the more expensive areas. Do you see anything that will pop your bubble? Will just numbers do it?
Your surrounding towns must be in the same boat. Are they? Ask Realtors about supply and demand. They know the details. What kind of lifestyle and mentality does your area attract?
It seems like something else is going on other that 4 is not 2 if owners of average sorts of houses will pay $750K for the house and then pay $15K per year for taxes.
"This is a place where they can't have a parent volunteer run a math club or photography club, because the union has said either a union member does it or no one does."
Oh my goodness.
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