Citizen School Budget Review Starts At Top

A budget-balancing task force said that the school district should begin cutting at the top by eliminating six-figure positions in Central Office like the deputy superintendent.

The Budget Mitigation Committee, a 15-member panel of parents, teachers, administrators and board members, made that recommendation at its meeting on personnel Monday afternoon at Central Office.

It included that as the first idea that it plans to send to the Board of Education as a way to close this fiscal year’s deficit, after previously suggesting that the board reject a plan to balance the budget by eliminating 53 teaching positions.

Over the summer months, the school district is looking for nearly $10.3 million more in cuts, after the arrival of expected state and local revenues helped drastically reduce initial projections of a $30 million shortfall.

The committee said that Central Office’s administrative budget should shrink by one-tenth. Members suggested that Superintendent Carol Birks could do that by hiring a chief financial officer and then eliminating all other vacancies, including the deputy superintendent and the talent chief.

Jill Kelly, the committee co-chair, said those reduction would save about $400,000, which is the equivalent of about six teacher salaries.

While she wasn’t there for the meeting, Birks said later that she is open to the idea of eliminating the $179,000 deputy superintendent position, which is being vacated when Ivelise Velazquez heads to grad school this month. Birks added that she could support the idea as she still has ​“someone to look at our academics” comprehensively, perhaps as a director or supervisor a couple notches down on the pay grade.

“We may not need that role,” Birks said, adding though that she’s still looking at the ​“appropriate staffing for managing the organization” beyond that one position.

The committee said that the school district should ask all unions to return to the negotiating table on taking a furlough. In the past, city officials have estimated that the district could save about $650,000 for each furlough day.

But past discussions have stalled. The teachers union’s leadership has wanted a no-layoff guarantee to consider reopening their contract, the principals union feels like its members are already giving back by forgoing their contractually allowed vacations and the paraprofessionals union worries its low-paid members can’t afford to miss a day’s work.

Birks said that talk of furloughs had been tabled while the teachers union tried unsuccessfully to sign veteran teachers up for a modest retirement incentive.

In addition, the committee also recommended researching whether there might be any savings from capping experienced teachers’ starting salaries in the 2019 – 20 school year and from school consolidations, suburban tuition and other magnet enrollment ratios for the 2020 – 21 school year.

The committee also discussed splitting instructional coaches between schools, like the district currently does for school counselors and library media specialists, and following the city’s procurement policy for professional services, like the district currently does for bulk purchases and maintenance work. But neither of those topics led to any formal recommendations.

Later, during the board’s Finance & Operations Committee meeting, Juanita Mazyck, the school’s budget director, said that the district had already put together $13.5 million by maximizing grant funding, $3.6 million by lobbying for more state funding, $2.3 million by reviewing transportation routes, and $1 million by ending leases.

She added that the district is taking another look at how to ​“right-size” its staffing model and review its contracts. Superintendent Birks had previously said those line items could make up $14.1 million in savings, but she said both of those proposals are now ​“under review.”