The school district has spent $2.3 million more than planned on salaries to date this summer — leaving it far from its target for hiring savings.
That cost reflects a large amount being spent on newly created positions and not enough being saved by cutting unneeded positions.
The academic year just started on July 1. But the first months are the peak hiring time.
Donna Aiello, human resources director, and Victor De La Paz, the district’s chief financial officer, explained the hiring breakdown and fielded questions from members of the Board of Education’s Operations and Finance Committee at 54 Meadow St. Tuesday afternoon. They said they will keep working to cover that difference through grants and future strategic hiring decisions.
“We still have an uphill battle,” De La Paz said. This is the first time the district has provided a detailed breakdown of its summer hiring, following a call for transparency from Board of Ed members.
Click here to access the report.
During budget discussions this spring, De La Paz said the district could save $1.5 million through “natural attrition,” or not rehiring people in positions deemed no longer necessary to schools.
Aliyya Swaby File Photo
At those early meetings, board members asked district leaders what their strategy would be for making those cuts. De La Paz (pictured) had said the district was in the process of developing a “staffing model” to allow for more informed decisions on hiring or “non-rehiring” using data from individual schools.
Superintendent Garth Harries said that model is still in the works. In the meantime, district leaders are working with school officials “position by position” to determine how to spread out hiring or not rehiring equitably.
Harries said he is not worried about balancing the budget. New Haven will receive additional revenue from grants from sources such as the state’s Alliance District Network.
“We knew from the start that the budget was going to adjust based on reality,” he said.
Between June 1 and Sept. 4, the district has filled 261 existing positions and 67 brand-new positions in its schools. Nine positions were permanently cut — making a net total of 319 hires.
Of the 328 total filled positions, 191 are teachers. A majority — 22 — are science teachers, 17 are math teachers, 12 are third-grade teachers, and 11 are English teachers. The highest number of teaching positions, 13, were filled at Wilbur Cross High School, at a cost of $726,910 in salaries.
Job postings are up for 59 vacancies at magnet and neighborhood schools, as well as preK and adult education programs, across the city. An estimated $1,840,553 will be spent on those salaries.
“Are those vacancies going to be filled?” the committee’s chair, Daisy Gonzalez, asked at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.
“That’s the goal,” De La Paz said. The positions will be filled unless funding falls through or candidates cannot be found, he said.
Between Aug. 13 and Sept. 4, district leaders also decided to rehire four people previously on the “nonrehire” list — meaning $411,820 they were going to save, but ultimately did not.
Harries said three of those positions were saved because school administrators argued to have them back. The fourth position expected to be removed in late August was in central office — ultimately, Harries decided to hire another director of instruction instead.
Harries stressed that the number of positions in central office have not increased, but rather been rearranged.
The district has spent $223,315 less than last year hiring people to fill 35 existing positions in magnet schools. Likely, De La Paz said, that dip in spending comes from “hiring more junior people” to fill outgoing experienced teachers’ positions.
The funding gap for magnet schools can be covered by a $36 million state grant, allocated on a per-pupil basis. The more students enroll in magnet schools as of Oct. 1, the more money the state gives the district to run those schools.
Right now, New Haven is on track to get a bit more money from the state through magnet enrollment than it did last year, De La Paz said.