Courtney Luciana Photo
Supt. Tracey: Pressure’s on, even amid flow of money.
One big challenge: Competing with higher-paying districts to recruit teachers.
Another big challenge: The shortage of school bus drivers.
Another challenge: Finding qualified people to staff the after-school programs funded by American Rescue Plan dollars.
Another challenge: Mental health challenges complicating kids’ efforts to catch up with learning time lost through Covid-caused remote learning.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Iline Tracey laid out those challenges she’s facing in a community update she offered Wednesday night to the Hill South Community Management Team.
Tracey began her update with a sigh.
“I consider myself a Covid superintendent,” she said.
Twenty-five people attended the Zoom-facilitated meeting and offered Tracey a warm reception.
Tracey’s update follows a pattern from recent years when she, along with her financial team, have gone on the road to management teams to dispel notions that the Board of Ed is flush with money.
Last year, the Board of Ed’s budget request for a $9 million increase resulted in less from the cash-strapped city, but gaps in the $198 million dollar budget were offset by Covid 19-sourced stimulus funding. Read about that here.
Wednesday night, without a budget yet in hand, Tracey discussed the general landscape of an influx of Covid-related catch-up funds. She noted that many have restricted uses (meaning they can’t just plug budget holes), While the BOE is moving stalwartly ahead, with a on-time nine-figure cash infusion from federal pandemic-relief aid, it yet again will be challenged to have sufficient money in the general fund, she said.
She said the millions of federal Covid relief funds available to the schools plus the increase in state Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program dollars to the city might lead you to believe there is a flush municipal and Board of Ed treasury. That, she said, would be a false impression.
Here’s how she put it:
“We’re entering into the budget season, and we do receive a lot of funding. For the first time in a long time we are receiving millions of new dollars from federal and state. But all have stipulations in how we spend them. We’ll be audited for every penny we spend. Our challenge still remains our general fund. If we still have a deficit and we can’t use all that money, I’m hoping with the PILOT funding we will be able to close the budget gap.”
“We are fiscally responsible and eyeing every dollar that goes out,” she added.
Tracey said the current budget plan has called for the Board to hire 87 new teachers to reduce class size, and to facilitate accelerated learning, especially for students who have lost up to two years without in-person learning.
That goal of reducing class size has been achieved, she added, in “grades one, two, and three because those are foundational years.”
To get teachers in the classroom, the Board of Ed has also been working on creative arrangements to have Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University education students fill spots in the New Haven Public Schools while continuing to work on their degrees.
“We’re watching now to see how many teachers are at the cusp of retirement, like a year away or on the brink, because we are going to have to work with the state to do a lot of heavy recruiting,” Tracey added.
She said she recently attended a statewide superintendents’ meeting at which a “challenge of incentives” was discussed, with the goal of not having districts raid and poach each other’s staffs.
“If another district pays $20,000 more, well, we can’t blame staff for that,” Tracey said.
She said the shortage of bus drivers and especially after-school staff might have to do with wages as well.
Hill neighbor Thomasina Shaw pointed out that “so many people are quitting their jobs, a big problem throughout the U.S. What happens if this is a condition that will continue, if people don’t want to work any more? I think you need to take that into consideration to see what has to change.”
“I hope it won’t be permanent,” replied Tracey. “We’re working with the state desperately, they’ve relaxed some of their certification requirements.”
Tracey said she also had good news to report: “We’ve put $50 million in accelerated learning and bringing kids back to where they should be” post-Covid. Second-graders are learning phonics, for instance.