Aliyya Swaby Photo
De La Paz.
District officials are looking for a new “million-dollar” cost-saving idea to prepare for state budget cuts — and think they may have found one in charging suburban school districts that send students to attend New Haven magnet schools.
District Chief Financial Officer Victor De La Paz plans to explain the plan in detail for the first time to Board of Education members at this Monday night’s Finance and Operations meeting.
He initially presented this idea at last week’s Board of Education meeting at L.W. Beecher School, as part of a plan to raise $1.5 million in revenue for the district, in addition to making about $4 million in reductions on existing costs, in the upcoming fiscal year budget that takes effect July 1. (Click here to read the budget presentation.)
A Budget Challenge
The district will see $6.4 million in contractual increases next fiscal year, including about $3.6 million in teacher salary increases, $905,000 in other staff salary increases, $507,000 in tuition costs for New Haven students attending schools in suburban districts, $590,000 in transportation increases, $275,000 in utilities increases and about $550,000 in other increases.
Additionally, De La Paz included about $4.1 million in priority investments in the chart, which he plans to explain at Monday’s 4 p.m. Finance and Operations meeting at 54 Meadow St. District officials are debating whether to pursue a new controversial “equity model” for funding individual schools, which might need at least $1 million in upfront investments to ensure no school is harmed by the transition.
In addition to a $5 million increase in city funding requested by Mayor Toni Harp, De La Paz originally included $4 million in potential cost reductions:
• Changes in transportation that would push some schools’ start times 20 minutes later in order to reuse early-morning buses instead of chartering a new set—a proposal that already has vocal critics. This would cut about $1.6 million.
• Ending a lease for New Haven Academy at St. Stanislaus Church on Eld Street as the school moves to its newly constructed building on Orange Street Sept. 1. Ending two leases for Head Start centers Helene Grant on Ella T. Grasso Blvd and Early Childhood Learning Center on Blake Street, as they are consolidated into the new Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School. This would cut about $943,000.
• Cutting central office budgets by about $522,000.
• Reducing a food service subsidy from $1.4 million to $1 million, as the district ends its second full year of universal lunch and reimbursements are improving.
Enter Magnet School Idea
NHPS
Reductions and revenue proposal.
Given the vocal critics of the transportation plan, De La Paz said, “we need another million dollar idea.” During last year’s budget season, De La Paz had proposed saving money by not rehiring people in positions deemed no longer important to schools. Most of the savings didn’t come from not rehiring, but rather from trading in higher salaries for lower ones. For example, a math teacher receiving an $80,000 would be replaced by a less experienced teacher, who would earn about $60,000.
He said officials could also consider incorporating this method into the current budget.
In addition to the $4 million in total reductions, De La Paz proposed asking other districts to pay tuition for suburban students attending New Haven’s interdistrict magnet schools at a rate of $750 per student next year, then double to $1,500 per student the year after and triple to $2,250 after three years. The tuition would bring in about $1.5 million next fiscal year, he said.
New Haven would not be the first district in the state to charge other district for magnet tuition, he said. And it’s legal. He suggested officials “put it in front of school districts and see what the reaction is.”
Parent and Ross-Woodward magnet resource teacher Ashley Stockton said during a public comment at Monday night’s meeting that she worries charging tuition would damage existing relationships with surrounding suburban districts.
“What’s to say the district isn’t going to say, ‘We don’t want to participate with open choice’?” she asked. “We’ve never done it before.” Open choice allows students from specific suburban districts to attend public school in New Haven and vice versa.
De La Paz said asking districts to pay $2,250 for the cost of education each child is “very reasonable.” He said New Haven might not have a choice but to request tuition, since the state likely will not be increasing the per pupil funding for the upcoming fiscal year.