NHPS Issues $5M ​“Turn On Lights” Plea

Teacher salaries. Student transportation. Building maintenance. Special education. 

All of those costs are on the rise — and New Haven’s public schools need at least $5 million more to close the gap. 

New Haven Public Schools Supt. Iline Tracey issued that fiscal warning — and plea — Thursday night during the latest Board of Alders Finance Committee meeting. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

Tracey and a handful of top NHPS administrators spoke up towards the end of the committee’s workshop on the Board of Education’s budget, which in turn was part of the alders’ broader, months-long review of Mayor Justin Elicker’s proposed $633 million general fund budget for Fiscal Year 2022 – 23 (FY23). If approved by the full Board of Alders, that budget would go into effect on July 1.

The mayor has proposed increasing the city general fund’s contribution to the NHPS budget by $5,045,087, from $190,718,697 to $195,763,784.

At the hearing this past Thursday night, Tracey and NHPS Chief Financial Officer Linda Hannans described that proposed $5 million hike as essential for keeping the school system’s lights on. They also confessed that it’s still less than the full $9.3 million bump NHPS really needs in order to balance its books. 

“This reflects a status quo budget,” Hannans said. 

Tracey agreed. ​“It is a bare-bones, turn-on-the-lights type of budget right now,” she said.

Even a granting of the NHPS’s $9.3 million general fund-increase request would not see a change in programming, Hannans added. 

One of the slides in her and Tracey’s printed-out presentation underscored that very point. ​“Multiple years of underfunding,” the slide read, ​“has resulted in funding not being allocated to address needs.”

What are the key cost drivers that the mayor’s $5 million proposed increase would help cover?

“All salaries are going up,” Tracey said.

That includes contractually mandated raises of 3.5 percent for teachers, 2.5 percent for administrators, and 2.4 percent for paraprofessionals. Making good on the contractually mandated teacher raises is all the more important this year, Tracey said, because of the salary freeze that the teachers union accepted early on in the pandemic.

Plus, Tracey added, the city school system is having enough trouble as it is recruiting and retaining teachers, who are increasingly being poached by other districts that pay more. ​“There’s a poaching game going on right now.”

What other costs are on the rise?

“We’re seeing an increase in transportation costs,” Tracey continued, with the mayor’s proposed budget showing a transportation-cost bump of over $2.5 million.

“We’re seeing an increase in facilities maintenance costs,” she added.

“If we don’t recent the $5 million we’re asking for, that’s going to impact those. … Notihng gets superintendents in trouble like not closing their deficits,” Tracey said. ​“What’s going to happen to us? Our students have suffered a lot. Now is not the time to talk about deep cuts in our budget.”

Instead, Tracey offered, now is the time to talk about how to get more staff to ​“help students who are struggling so much, not only academically, but also socially, emotionally.”

And what would it mean if the city’s increase to the Board of Education budget was less than the mayor’s requested $5 million? Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter asked. 

“We wouldn’t be able to pay our teachers’ ” mandated salary increases, Tracey said. That would be a ​“violation of the contract.”

The school system would also not have enough money for student transportation. ​“Then what happens?” she asked. ​“You don’t have transportation running for kids? You can’t have that.”

Time and again Thursday night, Tracey and Hannans spoke about how the schools system has been ​“flat-funded” by the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant for years, thereby requiring New Haven’s local tax dollars to bear the brunt of higher and higher operational costs.

They also spoke about how the school system’s glut of pandemic-era federal grant dollars does not necessarily alleviate the fiscal crunch for NHPS’s general funds. That’s because those grants, like many others, impose pretty strict rules on how money can be spent. They’re also time-limited, meaning that any new programs or staff those grants to fund would either have to sunset or be moved to the general fund budget when the grants expire.

“What I find is that we are so far behind the eight-ball in getting the funds that we need for the department of education,” Hannans said. ​“We can’t do anything else. There are no programs added because there are no funds.”

Dixwell Jeanette Morrison ticked through the different cost drivers for the school system’s budget as she sought to understand where the $5 million increase would go.

The mental health service needs for students is on the rise during the pandemic, she said. So are the needs — and costs — of providing special education and ​“therapeutic school placements.” On top of all that, the costs of transportation are going up.

“And none of that is going away,” she said. ​“So, the $5 million that you’re asking for, is that just $5 million to put in the general fund to fill some of those holes that reflect some of these things?”

“You’re correct,” Tracey replied. ​“To fill some of the gaps that we have.” And, even with a $5 million bump, ​“we’re still staring down the barrel of that $4.3 million” more.

“We can’t just keep running on grants,” Tracey continued. ​“These are temporary fixes. We don’t want to get to a cliff” with the school system’s grants and then, when that money goes away, NHPS finds itself in an even bigger hole.

More School Closures? Not Anytime Soon

Hannans and Tracey also pointed out that NHPS’s student enrollment has declined significantly over the years, from a recent high of 21,981 in 2016 to 20,676 in 2019, to 20,051 in 2020, to 19,293 in 2021.

Do you foresee closing or combining any schools over the next five years? Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers asked.

“We would have a challenge with that,” Tracey replied.

That’s because ​“we have neighborhood schools that have historically been there. If we try to close it, you have a fight on your hands, because they have neighborhood significance.”

That means that, even though some schools do have declining enrollments, they likely won’t close anytime soon.

“Am I going to close Wexler Grant” and combine it with Lincoln-Bassett? she asked. Two schools that have deep roots in the Dixwell and Newhallville communities? ​“I don’t think we can get away with that,” she said.

She added that high school student numbers, particularly at Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse, are increasing.

“I don’t see foreclosures or combinations of schools,” she repeated. ​“We have closed a lot of schools” over the years.

Asst. Supt. Keisha Redd-Hannans added that urban school districts across the state, including New Haven’s, are currently working with state legislators to try to pass House Bill 5283, which, she said, would accelerate the distribution of guaranteed future ECS funds.

“All this bill is doing is accelerating funding for districts,” she said, meaning that the increased state money that school systems like New Haven’s are currently scheduled to receive in 2028 would instead come in 2025.

“Call your friends,” Redd-Hannans urged the local legislators. ​“Say: ​‘HB 5283, we really need it to pass.’ ”