Maya McFadden File Photo
Superintendent Madeline Negrón: “There is no simple solution."
Cost cutting options, including $6M in staff.
Sixty-one public school jobs could soon be on the chopping block, as the superintendent laid the groundwork for layoffs to possibly come to help close a nearly $12 million budget gap.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Superintendent Madeline Negrón and Chief Finance Officer Linda Hannans presented that budget-mitigation update Monday afternoon during the latest Zoomed meeting of the Board of Education Finance & Operations Committee.
That presentation came after the Board of Alders approved increasing the Board of Education’s budget by $5 million — which was $12 million less than the superintendent said the district needs to “keep the lights on.”
“We’re up for some challenging times,” Negrón said during Monday’s committee meeting.
“There is no simple solution” to closing this budget gap, she continued. “The way we are funded, we pay significantly less per pupil than others do across the state and at the same time we have a large number of needs that we are trying to meet in terms of our student population.”
Negrón made clear on Monday that the district is still putting together its budget mitigation plans. That said, those plans will likely include consolidating services, evaluating and closely managing schools’ custodial and food service staffing plans, and cutting transportation routes. For the past six months Negrón has been “right-sizing” staffing at al schools to fill vacancies.
Click here to view the full presentation.
Hannans broke down several reductions that the district is considering to reach a total of $11,812,334 in savings for next school year.
The biggest savings would come from what the superintendent described as cutting 61 staffing positions. Those layoffs would result in $6.4 million in savings.
When asked if classroom-facing positions like teachers and paras will be considered for cuts, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon said all positions will be looked at.
Harmon wrote that 61 is “an estimate of the number of positions we would need to cut; it is not yet a ‘plan.’ We will seek to make any cuts so they do not affect classrooms, but we cannot say with certainty that there will be no losses of teaching or paraprofessional positions.”
Negrón and Hannans said on Monday that the 61 positions to be cut likely won’t be vacancies; rather, the district’s current vacancies should be filled through NHPS’s ongoing “right-sizing” efforts.
Harmon said the district expects to have a plan for “any reductions in force before the start of the new school year.”
Hannans said the district could possibly save another $2 million by applying for new grants and restructuring current grants when possible; $600,000 by “reducing operations;” another $500,000 in non-instructional cuts; $1 million in bus route cuts; and $1.1 million in reducing contractual services.
“All of these numbers are subject to change keeping in mind that we’re looking for the $11 million decrease,” Hannans concluded. “Everything is on the table. We’re right-sizing the district.”
Committee Chair Matt Wilcox asked if the goal with the 61 cuts will be “through attrition and not through layoffs?”
“We have looked for months to try to avoid that,” Negrón responded. “This could be up to a good 60 people or so positions that we would have to identify ranging from all different categories.”
She said she’s trying her hardest to avoid touching the school’s classroom-facing positions.
“Right now we’re looking at all the other positions that are not necessarily classroom facing [but] that are still in the schools. We’re looking also at positions that are itinerant,” Negrón said. “Somewhere in the total of all of that, as you see I need to find at least $6.5 million to cover that. But I do fear that it has come to this. I was hoping that we would get a little more.”
Negrón concluded with the repeated message that the district is not properly funded through the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) and that more focused pushes will have to happen to get the state to increase its funding.
An updated plan will be presented at the upcoming June 10 Board of Education meeting.
Watch the full meeting above.