Aliyya Swaby Photo
Carlos Torre cast one vote in favor of a budget, then abstained from another — because he was stepping into a new role.
Torre (pictured) voted recently in favor of the New Haven public schools’ proposed new $425 million all-funds budget. Torre is the board’s president.
Then last Thursday night he attended his first meeting as a member of the Achievement First Elm City College Preparatory charter school board of directors, Torre said he didn’t “know enough to contribute to the decisions” on whether to approve the financial report or $10.8 million budget for two schools for the upcoming fiscal year.
“It wouldn’t be a just thing for me to do,” he told the Independent.
But he did vote “aye” to allow ConnCAT Director of Programs Genevive Walker (pictured) a spot on the board and to approve renewing terms for five returning board members.
“It’s the collegial thing to do,” he said. “I just joined this board. The members are my colleagues.”
State statute requires a Board of Ed rep on charter boards, a position Mayor Toni Harp has filled until recently. Torre will sit on AF’s Elm City board , which oversees two Elm City College Prep schools in New Haven. Last week’s meeting took place at the elementary school, on James Street.
AF has a second charter, with a second board. Board of Ed member Daisy Gonzalez will sit on that board, which oversees three Amistad schools. (The two boards meet at the same time every two months.) Gonzalez was not present Wednesday but will attend the next meeting.
Torre previously played a leading role in killing a proposal that the district and AF become financial partners on a new experimental charter school called Elm City Imagine, a “school of the future.”
AF had planned to open Imagine in the fall as a K‑1 school and eventually expand to fourth grade. Saying it could not otherwise raise enough money privately to launch the school, AF negotiated a partnership with Superintendent Garth Harries in which the district would provide $700 in cash and in-kind services per student for a school that AF would run and staff. The school would run with the “Greenfield” educational model, which included an extended school year with a calendar alternating eight weeks of regular classes with two weeks of career “expeditions”; longer school days with staggered teacher schedules; and small-group instruction that stresses technology use. (Click here to read about the way that unfolded this winter.)
Elm City Imagine is tabled for now, but AF still plans to go forward with the Greenfield model in the kindergarten at Elm City College Prep Elementary School and in the fifth and sixth grades at a separate building at 495 Blake St.
At Wednesday’s meeting AF Chief Financial Officer Max Polaner walked the Elm City board through the proposed budgets for next fiscal year, which will increase significantly because of the Greenfield plans.
“Prior to philanthropy, inter-charter transfers, or use of board reserves,” the elementary school will see a deficit of $650,000 instead of last year’s deficit of $428,205, according to the budget overview.
Elm City Middle School currently has a deficit of $1,012,525. Next year, the school will be split into two, with fifth and sixth-graders moving to Blake Street and seventh and eighth graders staying at the current Dixwell building. Elm City Blake will see a $2,025,000 deficit, and the other grades will see a $825,000 deficit.
The increase in the deficit is due to “accompanying operational costs driven by two facilities, two leadership teams and programmatic elements of Greenfield,” the report said.
AF spokesperson Lenny Speiller sent the Independent a breakdown of the 2015 – 16 budgets approved by Amistad and Elm City College Prep boards last week. The $10.8 million schools budget for Elm City College Prep schools breaks down into $4.5 million for Elm City College Prep Elementary and $6.3 million for Elm City College Prep Middle School — including both the Dixwell Avenue and Blake Street buildings.
The Amistad board approved $5.9 million for Amistad Elementary School, $5.7 million for Amistad Middle School and $8.1 million for Amistad High School.
Board member William Heins, who phoned into the Elm City board meeting, asked whether Polaner had a “per pupil breakdown of the what the budget looks like,” in order to be able to compare spending to New Haven Public Schools’ spending.
“Our mantra has always been that we will not exceed what our host district does,” said Ken Paul, AF vice president of development. He said he did not know whether “there’s an apples to apples comparison” with the district, given the fact that the Greenfield model requires a significant initial investment.
Heins and Paul turned to the board’s representative from the district and asked him to weigh in.
“Elm City Imagine would have been spending a couple of thousand more than we are,” he said. The district spends an average of $11,000 per pupil at its schools. “I don’t think we get to $12,000,” he said. He promised to get the board “exact numbers” at or before the next AF board meeting.
When including facilities, transportation and other services, that average per pupil spending reaches about $14,000, Polaner added. He said there is a small difference between what AF and the district spends per pupil. AF spends a bit less than $14,000 per pupil this year, before Greenfield.
Board members voted to approve the financial report and the budget.