WESTFIELD – School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion said last night she is preparing contingency plans to bridge a budget shortfall of between $535,000 and $1 million as the School Committee’s Finance Subcommittee went through the proposed 2014 fiscal year budget page by page, and even occasionally line by line in some areas.
Scallion’s statement came as a response to the question from School Committee member Kevin Sullivan who had asked how the superintendent planned to bridge a $535,573 budget gap between her basic needs budget of $56,045,432 and the $55,509,859 school budget that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik will submit as part of the city budget to the City Council on May 16.
The biggest question in both of those budgets will be the level of state aid for education under Chapter 70 and for unrestricted state aid to communities. Knapik said that he used the Chapter 70 funding number contained in Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget proposal, but that number will change several times before the start of the 2014 fiscal year on July 1, 2013.
The House of Representatives released its proposed budget early Tuesday, then promptly changed it. The State Senate will release its own budget in late May, then both budgets will be reconciled by a joint House/Senate committee and sent to Patrick, when additional modifications could be made, for Patrick’s signature.
The Finance Subcommittee voted to bring the proposed budget out next Monday for a vote by the entire School Committee, although six of the seven members were present Tuesday night for the page-by-page budget review.
Scallion said she and her financial team are preparing contingency plans for several budget cuts.
“We will have contingency plans for cuts up to $1 million,” Scallion said. “But with 83 percent of the budget in personnel, it will be staff.”
“We’re hoping for good news from the state and we’re sweeping the current budget for money that is not encumbered that we can use to prepay (special education out of district) tuition,” Scallion said.
The district is also trying to determine who will retire this year and which staff members are not returning next year as part of that contingency planning process. Senior staff leaving through retirement, or through leave, or transferring to another district, are typically replaced with new hires at a much lower compensation rate.
“We’ll look at every one of those positions if it is a ‘must-replace’ position or one that can be left vacant or one that can be combined with another position,” Scallion said.
The district is also looking at teacher-student ratio, which currently average one teacher per 22 students. Scallion said that her ultimate goal is a 1-18 teacher-student ratio, but that the district may have to consider a higher ratio to deal with the present budget constraints.
Scallion declined to speculate on the number of staff layoffs that would be needed as part of the contingency plans.
“This is people’s life we’re dealing with,” Scallion said. “I don’t want to create panic. We will follow all of our contractual obligations (for layoff notices).”
Finance Committee Chairwoman Cindy Sullivan said the the district “is in a much better place than a lot of other districts in the region.”
Sullivan said that the proposed budget does not include $4.5 million requested by principals for additional educational programs, technology and staffing, in response to a request issued to the principals by Scallion.
“We clearly have our work a head of us to address these needs, Scallion said, “We can’t cover all of those needs in one year, but if we could cover 25 percent a year we will do it incrementally.”
Scallion will also request the School Committee to approve the use of $800,000 in School Choice and $1,141,717 in state special education ‘circuit breaker’ funding to balance the district’s operating budget.
The state pays “circuit breaker” money to the city for special education programs that exceed four-times the cost of educational funding for an average students. Some special education programs far exceed that average student spending. The state circuit breaker funding trips when special education plans exceed $39,000 for an individual student.
Scallion said the district has instituted a autism program at Juniper Park Elementary School that benefits students by keeping them with their peers and avoids $180,000 for out-of-district tuition. The program currently has 14 to 15 students enrolled.
Cindy Sullivan asked if the autism program “have the potential to bring in kids from other districts.”
“I do see this growing incrementally as a school choice option, but we need building space that we plan to address with the new school (proposed for Cross Street),” Scallion said.
Kevin Sullivan asked if the district would receive only school choice payments, about $5,000 for elementary school students and and $6,000 for secondary school students.
Chief Financial Officer John Kane said other districts hosting special needs students accepted in the city’s autism program a tuition “based on our actual cost” even if the program was open to the school choice process.
