nothin ESUMS Crew: Cuts Don’t Compute | New Haven Independent

ESUMS Crew: Cuts Don’t Compute

Aliyya Swaby Photo

Kelly & Levy: Why mess with success?

Parents from high-performing Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) are asking why the Board of Ed plans to reduce its funding next year while boosting support for other schools.

Jill Kelly, June Levy and other ESUMS parents and family members argued in an interview before a crucial public hearing that the reduction will only increase inequity among New Haven Public Schools, even after an outside study advised the district to allocate resources more logically among schools.

District officials said the 17 magnet schools, such as ESUMS, can receive more state money by maximizing their enrollment before Oct. 1 — putting an additional $1.6 million in play. Last year, they said, enrollment in magnet schools fell short by almost 200 seats, leaving a gap between projected and actual state funding.

They presented a budget proposal to the Board of Alders’ Finance Committee Wednesday cutting per-pupil magnet school funding while increasing the discretionary funds of neighborhood schools. Click here for a direct link to the budget book.

Alders Wednesday nights questioned the mechanism of ensuring magnet schools are filled before Oct. 1, and urged the district to better manage the long waitlist so seats don’t remain empty throughout the year.

The schools’ proposed $425 million budget includes in-kind contributions and a $3.3 million local funding boost from the city.

Superintendent Garth Harries and Chief Financial Officer Victor De La Paz took alders through this presentation, discussed at the Board of Ed Monday night just before ed board members voted to approve the budget.

The district has budgeted for a $36 million state grant to operate its magnet schools, allocated on a per-pupil basis. The more students enroll in magnet schools, the more money the district gets to run those schools, De La Paz said.

The full budget book proposal shows ESUMS is set to receive $7,395 for each of an estimated 571 students next year, a decrease from $7,506 for 487 students this year.

NHPS FY 16 Budget Book Draft

An earlier page in the same proposal shows that ESUMS is the lowest funded high school in the district, receiving weighted resources per pupil below the median amount. Co-op High School, toward the median in the above chart, is set to receive a per pupil increase for next fiscal year — from $9,356 for 636 students to $9,977 for an estimated 614 students.

They’re taking things away from our kids, who are doing great,” said Elinor Slomba, parent of an ESUMS freshman.

The school’s students test well above the district average on the SATs and other college readiness tests. They ranked number 1 for SAT scores this year, with average critical reading, writing and math scores up to 100 points above the district average.

In 2013, ESUMS led the district in the number of kids who scored proficient” in reading on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. That year, they scored just behind Sound School — the city’s top-performing school — in math.

We blow the district away with our test scores,” Kelly said.

Meanwhile, Levy said, school electives are being cut and they’re having a hard time finding full-time engineering teachers. The district makes funding decisions too late for schools to hire top teachers early in the year, Kelly said. Suburban schools are hiring now…it’s not a sustainable model for hiring,” she said.

New Haven parent Harold Houston said the Board of Ed spends more money where there are students with problems,” instead of equitably distributing resources on the basis of numbers. Classrooms are not a breeding ground for taking care of what parents should take care of at home. It takes away from the rest of the group that want to learn,” he said.

They neglected us because we’re too good. This school district is mediocre. They don’t want any school to be better than any other,” Levy said.

Funding should be more intentional, Kelly said. The district promised to make equity a key focus of the budget decisions this year and to make purposeful decisions on how to allocate resources.

De La Paz told the Independent that ESUMS is different from other magnet schools because it starts at sixth grade instead of ninth grade. Almost half of its enrollment is between grades 6 – 8, making it a hybrid school — a factor not incorporated in the graph of weighted per pupil funds.

He said the estimated per pupil funding for next year was not weighted, meaning it did not take into account the extra funding allocated to students with special needs or those who are English language learners. ESUMS has a lower population of those students than a school like Co-op.

And ESUMS could end up with more state money because it plans to enroll 616 students next year, not 571 as reported in the budget book, he said. It is one of few schools that has that growth opportunity,” De La Paz said.

Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison asked district representatives at Wednesday’s meeting why almost 200 seats in magnet schools were empty this year. People in New Haven fight to get into these schools. I don’t understand,” she said.

De La Paz explained that the state will not give money for magnet school students who matriculate after Oct. 1. The wait list this year was not managed well, leaving 193 seats unfilled after Oct. 1.

Between mid-April and October, the district should be able to get students into magnet schools, Morrison said. There’s no way I could believe that the mismanagement was that crazy,” she said. Families know there is a risk they will be called Sept. 25 and have to make a decision.”

Harries said that the district is working on managing the wait list better. If students don’t show up to their magnet school placements on the first day of school, administrators have to call students on the wait list who have already started somewhere else. Getting kids during the month of September is the biggest challenge,” he said.

This year, the district is working on making sure magnet schools understand there is a financial incentive” to maximizing enrollment, De La Paz said.

Ultimately, the district is responsible for maximizing enrollment, not individual schools, said East Rock Alder Jessica Holmes.

Ideally, both schools and the central office are working together,” Harries responded.

Morrison also urged the district to better manage transience by making some of those 200 magnet school seats available for students who enter the school system after Oct. 1. There are 200 seats sitting there. Do you strategically say, We’re going to leave three or four seats there so the love can be spread?’ All the [transient] kids don’t need to come to” neighborhood schools like Wexler-Grant School, she said.

The district is planning to find savings of about $4.2 million, in large part by allowing the natural attrition” of specific staff members, by not rehiring people in positions deemed no longer necessary to schools. Board members have questioned how that plan will work and whether it will be successful.

Alders Wednesday continued that line of questioning, asking whether the district has considered other ways to cut costs that will not harm students.

Cutting 30 teaching positions would get the district to $1.5 million in savings, Harries said. The reality is that we can’t be all things to all people.”

East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked school officials to consider cutting district administrators so we can keep teachers making a difference in our children’s lives.”

Harries said that cuts have been made in the central office, and that New Haven has a relatively small central office compared to peer districts.

Annex Alder Al Paolillo Jr. asked the district to create a more detailed presentation of administrators, teachers and staff working in the central office and in each school, so the public can see the baseline” as the budget process goes forward. We can never really see where vacancies exist in your system. You have to also have a running tally,” he said.

Harries said the district is working on creating that kind of system.

Alders also grilled district representatives Wednesday night on plans to build a new $45 million preK‑4 school on Southern Connecticut State University’s campus. Read more about that in this article by the Register’s Evan Lips.

Click here to read the district’s letter to the Board of Alders requesting funding for the Strong School project.

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