nothin Schools Chief Confronts Surprise Budget Hole | New Haven Independent

Schools Chief Confronts Surprise Budget Hole

Melissa Bailey Photo

Harries (right) and Johnston.

Just days after taking his new post, Superintendent Garth Harries learned some unwelcome news: The school district has a $3.5 million budget shortfall that needs to be fixed, pronto.

Harries said he learned that news shortly after he was promoted from assistant superintendent on July 25.

On Monday, Harries made a debut appearance as superintendent at his first school board meeting in his new role. He found himself confronting bad budget news — as well as pledging more transparency” in the school system to avoid a repeat scenario. The meeting took place in a new venue, in the library of Hill Regional Career High School on South Frontage Road. It involved more public input than usual, giving a glimpse into a new style of leadership at the Board of Ed.

Harries owned the bad budget news by announcing it himself to the public instead of relying on his budget chief, Chief Operating Officer Will Clark, to do so.

Harries announced that for the second year in a row, the school district ended the fiscal year $3.5 million in the hole.

We are working quickly to develop a plan,” Harries assured the 40-odd members of the public and school staff gathered Monday night. He said he aims to make some cuts before kids go back to school Aug. 28.

Harries noted that the school board knowingly started out the 2012 – 13 budget year $12 million in the hole. The district achieved $8.5 million in savings, but failed to find the other $3.5 million.

The overrun stemmed from a combination of factors: Salaries exceeded budget by $3.2 million. Transportation costs ran over by $1.7 million. And the food service budget ran up $2.8 million in expenses beyond its $10.2 million in revenue.

Nearly $3 million in cost savings in plant operation budget, and $2.2 million in savings in unspecified other” areas helped balance the books — but not enough. The $174.2 million school district general fund” budget, which is paid for by city and state tax dollars, hit a cost overrun of $708,654. That meant there was not enough money in the fund to bail out the food services budget, as budget planners had hoped.

The latest overrun corresponds to the budget that ended June 30, 2013. The city will bail out the schools from that deficit from last fiscal year, Harries said. His bigger concern is that there appears to be a structural deficit,” creating a recurring hole — and one that should be addressed at least partially before school starts Aug. 28.

If we do nothing, we know we’ll have a $3.5 million gap again” a year from now, Harries later explained. He said the school district needs to make wise decisions quickly” on what to cut, because once school starts, it’s harder to make changes to a budget. He said it remains to be seen whether the district will have to lay people off.

This was a late and unwelcome development that is a problem for the city and the Board of Education,” said Mayor John DeStefano, who sits on the school board. He suggested it reflects poorly on the school system’s internal financial tracking that the problem was not flagged until late July, weeks after the fiscal year ended.

We’ll be looking at the district’s internal financial reporting systems,” Harries pledged. He said he would follow Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s words of wisdom to never let a crisis go to waste.”

Harries quickly clarified that the school district is not in crisis.” He said he had already sought to strengthen the school district’s financial systems, and to make them more transparent. That work will now just accelerate, he said.

Cuts On The Way

The development has sent Harries and his top staff scrambling to make cuts before school starts. Harries said he has not made cuts so far.

To start, he said, budgeters are looking to make sure all full-time and part-time staff are fully utilized” before hiring more staff. For example, he said, some teachers may have light courseloads in under-enrolled schools. Those teachers could be shifted to schools with vacancies, or their courseloads could be changed, so that the schools don’t have to hire more staff.

In light of the deficit, the school board made no new hires on Monday. That’s contrary to normal practice in August, when the school district usually hires lots of new staff, Harries noted.

He said there is no hiring freeze” in New Haven, just a temporary pause. We’re taking a breath,” he said.

Teachers Union President Dave Cicarella urged the school district staff to avoid the bean-counter mentality” in making the cuts. He urged against deciding to ram five more kids into a classroom” just to achieve maximum class size for budgetary reasons.

The budget news met dismay from the school board.

What concerns me most is about communication,” said board member Che Dawson. For this to come up, and to address this in early August” is too late.

Harries later explained that budget staff had known there were various shortfalls, but had not tallied up all the pieces” before mid-July. Budget staff learned of the deficit in the days before the public interview on July 20, and briefed him on it after his appointment, he said.

School board member Alex Johnston renewed a call to change the budgeting process.

We passed a budget that we knew going in” was 12 million dollars behind,” he said. We can’t do that moving forward.”

School district staff had called the $12 million hole a budget initiative.” Using that euphemism takes out of the public view the management decisions” that occur throughout the year to fill that hole, after the budget is passed, Johnston argued. He called for an end to the practice.

Harries pledged to improve transparency in the long-term. He said in the short-term — the next few weeks before school starts — the school district needs to take targeted and discrete actions” to cut costs.

Johnston noted that last-minute cost-cutting, such as scaling back paraprofessional positions, has caused an uproar in the past. He said the school board needs time to communicate with those affected in whatever way we can.”

The school board plans to hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13 to approve more staffing hires. The location is yet to be determined.

Transparency”

Harries aimed to set a new tone for his tenure through Monday’s meeting. His first step, in conjunction with the school board, was to move the meeting to a location that’s easier to reach. The school board headquarters at 54 Meadow St., where the meetings usually take place, has very little parking. Career High has lots.

The room had a different vibe, too: The school library had brighter lighting. And the board members were close to the audience — not far away on a stage — so the audience could actually hear.

The meeting was also televised, thanks to Citizens TV.

The board recognized Jake Colavolpe (pictured), a Sound School senior who just got named to the state Board of Education. Colavolpe responded by challenging the board to start including students among its members.

Harries said that’s just the point he was trying to make by highlighting Colavolpe: Students will be included on the board under his tenure, even ahead of a proposed charter revision that may have the same effect.

Board President Carlos Torre said the board voted two years ago to include students as non-voting members; the appointment never happened, he noted. He said the board plans to start doing so, soon — as soon as it can figure out a fair application process.

The board also discussed a desire to move the board meetings to Career High on an ongoing basis. And Harries raised the suggestion of publicly releasing board agendas in advance (not just Friday at 5 p.m. before a meeting Monday evening) so that the public can make plans to attend.

The board plans to discuss student representation, as well as the location and format of future board meetings, at a special retreat” on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 9 a.m. (“Retreat” here refers to an especially long meeting, usually held at 54 Meadow St., not an expensive getaway.)

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