Supt. Scraps Teacher Layoffs, Proposes Brennan-Rogers Closure

A week before the start of the new fiscal year, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón has come up with a new budget-mitigation plan that would scrap previously proposed teacher layoffs — and would instead close Brennan-Rogers School, cut teacher vacancies, eliminate central office positions, merge classrooms, and reduce funding for athletics-related travel.

After all that, this new plan would still leave a $3.8 million hole in the budget. 

Negrón provided that update Monday during the Board of Education’s latest meeting at John C. Daniels School in the Hill. 

Her new plan comes just days before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. Negrón had said earlier this month that she would need to lay off teachers and other school staffers — as many as 129 of them — by July 1 in order to address a budget deficit exacerbated by insufficient state funding and the end of federal Covid-relief dollars. Mayor Justin Elicker had also said in early June that school-staff layoffs were ​“unavoidable.”

Now, at least according to Monday’s presentation, those layoffs may not happen — even as another school closure looks increasingly more likely.

“This year we have faced unprecedented challenges in crafting our budget,” the superintendent said on Monday. Even with $5 million more from the city and $1.7 million more from the state, she said, NHPS is still looking at a $14.6 million budget gap next fiscal year.

Negrón’s initial plan was for cuts to ​“things that I know our kids need and deserve” — like a quarter of arts staffers, all middle school athletics, and all librarians. She initially proposed a total of 129 student-facing staff layoffs. That would have saved $9.35 million — and, combined with other savings plans, would have left the district with a $1 million budget gap. 

But after listening to community feedback, suggestions, and criticisms, she went back to the drawing board and has come up with a new plan.

“We’ve been trying to problem solve,” she said Monday.

Negrón’s plan, as presented Monday, can be read in full here. The school board didn’t take a vote on the plan on Monday, and instead intends to hold a special meeting on the topic before July 1.

Negrón’s new budget-mitigation plan includes: 

• The closing of Brennan-Rogers School, which would save $2.2 million. Negrón told Brennan-Rogers family and teachers about the West Rock school’s potential closure at the very end of the school year, last week. Brennan-Rogers community members came out to Monday’s school board meeting to speak out against the potential closure. Click here to read a full story featuring the voices of parents, grandparents, and teachers advocating for Brennan-Rogers to remain open. ​“Brennan Rogers did not fail, we failed Brennan rogers,” teachers union Vice President Jenny Graves said alongside Brennan Rogers advocates Monday. 

• $400,000 in cuts to part-time work for staff that stay after school.

• $200,000 in cuts to the district’s travel and mileage-costs budget. That would include cuts to the $290,000 that the district currently spends on travel for sports teams, as well as to the $230,000 that the district currently spends on staff parking at New Haven Parking Authority facilities.

• Cuts to three librarian positions, as opposed to her original proposal to cut all 25. She said that one of the to-be-cut positions is a staffer currently assigned to central office as a Library Media Specialist (LMS) coach. Under this plan, that librarian would be assigned to a school. The other two to-be-cut librarian positions are currently vacant. Negrón said that library media specialists for elementary schools would continue to be shared amongst schools, while all of the high school librarians would remain in place. 

• No cuts to NHPS arts educators. ​“I couldn’t cut not even one,” she said Monday. ​“We need them to be able to run the schedules. Without them we could not run the schedules. And second, we have contract agreements. Without them it would’ve resulted in some serious issues in violations to contracts. So no cuts to the arts.”

• The elimination of 21 vacant teaching positions, one vacant paraeducator position, seven vacant central office positions, and two currently filled central office positions.

• The consolidation of classes and classrooms, which would increase classroom sizes for next school year’s middle and high schoolers.

She told the board members and public that she has proposed closing Brennan-Rogers because of its low enrollment of 132 kids. She said that the school’s preschool program was also closed earlier this year because only six families had registered.

In response to critiques by some members of the public that closing Brennan-Rogers will rip apart a community, Negrón said, ​“I agree with you, but I have no other choice because I have a $6 million gap.”

And in response to critiques that the two schools slated to close this year — Brennan-Rogers and Wexler-Grant — have been unfairly targeted because of their students are predominantly Black and brown, she said, ​“I agree with the speakers. Black and brown communities, often we find ourselves there because the root problem is that we’re not adequately resourced.”

Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox said he didn’t think the board should vote on Negrón’s new plan Monday night. He called for a special meeting to be held close to July 1 ​“so that there’s time for last-ditch efforts to mitigate that final $6 million or so and potentially avoid an abrupt school closure.”

He noted that the recommendation to close Brennan-Rogers would still leave NHPS with a $3.8 million gap that would likely be closed through layoffs.

“There is no space to be able to do that. Those cuts would be devastating to the schools,” Wilcox said.

He added, ​“I’m not in support of any of those cuts per se,” but a Board of Education is required under state law to spend only the money that comes to it from the local, state, and federal governments. 

He noted that NHPS is still chasing a more than $3 million deficit for the current fiscal year. ​“When you look at the [state] per pupil funding, we’re underfunded. If we had the funding that Hamden had per pupil, we would have more than $50 million. We would be talking about expanding programs, not cutting programs. If we even had the state average, if we even had what Hartford has, we’d be looking at another $10 or 12 million, which would wipe out a lot of those devastating cuts that were listed there.”

Mayor Elicker, who sits on the Board of Education, added Monday, ​“I’m sorry to the Brennan-Rogers community. I’m sorry to the entire New Haven Public Schools community because it’s a very, very difficult time.”

Reached for comment on the superintendent’s new budget mitigation plan, Graves told the Independent, ​“To protect the future of public education here in New Haven, the district must reinvest in strong, well-resourced community schools that are fully funded and fully staffed for every neighborhood. School Choice leaves many families with no choice of staying in their neighborhoods when lower resourced schools, like Brennan Rogers, end up closing due to low enrollment.

“The West Rock community deserves to be supported and protected, not dismantled further than it already has. Being in community with the Brennan Rogers C.R.E.W. last night, it’s evident that the potential closing of this school will be a devastating loss to the City of New Haven.”