$198M School Budget Approved, As Fed Rescue $ Closes Deficit

The New Haven Board of Education Wednesday night adopted a $198 million budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Though the board got millions less from the city than requested, this budget will not require layoffs or cuts, thanks to federal Covid-19 relief.

At the same time, a majority of board members voted down $5 hourly raises to parttime paraprofessionals, with the promise of some kind of raise before the end of the summer.

“At this point last year, we were looking at a $5.6 million deficit. The biggest change is the American Rescue Plan funding that we didn’t have last year,” said schools CFO Phil Penn.

The Board of Education called a special meeting on Wednesday evening to adopt the 2021 – 2022 budget before Penn leaves for his new job in Hartford.

The discussion focused on the general fund, the portion of the schools’ budget that comes directly from the city. The New Haven Board of Alders set that funding level to $190 million last Wednesday. This is $1.5 million more in city dollars than New Haven Public Schools got from the city last year and roughly $8 million less than Penn says the district needs to avoid cuts.

Mayor Justin Elicker originally intended to send more money the Board of Education’s way in the optimistic version of his budget. Alders diverted some of this money to promote their goals for longterm change, like an affordable housing study and an environmental education fund. The alders’ rationale was that the school district has plenty of aid coming from the federal government to cover the gap.

This prediction turned out to be true. Penn proposed that the district use $4.4 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) dollars each year for the next three years to close budget deficits. Unlike most federal grants, this third Covid-19 stimulus package allows schools to use the money to plug gaps.

The district has also found ways to shift new expenditures over from city dollars to federal grants. For example, Alliance and Title I grants will cover the $2 million upgrade to the city’s K‑5 math program. Title I, the American Rescue Plan and other Covid relief will pay for 11 more teachers for English learners.

All this left a $2 million deficit. Penn recommended that the district close that gap by maximizing state money and managing retirements and new hires. The alternative would be to rely further on ARP and set up a ​“funding cliff” for the year those dollars run out.

The budget does not bring building management in-house or hire an engineer — two options the Board of Education considered to prevent basic maintenance from going overlooked for years, as occurred with school air filters until the fall of 2020. Superintendent Iline Tracey explained in a separate interview that administrators decided that filling custodial positions was more important than the new engineering position, to get as many eyes on maintenance issues as possible.

Part-Time Raise Postponed, Again

Board members voted 6 – 1 for the budget Penn presented. Board member Darnell Goldson voted in opposition as part of his advocacy for part-time employees, who are not part of a union.

Goldson presented the board with a budget amendment that would raise the wages of part-time paraprofessionals from $12 an hour to $17.48. He calculated that this would be a livable wage for a family of four, based on New Haven’s Living Wage ordinance. Since the district employs about 149 part-time assistant teachers, this would cost the district around $573,197.04.

“We have done a good job of mitigating deficits in the past. I think we can continue to do good job and provide our part-time paras, who are in the classroom with our neediest students with a semblance of a living wage,” Goldson said.

Board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur supported Goldson.

“For me, this is an easy vote for people to have groceries and pay their bills. It has never been more apparent to me how important this with what they have been through during the pandemic,” Jackson-McArthur said.

Other board members affirmed how important they think the issue is. They said they voted no on Goldson’s proposal because he sent it out on the day of the meeting, and they wanted to take the proposal through the board’s committee process. Specifically, they asked whether the action would prompt raises among other employee categories and whether the district could afford that.

“I’m not going to support this motion, because today was the first day I saw details,” said Finance and Operations Committee Chair Matthew Wilcox. ​“This starts to intrude into bargaining agreements. We have contractual workers not making $17 an hour.”

The board has consistently turned down Goldson’s efforts to give part-timers raises over the past year for similar reasons. Eventually, the board created a pay equity committee to look into the issue. Goldson argued that this just postponed making any decision.

Board member Larry Conaway leads the pay equity committee. The committee chose to focus on full-time paraprofessional pay over the past few months and will look into part-time employees’ salaries next.

Wilcox promised to take up Goldson’s proposal in the Finance and Operations Committee as well, with the goal of providing some kind of raise by the end of the summer. The state minimum wage will go up to $13 regardless in August. Some paraprofessionals do work over the summer in school camps.

The board voted 4 – 2 against both Goldson’s first $17.48 proposal and his second proposal to raise part-timer wages to $15. Conaway abstained.