Citizen's Advisory Group on School Cost (pp 21 - 23)
The diminished capacity of administrators to provide ongoing supervision and the reduction in professional development opportunities have challenged the Newton Public Schools’ ability to nurture, develop and sustain teacher quality. Newton’s reputation and its track record as a high quality education system have rested on the foundation of hiring and developing skilled and dedicated teachers. It is not sufficient to hire the best and the brightest. The system must also support the ongoing growth and development of teachers."
Long Term Fiscal Responsibility
First and foremost, we must stop operating in crisis mode. The current fiscal structure of our schools requires a 6% increase in budget every year to provide the same services. Obviously, given the restrictions of Proposition 2 ½ and limited space in Newton for commercial and residential expansion, revenues routinely increase at levels significantly below 6%. This results in a cycle of increasing the percentage of revenues going to the schools along with cuts in school services culminating in the need for a difficult and sometimes divisive prop 2 ½ override.
While Newton’s citizens are genuinely committed to excellence in the school system, this cycle is unsustainable and will eventually result in a failed override leaving the schools in a difficult position, just what happened in May 2008.
We are playing out a parallel pattern with the capital infrastructure of our school buildings. Rather than executing a robust routine maintenance regimen, including the periodic overhaul of our neighborhood schools, we have waited until the crisis has forced our hand – often resulting in far from optimal results requiring forced concentrated expenditures.
While the problems are easy to describe and to understand, the solutions will not be so easy and will require effort and difficult decisions in many areas. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I think we need to start by focusing on:
Long-term facility plan (that supports neighborhood schools) - We need to reevaluate the high stakes path we are currently on that proposes demolishing our existing infrastructure and replacing it with fewer, high cost new buildings.
Health care – In conjunction with the municipal side of the city, we need to change the cost structure of our health care benefits. Whether that entails joining with the State plan or moving to a more progressive consumer driven high deductible health plan, we need to alter the fundamentals of the health care equation.
Teacher contract – Our teachers are our most important resource. However, we need to structure the next contract in a way that does not commit us to things we cannot responsibly deliver. We need to understand what our teachers value and deliver those things to meet their aspirations while maintaining a cost structure that makes those very same positions sustainable over the long term.
SPED – Special Education is not only a state mandate, it is a moral obligation of the community. However, we must be smart about how we fulfill both the mandate and the obligation. The costs of Newton’s SPED programs have been increasing faster than any other portion of the school budget. We need to evaluate the effectiveness of those programs and preserve those which provide the most benefit so that we deliver the promise of the programs while reigning in overall costs.
Priority based budgeting – We must throw away last year’s budget and undertake a priority based budgeting exercise. We prioritize our desires and match those desires with the available funds. It is better to do fewer things well than more things ineffectively. Too frequently our incremental based budgeting approach yields little real change and results in a little less of everything rather than a satisfying plan, despite the challenges of available funding.