By Jonathan L'Ecuyer
ROCKPORT — The School Committee made its pitch to selectmen for an 11.5 percent budget increase.
And while no decisions were made regarding whether selectmen would support an override of tax-limiting Proposition 21รขÑ2 to back the full increase, school officials indicated class size, MCAS test scores and school choice revenue could suffer otherwise.
School officials are seeking a $10.2 million fiscal 2011 budget, a hike of some $1 million from the spending plan for the this school year.
The School Committee has said this year's request is "needs-based" and that it is prepared to seek support for an override this spring.
Superintendent Dr. Susan King said she foresees a challenging fiscal future for the school system, which she said will have to increase spending by about 7 percent, or nearly $638,000, just to maintain level of service due to contracted teacher step and track salary increases and the need for additional special education instructors. She added that state aid could once again be cut.
This year, state aid targeted for special education, called "circuit breaker" funding, decreased by 40 percent. The state is supposed to fund 75 percent of the cost per child whose special education program costs the school district more than $40,000, but this year the state is only funding 35 percent of circuit breaker aid.
King also said a second year of promised federal stimulus money isn't coming. Rockport's slice of the $506 million set aside for Massachusetts school districts under President Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last year was originally reported to be $377,000 over two years.
Selectmen asked School Committee members Tuesday night if they had discussed any alternative ideas for raising the additional money. School Committee Chairman Carl Engel said school choice money — $400,000 of which is held in reserve for emergencies — could be used if there is more than $400,000 in that account, but he indicated it still wouldn't be nearly enough to cover a level services budget.
"We have tried our hardest not to bring on additional costs, but sometimes I just don't know where the money will come from," King said. "Positions cost money."
Selectman Charles Clark suggested that School Committee members should focus on explaining the damaging effects Rockport's quality of education would incur if the extra money wasn't approved, rather than simply expressing the consequences through dollar and service cuts and the toll it would take on full-time equivalent positions.
Clark suggested the School Committee could talk about how MCAS scores would stand to decrease or Rockport graduates would be less likely to get into top colleges as a result of not getting the additional money to restore the positions and programming
Engel said the schools have lost the equivalent of about 14 full-time positions since the 2007-2008 school year.
"Since I've been on the School Committee, we've cut each year," Engel said. "I'm not comfortable with the cuts and programming available decreasing each year."
Engel said there has been a reduction in the number of Rockport children "choicing out" lately to other school districts; he credits it to Rockport's quality of programming, but added it wouldn't take much to reverse that trend.
King backed up Engel's claims, saying out-of-district students who choice into Rockport now outnumber those leaving by 124 to 26. The 124 school choice students account for roughly 13 percent of the district's enrollment, and generate nearly $600,000 annually in school choice money.
"You're doing something right," she said.
As recently as 2003, Rockport was paying more in school choice tuition than it was receiving.
Selectman Sarah Wilkinson asked school officials whether they ever discussed charging for full-day kindergarten services as a new source of revenue for the schools. Engel said there was discussion but that no School Committee member was comfortable with the idea.
Clark said the real issue is a structural problem with school budgets — step and track pay increases combined with other teacher salary hikes at levels greater than the rate of inflation each year presents officials with difficult challenges each year.
Clark suggested the School Committee could use school choice money to offer some veteran teachers buyouts and replace them with younger teachers who would earn lower salaries.
"I agree with paying good teachers who get results and do a good job and increasing their salaries, but there must be some teachers who the schools would be better off without," Clark said. "I'm not thinking of anyone in particular and you don't want to get rid of educated and experienced teachers, but a new person is cheaper; it's done regularly in other institutions."
Engel and King said offering buyouts is a complicated process and that teachers could simply say no to the offer.
"It's rarely done in education," Engel rebutted.
Former School Committee member Michael Caffi said the town is seeing a 7 percent increase in the school's level services budget because of the "structural problem" Clark mentioned.
He said Rockport's teacher salary structure was a topic of discussion during the last contract negotiation. He said a new salary schedule was created that, if implemented, would save the town hundreds of thousands of dollars, Caffi said. The Rockport Teachers Association was open to the idea, he said, but ultimately chose to reject it.
However, Caffi said it's not just the Rockport Teachers Association, but a culture at the state and national level in terms of teacher contracts with step and track increases that produces average school district-wide raises of between 5 and 6 percent.
"That's what causes a 7 percent level services budget," Caffi said. "Until we change that culture ... I don't think there is any solution to that problem."
The town had asked each department budget to allow for increases of 2 percent in labor, 3 percent in energy and 1 percent in health insurance.
Selectmen will spend the next month reviewing town department budgets before voting on a final budget plan on Jan. 26.
Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at 978-283-7000 x 3451 or jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.
