School Budget: Past the Fat into the Muscle of Our Schools

Balancing excellence with austerity is no easy task. And it’s the tightrope Scarsdale Public Schools Superintendent Michael McGill and his staff must walk these days. On Monday night the board delivered the 2011-2012 budget in a presentation titled “Landmark Schools in Hard Times” and went on to show the situation in Scarsdale is exactly that.

First, McGill explained the commitment to educational values. From their findings, the majority of residents believe the school programs are justified and the community values ‘excellence’ in academics, arts, athletics and professional development. The Board wants to maintain this commitment, under these difficult constraints.

The budget is projected to remain relatively flat in the coming year, with the majority of the 2.9% growth coming from pension mandates. This is the fourth year of sub-3% budget growth for Scarsdale schools, a precedent. Most of the students and parents initially will not feel much of a change on a day-to-day basis or the pinch from Albany that many schools across New York currently feel. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.

What’s Missing?

The future looks a bit dimmer at Scarsdale schools. There will be no future funding for some interdisciplinary programs, Mandarin, and some electives in science and social studies. The schools will also reduce educational investment in sustainability, arts and interdependence. These were things that many students were excited about.

Also gone: Aid from Albany. Much of that money was put to building projects and capital improvements. So if you think the bathrooms at your kid’s school is dated, it will most likely remain that way.

So far Scarsdale has avoided lay offs mainly through attrition, but those losses will soon be felt. One such example is the loss of the part time health coordinator in the elementary schools. Right now the schools are trying to figure out who will teach some of the more ‘delicate’ subjects to the older grade-schoolers. (That sound you hear are the teachers yelling ‘Not I')

There will also potentially be larger classes in science labs with a chance that students may have to double-up at stations.

Some school aide hours will also be cut and some of the technology, secretarial and para-professional staffings had to be restructured.

As McGill puts it, “We are done cutting fat and down to muscle.”

And that was clear at the meeting. As Assistant Superintendent Linda Purvis worked through the details of the budget, it started to feel a bit threadbare- with a justification for everything, including the faulty heater in the middle school. And in order to get proper coverage throughout the school day--the custodian schedule is more intricate than a Persian rug.

So What?

I’m sure many of you are rolling your eyes. This is Scarsdale. Our school budget is bigger than the GDP of many small countries. We all know other schools that have it much worse, with teachers buying school supplies, parents funding sports programs and no money left in the budget for art, music or any sort of elective.

Admittedly, I am very new to the budget process and even Scarsdale schools. My oldest will enter Kindergarten here in the fall. So maybe this is the show that the Board puts on each year for the budget, but their concern seems real and their love and respect for our children’s education seems genuine to me. I have faith that much like the economy this situation will improve over time. But I am worried about what these multi-year sub-par growth budgets will mean for the town’s psyche.

While the cuts may not seem so bad this year on an individual basis, taken together you get a sense of stagnation. Many of us moved here specifically for the schools. Maintaining and keeping the budget flat may be the prudent and only thing that can be done this year. Longer term, I worry that little growth will become status quo and innovation will become synonymous with cost; a recipe for mediocrity that I don’t think most residents want.

Jen is a freelance journalist who has covered the economy and markets for over a decade at a major financial news outlet. She lives in Scarsdale with her husband and 2 children. Jen has yet to bake a successful batch of cookies.