70 To 100 Teachers Could be Fired

                                 Co Chairs CPPAC

70 to 100 Teachers Could Be Fired

The Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council (CPPAC) met on January 13, 2016.

CPPAC is an advisory council to the Administration and School Committee of the Worcester Public Schools. The council is made up of parents who represent the schools that their children attend. (From Worcester School Dept.)

The main agenda item for this meeting was the standardized testing of the students in the Worcester Public Schools. However another topic near the end of the meeting was seemingly more concerning to the group. It was an issue described as “urgent “by the co chair of CPPAC, Ms. Melissa Brady. Mr. Howard Lucas also a co chair, expressed concern over the issue of financing for Worcester Public Schools.

Ms. Brady indicated that the Worcester Public Schools have been short changed about 90 million dollars per year by the State for several years. This shorting is based on the amount of school aid coming from the State in accordance with M.G.L. Chapter 70.  Although the formula is a little bit complex, Chap 70’s philosophy and intent has been characterized in the statute as:

“It is the intention of the general court, subject to appropriation, to assure fair and adequate minimum per student funding for public schools in the commonwealth by defining a foundation budget and a standard of local funding effort applicable to every city and town in the commonwealth”.

According to Ms. Brady the State legislature was considering at the recommendation of Governor Baker that another 11 million dollars be cut from the school budget. Former school committee woman, Ms. Tracey Novick, joined the discussion and said that the City of Worcester was not actively trying to mitigation the short changing, but it was considering cutting an additional 2 million dollars from its appropriations to the Worcester Schools.

It is likely that the Worcester Public Schools will have a short fall of at least 13 million dollars when compared to last year’s appropriations. This is on top of the shorted 90 million dollars.

The parents in the room were concerned about the possible reduction in school finances as this would mean a likelihood of increase class sizes to over 25 students in some classes. It would also mean a lack of resources available to the students.

Some parents express disappoint in Manager Augustus who has failed to attend the CPPAC meetings. There is an open invitation for him to come to the meetings and the previous City Manager attended CPPAC meetings on a regular basis. Someone said that Manager Augustus was more politician than manager.

The City Manager was not the only government official criticized. Ms. Brady indicated that she was disappointed with the State legislature, especially Senator Chang-Diaz, Chair Joint Committee on Education. She said that Ms. Chang-Diaz and her Joint Committee on Education had done little or nothing to oppose the cutbacks in State funding. Ms. Brady also was critical of Worcester Area’s State legislature delegates who have done similarly not much to mitigate the potential cuts.

Subsequent to the CPPAC meeting I spoke with Leonard Zalauskas, President of the teachers’ union. He said that he was aware of the problem and that it is likely that between 70 to 100 teachers could be fired. Mr. Zalauskas said that he had recently met with the Worcester Area State legislature delegation and expressed his concerns. However He said also that he did not want to go “ballistic” and he wanted to give a “temperate” response at least until the time that Governor Baker’s budget was made public. Mr. Zalauskas once again held his fire regarding the possible reduction of City money to the Worcester Public Schools, saying it had other money issues such as pensions.

The budget for the next fiscal year will be set in stone by July 2016 which does not give much time for people to oppose the budget cuts. I suppose this is why politicians set up the system this way.

Although everyone spoke as if color blind, these cuts are coming as the Worcester School District becomes more majority minority. I cannot help but suspect that the budget cuts are made easier by the talk of some narrow minded politicians who are slandering our children with the talk of the need for cops in the schools.