Perhaps The Hour is cleverly posting this to show our BOE that there are other ways of “negotiating” budgets. Or maybe they think that this year represents a trend in school finances. If its the later I tend to agree. I have read news reports of many BOE budget issues happening in other towns, talked to many teachers and administrators about the budgeting issues. They are not uniform, but for the most part ask that the School Boards do more with less. Such is the case in Stamford, from The Hour:

The recent $4.8 million cut to next year’s school operating budget is causing headaches in the Stamford Public Schools.

Superintendent Joshua Starr’s $213.6 million budget proposal added an elementary Spanish program, cut the applied arts program in the middle schools and supported the addition of staff at both Westhill High School and the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering. Both schools will be physically expanded next year through a bonding plan that is not part of the operating budget proposal. The Board of Finance’s April 9 cut will impact the schools’ ability to sustain any of those programs, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Starr looked to the faculty and staff for help.

Did I just read this right? Star looked to faculty and staff for help? And held a meeting? And talked about it in public? Clearly Starr doesn’t subscribe to the “Creating understanding about the ‘07-08 budget” methodology of grammatically challenged bureaucrat speak.

“What would you do if you were me?” he asked the 26 school employees who gathered in the Government Center cafeteria.
Marge Shyavtiz, a Westhill High School business teacher who sits on the board of the Stamford Education Association, said that the teachers, staff members and administrators who have daily contact with the students should not be cut.

“The people in the school buildings should not be touched,” she said. “Everything else is secondary.”

Lora Rossomando, a Cloonan computer literacy teacher wants Starr to evaluate the level of staffing in the Central Office.

“What did it cost for all the increases downtown?” she asked.

Elvia Chalmers, a guidance counselor at Scofield Magnet School wants Starr to really evaluate the way the Stamford school are educating their students now, to see if introducing new programs are really necessary. If the old programs are working well, she said, the schools might not need to implement new curriculum or staff development.

Tuesday’s meeting was open to all the employees of the school system, but only nine teachers, including representatives from the SEA, were present. The rest were Central Office administrators, principals and assistant principals.

And gee, what an enlightened Board Stamford has, they are asking the superintendent for transparency.

Board member Susan Nabel said that “some transparency” in Starr’s recommendations is a good thing.

Levine added that the cuts to the school’s budget request, though frustrating, are nothing out of the ordinary

“This is not a unique concern,” he said. “It happens every year, to some extent; it happens every 10 years to a great extent, and this is one of those years.”

The Stamford BOE does post their budget online. Look here: lower right corner. I figured you might want to see what a well managed web page looks like.

source: The Hour: Schools mull ways to cut $4.8M in costs, By A.J. O’CONNELL, May 5, 2007