The Providence Public School District is facing its usual budget crunch, but this year is tighter than ever with massive increases in transportation costs, utilities and health insurance, plus a brand new superintendent from out of state.
“We are concerned … because even though we are always under-funded, this year is even worse,” said Mark Dunham, the district’s chief financial officer. “The wild card is always utilities; rate increases occur during the year and heating fuel costs change. We paid 40-percent more per gallon in May than we had paid in October, which is huge for us.”
The budget Dunham drafted in March didn’t account for the annual increase in health insurance rates, the recent 21.7-percent increase in National Grid electricity rates, a 10-percent increase in natural gas prices and the jump in transportation costs, he said.
The R.I. Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) on July 1 increased one-way fares by 25 cents, to $1.75, for one way fares on July 1. The price of a monthly pass rose 22.2 percent, to $55. Dunham originally budgeted $100,000 for transportation, so the school needs an additional $200,000 to meet the fare increase, he said.
“As we go through the year, [if costs continue to increase] we can’t cut more services or teachers in the middle of the year,” Dunham said. “It is very hard for us to adjust, and I am more concerned this year than I have been in past years.”
The Providence City Council was expected to vote on July 16 on the proposed $319 million budget for the 2008-2009 school year. That proposed budget represented a 1.8 percent increase from the $314 million budget of last year. Because that’s not nearly enough to cover the increases in utilities, insurance and transportation, the school system will be delivering fewer services, Dunham said.
When the 2008-2009 school year begins, there will only be a skeleton crew of teachers. The tight budget required Providence to eliminate about 40 teaching positions out of about 2,000 in the district. The jobs cut were classroom teachers because, Dunham said, the district has cut so many teachers from arts programs, it cannot, by law, cut any more in that area.
At the same time, the district has added more math teachers in order to meet the state’s new advanced math graduation requirement, Dunham said.
With its tight budget, the district has not increased funds for school supplies, like textbooks and paper, in five years. The last change, in 2003, actually lowered the budget for these items, Dunham said.
“The buying power of that money is certainly much less than it was in 2003,” Dunham said.
The budget woes have hindered the district’s ability to improve student achievement, Providence schools spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly said.
“The past few years have not been good budget-wise; this year is the worst. We have not been able to factor student-achievement improvements into our budget, because our fixed operational costs are just about covered and there is little left in the pie for advancing achievement,” O’Reilly said.
Urban school systems generally have more poverty-level students, as well as many English-language learners and a large population of special education students, O’Reilly said.
To overcome these challenges, it takes a strong curriculum. And to build that takes millions of dollars that the district does not have, she said.
The ground work for a new curriculum has been laid, though. The district was voluntarily reviewed by an academic auditing firm in February, and expects a report by the end of July pinpointing inefficiencies in the district’s education system, O’Reilly said.
“We are waiting for that report to come back, and we have teaching staff that are willing and able to implement changes …we don’t have the funding, so changes will be made incrementally,” O’Reilly said.
The student population has declined by about 1,000 students compared to last year, reducing the district’s budget by about $4 million, Dunham said. This year there will be about 23,700 students in the district, and the average cost per student, including federal funds, is about $13,000 per year, he said.
Schools across the state hope to share in an estimated $3.5 million in state aid expected to come from gambling revenue that Twin River reaps by staying open 24 hours on weekends, Dunham said. Providence will receive 28 percent of those funds.
The Providence district will begin receiving the gambling revenue checks this month and each month thereafter, but the amounts will vary depending on gambling revenues, Durham said.
“It is a bit sketchy. We don’t really know how much the checks will be, so we have to be careful with how we allocate those funds,” Durham said. “We would like to be able to use all of the money that comes in to offset definite expenses.”
To help supplement the budget, outgoing Superintendent Donnie Evans recently reactivated the “Rekindling the Dream” foundation so that philanthropists have a place to donate funds to the school system. Last month, Alan Shawn Feinstein donated $100,000 to Feinstein High School to purchase computers.
On top of budget issues, Evans chose not to renew his contract, which ends on September 18. He will help with the transition until then.
“He had a high degree of frustration defending himself and the district, and felt he couldn’t give enough time to what was important for the schools,” O’Reilly said.
His replacement, Thomas Brady, was expected to start work July 14. Brady comes from the Philadelphia School District, where he served as interim superintendent for one year. Prior to that, Brady served as chief operating officer of the school district in Washington, D.C. He is credited with overhauling the district’s procurement system and refocusing the entire operational organization to support the district’s core educational mission, according to a press release from Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline’s office.
Brady will be the district’s seventh superintendent in 15 years. •
