Federation Focus/The Northeast Region: School board leaders concerned with funding, tax relief, reforms
This is the second in our series, “Federation Focus,” which examines the issues our state school boards associations are addressing. In this installment, we look at how some of the associations in NSBA’s Northeast Region are dealing with tax relief and various school reform proposals.
Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) is “cautiously optimistic” about a comprehensive, multiyear Readiness Project proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick, reports Executive Director Glenn Koocher.
A key part of the plan proposes the creation of “readiness schools,” which Koocher calls “a more reasonable alternative school model than charter schools.”
The readiness schools would be authorized by local school boards and would be given more flexibility for scheduling, curriculum, and administration. Funding for the schools would remain in the district, and certain elements, such as teacher assignments, would not be subject to collective bargaining.
Currently, state aid goes directly to charter schools, and “some of our districts have been bled dry by the charter policy,” Koocher says.
Charter schools report directly to the state department of elementary and secondary education and “are not accountable to anyone in the community,” he says. “Some charters recruit or exclude certain students.”
The governor’s plan would expand early childhood education and would bring together all the state agencies serving children. Koocher notes this recommendation recognizes the social and economic problems students confront must be addressed by a range of agencies, not just schools.
Patrick also has promised to study what Koocher calls “the state’s rancid regulatory climate for schools.” As a legacy of the Romney administration, he says, Massachusetts has 15 separate accreditation, accountability, and assessment programs for schools and 106 reporting requirements for superintendents.
After a decade of “being abused by the system,” he says, “school committee leaders have been invited to participate and be a part of the solution.”
MASC President Ellen Furtado of Swansea has met with Patrick several times. MASC Vice President Kathleen Robey of Marlborough has been appointed to a task force on cost issues, and Elaine Webb of Reading has been appointed to a task force looking at restructuring the state’s revenue systems.
New York
The New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) is concerned with making sure public schools are adequately funded while the state government is grappling with a $6.4 billion deficit.
During a special legislative session convened by Gov. David A. Paterson on Aug. 19, lawmakers trimmed about $427 million from the budget they approved just four months ago.
Although there were no cuts in foundation aid for education, “there is lots and lots of trepidation” about what might happen after the elections, says NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer.
A NYSSBA poll found school board members’ biggest budgetary concern is adequate state funding, followed by the rising cost of employee benefits and high fuel costs.
Paterson had urged lawmakers to cut property taxes, but the Senate and Assembly were unable to agree on a plan.
The state Senate passed a measure earlier this summer prohibiting property taxes from rising more than 4 percent a year or 120 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is less. The Assembly approved a “circuit breaker” option that would cap a household’s property tax bill according to a proportion of its income.
New York has the highest property taxes in the country and “people literally are being taxed out of their houses. People are selling and leaving,” says David Little, NYSSBA’s director of government relations.
NYSSBA is working on making sure that if there is tax relief, it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If there is a tax cut “without a substantial commitment to state aid, districts would have to start cutting programs, services, and staff,” he says.
NYSSBA opposes a tax cap but called the Senate’s action “a constructive step in the right direction.”
Although the Senate measure did cut taxes, it also controlled costs by capping school district pension costs, boosting reimbursement for energy conservation projects, creating incentives for shared-services contracts with regional education agencies, and eliminating certain unfunded mandates.
To protect districts’ budgets, NYSSBA has proposed having the state take over contributions to the state retirement system and capping the amount districts pay for special education with the state picking up a larger share. It also proposed increasing federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, creating a statewide health insurance consortium, and additional mandate relief.
Another issue of concern to NYSSBA is the upcoming reauthorization of the legislation giving the New York City mayor control over the city’s schools.
Kremer doubts the city will revert to an elected board of education but says “there needs to be some level of independence for the board whether it is elected or appointed.” Chancellor Joel I. Klein effectively serves as the superintendent and board chair. He has the authority to remove board members and can make decisions without board approval.
During the reauthorization debate, NYSSBA is concerned that other mayors might seek approval to take over their cities’ school systems.
Connecticut
In Connecticut, one of the main issues for school boards is secondary school reform, reports Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE).
The state’s education commissioner created a Secondary School Improvement Task Force to explore ways to improve the high school graduation rate, better prepare students for college and life after high school, strengthen the curriculum, and embed 21st century skills into the instructional program.
Robert Hale, chairman of the Madison school board and immediate past president of CABE, is a member of the task force, along with representatives from the K-12 education, higher education, and business communities.
CABE and local school board members participated in several public forums organized as part of the commissioner’s statewide “listening tour” on the task force’s preliminary recommendations.
The final plan is expected to be submitted to the legislature in January. CABE does not plan to take an official position until the report is finalized and the potential costs are analyzed.
CABE is concerned school boards might end up with new mandates without sufficient resources to implement them. For example, the task force discussed strengthening the requirements for science and foreign languages, but those are areas where there are teacher shortages, says Patrice McCarthy, CABE deputy director and general counsel.
New Jersey
Earlier this year, a news report that a New Jersey superintendent was set to receive a retirement package of more than $740,800 set off a firestorm of reaction from the public, press, and legislators, reports Mike Yaple, public affairs officer for the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA).
The superintendent had worked in the district for 38 years, and the bulk of the payout, $556,290, was based exclusively on length of service. The remainder represented unused sick and vacation time.
A review determined that the contract was far from ordinary. Nevertheless, Gov. Jon Corzine called the payout an “outrageous abuse” and ordered the state Department of Education to review all superintendents’ contracts.
In May, the state attorney general filed an injunction seeking to have the $556,290 severance payout declared “null and void.” The case has not yet been heard.
A state law already caps school administrators’ payment for unused sick leave at $15,000 for future contracts, but legislation was passed by the state Assembly to also impose the cap on existing contracts.
In August, the state Department of Education, as required by the School District Accountability Act of 2007, posted online the salaries and provisions of every school administrator whose salary exceeds $75,000 and who is not a member of a collective bargaining unit.
The law also gave the education commissioner unilateral authority to implement accountability regulations, without review and approval of the state board of education.
NJSBA is beefing up its superintendent search service to include direct training with boards on superintendent contracts, Yaple says. NJSBA also is adding contracts to the mandated training for all board members.
In addition, NJSBA is working with the New Jersey Association of School Administrators to form a panel to make recommendations on contract development that are fair and reasonable.
The 2007 accountability act specifically names NJSBA as a provider of training for new board members in all three years of their first term in office and during the first year they are re-elected or reappointed.
The act also requires school boards to post “plain language” budgets on their websites, mandates a public hearing and state review any time a school administrator’s contract is renewed or altered, and places restrictions on the amount of reimbursement school boards can seek for travel to school board training programs.
NJSBA is concerned that the regulations go too far in micromanaging school boards. For example, school officials cannot take home uneaten food left over from a training program, school boards cannot hire staff whose sole job is public relations for the district, and boards must print all their publications in black and white, rather than color.
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