Monday, April 26, 1999
CPS weighs paring raises, jobs
Union fights new spending amid cuts
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rebuffing union criticisms, Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Steven Adamowski will propose a 1999-2000 budget tonight that freezes salaries and eliminates more than 300 teaching positions.
His first budget since arriving in August, the $359 million proposal also has drawn union criticism for planned spending on new programs and adminis trative positions.
Mr. Adamowski insists reforms embedded in his budget are necessary to lift sagging achievement in the 47,200-student district, where fewer than 10 percent of students in many schools can pass all sections of all of the fourth-, sixth-, ninth- and 12th-grade state proficiency tests.
“The status quo is unacceptable,” Mr. Adamowski said. “We're trying to change the culture, so there's going to be a tension between the old way of behaving and the new way of behaving.”
Mr. Adamowski and school board members decided in February to postpone seeking a tax increase in May. Instead, they chose to slash $20 million from their budget to prove to doubting voters that they're serious about improving performance.
They hope the tradeoff will persuade voters to approve a levy in November. It probably will be at least 6 mills, or $32.4 million, which would add nearly $140 to the the annual tax bill for a $75,000 house, the average value in the district, according to schools Treasurer Richard Gardner.
Proposed cuts include an across-the-board $180-per-pupil drop, which administrators promise would be restored if voters approve the November levy.
Principals and other school-based leaders already have decided how to handle what they anticipate to be their cuts. Some schools will see fewer teachers and bigger classes, while others will have reduced classroom and office supplies, extracurricular activities, tutoring and other programs.
Mr. Adamowski's proposal calls for CPS to defer pay raises from Jan. 1 to July 1, 2000, to save $3.05 million, cut pupil testing, reduce professional training, trim transportation and consolidate several departments.
Reforms include a school for overage students, redesign of academic programs at troubled Clifton and Parham elementaries, team-based faculties in 18 schools and several new administrative positions, including a charter school manager and curriculum supervisors.
But Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney and other critics oppose new spending during budget cuts. Mr. Mooney also wants to preserve teachers' professional training and evaluations, which will lose $1.6 million.
“People aren't going to support a levy if they don't think the district is spending its money wisely, and this budget doesn't spend money wisely,” Mr. Mooney said.
Mr. Mooney plans to present an alternative budget proposal tonight. The union plan includes incentives to encourage veteran teachers to retire, less new spending and deeper central-service cuts.
Budget deliberations are especially significant this year because it's the first year that CPS implemented student-based budgeting, under which money follows students as they transfer schools.
Money has been allocated by staffing levels.
Administrators hope that market-based strategy will spur schools to work harder to retain students. The district typically loses about 1,000 students a year and anticipates a drop of 8,000 students in the next decade.
Schools with fewer than about 325 kids cannot sustain themselves because of overhead expenses, but few Cincinnati schools are at risk of closing because of too few students. Rather, they could close under the district's accountability plan for poor performance and, as at Clifton and Parham, would reopen with new staffs and programs.
It's also the first year that many budgeting decisions were shifted from central administration to schools. Decentralization is meant to give principals and other school-based leaders more autonomy and more incentive to improve, CPS officials say.
Included in the budget are reforms:
• The “Back-on-Track” school at Bloom Middle School in the West End could keep 500 to 600 overage pupils from dropping out of the district each year by offering accelerated learning, administrators say.
• Clifton and Parham elementaries, which have failed to improve in the past three years, will be redesigned.
• New administrative positions, including a charter schools director, internal auditor, director of curriculum, and subject coordinators for science and social studies.
• Fire safety. The district is spending $7.6 million to install new fire alarms, wire for exit signs and emergency lighting and correct other fire-safety and building-code violations discovered in 1996 inspections.
• Team-based school. Eighteen schools will be converted to team-based schools, in which teams of teachers stay with groups of students for longer than a year. Seven east-
side elementaries will become kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools, and Oyler and Millvale schools will add seventh grades.
Administrators say they must spend $900,000 to label all the district's fixed assets. A December audit warned that the district risked losing its belongings to thieves or other misfortune because it has no inventory of assets.
The district also earmarked $1.1 million to update CPS computer systems for Year 2000 compliance and $500,000 more for special education, which administrators say was significantly underfunded this year.
The board's finance committee will work out budget specifics and citizens can voice their opinions at two public hearings whose dates remain to be set.
Meeting today
The Cincinnati Board of Education will meet at 7 p.m. today at district headquarters, 2651 Burnet Ave., Corryville.
Superintendent Steven Adamowski will present his $359 million, 1999-2000 budget proposal, which includes $20 million in cuts to schools and central services.
Public hearings will be held next month, and the board is expected to approve the budget in June.
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