Free PSATs, Funding Transparency and Alternative Staffing Discussed in School Budget Hearing

Support for Melrose Public Schools covering the cost of PSATs, greater transparency in the budget and alternative staffing models were among the opinions expressed by the few Melrose residents who spoke at last week's public hearing on the fiscal 2012 school budget.

The Melrose School Committee held the public hearing during their meeting on Tuesday, March 8. The first two speakers spoke in favor of a that would use $4,000 currently marked for consultants in the school district's budget to cover the cost of PSATs for Melrose High School sophomores and juniors.

David Gordon said he has been in the education field as a journalist, publisher and teacher and added that he paid his own way through college "helped in large part" by merit scholarships and grants based on SAT scores. He mentioned the various financial benefits tied to SAT scores, such as the Paul Tsongas Scholarship offered by the state, and various scholarships offered by individual colleges and universities.

"I know this is going to make a big difference for working families in Melrose," Gordon said.

Also, Gordon mentioned an article published in the Christian Science Monitor in 2005 that compared communities like Melrose to communities like Brookline. That article, he said, stated that combined SAT scores were about 150 points higher in Brookline than in Melrose.

"Do I think Brookline kids are smarter than Melrose kids? Probably not—I don’t know this for sure, but there’s probably more opportunities to take the SAT earlier to get preparation," Gordon said. "I think anything we can do to strengthen SAT scores will be good for the community as a whole. One good thing about the proposal is it doesn’t cost Melrose any more money. It takes money from a line item with the fuzzy title of 'consutalnts' and puts it into something that has a direct and demonstrable benefit for the hardworking parents and caregivers of Melrose and their students."

Alice Albuja also spoke in favor of the proposal, saying that "we should be looking for creative ways to help pay for college—this proposal is one such way." She mentioned that Superintendent Joe Casey supports the proposal and Melrose High School Principal Joe Dillon and Guidance Director John Buxton both previously told the committee about the benefits of having more students take the PSATs.

"Students are preparing for college much earlier than now," Albuja said. "(By taking the PSATs their sophomore year) they will have a whole additional year to assess how they need to approve. This will help them do better."

"As a taxpayer, I appreciate that this proposal re-allocates $4,000 to an issue that benefits students directly," she added. "It's a straightforward idea. It is supported by our educators and wiser than simply spending more money on consultants."

More transparency in budget to re-allocate resources

Most of hour set aside for the public hearing was taken up by Gerry Mroz, a regular attendee and speaker during public comment at School Committee meetings. He said that according to a printout of the end of 2010 expenditure report for Melrose  from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary education, there is a $14 million difference between the total amount applied to Melrose Public Schools and what's seen in the budget document.

Noting that some of that difference includes charter school tuition costs, benefits for teachers and benefits retired teachers, Mroz asked that the school budget document show by line item, as is reported to the state, what is spent in total on each function of the school district and where the funds for each line item come from.

"The reason for that is to make a valid, authentic decision about whether it’s worth spending a marginal amount of money, we need to know what we’re spending in total for that category," Mroz said.

As an example of using that additional information to re-allocate resources without spending more, Mroz proposed examining whether specialists could be added at each school by not replacing classroom teachers who retire. He said that class size policies "are laudable, in that clearly it seems intuitive that with the lower ratio, you feel teachers can spend more time with individual students." However, he said with a wide range of students in a classroom, teachers can be stretched thin.

For instance, instead of filling an elementary classroom teacher position vacated by retirement, the salary previously used for that position could be used for a science specialist, Mroz said. At Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School, the current staffing level of 12 teachers per grade could be reduced through attrition to 11 teachers per grade, and those three positions could be used for a health and wellness specialist and a social worker-type position, he said.

How much progress has been made?

Raised voices punctuated the hearing as committee members and Superintendent Joe Casey responded to Mroz repeatedly stating that there has been little to no change "year after year" in the budget and, as a result, in the district.

"I know full well that there are a lot more issues in a lot more schools that need consideration by this committee before voting on this budget—issues that haven't been though of, mentioned or you are even conceiving of," he said.

Margaret Driscoll, committee chairwoman, responded that "just because it may not be discussed all right here (in committee meetings)" does not mean that committee members don't inquire with Casey and other school administrators about those issues.

"I think most of us work pretty hard to ask the questions we have to ask to be confident in the determinations we end up making," Driscoll said.

"Then how do we end up with same budget?" Mroz said.

"To say things haven’t changed in 6-8 years absolutely isn't the case," Driscoll said. "We have the ECC, new curricula, new teachers, new facilities, a lot going on in the past years. That’s only a tiny portion of what’s moved us ahead."

In a discussion about how the district replaces old and out-of-date textbooks, at one point Casey noted the recent recession and its affect on the budget.

"There’s always a problem," Mroz replied demonstratively.

"Gerry, it’s not a problem—it’s a recognition of limitations," Casey said. "We build out a budget that can be supported moving forward. We've held fees for the last four years, going on five. The School Committee members themselves have  brought a lot of great ideas. It really isn’t as you’re painting it. There always are areas where we can do better and we can see that."

"If you’re always helping families and you're holding fees constant, why is it we never see the fees and their associated function put out here?" Mroz asked, returning to his request for more transparency in the budget. "I’m talking about Applied Funds. How does anybody  know, other than business manager (Greg Zammuto) and the superintendent, what's the true cost of providing certain athletics things, of Education Stations, of the ECC."

Casey replied that programs such as the ECC and Education Stations need to be self-sustaining enterprises, adding that athletics fees "do not even cover 21 percent of the cost" and the budget is going up over $1 million this year, after a wage-freeze last year, while the city doesn't bring in an additional $1 million in tax revenues each year.

"You’re talking about a zero sum game; we continue move forward with less every year," he said to Mroz. "You laugh at that, but that’s the truth."