The intensity expressed at the budget hearing Tuesday, March 9, to reject proposed cuts and seek solutions was palpable. So is the reality of state budget issues directly affecting Arlington.

No sooner had the voices of 34 citizens resounded in Town Hall -- calling for support for a range of programs, from the arts to sports to Metco -- than Rep. Will Brownsberger reported on his Web site that a 5-percent reduction in local aid appears likely. The Globe reported March 13 that lawmakers forecast aid cuts of up to 4 percent

The parade of speakers followed a look at the fiscal 2011 proposed school budget, which as of March 9 has a $3.6 million deficit. The number offered some temporary hope, as it had been reduced from the $4 million deficit forecast Feb. 22. Since then, a retirement incentive offered to teachers accounted for an expected return of $410,000 to the plus side of the budget.

Interim Superintendent Kathleen Bodie, who provided the update, noted that principals on March 5 recommended that the added funds be used to restore classroom teachers.

In addition, she said the plan to date is to reduce elementary art and music, not eliminate them.

Threats to art and music -- and what to do arbout them -- were among most oft-recurring strains heard by the audience estimated at 70.

A number, including Brackett parent Allen Feinstein, a composer and conductor at Northeastern and Harvard, argued how essential to education art and music are.

Others avoided essence and got down to financial facts. Len Kardon, part of the Fiscal 2011 Yahoo Group, asked the School Committee to take the budget "back to the drawing board."

In the light of what he called a proposed 17-percent cut in teaching jobs, he said, "there is little reason to rely on any specific town allocation number" for the schools' share of the budget. [See Kardon's full statement below.]

Patricia Flanagan, also of the Fiscal 2011 group, had a number of pointed questions for the committee, including those about class sizes, which she hoped members would answer at the Yahoo Groups' e-mail list.

Anne Thompson said she and Vicki Ford had researched the economics of using $1 million in reserves and its effect on the town’s bond rating. Contrary to the received wisdom that a steep drawdown of reserves will hurt town bonds, Thompson said her research shows a surprising result, which she said she can document.

Others addressing financial issues urged further use of reserve funds. "It's raining," said an Arlington School student named Ted said.

After the public comment, to which School Committee members usually do not address directly, Vice Chair Denise Burns said pointed to Kardon's statement and said he had come up with $800,000 in budget saving.

Here is a summary of what some of the speakers said listed under the topics on which they mainly spoke:

Arts/music

Jonathan Wyner, a musician, described the connection to music that the Arlington public schools have fostered in his family. "My son is really worried," he said.

Betsy Schramm, a Bishop mother and a composer whose work was premiered in Arlington last November, was among 10 urging support for the arts.

Metco

Among the speakers calling for retaining Metco, the program that has brought minority students from Boston since 1966, were Jean McGuire, its executive director; Steve Pereira, Arlington's director; Miriam Stein, of Vision 2020's diversity task force; James Jackson, an AHS student leader; and Pearl Morrison of the African-American Society of Arlington.

"Let us not for one moment let them feel devalued," Morrison said of Metco students.

Sports fees

Cheryl Schiller said that, with two children participating in athletics, a $525 assessment is too high for her family.

Ted Dever, the athletics director at AHS, said the $525 means "we will lose athletes." He noted that out of 1,100 students at AHS, 600 now participate in athletics.

Traffic supervisors

Roseann Casazza, the president of the union representing the group, said, "Safety is out motto." She said that in 50 years, the supervisors have never had a child under their guard hurt in an accident. If all 31 are eliminated, at a saving of $230,000, she suggested that the town could face legal liability.

Following budget remarks from the public, committee member Jeff Thielman said that in his first five years, the board made $7 million in cuts. The amount expected for the fiscal 2011 budget would be the largest.

Full statement by Len Kardon

I’m Len Kardon and while I’m an active member of the FY11 group, my comments this evening are my own. 

When you add up all the cuts, the proposed budget contains a reduction overall of almost 47 teachers. By my calculations, that is about 17% of the existing teachers. That is not acceptable.

I am going to focus my comments in two areas. First, I believe the School Committee has the responsibility to submit a formal budget request to the Finance Committee and Town Meeting that, while mindful of the town’s limited resources, reflects the true needs of the school department. For that reason, and because of some soft numbers in the proposed budget, you should send the budget back to drawing board.

For the last five years, the School Committee has been bound by the five-year plan it had agreed to and the formula that determined how much APS would receive in town funding. This year there is no plan, and while I am not fully aware of discussions that might be going on behind the scenes, there is little reason to rely on any specific town allocation number.

While some deference should be given to the town manager, he does not decide the amount of funds the schools will receive, and nowhere does it say that your request to the Finance Committee needs to reflect his allocation. In fact, your own budget procedures provide that you will adjust the budget in the event Town Meeting funds a different amount from what you request.

While I understand the job of interim superintendent in these circumstances is a difficult one, all the focus on meeting a certain bouncing budget gap have resulted in a lack of focus on building a strategic budget, and in fact no narrative budget document has been prepared. Money is tight and there are certainly some things that should be done to save money. For example, the K-1 experiment at Dallin seems to be successful, and if that can be confirmed, replicating that at other schools might be a good initiative, as well as testing out one 2-3 combination next year.

But the wholesale cutting of teachers should be left out of the budget at this point. We should be prepared for them and let the town know what will happen at different funding levels, but the School Committee should not approve them until we know definitively, by vote of town meeting, that the funding is not there to continue them.

Second, I have e-mailed to each of you [School Committee members] a list of comments and questions regarding the revenue projections and expenses included in the proposed budget. I have proposed various changes in the revenue projections and expense proposal that result in a net gain to the budget of $810K. 

While I appreciate the professionalism of the CFO in rationalizing the APS budget and the very difficult situation she walked into, this is not the year for overly conservative budget estimates or the rebuilding of reserves. There is potentially some relief next year if all the stars align, the unions agree to join GIC and an override is successful, plus the likelihood of a new Superintendent, so we must preserve teachers and programs as much as possible for one more year.

Somehow this year we have survived with a combined unbudgeted decrease in revenue of $1M and increase in out-of-district fees of $400,000. While we should not build a budget on that basis, it is clear that we can make significant mid-year corrections when needed and we should not be laying off teachers on the basis of cost increases or revenue decreases that may or may not occur.

Thank You.

 

This story was first reported Wednesday, March 10, and updated March 13.