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The School Committee approved a budget on Wednesday that will now be up to the City Council to decide.

Pittsfield School Officials Approve Further Budget Cuts

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The proposed school budget has been cut again, raising the number of layoffs to 75.6 full-time equivalent positions. However, the teachers' union is foregoing some $300,000 worth of raises to save some of those jobs.
 
On Wednesday, the School Committee adopted a proposed budget of $60,686,338, with the city's share of that being $60,066,338. That is $250,000 less than what was presented at the budget hearing two weeks ago.
 
"We understand we have to do this because we understand the situation we are in," Superintendent Jason McCandless said. 
 
McCandless said two days after the public hearing on April 12, in a meeting with Mayor Linda Tyer and Director of Finance Matthew Kerwood, it was determined that level-funding the budget wasn't going to be enough. The city will be hitting the levy ceiling, a restriction on how much more property taxes can be raised, and city officials have to make the numbers work. 
 
Tyer said on Wednesday that combined with all of the other department budgets, the $250,000 cut brings the city under the ceiling by just $31,000. Previously she had asked all departments to come in with a level-funded budget or one that is cut. McCandless had initially proposed a budget with a .9 percent increase and then pared it back to level. 
 
With the request to cut even further, the school administrators decided not to fill the position of retiring Assistant Superintendent for College and Career Readiness Richard Brady for a savings of $55,000, change schedules to avoid having to hire a specialist in the elementary school to save $45,000 more, and reduced the line to replace curriculum - a line McCandless had stood a firm ground on for a long time - from $500,000 to $350,000.
 
"We can live with slowing down, we cannot live with stopped," McCandless said of reducing the curriculum line. 
 
That brings the budget $250,000 under last year's, which is a .4 percent reduction. That budget means reducing 30.4 full-time equivalent teaching positions, 39.2 paraprofessionals, and six districtwide positions. 
 
Around the same time Tyer and McCandless sought to find additional cuts, the United Educators of Pittsfield voted to delay taking step raises for half of the year in order to save teaching jobs. That results in a savings of about $300,000 that the union hoped would keep more teachers in the classroom. 
 
"We approved to delay our step increases for next year in hopes to save some jobs," UEP President Brendan Sheran said. "We want to do this to save as many positions as we can for stability."
 
The union was unaware of the additional reductions McCandless was preparing when that vote was made and Sheran said he was surprised to learn Tuesday morning that additional cuts to the budget were proposed.
 
"I'm not thrilled with that. I hope we aren't the only department to go below [level]," Sheran said. 
 
Sheran said that while the city's teachers rank 275 out of 330 districts in the state in salaries, lower than most, the fight shouldn't be between the union and city officials. He said the union understands the issues and solving those means taking the fight to the State House for additional resources. 
 
The budget cuts aren't the desires of most, if not all, city officials but a necessity because of state law and what school officials say is a lack of state financial support.
 
"The state is not giving us enough to operate and it is not giving us any way to do something about it locally," McCandless said. 
 
That $300,000 give-back from the union stays in the budget but is dispersed to more teachers to up the number of educators in classrooms. That will drop the overall job loss total to closer to 68.
 
McCandless said that decision by the union is unprecedented and was greatly appreciative.
 
"That is an example of our teachers' union doing what many not only in the union world but in the rest of the world would consider absolutely unthinkable," he said. "This was an extraordinary and somewhat unthinkable sacrifice."
 
The current contract gives teachers annual increases based on the level of state support. But, state support has been limited so that has been a quarter of a percent each year. The steps are based on qualifications, educational attainment, and years of service and are 3 percent each. Those essentially are the real pay increases that make a career in education possible, McCandless said. The superintendent said without those step increases, teachers would make about $38,000 a year for their entire career with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of school loans.
 
"It is the only way to move up," McCandless said. 
 
Because of the bold move, he said, "we owe it to our teachers" to give some more back to them. He further changed the budget after hearing about the move by the union to reduce the curriculum line even further, putting another $100,000 into retaining teachers and dropping that line to $250,000.
 
In summary, the budget is $250,000 less than last year and will lay off about 68 employees, though exactly which ones hasn't been determined yet, and works toward helping the city get a spending plan under the levy ceiling. The budget now goes to the City Council for final approval during its budget debates.
 
School Committee members lamented the necessity to cut jobs but ultimately only Cynthia Taylor voted against the budget. 
 
"I could vote for the level-funded but going down .4 percent, I couldn't support that," Taylor said. "We have to give [the students] everything we can, every benefit of a doubt. It is the last place in a municipal budget we cut."
 
School Committee member Anthony Riello questioned the mayor about other budget lines as well. His hope is that the School Department isn't the only budget being reduced from last year. 
 
"If we are all under the same mandate, then I can live with it," he said. 
 
Tyer said every department is different and not all departments can cut the same amount or percentage. But, "you will see every department level funded or below level funded," Tyer said, adding, "We really had no choice to issue a mandate of level funding."
 
As the budget process unfolded and the level-funded numbers still didn't work, the mayor said she asked all department heads to work hard to find somewhere else to cut if possible.
 
Signs hang on doors and windows all through City Hall reading "we're in this together" and Tyer and the School Committee emphasized that point Wednesday. 
 
An emotional School Committee member Pamela Farron said the decisions were not easy but she has confidence that the city will get through the difficult financial times. And nearly all of the committee members are looking to Boston to help fix it.
 
"Pittsfield is not going to solve all of these problems alone. We have to go beyond Pittsfield," Chairwoman Katherine Yon said. 
 
The School Committee also adopted a resolution calling for changes to the state's foundation budget for education, which determines the level of state aid a city or town receives. Next week the mayor, superintendent, and other city staff will be presenting to the state House of Representative's Ways and Means Committee on the financial challenges the city faces. 
 
"We are going to appeal to them for help," Tyer said. 
 
 
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Pittsfield Residents Oppose School Budget Cuts at Public Hearing

Ava Mungin is who children come to when they need help. When they are hungry, they go to Mungin. When they are sick, they come to Mungin. When they want to get off drugs, they come to Mungin.

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Pittsfield Considering Cutting 73.5 Jobs In School Department

School Committee Daniel Elias was at the bank the other day when he ran into two school employees, both of which could be part of the 73.5 reductions in staffing this year. "We can't lose sight of the faces that are attached to these numbers," Elias said.

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Preliminary Pittsfield School Budget Calls For 57 Job Reductions

The school district is considering reducing staff by 57 employees. Superintendent Jason McCandless presented a preliminary budget to the School Committee Wednesday night which calls for the sharp reduction in staff. Overall, the budget would still be up by a half million dollars but the staff reductions counter increased.

 


Tags: fiscal 2018,   pittsfield_budget,   school budget,   

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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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