Melrose Votes: The Potential Impact of School Budget Cuts on Learning
The Melrose City Council has approved a citywide Proposition 2½ override vote, following discussion of school and city budgets this spring. On June 18th, Melrose voters will decide whether to approve a $7.7 million increase in property taxes in order to avoid cuts to school and city services.
Photo From MPS Publicity Materials
The school budget is where costs have risen the most and, accordingly, where most of the budget discussion has been focused. One major concern shared by parents, teachers, and administrators is the likelihood of seeing larger class sizes at the elementary and high school levels if the override fails.
Because the superintendent’s office has prioritized “right-sizing” the middle school to address problems there, including overcrowding and concerning gaps between high-achieving and struggling students, positions would be eliminated at the elementary and high schools or shifted to the middle school, and class sizes would increase at those levels, potentially from 23-24 students per class to as many as 28 students per class. A number of support positions such as special educators and paraeducators (who support classroom teachers and special educators) would be cut as well.
Those staff cuts and larger class sizes may actually end up costing the district more in the long run.
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The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1990) guarantees all children the right to a Free Appropriate Public Education. This means that public school districts are required to provide students with disabilities access to the curriculum as outlined in an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). If the school district cannot meet those needs, the student has the legal right to an out-of-district placement, often at a private school, paid for by the school district.
Melrose currently has 66 students who are in out-of-district placements. Those placements cost the district over $5 million, or more than 10% of the total Melrose Public Schools (MPS) budget. Since those tuition and transportation costs are not determined by the city, they can rise - and have been rising - at a much steeper rate than other costs in the budget.
Photo From MPS Publicity Materials
Amanda Cormier and Christie Charles Byrnes, the co-chairs of the Special Education Parents Advisory Council, worried about the effects that larger class sizes could have on students with identified disabilities as well as those without. Not only would students with disabilities get less individualized attention and have fewer of their needs met, but other students, who in a smaller class might have their needs met without additional support, would be more likely to need further intervention and potentially be referred for special education services.
Currently, 17.3% of the school population, or more than 650 students, are identified as having disabilities. If that number rises, then the district may need to spend more on special education services; and if those students’ needs are not properly met, then the district will be responsible for paying for more out-of-district placements.
Melrose is not the only Massachusetts city looking at an override vote or school budget cuts this year, in part because state funding has not kept up with inflation.You can read the Boston Globe's coverage of this issue here.
Cormier and Byrnes also shared that “teachers need the time and space to get to know kids and their needs,” which include both academic and socio-emotional needs. For some students, having their needs met can be as simple as preparing them for a transition or previewing an activity - things that are harder for teachers to do consistently in a larger class environment. Cormier and Byrnes also pointed out that “anything that benefits kids on IEPs benefits everybody.”
Cari Berman, the Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Personnel Services, shared their concern that larger class sizes might result in more special education referrals. With more referrals, she pointed out, special education teachers will need to spend more time testing students and will have less time to provide interventions for students who need them. Small groups mandated in special education plans are also likely to grow in size, with fewer staff to administer them, which would make them less effective for students. She worried that special education staff would be “pushed to the brink” by “servicing a lot of kids with a lot of needs.”
One of the hallmarks of Melrose Public Schools’ professional development work over the last decade has been the personalized learning approach, where teachers cater instruction and assessment to individual students’ needs. Up to this point, smaller class sizes have been a major contributor to this program’s success.
Photo From MPS Publicity Materials
Lisa Donovan, the president of the Melrose Educators Association (MEA), pointed out that with larger class sizes, it will become “increasingly difficult [for teachers] to meet the needs of all individualized learning styles...Our educators are amazing, but they’re human!” Their success in the classroom, she said, depends on the resources the district can provide, including smaller class sizes.
Larger class sizes have been the focus of many discussions of the school budget cuts, but they are not the only concern district staff and teachers have. Interim Superintendent John Macero prioritized teaching positions that interact directly with students in the budget, which means that several director-level positions would be cut. Teachers and parents expressed specific concerns during school committee meetings about the fine arts and world language programs with those director positions being cut. Dr. Jennifer Turner, the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, pointed out that without those director roles “behind the scenes, supporting staff,” curriculum planning is likely to suffer and more of the burden of teacher evaluation will fall on principals.
Both Turner and Donovan were also concerned about the impact of budget cuts on professional development, especially on the currently robust new teacher induction program. “Historically Melrose has asked a lot of its educators in terms of new initiatives,” Donovan said, “and while educators are dedicated to rising to the challenge in the best interests of the students…that takes funding.”
Photo From MPS Publicity Materials
Turner pointed out that there would also be cuts to curriculum materials and subscriptions, including to some materials that teachers frequently use in the classroom. Some materials that are currently covered in the budget would need to be moved to grant funding, which would then displace the items those grants currently fund. Donovan also pointed out that, with cuts to supply budgets, teachers would need to fund more supply purchases themselves which, if not reimbursed by their school’s PTO, effectively amounts to a pay cut.
A longer-term concern is that teachers, faced with larger class sizes, needier students, and less support, might burn out and seek employment elsewhere.
One of the reasons the schools’ budget needs have increased significantly over the last two years is the new salary scale in the contract the city negotiated with the MEA last spring, which brought Melrose teachers’ salaries more in line with those of neighboring districts. These salaries have only just begun to catch up after teachers took a wage freeze in 2011 during a previous budget crisis. Paraeducators are still “earning poverty-level pay,” Donovan pointed out. If the override fails, "the remaining educators,” she said, “will feel the loss of valued colleagues” and “the demands of working with larger classes.” Given the current nationwide teacher shortage, when experienced educators leave the district, it may be difficult to replace them.
Superintendent Macero argued that “one bad year can have a lasting impact on a student’s education.” Many parents, educators, and administrators share the worry that the planned budget cuts will have a lasting impact on students’ educational experiences in the Melrose Public Schools.
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