New Budget Information

Dr. Hayes has posted two new documents on the district website that have been prepared for Monday's Public Hearing. One is a full draft budget for a YES VOTE on the override that keeps the current school configuration. The second is a document with some more specifics on the previously discussed budget for a NO VOTE on the override. There is probably not a lot of new information here, but Dr. Hayes clearly lays out for the community, what he calls the "Implications of Not Passing an Override." The text of this document is reproduced below, or you can download the original version.

Implications of Not Passing an Override
Faced with a $2.67 million shortfall in early March and the prospect of a Prop 2½ override vote failing, the School Committee is giving serious consideration to proposals that would reconfigure its elementary schools, cut staff at Beverly High School, and increase a number of tuitions and fees. As of the Public Hearing, no final decision has been made regarding these proposals. A great deal of information on these proposals has already been made available to the public and is therefore not reproduced here. Such documents are available on the school district website, www.beverlyschools.org, or can be obtained through the office of the Superintendent of Schools. NOTE: Most of these documents are also linked to the left under "City Documents"

Reconfiguration of the Elementary Schools
The six elementary schools in Beverly have served grades K-5 for a number of years. During that time, a preschool program has operated at several sites; preschool classrooms are currently located in two of those schools. Under the reconfiguration plan recommended by the Superintendent, the Cove School would become an Early Childhood Center servicing preschool and kindergarten students from across the City. The McKeown School would serve as a school for an alternative program for both middle and high school students, with a very good possibility of a partnership that would locate at McKeown a similar program of the Northshore Education Consortium. Students in grades 1-5 from the Cove School would be reassigned to either the Centerville or Hannah schools, and students in grades 1-5 from the McKeown School would be reassigned to either the Ayers Ryal Side or the North Beverly schools. An alternative proposal which would interchange Cove and Hannah in the above proposal has also been suggested. These reconfigured models are commonly referred to as “4 and 1 models”.

Reduction of Staff at Beverly High School
Two teacher retirements, one in Social Studies and one at midyear in English, would not be replaced. A position in Foreign Language (Latin) will be eliminated. Other teacher reductions include Special Education (.5), Art (.3), and PE/Wellness (1.4). One half-time and one full-time paraprofessional positions will also be cut. An additional paraprofessional position has been moved from the appropriated budget to a grant.

Increase Tuitions and Fees
The following rates would remain the same as those established for FY08:

• Transportation would remain at $300 per student and $600 per family
• Student parking at the High School would remain at $175 per student
• Middle School athletics would remain at $100
• Elementary Instrumental Music would remain at $195 per student

The following increases are proposed:

• EEC from $450 to $460 for grade 3 and $900 to $920 for grades 4 and 5
• High School athletics from $185 per sport to a three-tiered system described below
• Preschool (4-day week program) from $205 to $225 per month
• Full-day kindergarten from $3,600 to $4,000 per student
  

The athletic fee structure for High School athletics would assess higher fees for more expensive sports, defined as follows:

• $200 Gymnastics, Girls’ Volleyball, Golf, Boys’ & Girls’ Tennis, Cross Country, Fall & Winter Cheerleading, Boys’ & Girls’ Indoor Track, Wrestling, Boys’ & Girls’ Track and Field
• $250 Boys’ & Girls’ Lacrosse, Swimming, Field Hockey, Boys’ & Girls’ Soccer, Boys’ & Girls’ Basketball, Softball, Baseball
• $300 Football, Boys’ & Girls’ Ice Hockey

Both documents were posted today on the administration website.

Voter Registration Deadline May 13

Beverly's Proposition 2½ override could lose by only one vote! That was the difference in a recent override vote in Abington. Yes! For Beverly is urging everyone who supports the override to get out and vote. If your aren't registered, it is critical to register now because the deadline is May 13. Please encourage everyone you know to register. Sometimes, it only takes one extra vote to win!

You can fill out a registration form at Beverly City Hall or the Registry on Cabot Street.

Final Public Hearing

There will be one last chance for the public to comment on the Superintendent's plan to reconfigure the elementary schools, and cut $2.6 million from next year's budget. The hearing will be held:

Monday, May 12th
7:00 PM
Beverly High School Auditorium
BevCam (Comcast Channel 10) will televise (to be confirmed)

On Wednesday, May 14th, the School Committee plans to vote on the reconfiguration plan, and later in the month, will vote on two versions of the budget: One with the final version of the reconfiguration plan in place; and another in the event that voters approve the override at the June 3rd Special Election. The alternate version will include more minor cuts, but leave the current six school configuration in place.

More details on community plans for the public hearing to come.

Joint Council Frustrations

Last night's Joint Council Meeting didn't produce much new news on the budget, but did produce some visible frustration. As expected, Jim Latter's ad hoc group delivered an endorsement of the Superintendent's plan, but unlike the press reports, which portrayed their view of it as "educationally sound," Latter conceded that it was "the best of bad options."

There was some tension between Latter, and other members of the school committee over what information each group had, and some discussion about his interpretation of the actual cost of the Hannah as ECC option because of the Mayor's offer to bond the $800,000 construction cost. Many members of the public, and even some on the committee, seemed unaware of this because it was never reported in the press or mentioned in public meetings, although it was buried in two of Dr. Hayes' handouts. Councilor Maureen Troubetaris voiced many parents' views when she stated that it would be pretty hard to sell the public on the wisdom of borrowing $800,000 to add onto one school, while closing two others.

Dr. Hayes pressed the School Committee on the importance of making a decision soon because of the complex process ahead to shuffle the schools. But Committee President Annemarie Cesa said they would not vote tonight as previously reported, and announced that there would be another public hearing on the budget next Monday. She also said they would discuss the matter further at their meeting tonight (Memorial Building, Room 164, 7:30 PM). No word on when they would actually vote.

There was also a legal debate between the City Solicitor and several City Council members over whether the Council had the right to raise the line item in the budget for the schools above what the Mayor had given. At least two of the councilors vocally disagreed with the Solicitor's view that they didn't, but in the end said the issue was moot, because they probably wouldn't do it anyway.

Several parents spoke in frustration, saying that when they asked for citizen involvement, they didn't mean a group that would simply look at five bad alternatives, and pick the least offensive. Some also pointed out the irony of sitting through an hour-long presentation on the $70 million high school project, with its multiple state-of-the-art athletic fields, at the same time we are making these drastic cuts to the elementary schools.

There was also one interesting comment from Mayor Scanlon that seemed to support the override. He stated that he would "endeavor to use the money for the schools," even in future years when he is not legally obligated to.

The Salem News glosses over most of the night's discussion here. The Beverly Citizen delves a bit deeper here.

Last night's meeting was taped, and is scheduled to be shown on BevCam (Comcast Channel 10) tonight at 7:00 PM

5/8 UPDATE: The Salem News gets to a few more details of the meeting in their new Beverly blog.

School Committee May Vote Wednesday

The Salem News reports that the School Committee plans to vote Wednesday on the Superintendent's reconfiguration plan. A community group that has studied the proposal will report at tonight's Joint Council Meeting that it supports the plan as "the best of all the options" after studying five alternative plans.

The Wednesday vote won't be the final vote on the budget, but will signal where the full School Committee stands on the plan. With the community group's support, this plan seems to be the only viable option left on the table, short of voter approval of the override.

Tonight's Joint Council Meeting will be at 7:00 pm at North Beverly Elementary School. Wednesday's School Committee meeting is at 7:30 in Room 164 of the Memorial Building. Both meetings are open to the public.

UPDATE: While the Salem News reported that the Committee was "poised" to vote Wednesday, we have not been able to confirm that they will.

Items reported to be on the agenda tonight:

• "News" from Dr. Hayes
• Jim Latter will speak about the special committee's findings
• City Solicitor will report about the School Committee's legal obligation to submit a balanced budget to the City Council

Items reported to be on tomorrow's agenda

• Discussion (and possible vote) on elementary reconfiguration plan
• Discussion of what will happen if the override passes
• Budget Draft update
  

BevCam will NOT carry Tuesday's meeting live, but plans to tape and run it Wednesday at 7:00. There are currently no plans to cover Wednesday's meeting.

Special Committee Supports Hayes' Plan

Calling it "the best of all the options," the special committee assembled to review Dr. Hayes proposal, plans to present it's non-binding recommendation in support of the proposal to the School Committee at tomorrow night's Joint Council Meeting. The meeting will take place at 7:00 PM at the North Beverly Elementary School.

According to this Beverly Citizen article, the committee met four times in the past week and considered five alternate plans. Among the plans they ruled out were using Hannah School, rather than Cove, as the early-childhood center, as well as a five elementary plus early-childhood center scenerio.

We're in Good Company

Boston.com has a blog called Override Central that is following the override drives in more than 30 other Greater Boston communities that are facing situations similar to Beverly. Many of these cities and towns have also been forced to seek an override, as the only method left to properly fund their public school systems, and avoid serious cuts. Included is a link to a Globe story on the 11 communities on the North Shore alone that are seeking overrides. Many of the arguments are very familiar to those of us closely involved in Beverly's school budget crisis:

• With health insurance, special education, and other costs increasing at a rate unmatched by state aid, communities across the state are scheduling tax increase votes.—Boston Globe
  

• "Costs - particularly benefits - are growing faster than revenues, while state aid hasn't kept up with inflation. Most cities and towns have squeezed where they can, and then some. I think we will see more and more communities hit the wall in the years ahead."—Michael Widmer, executive director of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, commenting on the situation in Brookline

• "It's the unfunded mandates [such as the No Child Left Behind Act and special education requirements] that really do it."— Wenham Selectman Peter Hersee

You might also want to follow the situation in Hamilton/Wenham, where the state just placed their highly-regarded high school on warning status because of an "inadequate level of funding to support the school's staffing levels, course offerings, co-curricular activities and technology." This, in spite of approving overrides for the past seven years. The Hamilton/Wenham Support Our Schools group also has a blog with very detailed information on their budget issues, many of which are the same ones that Beverly is grappling with.

Joint Council Meeting

On Tuesday, May 6th, the Beverly School Committee and the City Council will hold their annual Joint Council Meeting. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the North Beverly Elementary School. The public is welcome.

OTHER UPCOMING MEETINGS
There is also another public hearing on the budget, scheduled for the week of May 12th (day and time to be confirmed) in the Beverly High School auditorium, and a regular school committee meeting on Wednesday, May 14th in the City Council chambers at City Hall. There are also several Committee of the Whole and other subcommittee meetings scheduled during May. The School Committee schedule has recently been updated, and is available here.

Further details on all of these meetings to come.

Beverly Education Roundtable and Forum

Thursday night, The Beverly Education Roundtable will hold a forum at Endicott College. The group, founded in August by Mike Cahill, a former state representative and teacher, is based on the notion that partnerships with various schools and colleges, businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations can provide greater opportunities for students.

"The idea is we've got some amazing and unique resources in this community, and why not create Beverly into a real center?" Cahill said.

The forum will feature Paul Reville, the state's incoming Secretary of Education.

While the forum's focus seems to be primarily on higher education and industry, it would also be a good opportunity to discuss what greater role these schools could play in their host communities' public schools, and to ask Reville to speak to the State's role (increasing mandates and decreasing funding) in the current budget situation in Beverly and many other communities.

The forum will be held:

Thursday, May 1, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
Endicott College's Wylie Conference and Education Center
295 Hale St.
Admission is free and open to the public

You can read more about the forum here.

Override Funding Approved

Although mostly a formality, the city council voted unanimously last night to approve spending $30,000 to fund the June 3 special election. Prior to the vote, nearly two dozen citizens took the opportunity to speak, and largely voiced support for the measure.

There in now just over one month left to build support with the community at large for passage of the override. At the same time, the School Committee and Superintendent are moving ahead with their plan to implement the reconfiguration plan and other cuts should the override fail. If you'd like to help with the override effort, please contact Yes! for Beverly at info@yesforbeverly.org.

Here is the Salem News coverage of the meeting.

Override Funding Hearing & Vote Tonight

The City Council will vote tonight on funding the special override election. There will be an opportunity for the public to speak on the issue before the vote.

Earlier this month, the Council unanimously approved holding the special election, but a separate vote and public hearing is required to approve the funding. It will take place in the City Council chambers at City Hall at 8:00 pm.

BevCam (Comcast Channel 10) will carry this live.

Save Beverly on Facebook

If you, or your kids, are on Facebook, there is a Save Beverly Schools Facebook group. You can join it here and help get the word out to the Facebook generation.

Reconfiguration Committee Named

The Beverly Citizen reports that a nine-member committee comprised of one parent representative from each of the elementary schools, one community representative, one school committee member, and one city councilor has been named. The group, known as the Elementary School Reconfiguration Committee, is charged with examining in detail the Superintendent's plan to reconfigure the city's six elementary schools, and giving the School Committee its non-binding recommendation on the budget and reconfiguration plan.

School Committee President Annemarie Cesa said Hayes’ plan is the only one receiving serious consideration.

As the committee does its work, Cesa said the School Committee will continue to move forward with plans to implement Hayes’ plan. Hayes and other administrators will have to complete a large chunk of the work and determine which teachers would be laid off and how busing logistics would work out.

“He has to move forward in that way,” she said.

Committee nembers include:

• School Committee: Jim Latter, chairman
• City Council: Maureen Troubitaris
• Ayers: Todd Rotondo
• Cove: Steve Galante
• Centerville: Mercene Perry
• Hannah: Suzanne Beaudoin
• North Beverly: Mary Morency
• McKeown: Kim Sammons
  
• Community representative: Mike Tallo

Investing in a Strong Community

The Yes! for Beverly group has updated their website with some new information supporting the Proposition 2½ override effort. If you haven't looked at it recently, please check it out, particularly the new section titled "Why Beverly's Worth the Investment". You can also download an override fact sheet here.

Some of the points worth noting:

• Proposition 2½: Implemented in 1982, the law caps real estate tax increases at 2.5% per year plus additional taxes from new development. The cap does not adjust even when expenses (energy, salaries, healthcare, state mandates, etc.) rise at a higher rate. In recent years, reductions in state aid coupled with fixed expenses rising beyond the 2.5% rate limit have created a structural deficit in Beverly and many other Massachusetts communities. Voters are allowed under the law to approve additional taxes to close this deficit by overriding the 2.5% cap.


• Beverly's School Budget: Beverly faces the same issues impacting all Massachusetts communities. State aid has decreased, while operating costs and unfunded state and federal mandates have increased. Beverly has already cut dozens of classroom teachers, increased class sizes, added school fees, and closed Memorial Middle School to avoid an override. In FY09, Beverly voters now face a choice of cutting public education services further or supporting an override to close a $2.6 million budget gap for its public schools.


• Beverly’s First Operational Override: Should the override pass, it will be the first time since the law went into effect 25 years ago that Beverly has increased revenues for operations by more than the Proposition 2½ cap. Two-thirds of Massachusetts towns have already approved operational overrides, some multiple times. At $10.40/thousand, Beverly’s tax rates are lower than Swampscott ($13.63), Wenham ($12.92), and Salem ($11.67).
  


• Educational Costs: According to the Massachusetts Dept. of Education’s 2007 figures, Beverly's per pupil expenditure was $11,210.67, which is below the state average of $11,864.91. Beverly spends less than Salem ($13,665), Manchester/Essex ($12,865), Lynn ($12,220), Chelsea ($12,199), and Hamilton Wenham ($12,100).

They also include quotes from the Superintendent and School Committee President:

“Over the past few years the Beverly Public Schools have faced difficult challenges, such as the closing of Memorial Middle School and the addition of many new fees. We have struggled to maintain programming, which has been challenging with dramatically rising costs in Special Education, utilities, and Health Care. I believe that without additional funds the cuts next year will be severe and irreversible. With an override, the school district can develop a plan for a future configuration that will be sustainable and appropriate. As an educator, parent, and School Committee President we need to show the community how much we value education here in Beverly.”

—School Committee President Annemarie Cesa

“The citizens of Beverly need to know that we are at a crossroads. Over the last several years we have chipped away and chipped away at the kind of education we should be providing the children of Beverly. The professionals we employ have done their best to adapt what they do with the resources they have and have “made it work.” We can make this reconfiguration work, too, but it will not be easy, and Beverly will not be providing the quality of education we aspire to. That difference in quality has a direct correlation to the perceived quality of a community. And that has a direct impact on all Beverly citizens. If you think these cuts to education don’t affect you, you are wrong. Yes, it costs a lot to educate a child; it costs even more if you don’t.”

—Superintendent Dr. James Hayes

Please go to yesforbeverly.org to read more or download a fact sheet here.

More Q & A with Dr. Hayes

The School Committee and Dr. Hayes held another public meeting last night to respond to questions submitted from the public. Sixty-nine specific questions were answered in detail in this prepared handout, and then summarized by Hayes and the panel.

Points of note were:

• Hannah, as well as Cove, is still being considered as the site for the ECC. In the handout, Hayes confirmed that Mayor Scanlon was considering having the city pay the estimated $700,000 cost of adding the two classrooms that would be necessary for Hannah to work as the ECC. The city would bond the construction costs over several years.
  
• The first cut to be restored should more funding be found would be the four-person team at Briscoe
  
• The school committee voted to form a parent and community panel to study the details of the plan and make a report within 3 weeks
• Hayes and the School Committee will present two final budgets by May 21, one with some form of the consolidation plan should the Override fail, and one with the current configuration should the Override pass
  

You can read more about the meeting here.

4/28 UPDATE: This Document was updated today with new responses from Mayor Scanlon.

Class Sizes Compared

The Salem News has a revealing article today that compares the average elementary school class size (grade 1-5 average) under Dr. Hayes proposal with other area cities and towns. It shows that Beverly's classes are already signifcantly larger than those cities, and under the new plan will jump dramatically higher.

Here are the statistics:

• Salem: 18.6
• Peabody: 20.5
• Danvers: 20.8
• Beverly (current): 22.6
• Beverly (under redistricting plan): 26.6

You can read the entire story here: