Crew’s Budget Aims to Cut Summer Class, Building Use
By Kathleen McGrory, The Miami Herald
Dec. 18–Summer school offerings could dwindle over the next four years, and 10 underenrolled elementary and middle schools could be shifted to other purposes, if the Miami-Dade School Board adopts Superintendent Rudy Crew’s new proposal to balance the district’s budget.
Crew unveiled his plan for cutting $240 million from the district’s ledger through the 2010-11 school year at a School Board budget workshop Monday at Jungle Island on Watson Island. It was met with mixed reviews from School Board members.
The most dramatic proposals, if adopted, wouldn’t go into effect right away. Among them:
Cutting $6.8 million from the district’s summer school program for the 2009-10 year. Classes would be offered only to third-grade students who have been held back, 12th-grade students who need to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and those students whose individualized education plans call for it.
Transforming 10 of the district’s lowest-enrolled elementary and middle schools into neighborhood learning centers or professional development facilities. The measure would save $12 million.
“We need to be fiscally conservative,” Crew said. “But we need to never forget that this is about the children and their movement through the system.”
The administration will have the opportunity to rework parts of the proposal and provide more details before bringing it back to the board in January.
The past several months have been tough financial times for the district. In November, schools officials slashed the budget by $32 million as a result of statewide budget cuts made by Florida legislators. And declining enrollment in Miami-Dade schools, when coupled with a slumping economy, will likely result in reductions in funding from Tallahassee.
Further complicating the district’s financial woes is the property tax proposal that will be the Jan. 29 ballot.
While state legislators have said the relief package won’t affect Florida’s public schools, district officials worry it could spell further cuts for classrooms.
The situation might have been worse: The district maintains a six-member department — which costs about $400,000 to run annually — devoted to securing state, federal and private grants. It has written roughly $500 million in grants over the past three years, Associate Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
On Monday, Crew suggested dozens of money-saving measures that run the gamut.
Shutting down computers overnight, for example, could save the district $3 million a year, he said. And reducing security at the School Board Administration Building could save another half-million dollars.
While those proposed measures were met with widespread approval from board members, others, such as slashing the transportation budget for students attending magnet programs, raised eyebrows.
“We’re going to be impacting really needy children,” board member Ana Rivas Logan said of the proposal. “And we’re going to be hearing about it.”
After the meeting, board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla expressed his support for any plan that brings greater efficiency and fiscal accountability to the district.
“We’ve been through worse economic times and still we recovered,” he said. “The economy is bound to get better.”
Still, School Board member Marta Perez responded with skepticism.
“We may be talking the talk, but are we really walking the walk?” she asked, noting recent spending on security at the School Board Administration Building, overtime and district marketing campaigns.
“If we are really serious about the budget, we should also reflect that in our actions,” she said.
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