Magic Kingdom Tax Hike For CMS?
The school board’s vote to delay a decision on Bright Beginnings’ future sets the table for what is almost certain to be an aggressive lobbying effort to convince county commissioners to find enough money to salvage the program.
Gorman was already laying that groundwork Tuesday night.
“I heard people saying today that there’s no support coming,” he said. “This is the time to step up. The county commission is heading towards a retreat where they’re going to talk about budget priorities.”
Commissioners, in fact, have already floated ideas for funneling additional money into CMS. Last week, at the prompting of Commissioner George Dunlap, they discussed the possibility of setting aside up to $15 million and crafting an agreement with CMS officials that the money be used for Bright Beginnings.
But without cuts to other parts of the county budget, that additional revenue for CMS would likely have to come through some type of tax increase, said Commissioner Bill James.
In addition to delaying a vote Tuesday night on Bright Beginnings, school board member Joyce Waddell made a motion to also postpone a vote on changing the district’s weighted student staffing formula. That motion was defeated with only Waddell, Tom Tate and Richard McElrath in support.
Instead, on a 6-2 vote with Waddell and Tate in dissent, the board approved eliminating nearly $8 million in money funneled largely to high-poverty schools to provide extra teachers. The cut would eliminate 134 teacher positions at those schools.
“I fear again that this is going to be seen as one of those things is seeking to balance the budget on the backs of those of our most needy students,” Tate said. “I don’t think we need to do that.”
Waddell echoed that sentiment.
“Most of our cuts, a lot of the cuts when we closed the schools, affected a certain segment of this community,” she said. “And here we are again, affecting the same educationally disadvantaged students.”
As CMS’s budget has declined over the last several years, however, the percentage of the budget for weighted student staffing has actually increased, Gorman said. That holds true even after Tuesday’s approved cuts.
“This may seem hollow to some, but we’re still allocating 670 teachers and $40 million above formula to this,” Gorman said. “Some might rightly say, ‘and it’s still not enough.’ I understand that; but in times of looking at the choices we got, I think this is the best choice to make.”
The same rationale appeared to be the driving force behind the board’s decision Tuesday night to move forward with changing the start and dismissal times (bell schedules) for more than a hundred elementary schools and a handful of high schools and middle schools.
The move will lengthen the elementary school day by 45 minutes and save $4 million in transportation costs by more closely aligning those schools’ bus routes with staggered bell schedules.
Board member Kaye McGarry cast the only vote against the changes, citing concerns that teachers would not receive any additional pay for the extra classroom work and would have to carve the additional time from their planning hours to fill the gap.
“Extending the school day could improve learning if support is there, but I’m not sure we’ve done enough planning to ensure it will be,” McGarry said. “I’m not convinced that this proposal is not just good for transportation, but not good for kids and families.”
Other board members said they empathized with the inconvenience new bell schedules could cause for some families, but that the money saved through the changes could save teacher jobs.
“There are no easy answers and there are some others that could be much more devastating than this is,” Waddell said. “So sometimes we have to live with this until we get more money. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be permanent or forever.”
Quick, Tinker Bell, grab your wallet.
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