Principals Upset By Abrupt Cuts In School Aid; Claim Central DOE Programs Should Have Gone First

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

Mid-year cuts to schools that totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars for the largest ones threw Principals and staff into chaos last week as the money was removed from their budgets with 12 hours' warning.

The Chief-Leader/Katie Orlinsky CUTS WITHOUT WARNING: United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten (center) and Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan (far right) held a joint press conference on the steps of City Hall Jan. 31 to decry the $100 million worth of cuts to city schools. 'This is where we miss having an independent Chancellor,' said Ms. Weingarten, 'not someone who's appointed by the Mayor.'

Pointing to signs of an economic downturn, Mayor Bloomberg cut the schools, and all other city agencies, by 2.5 percent for the current fiscal year, and proposed a 5-percent cut for next year. Principals arrived at school Jan. 31 to find cuts made to their on-line budgeting systems of 1.75 percent, totaling between $9,000 and $447,587 per school.

'There Goes Tutoring'

"The tutoring program will be the first thing to go," said Vanguard High School Principal Louis Delgado. "There's a lot of pressure to improve, and I was okay with that kind of pressure, but if you have high expectations you have to have support systems in place."

The 15-year veteran Principal said that about 300 of his 400 students took advantage of the after-school tutoring program in the fall and that he thought he would have to cut that number in half.

If passed by the City Council, schools will absorb an additional 3.5-percent cut next year. "I will have a much easier time addressing the 3.5 than I will the 1.75 in the middle of the school year," Mr. Delgado said.

He was also considering cutting back on instructional supplies for a new nuclear chemistry course and materials for science labs.

Other Principals said they had not yet decided what they would cut.

Unhappy Choices

"This was not the choice we were supposed to be making in this year of education and with an education Mayor," said a Principal who runs a high-needs school in Brooklyn. "Do I cut after-school programs? Do I excess a Teacher? These are not choices."

Several Principals contacted did not want their names used for fear of retribution.

The Mayor announced in his Jan. 24 budget address that he would cut $180 million from the Department of Education this year and $324 million next year. The cuts for next year are included in his budget and must be agreed to by the City Council. The decreases this year were done by executive order and need no approval.

Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm e-mailed Principals on Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m. notifying them that their budgets would be cut by the following day. "Unfortunately, the 2.5% funding reduction cannot be absorbed solely by cutting from the central administrative budgets," she wrote. "We must also cut from schools' 2007-08 budgets."

'Why Not Consult Us?'

Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan was joined by United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and several Councilmen and advocates on the steps of City Hall Jan. 31 to protest the move.

"Is there a cash-flow crisis that we had to snatch the money up this morning? Is there something we have to pay tomorrow?" Mr. Logan asked. "I think that what we could have used was some consultation with Principals in schools, with the school community to say what's the best way to absorb these cuts."

The Mayor said the cuts would have "no impact whatsoever" when asked about them in a speech the same day at Google's Manhattan offices. "I know of no organization where you couldn't squeeze out 1.7 percent, or even a lot more," he said.

The union leaders and advocates argued that more money could have come out of central administration, pointing to funding being used for testing, assessments and consultants. Mr. Logan questioned why school quality reviews were being performed by a company in Britain at a high expense when the expertise to perform the same services existed closer to home. "I'm not saying that we're not in a fiscal crisis," he said. "What I'm saying is that there are ways to do this."

No In-House Resistance

Ms. Weingarten asserted that the cut was going to be felt doubly hard, given the proposed cuts to increased funding expected by the state. And she argued that the current system of mayoral control had dampened the ability of the school system's management to protect the schools from cuts.

"This is where we miss having an independent Board of Education," she said. "This is where we miss having an independent Chancellor, not someone who's appointed by the mayor."

She contrasted the approach by the Department of Education to the cuts to that of other Bloomberg administration managers who were working with the Municipal Labor Committee to find health care savings by combining drug plans.

When told of Mayor Bloomberg's opinion that the cuts would have no impact, one Bronx Principal sighed with exasperation. "I wish these people would come to a school just for one day," she said. "If he can cut $200,000 without damaging education in my building, more power to him."