Spring ritual: School-budget balancing act

AS SCHOOL District of Philadelphia officials present their 2008-09 budget to City Council this morning, parents, students and education advocates are anxious about the projected $38.9 million deficit that the officials have yet to erase from the document.

In interviews Friday, school officials insisted the $2.3 billion budget would be balanced by the time the district's governing School Reform Commission adopts it May 28, less than five weeks before the new fiscal year begins July 1.

But despite their confidence, the officials could not say what would be cut from the budget, or whether the city and state would provide additional funding to the 167,000-student district.

"What is that supposed to mean for us?" asked a frustrated Gerald Wright, a parent leader at John Story Jenks School, in Chestnut Hill. "We're trying to get technology at our school - but we can't even begin to plan for that, when we don't know what the district says are its priorities and what's supposed to get cut."

Wright is a member of Parents United for Public Education, an independent citywide group of public-school parents "focused on creating an open and transparent budget process," as its Web site says.

James P. Doosey, the school district's interim chief financial officer, said the pending cuts are a "process" that is being worked on by the city and state.

"They are not ready at this time to put anything on the table for people to look at," said Doosey. "The SRC has committed to presenting the details to the public in a sufficient time frame for them to opine on it."

Today's hearing - which begins at 10 a.m. and is to conclude tomorrow - is the first of three at which the public can learn about budget developments. The others are to be held at the district's administration building, at 440 N. Broad St., at 5 p.m. May 7 and following the SRC's regular 1 p.m. meeting May 14.

Despite the funding shortfall, school officials said, the district's financial picture has dramatically improved since February 2007, when the deficit stood at $181 million. An aggressive deficit-reduction plan that included administrative layoffs and academic-program cuts retired most of that deficit.

The remaining shortfall on the books this year - about $21 million - is the result of unforeseen factors, school officials said: increased debt service due to Wall Street turmoil this spring, diesel-fuel and utility-rate increases and enrollment increases in state-approved cyber charter schools.

This, coupled with a projected structural imbalance in next year's budget of $17.8 million comprises the current $38.9 million deficit.

"I'm confident that we can minimize the impact to education and balance the budget," Tom Brady, the district's interim chief executive officer, said Friday.

But some believe the budget already contains cuts that would hurt students.

One proposal to save $4.27 million has riled parents and students. It calls for the school district to provide SEPTA TransPasses to seventh- through 12th-graders living at least 2 miles from school instead of 1.5 miles, as is the practice this year.

If this proposal goes through, 6,700 students, according to district officials, would be dropped from the free-ride program that began this past fall with much fanfare from Gov. Rendell and school officials.

"I thought the idea was to keep our middle- and high-school students in school," said Aissia Richardson, whose daughter attends Girard Academic Music Program. "Why is this deficit being financed on our backs?"

Richardson estimated that the cost to each student of losing the free transportation service would be at least $720 a year.

But Wayne Harris, the school district's budget director, said the TransPass issue has not yet been decided.

"This is not a settled issue, it's an assumption," Harris said. "The [SRC] asked for options in order to meet the . . . budget. They have not made a commitment that this is the way they will go to control transportation costs."

More certain is that the school district will spend $11.2 million to hire 126 teachers to reduce kindergarten-through-third-grade classes in 35 schools that have failed to make progress goals for five straight years, according to the budget proposal.

Some parents are upset, however, that another 151 teaching positions are being eliminated due to a loss in student enrollment of 3,303 across the city.

"The district has stated that reduced class size is a priority, but we can't say we're honestly making advances when one set of gains [is] offset by another," said Helen Gym, a mother of three and a member of Parents United for Public Education.

Gym said the district could save teaching positions and put more money into classrooms if it reduced the size of its many contracts with school-management organizations and firms that operate alternative disciplinary schools.

"Contracts have been out of control for a long time. The district simply does not have the capacity to monitor them, and we end up paying," she said.

Another $4 million will be spent to provide every school with art and music teachers, which would make good on a pledge made by the reform commission last year.

Charter schools will receive an increase of $41.5 million, boosting their total funding to $296 million, Doosey said.

Two new schools will open in the fall, bringing to 63 the number of charters in the city. Combined, they will enroll 34,351 students.

Also growing is the cost of cyber charter schools, which are approved by the state. The school district will spend $24 million to educate 2,658 children who will be enrolled in those schools, officials said.

Although City Council does not vote on the school district's budget, city law requires school officials to present their budget each year. Of the $2.3 billion budget, about 60 percent comes from state tax dollars, 40 percent from the city's.

Nearly $500 million in additional money comes from grants, school officials said.