Notes from the Field

Submitted by Frank Murphy, April 19, 2011

The affairs of the Philadelphia School District have been generating a considerable amount of news as of late.  A bomb threat at the district headquarters, potential school closings, charter school fraud, IRS problems for the superintendent, are a few of the breaking stories. But the top story continues to be the District’s $620 million budget deficit. To deal with this gap, considerable cuts will have to be made to current expenditures.  This means that virtually all instructional and non-instructional programs will be affected and considerable cuts in personnel will occur.

Even when faced with this fiscal Tsunami, Superintendent Ackerman is still determined to protect her costly Imagine 2014 plan.  In particular she is intent on proceeding to create 10 new Promise Academies in addition to the 8 already in operation. According to the Philadelphia Public School Notebook the estimated additional expenses of operating 18 Promise Academies will exceed $30 million.

Most of this money will be used to compensate the staff of these schools for the extra hour per day they are required to work as well as an eleventh month to their school year. The revenue that will be required to accomplish this objective will have to be drawn from other program sources.  The price tag for the experimental Promise Academies is hefty.  Is it worth the cost, particularly when it will drain resources from other critical areas of the district budget?

Here are several possible options of targeted programs that the district might decide to cut in order to raise the thirty million dollars necessary to fund the Promise Academies.  The cost and number of positions cited were drawn from the budget requests for the current budget year.

Option 1  Possible Program Cuts

Athletics                                                                                 7,631,048

Itinerant Instrumental Music Program                                        8,334,748

All High School Non-Teaching Assistants                                  3,015,324

Educational Technology                                                          11,586,048

Total: $30,567,168

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Option 2  Possible Program Cuts

All Noon Time Aides                                                                    9,972,606

(1,342 positions)

All Service Support Assistants                                                     7,862,583

(810 positions)

All Classroom Assistants                                                             1,012,325

(38 positions)

All Non Teaching Assistants                                                         5,212, 615

(135 positions)

Extra Curricular/Clubs All Schools                                                  6,281,664

Total: $29,038,170

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Option 3  Possible Program Cuts

All School Police (439 positions)                                                17,517,523

All Psychologists  (100 positions)                                                13,119,514

Total: $30,637,037

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Option 4  Possible Program Cuts

All Maintenance and Repair Staff

(400.7 positions)                                                                        19,613,119

All Full Time  Librarians

(55.3 positions)                                                                           4,212,436

All Non Teaching Assistants

(135 positions)                                                                             5,212,615

Total: $29,038,170

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Option 5  Possible Program Cuts

Classroom Teachers (330 positions)

Total : $30,030,000

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Option 6  Possible Program Cuts

School Nurses  (310 positions)

Total: $31,387,869

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Option 7  Possible Program Cuts

10-month counselors (485 positions)

Total: $33,066,535

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Music, athletics and educational technologies are all likely targets that could provide cost savings.  It is conceivable that these program areas could be wiped out.

Cutting all of the personnel from any one particular job category is hardly a realistic possibility.  But in order to provide extra services to Promise Academies, a number of positions from each category will have to be cut from all of the other district schools.

Given the devastation to most of the District’s schools that would occur, one must ask, is the benefit that might be derived by the students in the Promise Academies worth the harm that will be imposed on all other students in the district who lose services?