D’Auria paints ‘grim picture’ of cuts, fee hikes

By Jay Turner

Saddled with a potential shortfall as high as $1.5 million in the coming fiscal year, School Superintendent Dr. John D’Auria informed School Committee members last week that he had no choice but to insert a “bunch of bad ideas” into his recommendations for the FY2011 operating budget — lowlighted by the elimination of more than 18 full-time positions and the return of bus user fees.

The recommendations, which he had shared with school staff earlier in the day, represented almost a complete reversal from FY09, when the schools, bolstered by a $4.55 million Proposition 2 ½ override, had succeeded in restoring nearly two dozen teacher positions and eliminating or reducing most user fees.

According to D’Auria, whose “grim picture” came in the form of a lengthy PowerPoint presentation Thursday night, a substantial portion of the additional money secured by the override — $717,960 to be exact — has been diverted to “fill holes” in the FY10 and FY11 budgets caused by cuts in state aid and other “reduced revenue streams.”

Combine that with a growing structural deficit tied to out-of-district special education costs and a possible further reduction in state aid next year, and the schools could soon be nearing pre-override service levels.

Refusing to sugarcoat matters, the superintendent prefaced his list of proposed cuts by warning that “from this point on I have nothing to tell you other than bad ideas; there’s nothing good in what I have to say.”

He also detailed the impacts of each cut, ranging from higher class sizes and fewer elective offerings to reduced counseling services and even dirtier buildings.

All told, D’Auria’s cut list included the equivalent of 18.3 full-time staff positions — 6.7 at the elementary level, three at the middle school, 3.6 at CHS, 1.5 system-wide, and 3.5 “support staff” positions. He also proposed a reduction in capital spending, supplies (including technology supplies), and the reduction of one bus, as well as a $25 increase in the athletic user fee and a return to bus fees for students in grades 7 through 12.

D’Auria said his recommendations reflected a “worst-case premise” and that school officials were working very hard to find additional sources of revenue, but he stressed that the larger problem — rising special education costs — is not going to fix itself.

In fact, more than $1.2 million of next year’s total projected deficit of $1.5 million comes from legally mandated special education services, and $225,000 of that figure are for proposed “in-district new needs,” including $120,000 to educate six new preschoolers with special needs and $55,000 to hire a life skills teacher at Canton High School to accommodate the school’s growing autistic population.

And the trend is hardly just a local one, as D’Auria presented graphs showing a similar dramatic spike in the number of autism cases both nationally and statewide, particularly since 2000. In Canton alone, the number of cases nearly doubled between 2007 and 2011, while the cost of the district’s autism spectrum services rose at an annual clip of more than 15 percent and will top $1 million in FY11.

At the same time, D’Auria said Canton has been proactive in its efforts to control costs, and that includes the proposed new CHS program, which he said will cost $371,000 over the next four years compared to $1.77 million if the same students were educated out of district.

“I don’t see this as developing a Cadillac program,” he said. “I see this as doing the right thing for the children and being fiscally [responsible].”

D’Auria noted that Canton is also one of the few school districts that charge tuition to out-of-town residents who want to utilize its highly successful autism programs. “I can count on one hand in the state how many districts do that,” he said.

Besides the new needs in special education, the one other area that the superintendent proposed significant new spending ($55,000) was for professional training and support to help usher in a new “comprehensive English Language Arts approach” at all three elementary schools.

“We need to guarantee to the parents, whether they go to the Luce or the JFK or the Hansen, that they are getting an equivalent education,” said D’Auria, adding that the new program, which also requires a substantial capital investment in textbooks and materials, cannot be implemented by “simply reading the teacher’s edition.”

Following the superintendent’s presentation, School Committee Chairman Reuki Schutt thanked him for providing a thorough overview of the budget picture but suggested that alterations will likely be considered in the coming weeks. Regardless of who or what gets cut, committee member Robert Barker said it will be like choosing “between road kill and rotten fish.”

Meanwhile, school officials still have an existing deficit of more than $400,000 to worry about, and they are running out of time as the budget must be balanced before the close of the fiscal year on June 30.

The deficit actually went up since Business Manager Ken Leon gave his last report because the district had four new collaborative school placements, adding to the seven new out-of-district placements that Canton inherited between January and March 2009.

Earlier this year, the School Committee submitted a town meeting article requesting additional funds to close the projected shortfall, but as Schutt pointed out, they still need to develop a list of cuts in the event that the funds are not approved.

Of course, if that were the case, the deficit would need to be made up between April and June, resulting in far deeper cuts than if they were implemented at the start of the school year.

Committee members agreed to discuss the specifics of the current budget at their next meeting on February 25, while Schutt said she would draft a letter to both the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee reminding them of the schools’ predicament.

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