Balancing Educational Excellence and Fiscal Prudence

Budget Message from David Quattrone, Superintendent of Schools

Last October the Bronxville Board of Education established a goal to “conduct a comprehensive budget review that minimizes taxpayer expense. Budget options resulting in flat or lower taxes will be considered.” This goal stemmed not only from the immediate financial pressures of recession and economic turmoil, but also from the cumulative effects of rising costs that have outstripped inflation -- especially in the area of salaries and benefits.

Our spending plan supports the programs and services we have developed to “bring out the best in all students”. Over the years previous Boards of Education have reviewed and endorsed these efforts, and we are proud of the results. Nevertheless, with finite – perhaps dwindling – resources available, it becomes necessary to reexamine current practice and find new, more cost effective ways to accomplish our objectives.

Unfortunately, creating a sustainable model of excellence in a time of fiscal austerity does not fall entirely within our local control. A partial list of what we don’t control includes:

• Local property taxes as the basis for financing schools
• Local property assessments and tax certioraris
• State aid formula
• Mandated academic programs, including time requirements
• Special education
• Employer contributions to the state retirement system
• Collective bargaining, labor relations law, and existing contracts
• School construction requirements
• Utility rates
• Health premiums.

Because these forces place upward pressure on school budgets, local Boards of Education necessarily turn to the variables they can control in order to contain costs: class size, the number and type of staff members employed, administrative and clerical support, academic electives, and co-curricular/athletic programs. The problem is that these options have direct impact on educational quality and the lives of students and staff. Faced with unpalatable alternatives, Boards of Education sometimes look for ways to re-trench and narrow the mission of the schools. Yet, if we hope to support our highest aspirations for students, it becomes important for us not simply to react to an immediate budget crisis but to adopt a long range view of the future. How will today’s actions affect tomorrow’s students? These challenges confront us now.

Last Year

In February of 2009, our initial budget showed an increase of 3.6%. After Board review the increase dropped to 1.1%. The reductions largely fell in the area of efficiencies such as flood-related expenses and salary savings associated with a negotiated retirement incentive. Enrollment patterns permitted a 1.0 downward adjustment at the Middle School. A .6 administrator position was not replaced. The Board applied $400,000 of fund balance to offset the tax levy. Throughout this process the Board of Education declined to eliminate enrichment programs or increase class size beyond existing guidelines. In May, voters approved the proposed budget by a wide margin.

Later in the spring, as course enrollments were finalized and other vacancies occurred, the administration made still further reductions by hiring new teachers at lower salaries or by deciding not to fill certain positions at all (including full time social studies and science teachers and a part-time computer teacher at the High School). Taken together, these reductions and efficiencies generated lower-than-expected expenses for 2009-10 and set the stage for the current budget cycle.

This Year: The Rollover Budget

The initial budget for 2010-11 reflects the priorities imbedded in the school and district presentations made over the past four months. Those presentations described current staffing levels, the scope of mandated academic programs, the enrichment programs that go beyond minimum requirements, and the student services that help all students achieve. The schools and district also described our future direction – professional development that supports our global education initiative, an improving school climate, and continued progress on the strategic plan completed in 2005.

To operate the same programs in 2010-11 as we offer today would result in a budget-to-budget increase of 1.23%. This “rollover budget” includes everything we currently know about utility rates, health premiums, contractual salary obligations, retirement contributions, and the cost of contracted services. Because we are in negotiations with four bargaining units, with unknown results, this rollover budget includes no wage increases beyond the step increases that are built into several contracts. In addition, a variety of operational spending cuts and a special retirement incentive also lowered the rollover costs.

Getting to Zero

To meet our budget goal will require a further reduction of approximately $540,000 (0% budget increase) or $1,180,000 (0% tax rate – reflecting declining property assessments). We have presented for Board discussion a series of options that could meet those targets. These options fall in three categories: (1) efficiencies, (2) program reductions, and (3) structural changes.


Some of these budget options will have more advocacy (or more opposition) than others. However, popular support is not the same thing as arriving at a decision that makes the best sense for all students rather than a few. Some decisions that seem attractive today may not hold up well in the future. We should anticipate opportunity costs or other unintended consequences, such as the need to retain and nurture faculty leadership across the district.

Next Year

Even if the economy rebounds, the District will again face a need to contain costs in the 2011 budget, and the adverse pressures are likely to increase. Revenues in the form of state aid are likely to decline. Health care costs are likely to rise. If salary agreements are negotiated successfully, any wage increases or other contractual obligations must be factored into our planning. If the Board elects to use fund balance to offset the tax rate in 2010, what will be available in the future? After two years of belt tightening, there will be fewer opportunities for additional trimming in supplies and equipment. Without a retirement incentive, we will not be able to replicate the salary savings we realized in 2009 and 2010. Our five year building conditions survey may identify additional facilities needs that require attention.

Tough Choices

The Board will undoubtedly weigh its options in terms of how each program, service, or resource contributes to our mission. Some questions to consider are listed below.

What is the relevant history of the positions, programs, or services under consideration?
What previous productivity improvements or reductions have been carried out in this area?
What are the key results in terms of student learning, costs, and satisfaction?
What are the short- and long-term consequences of a reduction?

• Implementation challenges
• Legal and contractual
• Practical – who will do the work? What will not get done?
• What are the longer-range consequences?

A key premise is that quality of education remains a distinctive feature of the Bronxville community and a principal reason why people choose to live here. In that context I return to the three common characteristics of the world’s top performing schools cited by McKinsey and Company: (1) The selection and retention of the best possible teachers; (2) ongoing professional development that ensures consistent, high quality instruction; and (3) early intervention and support services that lead to the success of all students. We cannot translate these attributes into precise criteria for decision-making. But by looking at our budget through the lens of educational excellence we can do our best to avoid irreversible error and ensure that what we do today preserves our capacity for improvement and high achievement in the years to come.

Bronxville Students Soak in Ancient History at New York City Museum

The region separating China from Europe and Western Asia is not the most hospitable, yet for more than 7,000 years, the Silk Road, which runs through much of it, was the means by which silk and other exotic goods were transported.

While visiting the American Museum of Natural History’s exhibition, “Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World,” approximately 200 ninth- and 10^th-graders from the Bronxville Schools had the opportunity Feb. 1 to get a glimpse into the sights and sounds of this ancient route.

The exhibit takes visitors along the Silk Road, which began in Xi’an, capital of the Tang Dynasty, to Turfan, a bustling oasis at the edge of the desert, to Samarkand (in present-day Uzbekistan), the home of prosperous merchants, and on to Baghdad, a meeting place for scholars, scientists and philosophers.

The excursion was organized by instructors Dr. Lee DiTullio, Dana Landesman and Christina Reidel to highlight the importance of the Silk Road and to incorporate the various activities students have been doing in all disciplines these past few months.

Life-size camels laden with worn canvas sacs greet visitors entering the exhibit. It wasn’t difficult for the students to imagine the animals and their owners stretching out across the harsh Taklamakan Desert of Central Asia, often traveling part of the journey at night to avoid the scorching heat. The Silk Road passes through regions whose temperatures range from minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit to more than 120.

As the students moved ahead, they came across bowls of mulberry leaves on which scores of white worms were gnawing. An exhibit on silk production drew their attention, and they learned that about 5,000 years ago, the Chinese Empress Hsi Ling Shi, while drinking tea in her garden, discovered a small cocoon in her teacup. As she fished it out, the cocoon unwound into a single shimmering silk strand. Gathering more cocoons, the Empress decided to plunge them into hot water, unravel the strands and begin to weave the world’s first silk cloth.

Later, students came across what looked like an outdoor market with barrels filled with the scent of rose petals, jasmine oil and the patchouli plant. Dazzling gemstones, fresh fruits and aromatic spices, luxurious furs, and an assortment of fabrics were commonly sold at such markets, they learned. Further on, they gathered around an interactive map to get a bird’s eye view of the Silk Road.

Throughout the exhibit, students were required to complete a travel journal of their experiences, collecting various stamps along the way and answering a variety of questions on different areas of the curriculum. Naming three famous Arab mathematicians and briefly describing their achievements was one, as was describing the contributions of Arab mathematicians to the development of the field, and calculating how many possible routes travelers could take along the Silk Road.

Other fascinating aspects of the exhibit included its focus on the evolution of various scientific instruments, such as the water clock, and the transportation of paper, which opened up a “remarkable age of writing, reading and learning,” noted the exhibition. Its mention of the Baghdad scholars whose studies of math and astronomy “helped form the foundation for science in the West” was also an important lesson for the Bronxville students.

Tenth-graders Catherine Bianco, Christina Dave, Ally Malamut, and Caroline Willis all enjoyed visiting the exhibit. “It was also very useful and informative for us because it basically enabled us to recap a lot of what we learned in the ninth grade,” said one of them.

Teachers from several other departments accompanied the group, including biology teacher Amy Bastone, art teacher Joanne Dalsimer, Spanish instructor Patrick Miele, and others. The trip also ties into the district’s efforts to infuse global education throughout all three schools. Students will be required to create individual projects based on what they learned during the trip. It will culminate in a “Silk Road Symposium” scheduled for later in the spring.

Also on Feb. 1, juniors and seniors back at the high school participated in a special initiative on the world’s water problems. Activities included watching the movie “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” and listening to a presentation from Heidi Paul, corporate vice president of the Nestle Water Company. The students later divided into smaller groups to hear Tobias Siegfried of the Columbia University Water Center; Peter Crowther of IBM, who talked about the “Great Rivers Project;” Amy Hurley, head of the Westchester County Recycling Program; a representative from Green Waste Solutions; and a farmer who grows “green crops” and sells produce at the Bronxville Farmers Market.

This was the fourth consecutive year of Bronxville High School’s “Education & Awareness Day” series, which is planned each year by both the students and their teachers. Previous years have focused on global warming, human rights and world hunger.

Rollover Budget Shows 1.23% Increase

Assistant Superintendent Dan Carlin gave the Board of Education a preview of a 1.23% budget to budget increase in the school budget for next year. This "rollover budget" of $44.6 million represents what it would cost in 2010-2011 to operate the same programs and services as are in place now, including known salary obligations, health benefit costs, utility rates, and retirement contributions. The projected increase is less than half of the budget-to-budget increase presented last year, and in percentage terms it is considerably lower than other Westchester School districts.

The rollover budget would be substantially higher had it not been for salary savings accruing from retirement incentives, unfilled vacancies, streamlined services, and other actions taken over the past year. It includes no funds for teacher salary increases other than the step advances required by law. Teachers, custodians, aides, and the clerical unit all have contracts that expire in June 2010, and negotiations have begun.

Getting to Zero

Last October the Board approved a financial goal that reads as follows:

Conduct a comprehensive budget review that minimizes taxpayer expense. Budget options resulting in flat and lower taxes will be considered.

To reach 0%, the Board must reduce the rollover budget by about $542,000. At the February 6th budget workshop, the administration will present a series of budget options based on the school profiles prepared by the principals. These profiles - available in the archives of this newsletter - describe the staffing levels, mandated programs, enrichment programs, and student services available at each school. The budget options prepared for the Board spell out possible productivity improvements, program reductions, and structural changes.

These budget options will be discussed and communicated over the next two months until a final budget is ready for Board approval. All workshops and regular meetings are open to the public.

Board Considers Outsourcing Custodial Services

One budget option before the Board of Education is outsourcing custodial services. The district currently uses third party vendors for food services, technology management, and supplementary cleaning services. Now the Board has issued a request for proposals to expand the scope of outsourcing to include the night crew of cleaners and part of the day crew. Excluded from the proposals are supervisors, maintenance mechanics, and the grounds crew (i.e., these functions would continue to be provided by district employees.).

It is anticipated that outsourcing these services would generate considerable savings, therefore alleviating the pressure to reduce the number of teachers or shrink certain academic programs. In addition to cost, Superintendent David Quattrone stated that the Board needs to consider issues of quality (cleanliness, responsiveness, satisfaction), flexibility (special events, emergencies), management control, risk (safety and security), knowledge of the facility, and human factors. Prompted by Board member Pierre de Ste. Phalle, Quattrone added that he will present the Board with potential reductions that cut across all employee groups, including not only custodial staff but also teachers, clerical staff, coaches/club advisers, and administrative support.

At the January Board meeting, a large number of faculty and staff attended to show support for retaining current custodial employees. Ten staff members spoke in the public commentary section of the Board agenda, urging the Board to reject the outsourcing approach. Many speakers focused on safety and security concerns. Others mentioned the personal attention and team approach of the current staff. Some speakers cited the special contribution the facilities staff made after the 2007 flood and the current negotiations with the custodial unit. Others cautioned the Board to consider long-term costs, not just short term savings.

The Board will make a decision about outsourcing later in the budget process, in the context of other options and budget needs.