No Savings in De-magnitizing

On March 3, 2018, at Wooster Middle school, the Stratford Board of Education and public were shown a presentation regarding cuts to transportation and other cost savings measures. The presentation was presented by the Board of Education administration, specifically, Cheif Opperating Officer Clarence Zachery.

Mr. Zachery stated at the presentation that the Board needed $114,087,761 which includes a 4.69% increase from last year. On March 3rd(2018) the Board agreed on a $111,887,761 budget to send to the Town Council and Mayor for approval. This proposed budget creates a $2.2 million shortfall. The Stratford Board of Education did not receive any additional decrease in funding from the state for the next fiscal year. Mr. Zachery stated that this cut was based on 'assumed cost saving initiatives'. These include; consolidating classrooms by laying off teachers and combining classes. This would save an estimated $812,000. Retirements; 6 teachers are confirmed to retire with another 6 teachers still deciding. This would save an estimated $638,000. To close the remaining gap, the administration is proposing cutting transportation.

Mr. Zachery made the claim that "23 busses go in and out of the Stratford Academy neighborhood." He claims that the cost of this is $1.5 million dollars and says that we spend $314.00 per bus, per day. Simple math shows that this is incorrect. The annual cost of 23 busses at $314.00 a day for 180 days is actually $1,299,960. He is also incorrect that 23 busses are from that area. The number is actually 15, which he states at a later time during the meeting.

The presentation included spreadsheets detailing base schools (neighborhood schools) and how many students are actually attending, and what minority percentages would be at each base school.

These charts showed that Lordship school would be at 19% and not within legal limits for racial balancing. Franklin, Wilcoxin, Stratford Academy, and Eli Whitney would be very close to not being in compliance. Mr Zachery stated only " certain areas of town are organtically balanced." The Board would still need to bus students from base schools to be in compliance. Mr. Zachery also stated that the Board can leave the SA neighborhood students currently in Lordship elementary as they help balance the school. The Board can remove the 3 busses that go from the SA neighborhood to Lordship from the equation. Mr. Zachery states that the total number of busses from the Southend is 15. Not 23, 15. Mr. Zachery also informed the Board that both Nichols school and Stratford Academy have more base children than their schools can hold. Due to this, the Board would also need to bus those children to other elementary schools. Nichols currently has 606 base students and Stratford Academy currently has 1074 base students.

Mr Zachery suggested to the Board that they could bus overflow Stratford Academy base students to the 3 elementary schools that are not at capacity (Lordship, Chapel, Second Hill Lane).

The solution proposed by the Administration was to cut busses at the "tier one" level. This is mainly compromised of high school, parochial and vocational schools. It was stated that nothing else can be done until busses are cut from the top. Mr. Zachery proposed consolidating routes. He says there are busses with 30-40 kids and some with just 16. He proposed having parochial students go on the same bus as public school students, having an earlier start time for high school, and having Nichols and Wilcoxin start the same time as the high schools. These are good suggestions. These are viable suggestions. However, there is no legitimate reason to De-magnitize our only magnet school. There are no cost savings with that measure. Since we know that we would still need to bus children from two neighborhoods because their schools are at capacity, we know we cannot cut enough busses to warrant de-magnitizing. There are other options the Board should look at. We could do something as simple as enrolling a higher percentage of Stratford Academy neighborhood children into the Academy and then bus the remainder to one or two of our overflow schools. This would cut back on the amount of busses going from North to South and students wouldn't be as widely spread out.

The reality is that de-magnitizing and 'realignment' aren't about savings. Any savings we do incurr will not trickle down to our children in the form of enrichment programs. The reality is that our Board of Education administration isn't being transparent and they aren't being held accountable. We should not be talking about any of this without seeing the financials or an operational audit. We elected members of the Board of Education because we believed that they would do what is in the best interest of our kids. Voting for this and voting to not grandfather in currently enrolled children is not in the best interest of any child.

Edit: This article was updated to reflect correct information regarding racial balancing percentages. Numbers show were not for currently attending children, they were based on the base children at each school and what the percentage would be if only those children went to their base school.