City: School Closures Save at Least $7.7 Million

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Thursday, August 04, 2011

Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor

The city administration yesterday defended the school closures after the former president of the school board suggested the process was an unnecessary ordeal that would not save as much money as once thought.

Kathleen Crain, the former school board president, said the biggest benefit to the school closures would be in cutting the cost of the salaries and benefits of the teachers who would be terminated in the process. But under the new tentative contract with the teachers that was announced earlier this week the teachers are guaranteed that there will be no layoffs or terminations over the next three years. That provision undermines the savings from the closures, Crain suggested.

“It was all for nothing,” she said in an interview with GoLocalProv.

(Click here for the full list of school closures and other changes to schools.)

Yesterday Mayor Angel Taveras’ office insisted the savings would still be substantial—at least $7.7 million based on official city figures.

40 teachers without a school

But his office did confirm that the combination of closing four schools with the guarantee of no terminations left about 40 teachers who would need to be re-assigned to other positions in the district. Spokesman David Ortiz said those displaced teachers will be put into “administrative positions and classroom support positions” based on the need of students.

“For example, several teachers are going to be assigned support roles at the elementary schools where enrollment is very high but there is only one principal,” Ortiz said. “These individuals will provide day-to-day support to help principals cope with the increase in enrollment. Others will be assigned duties such as tutoring and in classroom support roles. The district needs the help and each individual will be fully deployed.”

City: Savings between $7.7 million and $9.7 million

But the city still saved $3.7 million just in transportation, utilities, custodial, maintenance, and the elimination of other non-teaching positions in the closed schools, the Mayor’s office said.

Plus, if the four closed schools had been kept open, Ortiz said the city would still have had to fill 40 to 60 teaching positions left vacant by retirees and resignations. As a result, the city saved an additional $4 million to $6 million by shutting the schools down.

That yields a total savings of at least $7.7 million and as much as $9.7 million from the closures, according to the data provided by the Mayor’s office.

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