Mayor shifts retiree costs to schools
Jobs at stake; teachers ponder legal action
The mayor's just-submitted $315 million budget has been balanced with an accounting shift that significantly reduces the money available to Brockton's schools - prompting teachers to cry foul and threaten legal action.
If Mayor James E. Harrington's budget plan is upheld, some 80 school positions would be eliminated through attrition, said Superintendent of Schools Basan Nembirkow. If the City Council trims further, school staff would be laid off. To be ready for that possibility, some 80 layoff notices were sent out last week, before the May 15 notification deadline.
"Our goal . . . is just to tread water," Nembirkow said. "It's just to keep our heads above water, and keep programs the best we can."
Harrington said he was aware that his shift in accounting technique could bring a legal challenge from educators, but it was a gamble he said he was willing to take.
"We'd find it awfully difficult for us not to win this, and we'll take it to court if that's what it takes," Harrington said. He said the city's budget crunch forced him to make the move, since he has no other budget flexibility.
At issue is the amount of local funding the city is required to contribute to school department funding, in addition to the money schools receive from the state. The combined total, known as "foundation funding," is set by law.
Until now, the city has paid for retired school employees' health insurance - an amount that this year totals $5.9 million - out of the city's own operating budget, in addition to its contribution to the schools' foundation funding. But Harrington is now proposing that the $5.9 million cost be shifted to the schools, to be paid out of the foundation funding pool.
The net effect, educators say, is a reduction in the amount of money available for various classroom needs.
Is the move legal? Harrington said the answer is yes.
He stressed that other communities do the same thing, and that Brockton was wrong to exclude the line item from the foundation formula when the funding requirements were set with the Education Reform Act 15 years ago.
"It's a legitimate cost," the mayor said. "It affects the city budget as a whole."
Timothy Sullivan, president of the Brockton Education Association, the local teachers union, said the group's lawyers are studying whether the mayor's accounting shift is allowed under the foundation formula. And if not, he said, the move could be challenged in the courts. For now, he said, the effect will be to cut core spending for classrooms.
"There's still $5.9 million being charged to the school side that takes away what otherwise could be used for programs for kids, professional development, personnel, whatever that may be," Sullivan said.
Roger Hatch, the Department of Education's administrator of school finances, would not comment on how the city determines what line items make up the foundation formula, saying the state only looks at the bottom-line figure. For the fiscal year that begins July 1, Brockton's schools must have total spending of $162 million, according to the formula, he said.
Also, the mayor has cut $1.8 million in school transportation costs that are separate from the "foundation" formula, resulting in another loss in school spending.
Harrington acknowledged that the School Department is receiving less in city funding once the retirements benefits are assessed. However, he said, the department is receiving $6 million more from the state than it did last year, helping to make up the difference.
The mayor said every department throughout the city has faced cuts.
Even if the courts allow Harrington's accounting shift, the mayor's budget would still give the schools more than the minimum "foundation" amount set by the state. That could change if city councilors decide to cut the mayor's proposed spending plan even further, perhaps down to the minimum set by state law. Harrington has asked them not to do so.
Several city councilors have said they support the mayor's accounting shift. They have given no indication yet of favoring deeper school cuts.
Still, Nembirkow said the uncertainty of the budget process forced the school department to be on guard, and so 84 teachers received layoff notices last week. If the notices were not sent, and cuts were made, the city would still be responsible for paying the teachers.
"We are between a rock and a hard place budget-wise," said Jocelyn Meek, spokeswoman for the school department. She said the last time the school department sent out layoff notices was in the 1991 financial crisis, when some 91 teachers lost their jobs to budget cuts.
"If you got a notice . . . you're upset, you're anxious, you're going to start looking for a new job," Meek said, "and these are people we can't afford to lose."
Milton J. Valencia can be reached at valencia@globe.com 