This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
As the School Reform Commission prepared to meet Tuesday evening at 5 p.m. to adopt the District’s budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year, significant new information emerged about Promise Academies, contracted services, and collective bargaining issues.
Promise Academies
There is a new, higher price tag of $26.9 million for Promise Academies in the budget to be voted on Tuesday, because of the last-minute addition of King High School. The total projected cost for this District-led turnaround model in 2011-12 is up $3.3 million from the original draft budget, which did not include King. That multimillion dollar increase does not mesh with the claim of Superintendent Ackerman and others that each Promise Academy costs “about $1 million.” The $3.3 million figure does align more closely with the Notebook’s estimate last winter that the additional cost per pupil at Promise Academies is a sizable $3,600. King has just over 1,000 students. The increase in Promise Academies costs will force the District to make offsetting cuts to keep the budget in balance.
Contracted services
At a May 5 budget hearing at Meredith School, Chief Financial Officer Michael Masch responded to complaints about spending on contracts by saying the District would do "a better job of presenting information on contracts. We hear you. There needs to be more accountability." But efforts by the Notebook to obtain such information prior to the deadline for budget adoption did not bear fruit. Last Friday the District offered the following explanation:
“As part of the budget gap closing plan, comprehensive internal reviews of contracts are ongoing in central office. The District is preparing a detailed report on contract spending to release publicly in the near future.”
Collective bargaining agreements
The District has been saying since March that a key component of its gap-closing plan is to save $75 million through what they are calling a “collective bargaining re-opener.” The big ticket item here is a 3 percent across-the-board wage increase for unionized workers scheduled for January 2012. The teachers’ union says there’s nothing to talk about. But in a recent interview, Masch said that in coming up with the $75 million figure, the District is assuming something else besides wage and benefit givebacks: they are assuming that Local 1201, the union representing custodial and maintenance staff, will waive the 12-month no-layoff clause built into their contract. With that clause in place, the District will be hard-pressed to follow through on its plans to eliminate 25 percent of building engineers, 53 percent of custodial assistants, 21 percent of general cleaners, and 49 percent of mechanics.