At this week’s School Site Council (SSC) meeting, Principal Grassa presented the Curley’s budget for school year 2014/15, based on the enrollment projections she was given by BPS.
The minutes are below – please read:
SSC Budget Meeting Minutes – January 14th, 2014
Sadly, because of lower enrollment forecasts and funding decreases, deep cuts are projected, amounting to a $550,000 decrease in funding. We are projected to lose 14 staff positions – unprecedented, even with our recent history of budget cuts at the Curley.
A Call To Action (Again)
Sadly, too, the Curley community is not new to budget cuts. In our most recent, major effort, some 137 parents and other community members were involved in arguing against budget cuts both at the Curley and system-wide.
Two years ago, we fought to refund some of the positions we lost, and we did get funding re-allocated to the Curley. We also persuaded BPS to amend how the district’s core funding formula (called Weighted Student Funding (WSF)) employed its student poverty weighting component. BPS adopted our proposal district-wide, and actually went beyond our recommendations.
Though we cannot be naively optimistic, budget projections do change. We feel there are also many points specific to the Curley we can have BPS reconsider over the next couple of months as the budget process plays out. We also already have a specific proposal around recognizing the size of a school as part of the funding formula. If adopted, this change to WSF would benefit 3/5th all Boston students. It is a sound concept, and very modest in funding terms.
So: we are getting the band back together to try our best to help our valued community members retain their positions, and give our kids the education they richly deserve.
If you want to join a large, highly organized group of Curley folks who’ve already helped all Boston public school students, contact Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, Carrie Fletcher, or Jill Lazer.
4 comments
John Lerner says:
January 20, 2014 at 8:06 am (UTC 0)
Hi, I’m a parent from the Ellis Mendell Elementary School, on School St. in Roxbury/JP. We are a small school. Do you mind if we join forces with the Curley?
John Lerner
Dad to a first grader.
Heshan Berents-Weeramuni says:
January 20, 2014 at 12:49 pm (UTC 0)
Can’t wait to work with you all!
Karen Kast says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:28 pm (UTC 0)
I hope many of you will join us on Tuesday, Jan 21st at the Irving Middle School where myself and many others will be discussing the cuts, what causes them, how best to mobilize and what works, next steps to combat the constant decimation of our public school budgets! FB event page is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/729967280361614/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
I also hope many will join the Boston Parent Union to help organize all our Boston families to push back! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1389994981259392/
Heshan Berents-Weeramuni says:
January 20, 2014 at 1:36 pm (UTC 0)
Thanks Karen! Many of us are interested and hope to see you there.