The School Committee will meet TONIGHT at 7:00 p.m. virtually, of course. Here is the ZOOM link: Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/390017072 Meeting ID: 390 017 072
Dial in: +1 646 558 8656 US Meeting ID: 390 017 072
Listen in on NewTV’s broadcast – Visit the NewTV website for more information.
On Monday, the Mayor and Chief Financial Officer, Maureen Lemieux discussed the City’s current financial position – which pre-COVID was not so great, and now post-COVID, is even worse..Go here for the NewTV tape: .https://newtv.org/recent-video/24-newton-school-committee-meeting/6197-school-committee-meeting-april-27-2020
Serious spending cuts should be made right now. If we don’t, in the coming months as property tax remains uncollected, we are going to have to sink our city into even more debt. Mayor Fuller is giving the SC a lifeline by only requesting 1.5m, which will be 10x that amount in a few months if things keep up.
Due to COVID-19, all custodial staff, admin etc. should be furloughed and property tax collection should be forgiven indefinitely to those who need it. No point in paying custodial staff, nurses etc. when the schools are empty. A new contract should be hashed out right now with the teacher’s union.
Fleishman should take a pay cut, as well as the SC, to show that their money is with the taxpayers of Newton. 10% sounds right.
One more quick idea, Full Day Kindergarten should also be suspended for the next year to save money.
@David Smith: You’re fast to lay off custodians and admin staff yet make it easy for home owners not to pay property taxes.
The school has to let students back in before year’s end, at least a few at a time, to pick up property still in their lockers and to return textbooks and other materials they had from the school. The custodians are essential workers to clean before and after each set of people is let into the building to keep illness spread to a minimum. And property taxes should NOT be forgiven for people with high-end white-collar jobs able to keep their jobs and their paychecks while working from home.
With the need for school cuts, I totally agree that Fleischman should take the first and the biggest pay cut (I’d say 25%, like the Harvard Univ president), but district cuts need to be thought out judiciously. And Fleischman’s recommendations for cuts need to be CAREFULLY monitored by the School Committee, parents, and voters.
I anticipate that Fleischman will try to get most of the cuts from Student Servies, based on his May 2019 WSJ remarks (https://www.wsj.com/articles/many-more-students-especially-the-affluent-get-extra-time-to-take-the-sat-11558450347), which show that he doesn’t understand the purpose or process of IEPs (for one thing, he conflated IEPs and 504s, both in numbers and in what they require/provide in that article). As a parent with a kid on an IEP, I think that Fleischman should have been fired for making such remarks publicly.
My family has seen that Fleischman’s anti-IEP attitude works out to an anti-student-with-special-needs attitude among the Student Services staff, and that widespread attitude means that getting an IEP is an enormous burden on kids and parents, but it doesn’t end there. The burden continues because getting the Student Services staff to actually provide the services that the IEP spells out is also an enormous burden. And filing a grievance with the state when they don’t only gets them a slap on the wrist, telling them not to do it again–no teeth there at all.
Fleischman is also ultimately responsible for NPS’s “distance learning” plan that is a total disaster. For one commonsense example: why in the world would anyone put classes at the END of the week (Th-F), so students get zero instruction on the assignments they have to do all week (due F)?
The fact that Fleischman will be responsible for recommending where to make $1.5 million in cuts in the overall budget is appalling. We all need to CAREFULLY monitor the proposed school cuts.
Newton public schools are NOT the quality they claim to be, because of poor leadership by Fleischman, and the news is finally getting out: people won’t want to–and shouldn’t–think to come to Newton for excellent schooling when it’s obvious that it’s not being provided.
I would argue newton is relatively better equipped to handle the downturn in finances.. note: the word relatively
– large senior population on fixed income
– less reliance on commercial real estate than other towns
– home owners skew white collar professionals who have mostly been able to continue working
– assuming Washington place, northland complete.. this is NEW revenue. Assume the city have not already overbudgeted for it
– even the colleges were underpaying taxes currently. No big loss there
The bulk of loss will likely come from reduced property assessments… but looking at recent home listings, i dont see much downward change (yet?). Assume folks in boston are starting to feel their condos are cramped, they may look to inner suburbs(brookline,newton) for more space
Newton is still affected but unsure if its as bad as we think
COVID-19 shutdown has shown the way for online learning. Students, at least some, should have the option for more or less online learning. Slash the budget for the schools’ giant infrastructure costs and reduce the number of teachers needed by the facilitation of greater online learning.
Parents of NPS that take the bus just received an email about bus fees for next year. So, the parents will still be paying those fees. Due July 1. This was supposed to be an improvement on the paper process from every previous year. However, the timing of the email is awful. Parents paid $350 for the year per student, and school shut down March 12.
While I understand the need for advance notice, the parents receive more emails from the schools than ever before, and we are helping our kids with schoolwork and zooms and lunches and gym class. Some parents have lost jobs.
The timing of this email would have been early for previous years, but do we really know if the kids will be in school in September?
And if I don’t want to pay a higher fee, the fee is due July 1.
Don’t worry – Newton parents will be paying the $350 bus fee to help the bottom line. 🙂
Point of information lower assessments do not equal less revenue for the city.
The city can only increase revenue by 2.5% on existing properties year over year.
For example, if in 2019 I paid $10,000 in real estate taxes, provided that the value/assessment of my house is remains proportional to all the houses around me , in 2020 I can expect to pay $10,250.
This could be because my (hypothetical) house was assessed at $1,000,000 with a tax rate of $10.00/$1000 in 2019, and for the same amount in 2020 with a rate of $10.25.
It could be that hordes of flying monkeys have chosen to roost just west of 128, forcing the residents of Weston and Needham to bid up precious Newton homes. Assessments go through the roof everting is going for 5x what it was a year ago. My home is now valued at $5,000,000 but my tax rate is now only $2.05!
Or maybe those monkeys land on us and property values crash. Everything is only worth 1/2 of what it was. Amazingly, my tax rates become $20.50 on only $500,000 of assessed value.
Now, if I decide to paint my house with glow in the dark paint and cultivate black mold in attic and wasps in my walls, it’s assessed value my drop relative to other homes in Newton. Since the total value of Newton is still pretty much the same, the changes to my house are not going to affect the tax rate, my lower assessment will result in a lower tax bill.
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Given that this has been true under prop 2.5 for over 30 years , and I know this has been explained by me and others on V14 before, I am bewildered at the insistence that lower assessments = less revenue for Newton.
No.
That’s not how this works. And it hasn’t been how it’s worked in this state in decades. The only reason there will be less revenue is if people don’t pay their taxes.
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OTOH – hotel, marijuana, and restaurant taxes are paid to the municipality, and these are all proportional to sales. They’re going to be down for months, if not years, and are where I suspect a large part of the projected (actual?) shortfall is coming from.
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As always, this is a personal statement.
@Anne Alvarado, that’s a useful explanation but if I may I’d like to add one footnote (please correct me if I’m wrong) –
In your “everything is only worth 1/2 of what it was” scenario – which may not be as impossible as we’d all like to think, especially in a market as overvalued as ours – I believe that the Prop. 2 1/2 ceiling on collections as a percentage of total assessed property value (i.e. 2.5%) would unfortunately come into play.
So in that -50% scenario, municipal revenues would actually decline in those Massachusetts cities and towns where the blended tax rate is $12.50 or higher (currently about three-quarters of all municipalities).
I’m not sure of the arithmetic in Newton, but in Needham the residential/commercial property value split is 87/13 and the respective tax rates are $12.49 and $24.55. So if real estate values were to halve, then Needham couldn’t simply double its rates in order to keep revenue constant, because that would push collections beyond the ceiling to 2.8% of the town’s total assessed property value (residential and commercial combined).
The largest reduction in real estate assessments that Needham could tolerate, without negatively impacting revenue while still staying under the ceiling on collections, is 44%. And that’s making the assumption that there wouldn’t be any political resistance to raising nominal tax rates by 78% during a depression.
There are many towns in Massachusetts (mostly out west, but a few nearby) whose current rates are so high that even if they were to maximize their nominal tax rates to the ceiling of 2.5% of assessed values, then the ceiling would force an erosion in RE tax revenue with just a 10-20% decline in assessments.
Beyond that, as far as municipal revenue deficiencies go, in addition to the meal/occupancy/use tax forfeitures and RE tax delinquencies that you mentioned, I presume that sizable shortfalls could also come from reductions in state aid, lower motor vehicle excise tax collections, and slowing of new development to a rate below inflation.
If you look at this summary of sources and uses of funds, you can see a number of line items that will diminish greatly during this kind of slowdown, in addition to those you mentioned, e.g., fines and inspection services. Plus, in a low interest environment, investment income. State and federal aid are big unknowns, of course. http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/89073
Thanks Michael & Paul!
Naysayers of Newton’s distance learning infrastructure have no inkling about the challenges that our circumstances present. Are Village 14 folks insiders to the multifarious moving pieces and laborious process? When a pandemic is dropped in our lap, do folks think there are quick fixes? It is easy to criticize, but mistakes are inevitable when there isn’t the requisite time to create a comprehensive, practical, effective, varied approach?
Michael – Re: “I’m not sure of the arithmetic in Newton”
The procedure is an annually taken vote by the City Council at the Tax Classification Hearing. It is informed, each year, by a Tax Classification Booklet submitted by the Chief Assessor.
Last time I looked Commercial properties were weighted as 175% of Residential.
Two truths in that:
1) with a small Commercial footprint, Newton’s municipal revenues arising from non-residential properties is proportionately smaller than in other communities.
11) increasing that weighting further would undermine the City’s express intent to attract more business
Jason makes a good point. Designing effective distance learning curricula is no easy feat, even with lots of preparation time. You can’t just throw powerpoints up on a screen and expect the lessons to be pedagogically interesting or effective. Add in the educational policy and regulatory requirements that exist and you end up with a formidable task.
By the way, this is likely to be the first of a sequence of tough choices for the School Committee over the coming years. Although the Mayor has promised a 3.5% annual increase in the allotment to the NPS, the recently signed teachers contract has an annual growth rate exceeding that by at least 1% per year (and personnel compensation is over 80% of the school budget.) Although it’s possible to find one-time savings every now and then, there is a structural mismatch between the Mayor’s allotment and the compounding growth of the school department’s expenses. So, either the NPS will have to find savings (generally a politically difficult thing to do), or the Mayor will have to allot more money to the school department–and take that money from other accounts (also a politically difficult thing to do). The public’s appetite for overrides to mitigate against this structural deficit is unknown at this point.
Paul @”either the NPS will have to find savings (generally a politically difficult thing to do), or the Mayor will have to allot more money” — I’ll take what’s behind Door #3, please
We all will need to move past bi-modal thinking based on contexts set in the 1950s & 60s to become more relevant and problem-solving in the present, about the near-future.
Here is one example: Aren’t there parts of what NPS’s mission calls for that can be used to build a robust revenue line for the schools part of Newton’s budget? It is a strategic question and isn’t limited to traditional thinking about imposing fees for busing, sports programs, and the like. Rather, the simple point/truth is that Newton parents (not all parents, but certainly “enough”) spend an enormous amount of money each year on each student’s enrichment activities outside the NPS physical plant. Competing to better serve our students would be a good thing, even if the public institutions have not yet started to think about the problem that way.
I am confident that a creative problem-solving approach to “how can NPS earn a bit of its own bread” would result in others having better and more easily implementable and higher margin curriculum-on-demand answers than the laundry list that look like “low hanging fruit” just waiting to be picked.
“There’s gold in them there hills, Fester!”
The revenue discussion in the video linked by Amy begins around 1h28m –
https://vimeo.com/412498853#t=1h28m52s
Reinforcing much of what’s already been touched on in this thread, the primary near-term revenue deficiencies seem to be:
1) Unrestricted state aid will get clobbered
2) Chapter 70 aid will probably also take a hit
3) Rooms/meals taxes were virtually nil this quarter
4) There will be a significant loss in motor vehicle excise collections (nobody buying new cars)
5) Permitting and licensing revenues will be lost due to closed-down businesses and cancelled projects
6) Parking meter and citation revenue has been lost
7) Zero interest income
8) There won’t be any new development growth to increase the tax base (which will be a significant long-term challenge)
Optimistically the FY21 budget is already $9.6 million short at this point, a portion of which they will cover with $2.5 million in free cash carryover from FY20 (mostly at the expense of road repair) as well as the continued underfunding of pension obligations by $1.4 million – this will still leave (optimistically) a $5.7 million shortfall.
The April 27 School Committee meeting provides an excellent explanation of the deficits and savings due to the pandemic. It’s a long watch, but I think it’s worth it as we begin a discussion of the budget in 2021/22.
Back of the envelope figures really don’t do justice to the complexity of a situation that no community has faced in our lifetime.
I think we need to take care that maintenance does not become the first thing cut. When we moved here 20+ years ago the schools were in deplorable shape – snow coming in through classroom windows, broken sinks and toilets, etc. – due to underfunding maintenance for years.
The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom. As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.
Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay.
To say nothing of the massive cost savings by reducing the use and maintenance of school buildings. Newton taxpayers and school administrators should begin to seriously look into this.
Jim, you have two comments here about a future of distance learning, and have made more in the past.
It may be necessary during a pandemic, but distance learning requires at home full or part day supervision that is simply not universally accessible in today’s society. Much of Newton depends on households with two working parents. What you describe is a long term societal change beyond what we are facing even now. It would be highly controversial and I suspect would require major changes at the state and even federal level.
And that’s not even taking into account the loss of social learning and community building that is the hallmark of community-based education. Plus arts, music, sports. The potential societal impacts are unknown and potentially staggering. That goes doubly for kids with learning challenges.
Finally, if the goal is cost savings, you’d need to prove those savings. There’s economy of scale for schools and parents just getting a bunch of kids in the same spot and teaching them.
We will learn from this forced education experiment. But as a parent, I am not hearing many, if any, people saying how this new abnormal is some grand alternative to traditional methods.
Mostly, we are getting by, if that.
Yes. Remote learning seems cheaper, because my time is “free”.
Well, no, not really – I’m on unpaid leave to go down to 1/2 time until my FMLA runs out – so we’re out that amount (I get to pay how much money to homeschool with assistance?!?!). And I don’t see NPS looking to reimburse me…
Also, about 5% of my foregone salary was due back to the commonwealth. And I’m not the only parent/mother I know on shortened hours… I don’t know where we’d end up, but I’d bet there’d be a loss of at least 10% of income taxes. So yeah. Savings.
(As always, this is a personal statement)
Jim E,
Where does this research originate?
“Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay.”
This is a myopic view that doesn’t take into account varied learning styles, needs, and beyond. What about the emotional and social piece of education? Distance learning would engender huge obstacles. Humans aren’t automatons.
NPS has announced that they are moving away from online classes. If so, why not just watch Khan Academy?
My kids like having interacting and connecting during class with teachers and other students. “Emotional and Social” is the convenient talking point of the NPS administration, especially when they want an excuse about why we are doing so poorly in math, English Language Arts, and Science. I guess they are willing to throw “Emotional and Social” under the bus sometimes.
The other excuse that is used is “we are just following the DESE guidelines.” This translates to, “we are doing the absolute minimum while keeping ourselves out of jail for breaking state education laws.”
Spokesperson “Jason Colet,” on what floor of 100 Walnut do you work?
Jim,
While the buildings are closed, many SPED students are STRUGGLING day to day, not just in their Zoom classrooms, but every day life things.
My two teens are more disengaged. They aren’t seeing their peers and they are done with Zoom, Google Classroom, FaceTime. They want to be with their peers and sound off about the adults in their lives. They are prisoners, and their social emotional wellbeing is taking a BIG hit. While my kids aren’t having temper tantrums or depressed, they are not their usual selves leading connected lives with friends, peers.
And English classes aren’t having the rich discussions over texts they once did. While it might take less time to learn, they are missing the discussion and the learning that happens in a classroom.
JP,
I think where we are diametrically opposed is the notion that ones’ schooling experience isn’t merely about grades, production, achievement, success, and numbers. Do you take pride in MCAS? Have you witnessed the angst this creates and how it dramatically impacts the curriculum and how it is taught? Brand me as you deem fit, but there is immense wealth is providing kids with what they need and this will unquestionably vary. Come on, mate, these are human beings, not automatons.
“Jason Colet,” no it is not all about test scores. That being said test scores are a barometer. Our English Language Art scores rank the NPS last in a 13 district peer group. I don’t subscribe to the view that all 12 districts who outperform us do so at the expense of angst and poor curriculums. English is import. I am not asking too much to expect my kids to be educated in the basics.
My original point was that the NPS, despite lip service about social emotional learning, wants to move away from live online classes. All parents I talk to tell me that it helps the kids feel connected. This is the worst of all worlds. Please mention this to the third floor.
Jason Colet – MCAS shouldn’t be stressing out kids. The only way your kids know their scores is if you show the scores to them. I always told my kids MCAS were for assessing the school, not them, and not to worry about it. As a parent, I did look at my kids MCAS to see if I could find a reason behind a low score – did they not understand concept or learn a topic? If I thought it was important, I went over the concept or topic. Otherwise, their scores were never discussed.
I know it stresses out teachers, but I strongly believe a teachers need objective assessments (as opposed to peer reviews, principal reviews, etc). As a teacher, I could look at my scores and see how well I compared to other teachers with similar students in the same topic. https://www.chalkbeat.org/2018/6/20/21105414/how-bias-happens-teaching-struggling-students-can-affect-observation-scores-study-finds
JP,
We are in the throes of a global pandemic. There are no fast and steady antidotes. Some people have expectations that public education can be dropped into the middle of the Daytona 500 on a big wheel and immediately compete. I have a sneaking suspicion that you are a huge proponent of MCAS, high achievement,
tip-top grades, and settle for nothing less. When you said “in the basics,” what does that mean?
For the sake of clarity: how often will online classes meet, how long will each class meet, what will be the expectations of the students with learning disabilities, how will distance learning behavior management function, and how will the curriculum be taught? Upon receiving your template, I will passionately advise Dr. David Fleischman to implement your vision.
lucia,
MCAS is a tremendous source of stress for students and staff. How can MCAS not assess kids when it is a graduation requirement? The idea that MCAS test results are an objective way to gauge a teacher’s ability in a comprehensive fashion is a farce. There are simply too many variables that play out in the classroom that can’t be quantified.
Jason, now you have me a bit confused about your perspective. Are you suggesting that MCAS-like instruments are worthless, or that their results should be taken with a grain of salt? Are you suggesting, instead, that assessments of teaching should solely be more subjective, and, if so, how would that be done? (To be clear, I’m not critiquing or suggesting an answer by asking these questions. I’d just value your thoughts. Thanks.)
Paul,
Take it with a mountain of salt( self-deprecating humor). For some students, these tests are their bread and butter. Yet, for others, they are the bane of their existence. There are loads of people that simply don’t know enough about education to be opining that it is black and white. It is my view that we live in a world where people deny the gray. How does this all apply in poverty-stricken areas? I take umbrage that people often don’t see beyond Newton, and yes, I understand this is a Newton Community blog. I shouldn’t express myself in a way that it is all or nothing. But I feel that there needs to be a serious and comprehensive investigation about how these variables function. In short, it is facile to offer answers, but it reshapes the landscape when one is in the trenches.
Thanks, Jason. I ask because I’ve taught for years (mostly at college level, but also from time to time at primary and secondary levels), and I’ve always been stymied by the question of how good a job I did. I never really knew how to measure it beyond hearing from students years later.
It seems to me that one problem the NPS–or any other public school system–faces is that many parents consider themselves experts in education because they all went to school! But truly, most people are not trained in pedagogy, and they don’t understand how much time and effort and thoughtfulness it takes to do the job well. Mix in the natural diversity of students (yes, even in everybody-is-above-average towns!), and the job is difficult indeed.
Jason – Only the 10th grade MCAS is a graduation requirement. The English and Math subject material of the 10th grade MCAS a student needs to know to pass is set at an 8th grade level. Students get 3 times to try and pass the 10th grade MCAS, in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade.
There are many things that can be disputed about the MCAS – should it be yearly, should all students be required to take it, such as new English learners. But for the average student in Newton the 10th grade MCAS should not be worrying.
Why do we have the MCAS? This was one of the inspirations: “In the 1980s, A&W tried to compete with McDonald’s Quarter Pounder by selling a third-pound burger at a lower cost. The product failed, because most customer thought 1/4 pound was bigger.”
https://thetakeout.com/aw-third-pound-burger-america-math-1836674587
In summary, Maureen Lemeux, Chief Financial Officer for Newton, in her excellent April 27 presentation, talked about the following cuts in revenue.
• 83% of revenue for the City is from property taxes based on values as of January 1, 2020, but 2021 will reflect changes wrought by Covid-19 as of January 1, 2021.
• The other 17%, amounts to $75 million. Some of the projected deficits are as follows:
o Unrestricted state aid and Chapter 70 allocations – 25% reductions based on experience with the Great Recession.
o Motor Vehicle Excise Tax – $1 million in reduced revenue from people not buying new cars.
o Permitting and Licensing Fees – $1 million in reduced revenue because of businesses closing and projects not going forward.
o Meals and Rooms taxes –$2.5 million in reduced revenue due to lack of restaurant activity and decreased travel.
o Interest – $1.7 million in reductions to revenue.
o Parking meters and tickets – $450,000 in reduced revenue as people are not driving.
o Other revenues reduced by $800,000 e.g., Gath Pool and Crystal Lake, et al.
lucia,
I understand the particulars that you mentioned. Additionally, students have to meet the Science requirement to graduate. My son voiced his concerns about taking the MCAS–he is 8-years-old. Like I mentioned to Paul, I look beyond the confines of Newton when it pertains to these issues. I don’t have the answer. It’s disheartening when people aren’t willing to hear/see/be open to alternative voices that aren’t in alignment with mainstream, conventional, conditioned views.
Jason – What did you tell you son? Do you know why he was concerned?