Activity fees. Wage freeze. Hiring moratorium. Outsourcing. Nasty solutions, born from a nasty situation. But, in medical terms, they would only be Band-Aids on the gaping wounds of our school district budget. And the patient will likely get worse before getting better.
QCSD finances are in code blue. Planned spending for next school year is about $82 million. Your taxes will be going up again, about four percent, the highest now allowed by law. And the worst news is that the patient will need intensive care for years to come. Forget tax reductions. All medical personnel have been ordered to the operating room "stat" just to keep the victim from getting any worse, let alone show improvement.
It was almost comical (if not so sad) to hear board member Bob Leight publicly reject suggestions for saving money. Yeah, activity fees are objectionable, and teachers aren't likely to agree to a freeze, even temporarily. After all, it's not their fault that the board has spent us into oblivion. But it is Leight, and the rest of those long-time board members, whose years of unchecked spending got us into this penurious position. And they seem to have no clue how to restore financial sanity.
State law now limits tax increases, so the board, for the first time, has to limit spending. Their past bad decisions are coming back to haunt them, starting with that infamous early-bird contract, handed to the teachers without public input, which still has three years to run. It includes a provision you may not know about: "Incentive Pay". Board members were very proud that QCSD was one of the first districts to include this in a teacher contract:
In addition to their yearly four percent increases, teachers will receive two percent extra if the district meets a certain benchmark on PSSA tests. That six percent is about twice the increase in private industry. The two percent incentive is approximately $1500 per teacher, or about $650,000 total. Each year. More than $2.5 million over the life of the contract. Not for increased "learning". Not for better grades (we know that story!). For better test-taking!
And if the benchmark is not reached? Two words (even counting by Integrated Math) - No penalty. How hard do you think it was to convince the teachers to include a no-risk bonus in their contract, rewarding them for achievement, but not penalizing them for failure?
The board's actions are outrageous and wasteful. We pay our teachers one of the highest salaries in the state - an average of $75,000 - but still offer a bonus to allegedly motivate them to just get the kids to pass! What could be more basic? We should be stressing prep for college, and prep for life, not this minimum level of prep for testing. And high-paid professionals should produce good results as a matter of pride, not bought with bonuses.
Worse, these bonuses, spawned by the tunnelvision PSSA-uber-alles culture, create an educational conflict of interest. Where should teachers focus their time? Do they help the weakest students, who need them most, but may not pass the PSSA's, or do they focus on the borderline cases who might pass, and thereby trigger the bonus? And how much attention is left to motivate the best and brightest, who will surely pass anyway?? A true incentive plan would have included a reason to help every student, or have consequences. It's highly unlikely teachers would have agreed to that.
This is not to say that the teachers don't care, and don't work hard. They do, and they do. It is not their fault that our board has made them one of the best-paid in the state, and set questionable conditions for a bonus on top of it. Like anyone else, they hope to earn as much as possible. And don't blame the support staff. They don't share directly in those bonuses, but they have been hired in record numbers, so that the staff-student ratio has climbed from 1:12 in 2001 to 1:9 now.
And don't blame the administration. They merely did what the directors allowed them to do - hire whatever personnel they wanted, spend whatever they wanted, and pass the costs on to the taxpayers, who were given no say. Whatever accomplishments the district may claim have come at far too high a price.
The blame falls squarely on the long-time members, and officers: past presidents Phil Abramson and Nancy Tirjan, current president Kelly Van Valkenburgh, current vice president Linda Martin, and Leight. These are the folks who, for years, raised the salaries, created the bonuses, and skyrocketed your taxes over 50 percent. And, like the bonuses that have no downside to teachers, the board has never been held accountable for failure.
Chant along with me - you know the words: SAT scores are the lowest in Upper Bucks. More than one-third of 11th graders failed the PSSA math test. Integrated Math was a disaster, but was blindly defended. Survey results showing widespread discontent among students, parents, and teachers were withheld for up to 16 months. Complaints of grade manipulation were never investigated. Chorus: And no one has ever been held accountable.
So if you were hoping for tax reductions, don't hold your breath. Our directors can't even find the money to pay their bills, let alone give you something back. Spending must be re-evaluated, responsible contracts negotiated, and the administration forced to live within a leaner budget. Older buildings, ignored by this board, must be repaired. All without cutting services.
None of this is likely to happen unless there are major changes on the board. It would be madness to continue on the same course, and madness to allow the same people to stay in command. We need new direction, new ideas, and, most of all, directors who have the financial savvy to rescue us from this economic intensive-care ward.
Band-Aids are dime-a-dozen, but responsible leadership will be worth millions.