Miami-Dade, Broward schools dealing with deep cuts - 08/10/2008 - MiamiHerald.com
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Miami-Dade, Broward schools dealing
with deep cuts
Students returning to school next week will notice differences
from the classroom to the athletic field to the cafeteria. Blame
budget cuts.
Posted on Sun, Aug. 10, 2008
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When South Florida's
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600,000 public school
students return to class in
Besieged Crew vows to stay on
eight days, it won't be the
South Florida schools biggest losers in state budget
same -- thanks to an array of
changes forged by a bleak
budget season and a summer of tough choices.
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• Some student clubs and athletic teams could vanish.
• Students will have to work with a pared-down selection of supplies.
• In Miami-Dade, driver's education won't be offered at high schools during the day.
• Broward magnet school students will have to travel farther to bus stops.
• Children will take fewer field trips.
• Fewer faces will greet students in front offices and on school grounds.
And, of course, Dade teachers find themselves having to fight for pay raises that had
previously been promised -- which is likely to hurt morale. In Broward, teachers' salary
talks are stalled.
Principals say they are doing everything possible to keep all the ''fewers'' from affecting
students' daily lives by trying to find creative ways to replace what has been lost.
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''The principals will try and work very hard when those kids come in that door to be ready,''
said Consuelo Dominguez, a director in Miami-Dade's school operations department. ``Will
there be an impact? Absolutely. But we'll do the best to service the students.''
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• School lunches will cost more and there will be less variety.
The cuts are just too severe. Collectively, Miami-Dade and Broward schools have $1
billion less to spend this year. Each district's budget is more than $5 billion.
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• Fewer teachers aides will be on hand to assist in classrooms.
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Here's what budgetary cuts on schools means for students and parents in Miami-Dade and
Broward:
Still, district leaders say, it will be impossible to totally shield kids from the new reality of
tighter belts and fewer frills.
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Broward Superintendent Jim Notter said he believes his district also has worked to keep
the chokehold on spending from affecting how students are taught and the materials they
need for those lessons.
''However,'' he said, ``it is a reality that someplace along the line there's going to be a
domino that's going to touch a classroom.''
MAJOR CUTS
School budgets statewide were slashed by $2.3 billion by the state because of a downturn
in the economy that tanked sales-tax collections. More cuts are possible during the school
year.
Combined, both South Florida districts have lost 31,000 students in the last four years,
reducing the amount of money they get from the state. Each student is worth about
$7,000. But when students leave, costs don't always go down a proportional amount.
District expenses for food, fuel, energy and insurance have skyrocketed.
Hundreds of school psychologists, maintenance workers and custodians were laid off in
Miami-Dade; Broward is leaving 200 jobs unfilled and both districts are hiring fewer new
teachers.
At Ramblewood Middle School in Coral Springs, a tighter budget means freshening up the
school in unexpected ways.
Teacher Nancy daSilva spent the summer raiding thrift stores and clearance sales to
redecorate the teachers lounge with a tropical theme. A fundraiser paid for new murals in
the cafeteria.
Principal Tina Recchi said she is recruiting community members to supervise some school
clubs for free -- including a book club and marine science club -- because there is no
money to pay teachers extra to do it.
''It's just like your own house when the bills go up,'' she said. 'You say: `We have to get on
a frugality kick.' You don't eat steak every night.''
At Robert Morgan Educational Center in south Miami-Dade, Principal Greg Zawyer said
internal memos will be sent almost exclusively via e-mail this school year to save paper
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/635778.html
8/21/2008
Miami-Dade, Broward schools dealing with deep cuts - 08/10/2008 - MiamiHerald.com
Page 2 of 3
and letters sent home to parents will be a thing of the past. Instead, parents will be called
using an automated system, as they were when the school got an A from the state last
month.
Zawyer said school officials are also examining field trips, questioning, for example,
whether a visit to a museum or Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is necessary.
''Let's say the band had a competition out of state -- I certainly would want students to go,''
he said. ``And I would ask the band director to do some kind of fundraising for that field
trip.''
Other changes in Miami-Dade include increasing the size of gifted classes from 13
students to 16 students and decreasing the number of school librarians. Alternative
schools are losing one clerical worker each and magnet school budgets have been
reduced.
The district has fewer psychologists now, and all are working 10 months instead of 12.
That means students will wait longer to find out if they need additional services for a
disability or emotional issues or if they qualify for gifted classes.
`WANT TO WORK MORE'
''We're only human beings,'' said school psychologist Noel Weinstock, who serves several
south Miami-Dade schools. ``We want to work more, not just because we want to make
more money. We won't be getting to kids in as timely a fashion as we were before. That
concerns us.''
In Broward, the money crunch led to slashing each middle school's sports budget from
$10,000 to $3,000, which means teams won't be able to play as many games. Students
who attend magnet schools will have to travel farther to get to their bus stops because
there will be fewer of them. And with fewer clerical workers, parents will have to wait
longer to get their questions answered at schools.
To deal with higher food costs, school cafeterias are streamlining their menus, switching
from a four-week menu cycle to a two-week cycle, which means less variety in dishes, said
Penny Parham, who oversees Miami-Dade school cafeterias.
''We don't have room for error,'' Parham said, adding food can't be wasted. ``We want to
make sure that what we buy and put out for lunch is stuff that students want.''
So menus will focus on dishes ranked popular on student surveys last year and in summer
focus groups -- such as whole wheat chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, spaghetti and
pizza. Meals that are a harder sell -- like fish nuggets -- will be served less often.
In one innovative cost cutting measure, a new farm-to-school program will see fresh corn
trucked to Miami-Dade school cafeterias, replacing frozen corn and the middle man,
Parham said.
Teachers won't know the full extent of the budget cuts until they return to school Monday -a week before kids. ''We just don't know. We're all going back with these huge question
marks,'' said Margaret Cox, a Miami-Dade teacher who works at Henry S. West Laboratory
School in Coral Gables.
Melanie Fishman, principal of South Pointe Elementary in Miami Beach, said the bad
economy is affecting her school in a unique way: She is expecting about 50 new kids who
previously attended pricey private schools.
She's optimistic she'll get the money to hire the teachers she needs after a budget
conference next month.
Fishman said the cuts mean that ''everyone's just going to have to work harder'' and keep
a positive atmosphere for the students.
''The kids won't feel it,'' she said. ``They won't even know the difference.''
Hollywood parent Angela Landon said she is not worried about what daughter Delana and
son D'marco will face this year at Oakridge Elementary. ''They have good teachers. Their
school is really good,'' Landon said. ``The teachers go out of their way sometimes to make
up for stuff. I have faith.''
FILLING GAPS
Many principals said they anticipate they and their staffs will fill in the gaps wherever
possible. Scott Fiske, principal of Western High in Davie, said his teachers have already
pledged to do so without extra money. He said every request for activities, materials and
classroom supplies will be scrutinized and divided into two categories: what they have to
have and what they would love to have.
''We're going to have the have-to-haves and we're going to have some of the love-tohaves,'' Fiske said. ``But not as many of those as before.''
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