By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – The Buffalo School District's finances dominated most of Tuesday's monthly meeting of the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority.
It should have be good news that the state will send an extra $15 million in school aid Buffalo's way. And it is. But Control Board Executive Director Dorothy Johnson says it doesn't fix everything.
"That would just about cut the gap they need to fill in half," said Johnson. "Bear in mind, that's to provide a product that we have clearly identified as inadequate."
To balance the budget, district officials say they'll have to close even more schools and cut hundreds of teachers, swelling class sizes to as much as 32 students per teacher. A long negotiated proposal for a single health insurer would save roughly $12 million and many of those teaching positions. Union President Phil Rumore was criticized by some board members for blocking the agreement. Board member Reverend Richard Stenhouse appealed to teachers on what he called a moral issue.
"I don't believe any teacher or administrator would deny a child bread and water to sustain life," said Stenhouse. "And for many of the children of the Buffalo school system, a quality education is their only lifeline to a decent life."
Performance data reviewed by the board showed the district lagging far behind other schools in the state. The mayor and other members pressed school officials for reasons why. Richard Tobe says the Board is concerned with more than the apparent bottom line.
"It would be easy for us to say we simply want to balance the budget -- cut, cut, cut," said Tobe. "But that's not the policy we've taken with any of the services -- police or fire, or the schools. Because the bottom line is it's not enough. That if you balance in one year in a way that is not sustainable, not fiscally but programmatically, no one would be in the city the next year."
And there will be even more scrutiny in the coming weeks. The city and all its entities will submit their four-year fiscal plans to the Board on May 2nd. A public forum is scheduled for later that week.