While teachers held a boisterous rally outside Boston Public School headquarters last week, school committee officials inside announced that the school system will likely face a $28 million shortfall in the coming fiscal year— adding a new layer of pressure on an already difficult financial outlook.

More than 200 teachers, parents, and supporters blew horns and held signs outside Court Street building where the Jan. 18 school committee meeting was held. The union-led protestors demanded that city officials put an end to the 20-month-long negotiation process with the Boston Teachers Union that has stalled on key points ranging from salary increases and extended school days in underperforming schools to reimbursements for classroom supplies.

Among those attending the rally were city councillors Frank Baker and Charles Yancey, as well as At-Large councilors Ayanna Pressely and Felix Arroyo.

After telling protestors that his wife and sister have worked as BPS teachers, Arroyo declared that “20 months without a contract is 20 months too long,” adding that he was “damn proud to be on this side of the conversation.”

In an interview this week, Baker – himself a former steward for the city’s now-disbanded printer’s union – said he hoped the city and union representatives would finalize the details of the contract before the council is asked to consider the city’s overall budget plan for the coming fiscal year.

“That seems to be the norm,” Baker said of the lengthy negotiation process. “If we’re going to need to vote on budgets in a couple of months, we want to see big contracts like this wrapped up so we know what we are working with.”

School Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson held an executive session with committee members prior to the public meeting to discuss the BTU’s most recent contract proposal, but BPS spokesperson Matt Wilder said that despite progress in negotiations, there was no set date when an agreement that offers “reforms that do not threaten our [academic] progress” could be expected.

BTU president Richard Stutman said there are five more negotiation meetings scheduled in the next four to five weeks. He expects a completed contract by the beginning of spring.

The largest sticking point in negotiations stems from divergent approaches on salary increases for faculty members. The BTU has proposed a four-year plan which would raise teacher’s pay by 10 percent and cost $162 million, while BPS has offered to raise salaries by five percent over five years for a total increase of $32 million.

Calling the current payment scheme “highly competitive,” Wilder said an uncertain budget meant a 10 percent pay increase could shortchange academic funding.

“I think as you saw in the budget projections, we certainly haven’t had a preliminary budget yet,” Wilder said. “We recognize that the cost of doing business goes up and that is factored in as well as the federal funds we are losing.” 

That funding loss stems from Federal Title I grants amounting to $8.5 million which BPS financial planners recently learned would not be continued in the 2013 fiscal year. In another setback, a one-time state grant worth $10.1 million will not be available in the new fiscal year. 

BPS Chief Financial Officer John McDonough told the school committee his office anticipates a $24 million increase in operating costs, about half of which will go towards pay increases as teachers receive higher pay rates as they rise in seniority. This number was contested by Stutman, who places the pay rises at closer to $1 million, while a report released earlier this month by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau estimated seniority pay raises to cost the city $9.1 million in FY 2013.

Despite the loss of funding, the city has offered to increase overall funding for the school system by 3.1 percent, bringing the total operating budget up from $830 million to $856 million in the coming school year.

McDonough said the final recommended budget will be brought before the school committee during a meeting on Feb. 1 and will be subject to hearings until a final budget proposal is approved on March 28.

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Mather parents focusing on budget matters

Several parents from Dorchester’s Mather Elementary School voiced concerns at last week’s school committee meeting that budget cuts in the coming school year could limit programming in the K-5 schoolhouse atop Meetinghouse Hill.

BPS chief financial officer John McDonough told the Reporter that the actual budget decrease at the Mather is estimated at $44,000— a far smaller sum than the $200,000 that some parents had feared.
Still, any potential cuts worry parents like Sherman Zemler Wu, who recently joined the school’s parent council. Wu told the school committee that fundraising efforts have shifted from pursuing “big dreams” to more mundane needs.

McDonough said that while all schools would experience financial belt-tightening, he said the Mather could cut costs by backfilling empty seats left open in inclusion-model classrooms. He also suggested the school’s two bilingual classes – which seat six and seven students respectively – could be combined to help handle the shortfall.