Supt. Cornish is Asked the $2.6 Million Question

Committee member Norm Aldrich, cutting to the chase Monday night, put the question to Stratford’s Superintendent of Schools as clear as a bell. 

At the meeting of Long Range Facilities Planning Committee at Stratford High, attended by more than 225 members of the public – the majority of whom were school parents – Aldrich asked Supt. Irene Cornish point blank, “What would you do?” 

Aldrich was referring to the ongoing debate centering on the possible closing of one or more schools in Stratford, a situation that is both financially critical but also gut-wrenching in that any plan approved will disrupt and upset any number of constituencies. 

Aldrich noted that he was not really intending to put the superintendent on the spot. Rather, he said, the question, coming in front of hundreds of town residents, was instead an effort to elicit the “valued opinion” of the person in charge of Stratford’s school system.

Nevertheless, the question did garner a laugh from the audience when Cornish acknowledged its directness.

And as she began to speak, the importance of her answer was not lost, and the room fell quite silent. Silent, except for several members of the press who positioned themselves to take photographs as she spoke. 

It is important “for everyone to understand the situation the community is in,” Supt. Cornish began. 

“Our understanding from the information we’re getting from the mayor’s office and the Town Council is that things in town economically are extremely tight” and that the Board of Education should expect a 0% increase for the next school year.

In recognition of that fact, “we set out for 2011-12 to be as frugal as best we could.” 

The teachers’ union and administrators agreed not to take a pay increase for 2011-2012, she noted, and also agreed to higher cost sharing for funding its health savings accounts. 

“Our employees are on board and understand the cost situation.” 

But “despite our best efforts,” she said, the draft 2011-2012 school budget she submitted recently for Board of Education review still shows a 2.8% increase. “Most years people might say, ‘that is wonderful.’”

Yet, she acknowledged, the budget increase represents approximately $2.6 million in added spending, dollars the town does not have.

Therefore, “we have to find that amount in cost savings” somewhere.

Options include increasing class sizes and laying off teachers, and/or to close schools – very difficult propositions, she admitted. 

“No matter what we do, it will have a negative impact, understanding that it’s emotional and some people won’t like the decision we make.” 

Responding to long-standing critics of educational spending who complain that the school system is too top-heavy with administrators, Cornish answered, “I can tell you that to get rid of administrators is not the answer – we run a lean organization,” adding that one administrative position has been eliminated in the draft. But to do more than that would jeopardize discipline and supervision,  and that’s “not where we want to go.” 

Yet, “when you look at the numbers, even if we close two schools – and no one wants to do that – it still doesn’t close the $2.6 million gap. 

“The question remains: What will we do?”

Supt. Cornish noted that “in Stratford, when we look at the age of our buildings when compared to surrounding towns – Stratford is losing its competitive edge.” With new schools being built in Bridgeport, along with successful magnet schools in the region, Stratford could find itself at a competitive disadvantage, both in its facilities but also in its ability to attract and retain staff. 

“People talk about running the Board of Education like a business – and in fact we do.

“But it’s not a business that make widgets – we’re in the business of educating our children. 

“Even in lean times, business people talk about the need to continue to invest. 

“Last week, I talked about keeping the Academy intact because it is working incredibly well for our school system,” she said, to some applause from the audience. 

“Besides our children, the most important thing we have in Stratford is our staff. 

“I would hate for us to lose that edge or lose our ability to recruit qualified staff in the future."

But there is an economic reality that has to be faced head-on.

“We haven’t put this committee together just to have a committee. 

“Our backs are against the wall – that’s the situation we find ourselves in.” 

Getting back to Aldrich’s original question, Supt. Cornish asked again, "What school should we close?

“I’m not sure I can make that decision, but I can tell you the process” for doing so, which is to set a criteria and “to take as much emotion out of the decision-making process as possible. 

“It’s going to be hurtful whatever decision is made. 

“But it’s going to be data-driven. 

“It’s not a north-south decision. 

“It’s not about black and white. 

“There’s no place” for that kind of thinking today, she said.

Rather, she added, “it’s a community problem. We need to solve this problem as a community.

“How?

“By taking the data and seeing where it leads us. 

“And using that data, we make a decision that does the least damage, where we save the most money possible, but one that has the least negative impact on the school district as possible.

 “That’s my answer.”