That Big Cranston Surplus? Most of it Already Used to Wipe Out School Deficit

While Cranston’s surplus from the fiscal year that just ended in July looks rosy at about $3.4 million, in reality, more than half has already been spent to wipe out a $2.2 million school budget deficit that started the year.

At a press conference earlier this week, Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung was careful to say that that the municipal side of the budget ended with a $500,000 surplus, noting that the school district has financial autonomy within their annual appropriation by the city.

Cranston Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Ray Votto said in an interview Friday that the district was very fortunate to end the year with a surplus of nearly $3 million, but the $2.2 million shortfall leaves the district with an actual surplus “in the vicinity of $800,000.”

Still, it’s good news for a school district that has been facing an uphill financial battle for more than five years since losing a Carolou lawsuit filed against the city and ending up in a court-ordered debt repayment plan that restricted programming to the barebones until it was repaid.

The district shook off the last of the debt last year and for the first time, it enters the new fiscal year with a surplus — and without the shackles of the Basic Education Plan and consent order from the courts.

“It’s positive territory for us to be going into the new school year,” Votto said.

With a brighter financial picture, the School Committee and school administration is under increasing pressure to begin re-introducing programs that have suffered during the lean years under the Basic Education Plan, or BEP, and the debt reduction plan.

“There’s no question the School Committee realizes and come next year hopefully we continue to run surpluses and address those issues we’ve put off for a number of years,” Votto said.

The draconian cuts, which eliminated elementary music, middle school sports and music in addition to countless other programs and initiatives (not to mention more than 60 staff reductions in 2010 alone), have begun to reveal that dire predictions of decaying school culture are starting to come true.

Consider the Falcon Band at Cranston High School West.

This year marks a major turning point for the band, and that direction is negative.

Membership is significantly down, with about 50 to 60 members. Years ago, it always had more than 100.

People who have been involved in the music program in Cranston say the answer is simple: it’s the first high school freshman class that has never had performance music in elementary school working their way up the grades high enough to have a measurable impact on established programs at both of the city’s high schools.

Kayla Khanjari, a former member of the Falcon Band who just graduated in June said she started playing clarinet in third grade and has been a “band geek” ever since. As a past uniform manager, she saw the band lose 24 seniors this year.

“There were 115 members when I was a freshman,” she said in a comment on the BASICS Facebook page. “The fact that music has been cut in elementary schools is so sad but it really breaks my heart to see That Falcon Band shrink enormously every single year. being in band was the best part of my elementary, middle and high school career. i just wish other young students had the chance to experience band at a younger age so they could fall in love with it just like I did.”

Votto said the district feels the increasing pressure to reintroduce cut programs, but the pressure is coming from other major avenues, such as the dilapidated bus fleet, which sees eight new-to-Cranston but used model year 2011 large buses and six new mini buses joining the stables this year.

The buses, purchased this year as part of the first-year of a five-year program to turn over the entire fleet of about 80 vehicles, were recently inspected by the state and are the result of a $500,000 line item in the budget that Votto said he hopes to see in future budgets.

Some of the oldest buses were more than 10 years old with 200,000 miles or more on the odometer.

Meanwhile the school’s enormous collection of buildings and facilities are suffering from unaddressed repair needs. And Cranston will be aiming to implement all-day kindergarten, which means the district will be rolling it out in the next couple of years — with another expense on the books.

Plus, ”you have to keep in mind the Fair Funding Formula goes away in 2017 or 2018 and that means the state money doesn’t keep increasing for us,” Votto said.

It’s a delicate balancing act.

But at least this year, Cranston isn’t trying to find a balance by starting the school year with another budget deficit to fill.