Having a little guy (now 15 months) means I don’t get to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, so forgive the absence.  There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to the precarious position of the Scranton School District.

The good news: it’s better than it was.

The bad news: good people lost their jobs, programs have been cut, next year isn’t looking good, and not all that could be done, has been done.

On New Year’s Day of 2017, I offered a grim prediction: that the Scranton School District was doomed.  This is one of those “I hate to be right” kind of situations.  The writing had been on the wall for some time, and a lot of what I feared came to pass, except the worst, which was a state takeover.  That, frighteningly, is still in the cards for 2019-2020, if the district can’t get its act together.

Despite the ill prospects for the future, the Board deserves credit for making it through this year.  It was a lot of work, and still more work remains.

The problems the district faces can be divided into two camps: next year’s impending financial disaster, and the damage done to education.  My list is by no means exhaustive.  I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than what I’ve got for you:

2019-2020:

• There will be another multi-million dollar shortfall — It’s too early to tell how badly next year’s shortfall will be, but it will be in the millions.  This means we will have a repeat of a lot of the hand-wringing and nail-biting that characterized this past year.  This brings us to the consequences…
• Potentially more layoffs — If the district can’t balance the budget, and I don’t see how they will, this is on the table.
• Potentially more program cuts — If we are losing teachers, we are losing programs.  Expect languages, the arts, music, and physical education to be targeted again.  They are already thin, so there isn’t much fat to trim.
• Likely tax increases — The district needs money.  This is the most surefire way to get it.  Expect the Board to raise taxes by at least the state maximum.  They could potentially get a waiver from the state to increase it by more.
• Sansky — While the paper keeps pegging the district loss at nearly $700,000, the number is far greater, because the district only has records for the last 7 years (the fact that it doesn’t computerize records and keep them forever is a whole different, shady issue).  This goes back to 2005.  I’m sure the number is over $1 million.  The reason I list this as a problem is because we don’t know when the grand jury will be done and we don’t yet know if the money is recoverable.
• Transportation — File this under “we don’t yet know” as well.  The Scranton Times reports that overpayments are being looked at by PFM (the district’s state-appointed financial monitor).  Maybe some money will be recoverable.  Maybe not.  Regardless, the lack of clarity over what exactly happened with the contract since 2006 remains.  Chris Kelly of the Times has been doing a great job digging, but we’ve got a long way to go.
• Lack of Revenue — The district can raise taxes again next year, and probably will, but there hasn’t been a significant enough increase in any other kind of revenue to stave off another disastrous year.
• Potential Overborrowing — The Board authorized borrowing of up to $16.5 million.  This seems exorbitant and with the current savings from laying off 25 people being at about $200,000… It seems almost silly to have laid off anybody.  On top of that, you can’t dig your way out of a hole.  We’re increasing debt service in a time where we’re desperately trying to pay bills, get out of debt, and save the district.  This seems unwise.
• Not enough action to solve the problem — I’ve proposed solution after solution on this site.  I get that Board members are overwhelmed, some are in over their heads, and so on.  But there’s been enough time to do simply things like the Voluntary Leave I proposed.  That would’ve saved more than layoffs, and that’s not bravado, it’s a guarantee, since we do it at Riverside, where I work.
• There isn’t much to look forward to — The Board hasn’t proposed a road map for the future.  These cuts would be easier to take if we knew where they would lead.  Will librarians be back?  Will programs be back?  When?  There are no clear answers and we need them.  In fact, we need to know how the district plans to grow beyond where it was.  The future matters.  We need a vision.  We need to know where we are headed.

Education:

• We lost all librarians  — This is unconscionable and comes from a gross misunderstanding of the place of libraries and librarians in society.  People make the mistake of thinking librarians are overpaid shelf-stockers.  Not so.  We live in an era of fake news.  Guess whose job it is to teach information literacy?  Librarians.  I’m an English teacher.  AP, in fact.  I’m good at my job, but I’ve got nothing on librarians when it comes to research skills, source evaluation, credibility establishment, and on and on.  Why?  They are trained.  That’s why there’s a Master’s of Library Science out there.  These kids NEED librarians, who not only provide the aforementioned, but also get to know these kids and inspire them to read.  We lost a librarian a few years back at our high school.  Standardized scores plummeted.  Guess what?  Studies show that’s what happens when you ditch a librarian.  Guess what happened when we brought her back?  Standardized scores skyrocketed.  I see it first hand.  Librarians matter and it’s a travesty that there isn’t a single one in the district, especially in this day and age.
• Music, Art, and Physical Education have been cut — This is one of my favorite quotes:   “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” That’s John Adams.  For our Founder, the arts are the pinnacle, the ultimate goal for the future.  We should follow his lead and work toward, rather than against this notion.  The arts are important.  For some, they are what gets them through the school day.  And look at the artistic renaissance that downtown Scranton is going through!  The cultural, economic, and personal growth provided by the arts is beyond compare.  Its benefits to our city are clear.

I want to return to the district authorizing over $15 million in borrowing, especially given that the layoffs only save $200,000 this year.  This tells me that there was absolutely no reason to eliminate them if the district was willing to add this much to their debt.  Director Cognetti pointed out that this is a borrowing cap that gives the district flexibility.  Frankly, especially since the Board has not explored nearly all revenue options, that’s some flexibility they should’ve been willing to exercise in order to save jobs and programs.  The loss of these is, to me, a grave disappointment.  It should be to anybody with kids in the district.

As you can see, we’ve got a lot of problems to worry about.  You’ll notice that the title of this post indicates this is the first in a series.  I’ll post Part 2 (What’s Been Done), Part 3 (The Players), Part 4 (The Solutions), and Part 5 (The Next Board) as soon as time allows.  It’s important to give credit to the Board for what they have accomplished, look at who is responsible for the good, bad, and ugly, look at what needs to be done going forward, and look at who the next round of players will be.

Stay tuned.