...the net annual cost savings of one million dollars-that will result from the closure of Monocacy Elementary School- is a major benefit as well. In this difficult budget environment we must take actions that reduce costs...But according to MCPS's OWN DATA, it doesn't cost $1 million annually to run the Monocacy Elementary building. How much does it cost to run Monocacy's building? The last time MCPS made this information public was in 2007 (the information is no longer released to the public - none of your business anymore) the annual cost to run the Monocacy Elementary School building was...
$158,566
Even assuming at the high end that the cost of running the school doubled in two years since that number was released, there is no way there is a $1 million savings to be found in closing Monocacy Elementary School. Yet, at last evenings Board work session most Board members discussed the $1 million savings as if it was a verifiable fact, instead of just puffing.
Superintendent Weast has already said that the students and teachers would simply transfer to another facility. There is no cost savings in staff movement. Their salaries and benefits move with them. Students still need instructional supplies no matter where they go to school.
In 2007, the TOTAL cost to run Monocacy Elementary School including staff and benefits was $3,026,572. Unless staff are going to be fired and students are going to move to New Jersey, there isn't $1 million in savings to be had. But, please, check out the numbers for yourself. It would be nice if Board members did some research, too.
OH MY GOD. I cannot wait to send this to my County and State Legistlators. They'll have a hayday with this, especially since the BOE keeps begging for money from them. This is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Janis, for including a link showing the actual numbers released by MCPS. The facts speak for themselves!
ReplyDeleteJanis - I know how serious you are about helping us, but thank you for the laugh. The headline is worth a million bucks:)
ReplyDeleteUnless the Board of Education plans to raze Monocacy, the Board will always need to budget for facility costs for this school as long as it's still standing. The school will need to be cleaned, repaired, and maintained on an on-going basis, so I fail to find any REAL cost savings of shuttering our incredibly wonderful school.
ReplyDeleteWow. Really?? That is amazing. I'm on the west coast now, and his speech sounded legit, but I would never have known he was so full of it unless you posted this. Print as many copies of these numbers as you can and staple it to that idiot Weast's face. He needs to get thrown out. Immediately.
ReplyDeleteTeachers may move, but cafeteria staff, custodial staff, counselors, and often humanities staff can be consolidated/laid off/redeployed. Between the upkeep cost of 150,000, is it possible at 50k each, 17 staff members could be on the chopping block? Is there some artful reassignment of students that would allow for a teacher or two to not be needed?
ReplyDeleteSchool bus consolidation of routes and activity bus elimination may help a bit.
A million seems high, but not as high, necessarily, as it may seem. Some raw data would be nice, but that can be exceptionally hard to come by. Transparency would allow the public to investigate potential waste which may be near and dear to the hearts of school or elected officials.
You might be missing some savings in terms of the principal's salary along with staff members that must be hired at each school, but don't necessarily move to the other building like cafeteria workers, custodians, media specialist and assistant, secretaries, lunch aides, maybe even some of the PE, Art, Music, Instrumental, teachers etc. Most of those positions could probably be eliminated. I would think with those salaries and benefits gone you could get close to saving $1 million.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous and Jacobs above:
ReplyDeleteLayoffs? Gee, I read the Superintendent's recommendation and there was no mention of layoffs or the elimination of positions. Do the unions SEIU and MCEA know about this?
The Gazette article said staff would be able to transfer. Do you all have inside information that they don't?
A transfer is still an MCPS employee on the payroll and county enrollment is going up, not down. There has been no mention of reducing MCPS' staff.
The ENTIRE budget for Monocacy Elementary is $3 million. How could a $1 million savings be achieved if all of the staff stay in the system and all the children move to another school?
Monocacy only has 6 employees that weren't connected to the classrooms/instruction. You can cut all their positions - lay them off, let them go - plus the cost to run the building and you still don't get anywhere near a $1 million, in fact you would get just over $500,000.
Maybe the MCPS "Math Dude" could help out with this.
This is not a big facility. If you want to cut $1 million in facility costs you would have to close a high school.
Well anonymous and WilliamJacobs looks like you were right! Superintendent Weast is proposing to cut 11 positions countywide to achieve the savings. I sure didn't see this in the memo or hear this discussion at the Nov. 5th Board work session.
ReplyDeletehttp://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2009/11/weast-to-cut-11-positions.html
I work for a neighboring school division and I can tell you cutting 11 position is not going to save a million dollars. The only way to save major bucks by closing Monocacy is to fire all the employees, deport the students to another locality (Frederick County maybe) and to knock the school down. WOW do people who work for MCPS think we are dumb as dirt? I don't have kids that go to the school but I am a tax payer and I can imagine the cost to bus these students to another location will not SAVE the system money. Think about it.
ReplyDeleteI doubt layoffs will be necessary. Most of these individuals can move into vacant positions at the end of the year. Even the principal will likely be able to move to another principalship for next year.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous on layoffs
ReplyDeleteWe now know that cuts to the MCPS Operating Budget will be required to produce the "$1 million annual savings" that Superintendent Weast has been using to justify closing this school. The closing is a Capital Budget proposal and will only generate nominal savings (if any when busing is calculated)
Without a cut of 11 positions in the Operating Budget the savings will be $157,000 +/-
If the 11 positions aren't cut in the upcoming Operating Budget - and every year after, then there is virtually no savings to closing this school building.