To the editor:

Last week at the COA meeting, I testified on behalf of my three young children who all attend BPS. The reason I did so is because I cannot stand to watch this political theater play out at the expense of my kids' education taking it on the chin again. This charade — the $1.2 million of budgets cuts that the administration proposed, and the school committee endorsed — is silly.  

First, there is no "cut." BPS's budget will remain the SAME, rather than enjoy an increase...only in academia does one "cut" a budget when it remains level funded.

Second, the school committee is taking the politically-loaded low road and cutting sports and general spending to rally the thousands of students and parents in support of more of the same: increase the small parts of the budget that directly impact our kids — and remain blind to the rest of the budget.

So, with apologies to David Letterman, Top Ten Ways to Improve Barrington Public Schools — and Save Money:

10) Verify that every child being educated in Barrington is, in fact, a resident. Currently, BPS has no active monitoring program, but rather relies on a reactionary, tattle tale system...yes, a tattle tale "system." Assume a reasonable 2 percent error rate — meaning 68 of current students are not eligible for BPS, at our average per student cost of $14,500/student/year, that's almost $1 million/year savings. Obviously, a bigger percentage, or some number of those kids using special resources, means that annual savings would be larger.

9) BPS spends an average of $80,700 per special needs student per year, versus RI's average of $63,500/student. Said differently, we spend 27 percent more than the state average. Please note that for the overall average spend figure, BPS spends well under RI....10 percent less.  BPS spends $14,500/student versus $16,200/student. To go back to special needs, were we to be the same as RI's special need funding (meaning BPS reduces its spending to $63,500/student/year), that $17,000/per student/year savings times roughly 150 students/year would translate into $2.5 million saved...every year.

8) BPS spends about $2M each year sending kids out of district... a realistic reduction of 10 percent would mean a savings of $200,000/year.

7) Pay our good teachers and administrators what they deserve: more. This is counter-intuitive because BPS always quotes "contractual obligations" — but those obligations go both ways. Administrators and teachers who 1) do not have the qualifications stipulated in their job descriptions, and/or 2) hold expired certifications, are out of compliance with the contract. BPS should audit all applicable professionals as of April 30. Non-compliant professionals should be re-evaluated, re-assigned, or even released. Given BPS has less enrollment than it did 10 years ago, and the technology in education has mushroomed since then, BPS should benefit from those two trends. Over time, BPS needs to augment our teachers with 1) more efficient programming, like tracked classes, and 2) technology. Ultimately, BPS would have fewer, better teachers — and could pay our teachers more, and still save money.

6) Whether you like it or not, there is a new healthcare law in the nation. The administration has been silent on what could be a large item that should afford significant savings.

5) Refrain from paying for capital expenses from the operating budget. This is a bad practice which accounts for a lot of the "perfect" spending we've had as a town — notice we always spend it all...at the end in June. This practice distorts the operating budget and hasn't maintained the physical plant as best it could because it is a reactionary rather than strategic approach. This excess is generally in the hundreds of thousands per year.

I will spare you 4, 3 and 2, but suffice it to say there are more than three more ideas for JVs with St. Andrew's School, RISD, and Johnson and Wales to better educate our students, maximize our fixed assets and take advantage of some unique expertise located right in our back yard.

The number 1 way to save money is for the school committee to do their work to better understand the budget, and align it with the school's mission to "provide all students with a high quality education." The easy part is saying we care about our kids. We all do. The hard facts are BPS has poor systems and controls that exacerbate our spending on non-resident students, special programs and non-compliant professionals.

Members of the school committee: the answers to BPS's operational and budget issues are not to cut general program spending. If accounting is not your area of expertise, then get some expertise — call for an audit.  Remember: caring about our kids is the easy part. Do the hard work. Make BPS stronger and better for the kids. Take some of the savings listed above and invest in our kids and in their future.

Heather Crosby

Barrington