The Human Cost of the MNPS Budget

by Teresa West, MNPS Chief Steward

You can’t work or live in Metropolitan Nashville without hearing about the financial crisis MNPS is facing.  This is a financial crisis as well as a human crisis. 

First, let me address the financial issues.  Are we in as dire a situation as we are being told or has a situation been created to take advantage of the real economic crisis going on in our nation?  If MNPS is really in a crunch, why is Jesse Register and the nine member Metro School Board proposing a budget that moves ahead with unnecessary expenditures at this time?  Board members Ed Kindall and Mark North repeatedly raised this question during the March board meetings.  I ask, “Why are we adding a Virtual High School when we can’t staff our custodial service department to adequately to clean real buildings?”  Our custodial staff was cut 66 positions last year and the standard raised from 19,200 square feet per custodian to 22,000 square feet per custodian.  Kinda strange isn’t it, that they were asked to do more with less and then criticized for not doing a great job?  One might get the idea that they were being set up for the next step - privatization.  After all, Dr. Register has a history of using privatization as a tool to have more money at his disposal to make himself look good.  Some other numbers to consider are those posed by Metro Councilman Eric Crafton at one of the March school board meetings.  Crafton stated that the district is way too top-heavy.  He used the ratio of 2:1 in comparing Administrative staff to Teachers.  Certainly MNPS has moved ahead in some areas, but isn’t that easier to do if you increase your staff to pay attention to the details that will make you look good?  In his previous positions in North Carolina and Chattanooga, Dr. Register used privatization to his personal advantage and to ultimate disadvantage for everyone else involved with the exception of the company who was awarded the contract.  Thanks to the hard work of Board member Mark North, there were five alternate budgets proposed and only one really considered by the five who cast their vote for the initial budget.  Those in opposition to the privatization budget were Mark North, Sharon Gentry, Ed Kindall, and Karen Johnson and on behalf of the members of SEIU, I want to thank them for standing with the workers with their vote.
 
Now for the human crisis.  This ill-conceived idea will affect not only one individual per household, but in many cases will terminate employment of two or more members in the same household.  Custodians seem to take a personal pride in their work and it has become a family affair, with sons and daughters going into the same line of work.  Following through with this proposed budget will devastate entire families.  Do these families have children in MNPS?  Of course they do!  Those children are students who will be at a great disadvantage in MNPS for certain now.  Before they were in the poverty percentages quoted by administrators when they need numbers.  Now they will become an even greater casualty.  Some may be homeless and add to our community's struggle to move from devastating circumstances to being a part of the great school system we are supposed to be envisioning and moving towards.  How is this going to attract businesses to Nashville?   We will pay this price in many ways.  First of all, if these former employees have no money to spend, there will be no revenue from taxes from them.  Secondly, they will draw from the many social programs and we will all pay in the form of our taxes funding these programs.  Thirdly, we pay as a society when some of these students do not make the leap from economically devastation to being a productive citizen.  And lastly, we pay with the loss of families and the lasting effect this budget will have directly on their lives.

I have spoken about the Custodians, but this budget also adversely affects other departments as well.  The groundskeeping department is also slated to be axed.  It has been publicized that the Bus Drivers will lose an hour a day, but be expected to work it.  Not so well known is the plight of Food Service workers who have been told of yet even more days without pay - three more days to be exact.  The way the calendar is set up affects them greatly as it is.  During the Fall and Spring Break calendars, Food Service workers are off payroll approximately 6 of the 10 days in a payroll period.  Try to balance that budget, Dr. Register!  It is rare to get a full check after Fall Break until the end of the school year.  Yes, they are given the option to stretch their income over twelve months, but that is a feat even Merlin the Magician can’t do.

What do I propose as a solution to these issues?  No, I don’t have a magic wand, but I can see that if the side in power would sit down and talk with SEIU prior to creating this mess that we would have a greater possibility of coming to some middle ground that would work for all.  Respect and compromise from administration, precisely Dr. Jesse Register, seems to be lacking greatly.  I propose that everyone be registered to vote and take advantage of the next opportunity to vote in a new School Board and hold them accountable for the actions of their one employee, the Director Of Schools.