Manchester Debates Making School District a City Department

By Ellen Grimm on Thursday, June 19, 2008.

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The recent struggles over Manchester's school budget has resurrected an old debate.

Some high level city officials want to explore the idea of making the school district a part of city government.

But school officials say such a move would be complicated and potentially damaging to the school system.

NHPR Correspondent Ellen Grimm has the story.

To be a city department or not to be.

That’s the question facing Manchester City Schools.

The debate goes back many years.

About 7 years ago, voters approved an amendment to the city charter, turning the school district into a city department.

The state Supreme Court nullified that vote.

But legislation has since passed making it a possibility again.

And Alderman Ted Gatsas wants the question on the November ballot.

Gatsas: I think that the voters should have an opportunity.

Gatsas’s push comes after a particularly frought budget season.

Proposed cuts to school programs prompted public outcry, and school board members criticized a deep budget cut offered by Mayor Frank Guinta.

Aldermen, including Gatsas, came up with a compromise that still cuts more than $1 million for the district.

GATSAS: I think it's important that if we're going to get blamed for cuts or if we're going to get blamed for tax increases, then certainly we should be looking at what's in the budget.

Katherine Labanaris, vice chair of the school board, recalls a time when the district was more closely aligned with the city.

She does not want to go back to those days.

LABANARIS: We of course started out as a department. But the fact of the matter is, in 1999, the city started using a finance software system called HTE, and during that period of time, we were not able to get our own financial records, and we didn't have access to the database and so we couldn't get the reports that we needed.

That situation prompted a series of fights over autonomy, leading to the current system.

Now, the school’s budget is in the district's hands, with the board of mayor and aldermen approving a final appropriation.

Jonathan Chait is with the state's affiliate of the National Education Association

He advises the Manchester teachers' union, which has been watching the debate intensely.

CHAIT: It appears to us at this point that the aldermen are proceeding cautiously on this issue, exploring all the potential costs and benefits, and we think that is a commendable approach. But we also feel the issue does need more study before a final decision is made as to whether or not it should appear on a ballot as a referendum question.

Alderman William Shea says he understands the concerns -- including the legal complications involved in abiding by special education laws.

But he says he is open-minded.

SHEA: If for instance, as one alderman brought up, there might be some kind of agreement, whereby the schools might say, well, we don't feel comfortable combining human resources and also finances, but maybe we could work something out with health benefits, as well as legal matters. They can certainly maintain their status as a district, but if there is some way that certain operations can be better served and money saved then that's what we're looking for.

But he adds, the schools education system should not suffer.

Meanwhile, neither Alderman Gatsas nor Shea appear swayed by a recent report from the city's finance director.

That report found that the transition could cost as much as $500,000 in one-time expenses, with only about $120,000 in savings for the first year.

At least one alderman, however, Russ Ouellette, has suggested that the district completely sever its ties with the city, becoming its own fiscal entity and thereby directly accountable to voters.

Mark Joyce, director of the New Hampshire school administrators' association, says it can seem like a romantic notion to bring everything under one fiscal umbrella.

JOYCE: I've heard the idea discussed in some of our city governments before, and I think it's not necessarily a good idea for tax payers or for the school district.

Joyce says that school districts have a whole host of different rules, laws and procedures to follow that cities don’t have.

For example, for all intents and purposes, they're their own political subdivision. They have their own unions and their own labor contracts as a result.

Joyce adds that School districts across the state vary widely in their relationships to municipalities and to taxpayers.

In Concord, for example, the school district approves its own budget and tax bill.

In Keene, the school district presents its budget directly to the voters for approval.

As Aldermen Gatsas and Shea see it, the Manchester School Board would still have power if the system were made a city department. The school board would still, for instance, have control over the budget. But Gatsas wants more oversight along the way.

Labanaris believes the board's role would be diminished.

Meanwhile, she says the school board is exploring the possibility of putting their own question on the ballot: Whether the district should be completely autonomous from the city.

For NHPR News in Manchester, I'm Ellen Grimm.