With a school superintendent who started his career as an art teacher, we should have expected to see some extra creativity. Portland's Jim Morse does not disappoint.
The school department's Web site now has a feature allowing members of the community to offer their ideas of how the schools should trim about $2.7 million from the current budget, if that's what gets cut from state education funding as a result of curtailments by the governor.
The announcement is expected soon, but it doesn't give the school department much time. The budget runs through June 30, and even though it is mostly salaries, layoffs are not a practical way to cut costs. Labor contracts require 90 days' notice for job cuts and the district would have to pay part of a former employee's unemployment benefits, so there would be little in the way of cost savings before the budget expires.
It might be a helpful public relations exercise to involve the public in budget cutting, but unless there is some outrageously wasteful spending on non-salary accounts, it is hard to see how tighter bus routes or fewer offerings in the cafeteria would add up to $2.7 million over the course of this school year.
It will take major mid-course changes, and it is not something that the school department can handle on its own.
Two strategies should be off the table. Portland shouldn't raise taxes or cut the school budget so radically that families with options flee the city.
What's left is some combination of using the city's savings to offset the current budget crisis, and to end duplications of services between the school department and city. Talk about consolidating services such as finance, human resources and facilities between the city and school departments should go from the theoretical to the practical level quickly. Discussions around minimum class size and school consolidation should also be on the front burner.
These decisions are urgent because this is not just a problem for this budget and the next (in which an additional loss of state funding is expected). There is no end in sight to the state's budget problems, so short-term fixes will not be enough.
Parents, students and members of the community may come up with some ways to cut the school budget, but it's unlikely they will find many big enough to make a difference.
It's important that the city and the school department work together on this issue. They will need to be creative, and they will need to act fast.
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