Towards the end of the last school year, Roosevelt lost their first and only social worker after a decision made by the school’s Budget Committee. However, it was more complicated than one simple and quick decision. The Roosevelt Budget Committee, composed of teachers, staff, and students, are tasked with these tough choices and responsibilities each year.
Bryan Stewart, Roosevelt’s first ever social worker, was hired halfway through last year when the Building Leadership Team (BLT) met to discuss where to allocate some extra money from their assigned resources. Since the social worker position had only existed for a few months contrary to other positions, it was eventually decided upon to remove the position. The BLT voted 5-3 to remove the social worker position going into this school year. When the budget proposal was brought to Roosevelt educators and staff, 98 approved the budget, 5 rejected the budget, and 34 did not vote.
How the Roosevelt Budget Committee works
The responsibility to allocate school funds falls initially to the Budget Committee, which is a sub-committee of the BLT. The Budget Committee is made up of seven teachers/certified staff, two paraprofessionals, one administrator, one parent, and a student representative (usually the ASR treasurer). According to John Walseth, the Budget Committee chairperson, each year the team is tasked with coming up with a proposal to present to the BLT. Their proposal is guided by a document called the Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP) to make sure the committee follows all rules, priorities, and measurable goals.
Every year, all Seattle Public High Schools are allocated a certain amount of money. For the 2019-2020 academic year, Roosevelt was given a total of $14.5 million. Once mandatory spending is subtracted from this total, however (such as salaries for our 62 teachers, classroom supplies, building maintenance, etc.), the Budget Committee is left with about $300,000, or 2.16% of the original budget, in discretionary funds. Walseth says, “The first $13.9 million of it, for instance, was not in the purview of the Budget Committee.” In essence, the Budget Committee is left with the remaining funding to work with for how much they wish to achieve. Therefore, they are tasked with the big decision of voting for where these extra funds are best allocated. Walseth adds that while “$297,000 seems like a lot – one teacher costs about $120,000, so this [budget] is the equivalent of three teachers…We never have enough money to do what we want.”
It’s important to understand that the Budget Committee will sometimes receive extra money from foundations formed by parents and Roosevelt graduates who choose to support the school. For example, over the past four years, they have helped fund half of what it takes to hire another academic intervention specialist. These foundations and groups can help fund jobs and roles they believe to be important at our school.
It’s also important to note that there is a big difference between the amount of discretionary funds that various public high schools across Seattle receive. Compared to other schools, Roosevelt gets relatively the same amount of funding each year, regardless of how many more students there are. This poses some problems and leaves the school unable to provide and support students as best as possible. “As long as I have been here, the school has always felt that that was insufficient given the number of students. Our school is many, many times larger than some of the other high schools, even comprehensive schools, in Seattle. And so when the school district says, here is your one librarian…well that librarian serves five times as many people [as other schools],” Walseth says. “We come into this little problem of being such a large school, and such a rich school, that they don’t give us extra money for anything and we still have to give services to a larger number of people.”
The Budget Committee begins budget decisions by looking at their priority goals. They assess the things that they’re striving towards and think about what they wish to achieve with their budget this year. Things they look at include hiring activities coordinators, athletic directors, academic intervention specialists, counselors, testing coordinators, social workers, and more. While this seems relatively straightforward, the committee often has to make decisions that affect people’s lives and jobs, despite not having enough money to do everything they want.
These are tough calls to make with so many students to provide for, and it often comes down to nitty-gritty decisions, such as – should we hire four counselors and one social worker, or five counselors? Once the Budget Committee has decided upon their budget recommendations, they have to be approved by the BLT, then by a two-thirds majority of all union-represented faculty and staff.
The Decision to Cut the Social Worker Position
Last year, the BLT had an extremely tough decision to face – whether to cut the social worker or not. After many weeks spent discussing and considering various factors, it was voted upon by the BLT to cut the social worker position. According to Walseth, the BLT took into consideration the job descriptions and benefits of having counsellors, academic intervention specialists, and social workers. A social worker’s job is to support students with more of a focus on the social emotional aspect of a student’s life. An academic intervention specialist, on the other hand, focuses on academics and gets students to a place in which they can do well in school. Counsellors are trained to help with both of these things, but do not specialize entirely in either. Other faculty and staff are also trained in these subjects to an extent – for example, our school nurse and all teachers assist with these things, however it is not their main focus.
It came down to considering that in order to keep the full time social worker, something else would have to go: perhaps a counsellor or teacher (which would equate to larger classroom sizes). The decision was entirely funds-based, Walseth says. He also noted how important it was for the BLT to keep personal feelings and opinions out of the equation. It truly came down to what the budget can be allocated for and how best to support students. Walseth says, “Our job isn’t to decide whether who should keep their job and who shouldn’t keep their job, it’s to decide whether that job should exist in the first place.”
As the budget process starts again this March of 2021, the BLT will make new decisions on what to prioritize and which positions to keep. Walseth encourages students who may have an input on this to share their views and speak up about what they think could be budgeted for.
