The Newton School Committee (NSC) discussed funding and possible allowance for Newton Community Education (NCE) following several years of budgetary issues on Monday.
NCE is a self-sustaining arm of Newton Public Schools (NPS) that provides learning opportunities and numerous programs in NPS school facilities for community members of all ages.
Currently, NCE has 3,500 community members enrolled in 650 programs, and it has awarded $65,643 in total financial aid in the 2024 school year and summer, according to NCE executive director Kate Carpenter Bernier.
Carpenter Benrier said NCE was required to give NPS $125,000 in February 2017 to the NPS deficit, and they were able to provide the funds due to a budget surplus at the time.
Several issues arose, however, during and after COVID that were detrimental to NCE funding, according to Carpenter Bernier.
“In 2019 we had a COVID closure, which was highly problematic for our revenues and our program—we had to shut all the facilities and then regroup,” Carpenter Bernier said. “That’s when our reserves really started going down.”
Carpenter Bernier said NCE did not receive American Rescue Plan Act funds and did not receive any financial relief related to the losses incurred from the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) strike in January.
In 2024, NCE was projected to lose $192,000—only 40 percent of the prior year’s deficit. With the NTA strike, however, NCE ended up with a loss of $260,000 in revenue resulting in a total deficit of $398,843, said Carpenter Bernier in an email provided to the school committee.
“So we started, essentially cutting staff and cutting and controlling costs in FY24 and so we converted many positions to less expensive positions,” Carpenter Bernier said. “We [will] reduce to one night of adult classes. We [will] still offer the same amount of adult classes. We’re also going to be consolidating our summer program.”
NCE predicts a revenue turnaround by 2027, if it is able to stick by its proposed budgetary plan.
“Our ask moving forward is the allowance for the encumbrance to get through Q1 and Q2, build a reserve, and return to the stability that NCE has maintained since its founding,” Carpenter Bernier said. “We would love it if we could have 12 months of installment for the pension bill and spread it out to $12,000 a month instead of the $150,000 which would spike our expenses.”
NSC also asked for accounting to show the transfer of funding from the NCE coalition account to NPS to help cover the Q1 and Q2 shortfall, annual or semi-annual reporting to the NSC to maintain communication, and more.
“You service both our students, both our staff, both our community, and so it is my wish and my regret that we didn’t have this as the start of our discussion,” said Ward 4 school committee member Tamika Olszewski. “And I think of the bigger regret that our discussion started with saying we might need to close NCE.”
Olszewski said she thinks the $125,000 in NCE funds given to NPS in 2017 should be returned.
“The $125,000 that this district was able to access at a time when we needed those funds—it’s clear that those funds should be returned to NCE,” Olszewski said.
Ward 2 school committee member Chris Brezski explained that the $125,000 in NCE funds were processed as a utility charge by NPS, as NCE is considered one of their revolving accounts.
The committee continued the conversation, shifting to discuss doubts about the validity of the proposed NCE turnaround plan.
“I think this is the best-case scenario that Kate and her team have outlined,” Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said. “But I don’t even think it’s the most likely.”
Fuller pointed out that in the first three months of 2024, NCE was already $337,000 in the hole.
Ward 6 school committee member Paul Levy proposed the motion to approve the NCE encumbrance, complete with a monthly report, business projection, and fee increases to be presented at the NPS budget meeting.
“If we find ourselves several months into the year with a problem, we have an executive director who’s offering a plan to deal with that,” Levy said. “And the downside of being wrong about financial projection is not a cutback this year in our education programs, the downside is a reduction—presumably slight reduction—in the amount of carry-over that would be available for the next fiscal year for NPS.”
The motion was approved unanimously, barring the exception of an absent committee member.
