Broward Schools Cut Back on Arts & PE (FL)

May 13, 2010

The Broward School Board took stock Wednesday of deep budget cuts that will leave some schools without art, music, physical education and library programs next year.

More than three-quarters of the school district’s roughly 140 elementary schools will offer fewer electives next school year, though only some schools eliminated entire programs.

More than a third of Broward’s about 70 middle and high schools will also reduce their art, drama or music offerings entirely.

“This stinks,” a tearful board member Robin Bartleman said. “It stinks.”

The Broward school system, which has an operating budget of about $2 billion, faces a $101 million shortfall that could balloon to $189 million because of state class-size requirements.

Superintendent Jim Notter has said more than 800 teachers could lose their jobs. And at least 461 employees who work outside the classroom will also get pink slips, with district administrative departments whacking their budgets 16 percent.

The school district tasked principals with slashing 6 percent of their budgets for the fiscal year that begins July 1, though board members asked that arts programs only be eliminated as a last resort.

Not all Broward schools offer art, music and PE to begin with, and some elementary schools cut — or decided to keep — other electives, such as Spanish.

“The schools that may have saved everything on this list cut somewhere else,” board member Kevin Tynan said.

All elementary schools will have at least one part-time guidance counselor, as board members had requested. A handful of schools actually increased the number of teachers in some electives.

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And most elementaries tried to keep their art and music programs.

In total, five elementaries completely did away with art — but kept some sort of music program — and three elementaries got rid of music — but kept art.

“That’s good news,” board member Stephanie Kraft said.

But she acknowledged that library programs, known as media programs, took a bigger hit, with 27 elementaries eliminating their staffs entirely.

School libraries and media centers will remain open. But it will be elementary classroom teachers taking their students to check out books and teaching them how to use technology to search for information, based on lesson plans available online for Broward teachers.

PE programs will suffer, too, with 17 elementaries completely eliminating PE staffs. The state allows teachers certified in other areas to teach PE.

Three middle schools will do away with their music or chorus programs, as will one high school, Blanche Ely in Pompano Beach. And one middle school — Nova in Davie — will get rid of drama.

“This was the very best we could do,” south area superintendent Joel Herbst said. “We reduced everything we possibly could without compromising functionality of the school before we cut anything dealing with a position.”

The board is considering other measures, such as raising property taxes, trimming employee benefits and implementing an unpaid employee furlough to cut from elsewhere in the budget and put money back into electives.

“I think it’s fair to say that we are alive but not well,” board member Maureen Dinnen said. “I don’t think anybody around here thinks that this is good academic policy.”