Berkshire consultants Mike Walker and Maureen Costello-Shea present to the Council and School Committee.

There is nothing wrong with the Portsmouth schools that a few tweaks and more money can't fix. That was the message last night from the consulting firm Berkshire Advisors after their months-long performance audit of the school department. An audience of only 12 citizens — not 1,284 — were on hand at Town Hall to hear Berkshire deliver the report to a joint meeting of the Town Council and School Committee, who all had a chance to ask questions (the public will have a separate session on May 6).

The bottom line: while there are some areas for redeploying resources to achieve greater efficiency, the majority of what the Portsmouth School Department is doing is in the groove. "You are delivering high quality educational services with limited resources, and achieving those results at lower costs than comparative districts," said Berkshire Advisors consultant Mike Walker. Specifically, noted consultant Maureen Costello-Shea, Portsmouth had the lowest per-pupil expenditures, delivering services for "$2K less than the average of the 8 other districts."

The biggest recommendations related to instruction were aimed at redeploying resources — redefine a guidance counselor as a Special Education coordinator, turn the literacy coordinator from hands-on instruction to a faculty coaching role, reduce the planning time for teachers at the middle and high schools and cut the course relief for house leaders. These changes would allow the district to extend the co-teaching model and strengthen programs at the middle and elementary schools (including a low-cost approach to gifted and talented which would identify one co-taught classroom at each elementary grade.)

There are some big challenges: keeping up with instructional materials, adequately funding the libraries, supporting technology better, and a precarious physical plant at the Elmhurst school chief among them.

The overall message, however, was that things are generally on track. "We think that you're a very well managed district," said Walker. Berkshire also called out for special mention the district's focus on tracking and analysis. Walker cited the focus on numbers as "something dear to the hearts of management consultants" and noted that it was "really part of the culture of the department."

Notable for its absence was the expected (by some) litany of unnecessary programs, mismanagement, or waste. Reading between the lines, it seems reasonable to conclude that things may not have always so rosy. The consultants noted major improvements in oversight and transparency which had occurred since Superintendent Susan Lusi took on her role, and as the department was able to fill key positions, like a full-time director of finance and IT. But if the department had issues in the past, they had clearly been addressed.

Walker made a very clear effort to position the report as balanced. Noting that there were factions that had serious misgivings about the schools and those who felt strongly that things were on the right track, he said, "Our hope is that you can use this report as a way to facilitate a more constructive discussion based on the findings."

And there are clearly things that we need to discuss and act on as a community. You should read the full report. Costello-Shea ran through the key findings for elected officials.

• Funding for libraries is far below Federal best practices of $40-75K per year. "You just have to walk into the high school library and you're struck by the space on all the shelves where there are not books."
• Co-teaching implementation at PHS has been very successful, but the middle school and elementaries have struggled, hence the recommendation for redeploying resources.
• Regional special education saves Portsmouth $389K compared to delivering the services locally. While generally working well, but there are concerns at the middle school, where Bershire suggested creating a team to focus on improvement. They also recommend converting one elementary guidance position to a special education coordinator, and seeking a single point of contact from the region for the elementaries.
• Noting that current support for the gifted and talented was either run by teachers or librarians off the clock, or supplemented by parent donations, Berkshire suggested the existing co-teaching model could provide some capacity by mixing special education and high-performing kids, which would actually reduce the challenge of differentiated instruction.
• Berkshire's assessment of nursing services supported the recent decision to cut one school nurse at the elementaries, but suggested that only children with "doctor's orders for a nurse at all times" would need to be moved to one school.
• The current budget for instructional materials — $58 per student each year — is "insufficient" and "far less than national standards" which would put it at around $170/year. Berkshire recommended ways of stretching out texbook replacements to bring that down to $100, but that still means an increase of $126K/year for the budget.
• Instructional technology is good at the high school, but "the needs of elementaries have been largely ignored" as technology has been hand-me-downs from the higher grades. "The elementary school classroom typically has one computer, on average 8-10 years old." The recently completed technology plan provides a good framework, they said, but "You clearly need to prioritize providing the elementaries."
• Many policies were found to be outdated, and Berkshire recommended a coordinated effort to revise and maintain them.
• No issues with residency requirements were identified, despite the assertions by Tailgunner Gleason at the open meeting with the consultants. "We heard concerns about particular students, but we found that they were tuitioned in, or placed through SPED. Folks may not know that becuase of confidentiality."
• There are major physical plant issues at Elmhurst, particularly in the regional special education wing where "The foundation is crumbing and sinking into the ground. Clearly Elmhurst is a place where you need to take immediate action." They suggested a focus on immediate, make no-regrets moves, while undertaking a long-term facilities planning process. An engineering assessment of Elmhurst should be completed "before the beginning of next school year."
• Instructional technology has made a lot of progress with the hiring of the new IT Director, but lacks resources. "There's just too few staff employed to provide responsive service," said Berkshire, recommending at least one new hire, and also exploration of outsourcing support.
• Outsourcing and shared services should also be considered for payroll and other services, and the listed several that should be explored through bidding to determine if there are cost-effective options.

The school committee and town council asked Costello-Shea and Walker questions for about another hour. Well worth watching on Channel 18 to get the whole picture, but there were some key takeaways.

Finance subcommittee chair Dick Carpender followed up on the residency issue, and Costello-Shea reiterated their conclusion. "It's pretty clear that folks do due diligence. the truancy person reported going out to check at addresses. Really, all the processes you have in place are being followed."

School committee chair Sylvia Wedge asked if mixing special education with gifted and talented put SPED delivery at risk? No, said Costello-Shea, but it would require access to more instructional materials. It could be implemented right now, except teachers "just don't have access to the materials that they need to differentiate."

Marge Levesque asked about special education issues at the middle school. Citing the changes in administration over the past couple of years, Costello-Shea noted that they were "trying to implement co-teaching at the same time a principal leaves. There's been so many changes going on that faculty was treading water." Berkshire didn't identify an unfixable problem, but rather suggested that last year might not have been ideal to begin the process.

Jamie Heaney asked a great question about jumping to digital technology for textbooks. Unfortunately, Costello-Shea replied, that works best in districts where there is better technology infrastructure. "You're here, that technology is there." And, she added, "purchasing online textbooks doesn't cost much less."

Town Councilor Jim Seveney probed on Elmhurst. "Your assessment of Elmhurst is essentially damning. Is that what you mean to say?" Costello-Shea didn't offer much wiggle room, reiterating the structural problems, sprinkler difficulties, and accessibility reconstruction requirements. And, she added, "Even if you fixed all those things, is the layout of this building consistent with 21st century education."

Councilor Len Katzman raised the question of how to pay for all Berkshire's recommendations, given that the school department budget is at the cap and there was a minimum of $180K required. "You're meeting the educational needs of students becuase you have parent groups that are raising the money. That's not prudent to rely on," said Walker, who then dropped the bomb. "Are there provisions to override the cap?" (I was going to lead with this, but it's unecessarily provocative. Go read the report and decide for yourself.)

Tailgunner Gleason picked at the residency issue. "I keep bringing this up," she said, repeating her assertion that out-of-district students are a problem, all evidence to the contrary. "Even today, there are little Johnnies aqnd little Suzies who are being told by their parents, 'don't tell.'" So now, she's accusing parents of lying. Nice.

She also, believe it or not, fought the recommendation to cut a school nurse. "Did you take into consideration liability factors," she asked, "Why you would want to share nurse over sharing a librarian?" Walker replied that nursing capacity exceeded the need, whereas librarians were extremely stretched. "It wore me out reading all the things that they do. Given role they curently play, there would be a significant loss."

Compare Gleaon's position to the one she took in last year's budget cycle, where she recommended cutting $200K from the schools, including a nurse. See the video and transcript at that link. At that time, she advocated for such a cut. Now, suddenly, she's all concerned about school nurses and liability? Could it be, oh, I don't know, an election year or something?