Let's read the Worcester Cultural Academy FY24 budget!

I have posted it over here for you. Jeff Chamer did a nice job with some highlights, which also included the lease (which does not include the Bishop having any authority over what goes on the buildings, it appears). They will not be opening in the building on Hamilton Street, which is not ready--I'd be interested on why, as they've had lots of time--but mainly in the building the diocese canceled the lease with the Worcester Public Schools on. 

You might remember that I did some math, working to create a foundation budget for WCACS, and I struggled to get them to $2.5M; it appears (page 5) they're estimating $2.3M in tuition (which is what that would be). Let me reiterate that my estimate is based on my wildly overestimating how many students they'll have that are considered low income. As they are, per page 6, basing their foundation budget on an average per pupil rate of $18,291, which itself is based on Worcester's average per pupil rate (most of their students are Worcester students), let's note how wild that overestimation is: 

• The Worcester Public Schools' enrollment is 30.4% English learners; theirs is 5.5%
• The Worcester Public Schools' enrollment is 72.5% low income; we don't know theirs yet, but I very seriously doubt it is anywhere near that AND THAT IS WHERE MUCH OF THE MONEY IS.

We should note that the tuition that WCACS is getting is still based, in some part, on estimates: they know numbers of kids, but they don't have all the data on who those kids are. For those who might have followed the evolution of Worcester's cherry sheet through the budget process: that's a large part of why our charter tuition keeps switching , as it's getting less a projection and closer to real numbers (for all charters to which we send students, not just WCACS). WCACS tuition still, though, is based at ground on WPS numbers, which we know it won't reflect.

WCACS will have to report their actual enrollment, just like everyone else, in October. That will need to be trued up with the state, which usually takes some months, but by the beginning of next year, what they'll be getting is their actual tuition, not projected tuition. As the state at that point will need to make up for the fact that they've essentially overpaid in the first months, the school will take a double hit (the state only has half the school year to make back to overprojection). It's pretty concerning to see that they've made absolutely no allowances for that in their month-by-month projections on page 17: 

As they've also front-loaded the year with the major grant, they won't have that by February as a cushion, either. 

They've already found that their enrollment isn't close to what they thought they were going to get; I'm going to quote this part from page 1 in full, because it shows a pretty major change already:

The major difference in this plan, compared to the original charter application, is that we are proposing a plan with slower enrollment growth. WCA will open in August 2023 with a targeted enrollment of 127 students, k-4, compared to the original application of 200 (40 students per grade k-4). Due to this, Leadership felt it would be more conservative to plan slower enrollment in future years. The proposed enrollment, shown below, focuses on recruiting for k and second graders in year 2 so that we will have two full sections k-2. In Year 1 – school year 2023-2024, there will be two sections of kindergarten and one each for grades 1 through 4.
We will focus on recruiting a second full section for grade 2 in Year 2 while rounding out the upper grades to 25. Kindergarten enrollment in Year 2 was adjusted in order to stay within the chartered enrollment of 360. During Year 1 we will continue recruiting efforts at all grades, and if we felt we could add a second section to Grade 3 we would pursue. This would then be reflected in the Year 2 budget brought to the board in spring 2024.  

They had planned to open with two classrooms each, in grades K with through 4, but they don't have close to the enrollment for that. They have the enrollment this year for two classrooms only in kindergarten:

(And those class sizes, for what it's worth, are looking similar to Worcester's.)
Note, of course, that kindergartners largely have not been in the Worcester Public Schools, so something close to half of their enrollment isn't choosing to leave WPS; they haven't experienced it at all. 

Let's also raise a flag on where they report they are on hiring as of July (p. 9): 

Those are a lot of open positions. It's pretty scary to see the two special education positions open, in particular. OT and PT, and speech and language are difficult enough to fill without the positions being half time. 

Jeff Chamer in his article did a good job of salary comparisons: 

A teacher with a bachelor of arts degree and no prior experience can expect to be paid $50,140, while a teacher with a master of arts degree and no prior experience can expect $52,815.

The pay matrix includes 12 steps, with each step corresponding to one year of experience. A teacher with 12 years of experience and a bachelor of arts degree can expect to be paid $76,005, while a teacher with the same experience and a master of arts degree can expect $78,747. 

In comparison, the new Worcester Public Schools teacher contract stipulates that a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no prior experience will make $54,363, while a new teacher with a master's degree will make $61,497.

At the top of the nine-step scale, a teacher with a bachelor's degree will make $85,176 and one with a master's degree will make $92,636.

And that's only for the teachers: custodial staff not only can work in schools, and districts including Worcester have been continuously working to fill open positions. They need to find two. 

Note, incidentally, that their plan to have a bus driver and buy a bus found instead (p.11):

It was initially contemplated for the school to purchase its own bus and hire a full time driver. After receiving quotes from various providers, Leadership believes that it is more cost effective to contract this service.

We, of course, had said this, along with much else, back at the beginning of the year.  

There's an interesting note on their agreement with OSV to provide oversight and financial services, which you'll well recall is why the school exists at all: to provide dependable income to the Village. Because the grant which the planning had counted on to pay for that didn't come through until May (p. 4): 

The WCA Board approved an agreement with OSI for management services totalling $50,000 for the period March through June ($12,500) per month. However, the CSP grant was not approved until May 31 so these funds could not be used to pay this agreement. OSI has made the decision that they will provide services from March, April and May as an “in-kind” gift to WCA.

That's a $37,500 hit to the income generation of the school to OSV. They are, however, budgeted to make $162, 607 (p. 11) in FY24.

Let me reiterate what I said in my earlier post on the financials of WCACS: 

I am not going through all of this to say we told you so, though of course we did.

I'm doing this because the basic ability of the school to meet the needs of kids, most of whom are from Worcester, is what is at stake here. Making these kinds of mistakes this early bodes very poorly for that.