Principals who appealed budgets finding out funds' fates today

Hundreds of principals who objected to their initial budget funding last month will learn today if their appeals were successful.

An unusually high number of principals filed official appeals of their budgets this year, some requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional funding. They said the third consecutive year of budget cuts would have forced them to cut vital staff members, they explained in their appeals.

It’s not clear how many of the 253 principals will have funding restored, or even where all of the money will come from. Last year, the Department of Education spent $23 million from a centrally-funded emergency pool to restore money to about two-thirds of the 166 schools that filed appeals.

Principals are getting emails with the results of their appeals today, according to Barbara Morgan, a DOE spokeswoman. But at least one principal said he’s already been told his appeal was successful.

Joe Nobile, a principal whose budget plight we wrote about last month, said initial funding allocated for his school, P.S. 304, “was not enough to run the school effectively.” He would have had to replace seven staff members.

But thanks to his appeal, Nobile said he will be able to keep most of those staff members — a teacher, three school aides, and one paraprofessionals  — in the school. He’s still losing two special education teachers, he said.