Brizard presents city school budget

After taking over less than three months ago, Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard laid out his first budget for the Rochester city school district. It totals $677.5 million, that's 3.9% more than the 2007-08 amended budget. Brizard is also looking to close in on a $16 million dollar budget gap.

There are no plans for layoffs, but the superintendent plans to reduce staff at central office, not replacing staff that leave or retire and he wants to transfer others into the schools where they're needed.

Another big focus for Brizard is tying funding to progress.

"What's been difficult for my staff as well is putting those metrics and asking for performance where some have not really kept track of how successful programs have been,” said Brizard.

Strategy was a big part of his budget presentation, from pre-k to high school; Brizard wants to make sure the programs being funded provide results.

"You know budget comes after strategy the question is what is the need, what does it take to fix it, and then how do you find the money to make it work,” said Brizard

"They have to be tied together. We can't just spend money and not know what the outcomes are going to be. He made it very clear that he wants to see an increase in the graduation rate over the next five years of 75% and that’s key so every single dollar that we spend needs to be aligned to some type of outcome,” said school board member Malik Evans.

Brizard's presentation was a short overview of a very complex budget, one that school board members are ready to dive into. "It helped me be patient enough for next week understanding that he intends to fully integrate his initiatives with the budget,” said school board member Willa Powell.

The first public hearing on the budget is April 7th.

To read over the budget yourself click here.