Michele_bell
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« on: March 02, 2010, 08:20:37 AM » |
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Forwarded for everyone's information; email update I received yesterday.
As for the Feb. 18th finance committee meeting, to say it was a spirited meeting would be a bit of an understatement.
The lively discussion surrounded the superintendent's presentation of her tiered priority lists of items to be cut to get our budget together. To summarize,
Tier 1 (those cuts with limited educational/safety impact) include:
ATHLETICS (save b/w $50,000 and $150,000)
CLUBS (same savings range as Athletics)
AFTER SCHOOL BUSSING (save $20-82,000)
COURTESY - NON HAZARDOUS - BUSSING (save $200,000)
OUTSOURCING of support services (AKA, privatization) but the "support services" to be outsources were not detailed. My experience has been that districts generally privatize cutodial and food services. In our case, our food services dept. generally operates at a profit each year, so privatizing food services, especially when the private cos. generally charge more for lunches than we do, might not be such a great idea. As for custodial, privatizing here has saved districts money where it has been done.
INSURANCE ($50,000-100,000 savings)
CUSTODIAL SUPPLIES
CAPITAL projects (building improvements). Projects, like roofing and masonry work, for which we have received approval for state grant money that would partially cover these costs, would be put off for this budget cycle but would still need to be done at some point in the future. These cuts are projected to save about $1.3M. These cuts, where savings numbers were given, total something like $370,000 to $682,000 (plus the $1.3M of deferred capital projects costs, if they go that route).
There were some other areas listed but no numbers attached to those savings, other than I listed. You could contact Dr. Golden or Ron Sanasac and ask for a copy of the presentation so you could see the full list.
Tier 2 (those cuts with an educational/safety impact that is "sustainable")
Reductions in Guidance, Child Study Team and Nursing staff
Reductions in the amount or manner in which the Media, Computer, G&T, World Languages, Pullout Music and Remedial/Summer Enrichment programs are offered (I think the non-mandated summer programs might be entirely eliminated).
No savings projections were offered for Tier 2 proposed reductions.
Tier 3 (those that would have a negative educational/safety impact). I would call these the "no touch" or "last resort cuts."
Administrative Restructuring is being looked at. I don't recall an explanation of this (as I said, things got a bit lively well before this point) but I am assuming it means eliminating elementary school vice principals.
Decreasing amount and/or delivery of staff Professional Development
And, finally, increased class size, due to layoffs. Again the magnitude of this (whether individual sections at schools would be eliminated increasing class sizes in the schools but keeping all the student put, or another school closing and total redistricting) probably depends on the depth of the state cuts, which the superintendent said she is assuming will be about 15% (or about $5.-5.5M for us).
No projections regarding dollar amounts nor number of staff to be reduced were offered here either, however.
There was also brief reference to revenue sources, like Kindergarten Wrap Around Program (building use fees), parent-paid busing (aka, subscription busing), parent-paid sports/clubs, Southard lease revenue and shared services. But, again no numbers were attached to show how much the administration thought these areas could bring into the district.
To summarize, the administration is looking to lose approx. $5-$5.5M in state aid, planning to cut $9M from our budget and yet is still going to raise taxes the full 4% allowed by law, or about $2.58M based on last year's levy.
Why such deep cuts and yet the need to still raise taxes? Mr. O'Brien asked this question as well and the answer was, to cover "roll up costs," aka, SALARY and benefits increases.
So, they are proposing to cut our budget by $9M and yet taxes still need to be raised?! And, what things are going to go first? Well, if you take Dr. Golden's priorities to mean anything, the administration would recommend cuts to athletics, clubs and the like (stuff for the kids!) because these have the least educational (aka, direct instructional) impact than, say, adminstrative restructuring (which could include central office administration and not necessarily simply building vps).
Dr. Levine tried to recast the priorities, saying that they could operate more like a "chinese menu" - some from Tier 1, some from Tier 2 and some from Tier 3 and not necessarily "exhaust Tier 1 before moving on to Tier 2 and 3 savings" approach. However, it seemed very clear to me that Dr. Golden meant the opposite; exhaust Tier 1 before moving on to the others.
We are doing this for the kids, right? That must be why we want to eliminate athletics, something that would affect the entire student body, to save a maximum projected $150,000 when we could eliminate one adminsitrative position and save the same amount, without the children feeling a ripple.
Priorities. Everybody's got them. Are these yours for your school district?
If they are, your interests are well represented. If they are not, you need to come to these meetings and let your priorities be heard. I can do no more but try to impress the urgency upon you and plead with you to get involved.
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