School district makes $1.1 million in cuts
As the Ohio General Assembly gets ever closer to the July 1 deadline for the passage of the state’s biennial budget, the Wooster City School District now has a clearer picture of the extent of the revenue reductions the district will face.
At their April meeting, Bonnie West, treasurer, informed the board of education that, barring any last minute changes to the budget, the district can expect to see a cumulative loss of $3.3 million in state funding over the next two years and an additional $769,000 in reductions each year thereafter for the ensuing seven years.
West added that other legislation currently under consideration by state lawmakers could lessen the financial blow and minimize the number of layoffs that would otherwise be necessary now, including pension reforms that are expected to generate attrition in 2013 and 2015.
According to Superintendent Michael Tefs, based on what the district knows now, $1.1 million is being cut from the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The budget reduction package, which was unanimously approved by the board, includes cuts to both programming and staffing.
On the programming side, Tefs noted that the district will realize a $25,000 savings by moving its Littlest Generals preschool program from its rented space at the Gault Family Learning Center to a district owned facility, and an additional $90,000 by limiting the behavioral and chemical therapy services provided to students in the district’s alternative education sites to the amount of grant money it receives.
The biggest change being made to programming relates to the district’s all-day/every-day kindergarten program.
With the recent removal of the state mandate for all-day/every-day kindergarten and the funding that went along with it, kindergarten will once again be funded by the state as a half-day program.
In order to meet the district’s commitment to an all-day program, Tefs noted that the district will move to a sliding scale tuition based program for families that want an all-day experience for their children with families that qualify for the free lunch program paying no tuition, families on the reduced lunch program paying a reduced tuition amount and all other families paying $190 per month.
The implementation of the tuition based kindergarten program is expected to net the district approximately $190,000 per year, according to Tefs.
Staffing levels will also be affected.
Through attrition the district will lose a high school English teacher ($88,800), gifted teacher ($60,000), a small group instructor at Wayne and another at Edgewood ($40,000), two kindergarten teachers ($101,400), special education coordinator in the central office ($95,000), high/middle school exploratory foreign language teacher ($80,000), high school physical education teacher ($27,000) and a dean of students ($28,000).
The reduction plan also takes into account $475,000 in savings the district will experience via pension reform measures in the budget which removes “two percent of the board’s portion of retirement paid to employees,” Tefs added.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the state’s budget and the statutory requirement that reductions in force be put into place in April for the following school year, the district also created a contingency plan with includes the elimination of a high school math teacher ($60,000), secretary in the treasurer’s office ($54,000), custodian ($33,700), van driver ($35,500) and two elementary teachers ($46,000 and $66,000).
“You’ve got $1.1 million worth of reductions here and, worst case scenario, with contingencies you have three reductions in force in the entire staff,” said Tefs.
“We tried to attack this reduction plan through attrition to minimize the impact as much as we can. That will be significantly harder to do year in and year out,” said Tefs, noting that the district will face another similar reduction next year.
At their April meeting, Bonnie West, treasurer, informed the board of education that, barring any last minute changes to the budget, the district can expect to see a cumulative loss of $3.3 million in state funding over the next two years and an additional $769,000 in reductions each year thereafter for the ensuing seven years.
West added that other legislation currently under consideration by state lawmakers could lessen the financial blow and minimize the number of layoffs that would otherwise be necessary now, including pension reforms that are expected to generate attrition in 2013 and 2015.
According to Superintendent Michael Tefs, based on what the district knows now, $1.1 million is being cut from the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The budget reduction package, which was unanimously approved by the board, includes cuts to both programming and staffing.
On the programming side, Tefs noted that the district will realize a $25,000 savings by moving its Littlest Generals preschool program from its rented space at the Gault Family Learning Center to a district owned facility, and an additional $90,000 by limiting the behavioral and chemical therapy services provided to students in the district’s alternative education sites to the amount of grant money it receives.
The biggest change being made to programming relates to the district’s all-day/every-day kindergarten program.
With the recent removal of the state mandate for all-day/every-day kindergarten and the funding that went along with it, kindergarten will once again be funded by the state as a half-day program.
In order to meet the district’s commitment to an all-day program, Tefs noted that the district will move to a sliding scale tuition based program for families that want an all-day experience for their children with families that qualify for the free lunch program paying no tuition, families on the reduced lunch program paying a reduced tuition amount and all other families paying $190 per month.
The implementation of the tuition based kindergarten program is expected to net the district approximately $190,000 per year, according to Tefs.
Staffing levels will also be affected.
Through attrition the district will lose a high school English teacher ($88,800), gifted teacher ($60,000), a small group instructor at Wayne and another at Edgewood ($40,000), two kindergarten teachers ($101,400), special education coordinator in the central office ($95,000), high/middle school exploratory foreign language teacher ($80,000), high school physical education teacher ($27,000) and a dean of students ($28,000).
The reduction plan also takes into account $475,000 in savings the district will experience via pension reform measures in the budget which removes “two percent of the board’s portion of retirement paid to employees,” Tefs added.
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the state’s budget and the statutory requirement that reductions in force be put into place in April for the following school year, the district also created a contingency plan with includes the elimination of a high school math teacher ($60,000), secretary in the treasurer’s office ($54,000), custodian ($33,700), van driver ($35,500) and two elementary teachers ($46,000 and $66,000).
“You’ve got $1.1 million worth of reductions here and, worst case scenario, with contingencies you have three reductions in force in the entire staff,” said Tefs.
“We tried to attack this reduction plan through attrition to minimize the impact as much as we can. That will be significantly harder to do year in and year out,” said Tefs, noting that the district will face another similar reduction next year.
Published: May 17, 2011
