2011-12 Budget Update - May 11
The school board last night approved about $23.8 million in cuts for next year. The complete list can be found here. None of these should come as a surprise, as the board has talked about these cuts for several months. What they don’t include are reductions to local office assistants or the general 1 percent pay reduction that has been discussed. We are still working on different ways to save money and find other placements for local office assistants.Budget Director Kerry Crutchfield last night also presented 10 new ideas that would save about $1.8 million. The school board spent very little time last night discussing this list and will undoubtedly want time for more discussion and public input before adopting any of these reductions:- $120,000 for charging $40 per student per sport to play high school sports and $15 per student per sport for middle school athletics. Fees would be waived for those who receive free or reduced-price lunches.
- $55,000 by eliminating intramural coaching supplements at middle schools.
- $120,000 by reducing special supplement (extra-duty) pay schedule by 5 percent (affecting sponsors, coaches, trainers, athletic directors, etc.).
- $85,000 by reducing sponsor supplement allotments to secondary schools by 40 percent (middle schools and Carter High would lose 12 months of supplements, and high schools would lose 28 months).
- $104,000 by reducing the extended term for assistant principals and curriculum coordinators by two days.
- $65,000 by reducing the extended term for data managers by one week.
- $55,000 by including school clerical positions that work 10 months and one week in the group that will have their work term decreased by 12 days.
- $580,000 by reducing masters’ degree supplements from 13 percent more than bachelors’ degrees to 7.5 percent more. This would be equal to a 0.5 percent pay reduction.
- $155,000 by reducing the classified education credit from 2.5 percent to 1.5 percent.
- $450,000 through a permanent pay reduction of 1 percent for all 12-month employees.
If these were adopted, then the only employees without some sort of permanent pay reduction next year would be bachelors’ degree teachers, 10-month housekeepers and hourly-paid bus drivers and cafeteria workers. The furlough that that the school board approved last month is in limbo. The board approved it, but the school system is waiting for the State Board of Education to approve it. If the state board doesn’t approve it, there will be no furlough, though it’s possible that the final state budget will allow us to do a furlough next year if we can’t do it this year.
