June 23, 2011 in City

School board commits to maintaining class sizes

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Spokane Public Schools officials agreed to a 2011-’12 preliminary budget Wednesday that does not increase any class sizes, but there’s still work to be done.

About $1 million remains to be cut to bridge the $13.1 million deficit.

Increasing high school class sizes or cutting 59 instructional assistants in special-education resource rooms – each of which would save about $1 million – were the two main items remaining under consideration at the start of Wednesday’s board meeting.

But after passionate testimony from parents, teachers and instructional assistants, school officials decided to consider different ways to make the final $1 million trim.

“We need to think of our kids,” said Kim Gortsema, a resource room teacher. “We’re cutting people they need in order to learn.”

Rocky Treppiedi, a Spokane school board director, said cutting those instructional assistants would affect the “most vulnerable” students.

“I don’t see the educational value in taking a step like this,” he said.

Superintendent Nancy Stowell added: “We’ll keep looking for money.”

The school board has until August to make a final decision on the district budget. Some instructional assistants could be eliminated, but not at the 60 percent level currently proposed, officials said.

At the onset of the budgeting process, board members voted to temporarily increase class sizes in K-12 to help fill an anticipated multimillion-dollar deficit. But board members asked the administration to look elsewhere to find the money before putting that decision in motion.

One-time savings of $5.4 million, reassessing district programs, scheduling adjustments, salary reductions and cuts in personnel, including instructional support, made up the bulk of the trims.

The central office was “slashed,” Stowell said. Reduction to administrative pay totals more than the state’s 3 percent cut in funding. Additionally, salaries were frozen, 13.5 administrators were eliminated, the mentor teacher program was suspended and exempt professional salaries were frozen, for a total savings of $1.3 million.

A 1.9 percent cut to instructional certified staff salaries, which was the same percentage reduction as that made by the state, saves nearly $2 million. Principals and assistant principals agreed to a 3 percent pay cut.

Stowell said the proposed budget, for the most part, “protects classroom resources in spite of state and federal cuts.”

Jenny Rose, Spokane Education Association president, told the board she’s aware of the state’s reductions but reminded the board “the state is not telling you to spend a half-million dollars on a math resolution … develop a data warehouse for another half-million dollars. That is your choice.”

Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  hawken on June 23 at 7:24 a.m.

  The typical scare tactic didn’t work…. “We’ll have to lay off teachers!” “We’ll have to reduce class size!”

  Isn’t it just amazing that government can actually do the same with less taxpayer dollars?

  We’ve been throwing billions upon billions at public education for decades with little or no gain in the quality of education.

  On a national level, Eliminate the Department of Education and save $80+ billion (a Carter boondoggle). That money could be restored to Medicare where Obama cut $500 Billion to fund Obamacare. Better yet, eliminate the Dept of Ed. and Obamacare and put $580 Billion back into Medicare.

• 

  monarch on June 23 at 9:58 a.m.

  Hawken, you’re spreading Republican disinformation again. The conservative Forbes Magazine states:

  “Among the many narratives injected into the public debate over health care reform, the most disturbing is the notion that our senior citizens will experience cuts in their Medicare benefits as a result of Obamacare.”

  http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/09/25/does-obamacare-really-cut-medicare-benefits-to-senior-citizens/

  “While you are clearly entitled to whatever ideology works for you, let’s do our senior citizens a favor and give them the facts.”

• 

  hawken on June 23 at 11:00 a.m.

  Monarch: How many angels can dance on the head of an needle?

  Romney said, “Obamacare takes $500 billion out of Medicare and funds Obamacare.” The law doesn’t literally take money out of Medicare, but Romney isn’t entirely wrong in his point, either.

  That’s because in creating the law, Democrats wanted to make sure they did not increase the federal deficit. The savings from Medicare offset new spending resulting from the health care bill.

  The major new spending in the bill comes from tax credits to help people of modest incomes buy health insurance and from expanding Medicaid to offer coverage to the poor. The tax credits and other cost-sharing subsidies are estimated to cost $350 billion over 10 years, while the Medicaid expansion costs $434 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

  http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jun/16/mitt-romney/500-billion-medicare-obamacare-romney-says/