School Cuts In Moscow Stir Discontent Falling Enrollment May Cause District To Cut Teachers, Spend Less On Textbooks, Supplies

Superintendent Ed Fisk can sum up the district’s budget crisis in four words:

“Nobody wants anything cut.”

But that’s not possible in Moscow, where a drop in enrollment is forcing administrators to slash $702,500 from the school district’s $15 million budget. That means cutting about seven teachers, and shrinking spending on textbooks, maintenance, supplies and activities for next fall.

Several districts around North Idaho, including Wallace, Grangeville, Potlatch and Whitepine, are suffering a budget crunch because of declining enrollment. Others though, such as Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland, have seen an increase in students in recent years and must find money in their budgets to build new schools.

The forced fiscal diet in Moscow has left just about everybody unhappy.

“Anyone that’s come in contact with this process, everyone’s coming away feeling a little frustrated,” said Moscow parent Pam McClelland, who serves on the parent advisory committee for Lena Whitmore Elementary School.

Said one teacher of the district’s budgeting process, “It’s more like a spectator sport.”

In recent days, the city’s teachers union announced a vote of no-confidence for Fisk, saying teachers were left out of budget discussions. They dispute the district’s claims of declining enrollment, calling it an excuse to lay off teachers.

Members of the district’s budget committee have complained that they haven’t been given enough time to figure out Moscow’s finances.

Administrators, meanwhile, say patrons just don’t comprehend how tough it is to slice that many dollars from the budget.

“I didn’t really understand the magnitude of it until I started doing this year’s budget,” said Fisk, who took the superintendent job last July. “We have looked at all this very, very carefully. We don’t have as many alternatives as people might think.”

Enrollment in Moscow has dropped by 184 students since 1996, and a Coeur d’Alene consulting firm predicts it will keep falling until at least 2004. There are currently 2,531 students enrolled in the district, and estimates say there may be as few as 2,299 by 2004.

School funding is tied to enrollment, with the district losing about $54,000 for every 20 students who leave Moscow public schools, Fisk said.

Parents fear the budget cuts will lead to larger class sizes. They’re concerned their kids will have to be shipped to other schools to balance enrollment. They worry their children’s education will suffer.

“It does concern me in the sense I don’t know if my children will be affected or not,” said McClelland, who has a sixth-grader and a first-grader. “I would like to see them of course stay put. I would like to keep things as normal as possible.”

Brian Farmer, a Moscow parent who served on the district’s budget committee, said he worries about how the cuts will affect his children. But the committee didn’t have many choices, he said.

“So much of the budget is fixed,” Farmer said. “You have to pay your utility bill. You can only turn the heat down so much. You can only turn the lights off so often.”

Parents and kids will see few effects of the budget cuts next fall, school board chairwoman Karen Falke said.

“I really don’t think they’re going to hinder the classroom at all,” Falke said. “You’re not going to even notice it at all.”

Declining enrollment has kept class sizes low in Moscow in recent years, with fewer than 20 students per teacher in most cases, administrators say.

The staffing cuts, which will be accomplished largely through attrition and not layoffs, will raise class sizes a bit. Fisk said he hopes to keep the youngest students in classes of 22 or fewer, and older students in classes no larger than 25.

Lori Maxwell, who taught first grade at West Park Elementary School this year, probably won’t be back in the fall. She was hired on a one-year contract, and the budget cuts make it likely her position won’t be filled next year.

Maxwell, who has taught for a decade, moved to Moscow from Bonners Ferry last year with her husband and four children. She is looking for a job in Pullman, but doesn’t want to travel too far away from Moscow, where her husband is a fifth-grade teacher.

“I knew it was a possibility,” Maxwell said of not being able to keep her job. “I’ve really enjoyed West Park.”

She plans to work as a substitute if she can’t find a full-time position.

“It’d be difficult,” Maxwell said. “We’d have to make some adjustments.”

Jim Christiansen, the interim principal at West Park, worries that community outcry over the budget cuts is keeping administrators from slashing as much as they should to keep up with falling enrollment.

“It just seems like a hemorrhage,” Christiansen said. “People haven’t really believed we’ve had the crisis we’ve had. That’s been the hard part to sell.”

Moscow’s budget shortfalls won’t go away, many agree.

Right now, declining enrollment is hitting the elementary schools and junior high. But it won’t be long before the high school sees drops in students, too, administrators say.

The district already benefits from a $4.3 million levy that is automatically renewed every year. But school officials are considering asking voters to approve an additional tax increase.

“We’re still not doing enough,” Falke said. “We will probably have to eliminate more positions again next year.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: MOSCOW SCHOOLS MUST TRIM $702,500 The Moscow School District must cut $702,500 from its budget to make up for declining enrollment. The public can discuss the proposed cuts at a budget hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Moscow Junior High multipurpose room. The school board is scheduled to vote on the budget at its meeting June 22. Here are the proposed budget cuts and how much money they’ll save. The numbers below do not add up to the full amount needed to be cut because district officials still are tinkering with the budget: Three seventh- through 12th-grade teaching positions and 4.3 kindergarten through sixth-grade spots, $255,500 Supplies and materials, $60,000 Textbooks, $50,000 Athletics and activities, $50,000 Part of one administrative position, $50,000 Shift to using technology fund instead of general fund, $50,000 School board rainy-day fund, $40,000 Asbestos removal, $25,000 One classified, nonteaching, position, $15,000 Athletics and activities transportation, $11,000 Paving, $10,000 DARE anti-drug program, $9,000 After-school strings program, $1,500