Superintendent outlines cuts
After sitting through a two-hour board meeting Wednesday, dozens of student gymnasts and golfers clapped and cheered.
“We will not eliminate gymnastics, boys’ golf or pep band,” Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Brian Benzel said after presenting his recommendations for balancing the 2004-2005 budget at the board meeting held at Rogers High School.
Because of steadily decreasing enrollment in the district, increased expenses and programs mandated – but underfunded – by the state Legislature, administrators faced the need to make a total of about $6 million in cuts to the district’s $258 million budget.
Through staff attrition and cutting librarian service at the smallest elementary schools to part time, they saved about $4 million. The remaining $2 million presented a tougher challenge. Benzel recommended:
• Making reductions to the central office support staff through attrition.
• Reducing general fund travel.
• Deferring major painting projects until 2006.
• Re-assigning and reducing school social workers.
• Eliminating a planned increase to schools’ supply budgets.
• Reducing custodian staffing in elementary schools.
• Eliminating instructional assistants from high schools’ Learning Opportunity Centers (but reassigning the assistants to available positions).
• Terminating automatic pay increases for extracurricular coaches.
• Using nearby schools to host students during elementary school construction projects planned for the 2005-2006 school year, which reduces costs such as heating and maintenance.
In addition, Benzel recommended eliminating the middle school HUBS program, which provides before- and after-school activities for students. He suggested using the money instead to focus on the academic needs of underachieving middle-schoolers.
Seven social workers in the district have already received lay-off notices. By law, district officials must notify certificated staff by May 15 if their contract won’t be continued the following year. Even though no final budget decisions have been made, the district had to send out the notices to social workers to preserve the option of their reassignment as a budget solution.
Former social worker Joan Schwab said she has felt supported by the district, and she thinks officials are working hard to hire five of the social workers back in related positions.
At recent staff and community forums, administrators handed out a list containing $3 million worth of programs and positions that could potentially be eliminated or reduced to save the district money. They asked people what they would choose to cut to save $2 million. Of the 362 responses, most people put reducing security officers and eliminating high school sports programs at the bottom of the list. At the top was reducing the general fund travel budget and negotiating automatic salary increases for extracurricular coaches.
“We received far more public input than on any topic I can recall,” said Rocky Treppiedi, school board president. “It’s helped us get a strong sense of what the community views as a priority.”
Board members received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from people particularly concerned about the possibility of losing gymnastics and boys’ golf. Though those cost-saving options were not recommended by Benzel, board member Don Barlow acknowledged a harsh reality.
“What we don’t eliminate this year will be on the table next year if we don’t get help from the Legislature,” he said at a recent board work session.
The cuts are Benzel’s recommendations; the board of directors has the final say. Though the final budget will likely look similar, it will not necessarily be the same.
Last year, Benzel recommended a cut that would have meant no marching bands at football game halftime shows. Dozens of people attended school board meetings and argued for programs. Many students wrote letters to board members explaining how activities like marching band were the only reason they kept coming to school.
Board members listened and were swayed. They directed administrators to find a way to let musicians keep marching at halftime. The program had a relatively low cost – about $20,000 – and yet affected about 500 students.
The public is invited to comment on the recommended 2004-2005 budget at upcoming board meetings: June 9 at 7 p.m., or June 23 or July 14 at noon at the district office, 200 N. Bernard. The board of directors is scheduled to adopt the 2004-2005 budget at the July 28 meeting.