CVSD plans personnel cuts

Central Valley needs to cut $1.5 million from its 2008-09 budget and is looking at cutting 21 positions to rein in costs. Teacher positions lost should be covered through attrition, but layoffs are anticipated for classified staff.

The cause of the budget shortfall can be traced to rising fuel prices and a large cost of living increase mandated by the State Legislature, said superintendent Mike Pearson. School districts must give everyone a 4.4 percent raise and teachers must get an additional .7 percent raise on top of that. Retirement and health-care costs also went up.

Of the district’s $106.5 million budget, 87.5 percent of it is personnel costs. “The only way we really can meet the reduction was to look at staff,” said assistant superintendent Lisa Louer. “We can’t continue to look at programs.”

The state funds 565.7 positions in Central Valley, but the district pays for 43.6 additional positions out of its own money. The state gives the district money to cover the required raises for the funded positions, but the district must come up with the money to pay the raises for the 43 positions not funded by the state. Overall the district faces a $2 million shortfall caused by the increases in salary, retirement and health care costs.

The board will consider the preliminary budget for several months until voting in August. The proposed budget submitted by Pearson calls for changing the staffing formula at middle schools and high schools, accounting for the loss of seven positions, and restructuring the Able Learners and middle school extended core programs, resulting in the loss of two positions. In all the budget calls for losing 19 certificated staff.

“At this point we have over 20 requests for retirements, resignations and year-long leaves of absence,” Louer said. “This could happen by attrition.” Remaining teachers would have to be transferred to fill essential positions, but it is likely no teacher layoffs would be needed.

The plan also calls for reducing the number of classified staff hours. Classified personnel include custodians, secretaries, food service workers and bus drivers. Those areas have already been trimmed in recent years and can’t be cut more, Louer said. The district wants to cut classified staff by six hours daily at each high school, by two hours daily at each middle school and by one hour each day at the elementary schools. “They will be significant enough that we will have to look at layoffs among our classified staff,” Louer said. “At this time, it looks like we will be reducing paraeducators.”

Paraeducators assist teachers in the classroom, often working one-on-one or in small groups with children to give them extra help in math and reading. They also are used frequently in special-education classrooms. All kindergarten classrooms have a paraeducator and there will be no changes with that program, Louer said. Principals strongly advocated keeping staff in the kindergarten classes.

Initiative 728 funding, which pays for extra teachers to reduce class sizes, went up only 1.8 percent this year, Pearson said. “Our costs shot up,” Pearson said. “We would be over $400,000 in the red if we maintained what we operated this year.”

Some things that were funded by I-728 funding, like extended day programs and summer school, are being cut back, eliminated or will be paid for with different funding. The district had already previously announced elimination of elementary summer school and reduction of middle school summer school options.

In deciding on proposed cuts, Pearson said he met with every school principal to discuss the cutbacks. The principals said they could pay for extended day programs with other sources, so the district will no longer fund that program, Pearson said. He also is looking at adjusting bus schedules to eliminate the time buses spend waiting at the school in an effort to save money.

After Pearson’s budget presentation to the board during Monday’s meeting, several board members suggested money-saving ideas for staff to research. Board member Debra Long noted that band students pay fees in order to play, but athletes pay nothing. “They (band students) pay $250 or more to play, yet athletics does not,” she said. “Maybe there should be some equalization there.”

Long also noted that the district could raise lunch prices, though it’s not an idea she favors. “I would hate to ride on the children,” she said. “But that might be an avenue to look at.” The board is due to consider next year’s lunch prices in May.

The proposed budget includes maintaining the district’s 4 percent reserve. “That was one of our goals,” Pearson said. “It has benefited us greatly over the last two years.”

Pearson said there is no reason to panic over the proposed cuts. “We’ve told our staff the sky isn’t falling in the Central Valley School District,” he said. “We’ve been through this before.”