Schools look to trim budgets

The Central Valley School District has already announced possible layoffs to deal with higher than anticipated cost of living increases mandated by the Legislature and rising food and fuel prices.

And it is not alone. Nearly every school district in the county is facing budget cuts, though most are hoping to avoid layoffs.

Central Valley is considering a plan to cut 19 certificated staff and 58 classified staff hours daily. “At this point we have over 20 requests for retirements, resignations and yearlong leaves of absence,” said Assistant Superintendent Lise Louer at a recent board meeting. “This could happen by attrition.”

Existing teachers would have to be transferred to fill in holes left by their departing colleagues. But layoffs are anticipated to cover the cut in classified positions, which include custodians, cafeteria staff, paraprofessionals and other support positions. The classified hours cuts would add up to six hours daily at each high school, two hours daily at each middle school and one hour each day at the elementary school.

Every year the Legislature decides what the cost of living increase will be for teachers and classified staff. This year it was set at 4.4 percent and teachers must get an additional .7 percent raise. Retirement and health-care costs also went up. The state funds teacher and classified positions based on student enrollment and only provides additional money for raises for those positions.

Nearly every district, however, hires additional staff that is paid out of its own budget. Central Valley currently funds 43.64 certificated positions over the state funding formula. What the unfunded positions are used for varies by district, but Central Valley does add some extra classroom teachers. “They’re all certificated teachers,” said district spokeswoman Melanie Rose. “Most of them are in a supportive kind of role.” Those learning support positions include literacy coaches and other specialists.

The district also heavily subsidizes its nutrition services program. Last year’s support added up to $293,867, and the number has been steadily rising over the years. Some of the increased costs are driven by gas prices, but the price of flour has doubled and the price of milk has gone up by 37 percent, said Duane Smilden, supervisor of nutrition services. “We could not have anticipated doubled prices,” he said.

The West Valley School District is anticipating a shortfall of $327,000 for the cost of living pay increases for certificated and classified staff not covered by the state funding formula. “We’re not looking at a reduction in staff,” said Deputy Superintendent Doug Matson. “We’re not looking at adding necessarily, though, either.”

Matson said he is just starting the budget process. “Our staffing is about the same as last year,” he said. “We’re just hoping to be able to maintain positions and look at attrition if we do need to eliminate something.”

Like other school leaders, Matson is concerned with fuel prices. The costs are going up weekly for the district’s 25 buses. “We pick up about 80 to 90 percent of students,” he said. “We bus a lot of students within the mile radius. We’ve got an awful lot of major streets. It’s a safety issue.”

East Valley will likely not have to cut its budget, thanks to steep budget reductions made last year.

Increased costs associated with the cost of living and retirement increases will add up to about $200,000, said budget consultant Al Swanson. The cuts made created a fund balance that should be able to cover the higher costs. “We’re not anticipating making any budgetary reductions in staffing, largely because we did that last year,” he said. “We’ve also been fortunate in that our enrollment was more than expected, which helped build that fund balance a lot sooner than we anticipated it would.”

Right now the number of teachers matches the state funding formula while the district has about 14 added classified positions.

Small school districts that don’t fund many positions over the state’s funding formula are feeling less of a pinch when it comes to covering the cost of living increases, but still face the fuel and food costs hurdles.

Liberty School District has 500 students. “We’re not looking too bad,” said Superintendent Bill Motsenbocker. “We did have a retirement of a high school teacher with quite a few years of experience. We’re not going to completely replace her.”

Add that to the retirement of a classified staff member and the district should break even, he said. The district also benefits from receiving Small School Enhancement dollars from the state because the high school has fewer than 300 students. “If we didn’t have any retirements, we would have had to go to reduction in force,” Motsenbocker said.

The Freeman School District has used conservative enrollment projections and only has three unfunded positions. “We’re going to make things balance,” said Superintendent Sergio Hernandez. “Our growth is allowing us to maintain where we are.”

The district’s largest problem is rapidly rising fuel costs. The district runs 17 buses over its sprawling 157 square miles. About 550 of its 900 students ride the bus daily. “We just bought 8,000 gallons of diesel for $32,800,” Hernandez said. The district paid $4.02 a gallon. As recently as July the price was only $2.74.