Administration lays out $666,349 in reductions for 2010-2011

The 2010-2011 initial budget projections laid out Monday night at the Montevideo School Board meeting by Dr. Luther Heller, Montevideo superin­tendent of schools, were clear, detailed and sobering.

Nearly 40 staff, parents, and students gathered in the media center at the middle school for a look at the administration’s recommendations. The pro­cess had begun in December, based on some preliminary assumptions, including operating with a balanced budget next year.

“That is something I personally believe is essential,” said Heller Monday night.

To achieve that goal, the administration initially came up with a budgetary target of $400,000 in reductions. Heller called it Phase One and a best case scenario.

By Monday night expectations had changed because of the continuing state budget deficit and the likelihood that state education funding will be further reduced.

The loss of $100 per pupil unit in state funding would result in the loss of another $169,000. When combined with the Phase One reduction of $400,000, the administration calls this Phase Two, which totals $569,000. As­suming a further aid cut of $256 per pupil unit totaling $432,640, the administration came up with what it called Phase Three, or a total reduction of $1,001,640 when combined with Phase One and Phase Two.

The worst case scenario is a loss of $1.2 million in state education aid to the district.

To err on the side of caution, the administration put together reductions totaling $666,349 that covered the entire district.

“It will be the recommendation of the administration to go with this amount, even though it is higher than the targeted amount,” Heller told a stunned audience. “We don’t know what the future holds. It’s something we can work around and we can live with.”

Proposed reductions include:

• $163,951 made district-wide, including eliminating the full time equivalent (FTE) dean of students position and replacing it with a .5 FTE principal, opting out of the MRVED technology contract, eliminating the school resource office (D.A.R.E.), and cutting some other part-time positions.

• $157,834 in the elementary schools, including eliminating two FTE reading intervention positions, reducing field trips and supplies, eliminating the summer Discovery program, and cutting back the Discovery program to four days a week, seven hours a day.

• $326,646 at the middle school and high school, including five FTE English as Second Language positions, six FTE teacher assistants, and numerous partial FTE reductions in phy. ed., Spanish, language arts, and others.

• $18,278 in athletics, including eliminating C squads, 9th-grade football, and cutting football and volleyball supplies.

To develop the recommendations, the administration targeted “hard” numbers or expenditures. Reductions were made district­wide with an eye to maintaining balance. The only area exempt from reductions is science, which is currently overloaded.

The administration tried to avoid “soft” numbers that could not be quantified, such as income from increased participation fees or energy savings based upon behavioral changes.

“If we’re going to say we want to cut something, we want it to be a definitive amount,”said Heller.

Staff members who will be directly affected by Phase One and Phase Two reductions have been informed; those affected by Phase Three have been or will be informed soon.

Looking farther down the road, the administration identified other reductions. These include:

• Reconfiguring the buildings. Ramsey Elementary would house grades K-3, the middle school would house grades 4-7, and the high school would be for grades 8-12. This would allow some partial FTE reductions.

Sanford Elementary would be used for Early Childhood programs, Head Start, Community Education, and other programs.

• Reducing grades 2 and 3 by two sections, leaving eight sections in grades K-1, seven sections in grades 2-3, and seven sections in grades 4-5.

The additional potential reductions come to $393,370, for a total of $1,059,719.

The school board will meet in a work session at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, to revise and update the proposals as needed and review the next steps. There will be a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25, to take public input. The board will meet in a special meeting the next morning, Feb. 26, at 7 a.m. to review the public comments from the night before.

The board will adopt the 2010-2011 preliminary budget at its March 8 meeting. At that time resolutions will be adopted to:

• discontinue and reduce educational programs and positions,

• place tenured staff on unrequested leave of absence,

• not renew the contracts of non-tenured staff, and

• to take action on the lay-off or reduction of hours for non-licensed personnel.

District officials will continue to interact with the Legislature and the Minnesota Department of Education to determine the extent of the economic impact on ISD 129, said Heller.

“We’re trying to deal with this is as professional a manner as possible,” he said. “No one, not the board, not the administration, not the staff wants to make these cuts. (But) the times have dictated certain courses of action.”

A PowerPoint presentation, which details reductions not mentioned in this article, is available on the school Web site at www.montevideoschools.com