Schools weigh sharp budget cuts

Until last week, School Superintendent Nina Marks had not alarmed the school board with budget projections for next year, much less suggest a staggering $2.45 million cut that could mean a four-day school week and up to a 7 percent cut in employee salaries.

But the hammer clanged between both those options when Roy Carroll, who directs the district’s finances, proclaimed the bad news Thursday afternoon at a special meeting.

His Power Point presentation, delivered crisply, absent any preference for one option above another, laid out to the board a likely steep decline in funding, coupled with the savings from different moves that could be taken to absorb the loss.

The public had a chance to hear these same numbers and view the same graphs at a meeting Wednesday afternoon, April 20 in the cafeteria of the Franklin County School.

“It’s not really been a pleasant experience, this is a visual of a budget funding cliff,” said Carroll at the outset of his school presentation last week. “I’d rather have a shipload of money.”

But such will not be the case when the new fiscal year begins in six months short a half-million dollars in local property tax revenue, and slightly more than that lost in direct state funding.

Consider voters’ rejection last year of extending the 0.25-mill levy for employee salaries, and that means another half-million dollars of fewer funds.

Deduct another half-million due to a cutoff of federal stimulus money, slice $365,000 more from the loss in state stimulus, and factor in a loss of $58,000 in jobs bill money.

This all adds up to $2.4 million in lost revenue, although Carroll cautioned the quickly-assembled numbers will be sharpened even further after Tallahassee legislators make final the state budget, and local property valuation numbers are released in July.

“The drop dead Legislature date is May 6,” said Marks. “On May 7 we absolutely know what our dollar figures are. Things could change. This is just for us to get started with the conversation, and next Wednesday there’ll be more exact.

“This is nothing but a draft,” she said. “We’ve just started looking at where Franklin County is at. This is just a start for us, this is just brainstorming.”

She said per-pupil state funding is projected “to be right about $3,530” which would translate to a loss of $508,546 to the district. “That number is driving everything,” Marks said.

Carroll said an anticipated 12 percent decline in local property tax revenues, an estimate from Property Appraiser Doris Pendleton’s office, would see the district’s general fund drop from $8.63 million to $7.58 million, a little more than $1 million, on top of an 11 percent drop this year.

Carroll presented his Power Point to a quiet audience, apparently stunned by the extent of the ground that needed making up, far in excess of the trimming around the edges which had been anticipated earlier this year.

“This is a smack in the face of reality of what we’re facing next school year,” he said. “These are just ballpark figures.

“I’m not here to tell you how to make the cuts, I’m just here to give you the numbers,” Carroll said. “That’s for all of us to decide.”

Bus transportation, paraprofessionals, on chopping block

The most drastic of the dozen options would be the adoption of a four-day school week, creating longer school days from Tuesday through Friday, with students off Mondays.

Coupled with six unpaid federal holidays due to regular Monday closure, this move alone would save more than $638,000.

An immediate 10 percent cut in non-salary expenditures would save $370,000, and the laying off of five paraprofessionals another $130,000.

Reducing the district’s contributions to the employee health plan, and discounting the employer-paid dental plan, would save another $200,000.

Transportation cutbacks, including privatizing the Alligator Point and Apalachicola’s Ten Mile bus routes, discontinuing the activity bus, canceling fields trips paid out of the general fund, and stopping paying bus drivers for athletic trips, would yield another $161,000 in savings.

But all of these cuts combined would still result only in a roughly $1.5 million savings, leaving the district three further options to trim employee pay.

A 5 percent across-the-board salary cut would save another $311,000, with another $137,000 saved if the 5 percent cut extended to benefits. A total of $627,000 would be saved if the cut were 7 percent.

“The bottom line is 90 percent of our budget is salaries and benefits, and 10 percent is all that’s left,” said Chairman Jimmy Gander. “You can do what you want to with that 10 percent, but if you don’t address the 90 percent, you’re not going to make substantial cuts. I don’t like it being that way.”

Marks said the pay cut had been added that morning to the mix of options, when it appeared the shortfall would be larger than first thought.

“We’ve bee trying not to make (personnel cuts),” said Carroll. “We’ve been trying to approach this in the most humane way possible.”

Board member David Hinton, who urged Marks earlier this year to create the budget advisory committee, said he was philosophically opposed to pay cuts. “When the public decided they didn’t want us to have the 0.25 mills, I didn’t want the teachers, the employees, to suffer,” he said.

“Everybody’s suffering, it is just a harsh reality,” said Gander. I appreciate the fact that we're doing this in April and not in June. (But) unless we have something to back up some of these numbers, there’s still going to be questions.”

Gander said he would support shifting more than a million dollars earmarked for capital improvement projects, such as building a new elementary multi-purpose facility, to operating money.

“I don’t know why legislature can't allow us to use that money as we see fit,” he said. “I’m hoping we can get some of that capital improvement money back into the general budget. I’m not saying a tax increase but being able to use what’s already in there.”

But state law prohibits such a shift, and local officials have joined in an effort to lobby Tallahassee to allow it. “They are asking that again and right now it’s not moving,” said Marks.

School board member George Thompson said state officials should consider how much is spent on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which in 2008 totaled more than $52 million.

Thompson said the district should consider a cut in how much it spends on life insurance policies and possibly end funding for the school resource officer, who he said works about 180 days each year. He said the district should consider hiring auxiliary officers at an hourly rate.

Thompson also asked whether the district could rely more on vans for student transportation, rather than the large, 52-passenger buses. Marks said the district is researching using 10-passenger vans for some of its transportation needs.

Shorter week would save one-third for general fund

In Carroll’s outline of the four-day week, he said teachers would work the same number of hours as they currently do, but school would start for them at 7:30 a.m. and last until 4:30 p.m.

The day would begin with one-hour common planning time, from 7:30 to 8:15 a.m., and the day would close with after-school planning, from 4:07 to 4:30 p.m.

The six class periods in the middle and high schools would be about 63 minutes long, longer than the 45 to 50 minutes that is now the case. “Students will actually have quite a bit more time in each class, and more instructional time,” said Eric Bidwell, dean of students.

First period would start for these students at 8:20 a.m., and they would be out at 4:07 p.n. “This is everyone arriving on the same bus,” said Bidwell. “We can shift them later.”

The seven-period day for elementary students would begin with breakfast from 7:45 to 8:15 a.m., and would end at 4 p.m., with teachers having another half-hour planning period. State law requires 180 days of schooling, with Kindergarten through third graders going at least 720 instructional hours per year, and the older students at least 900 instructional hours.

Changes to the daily schedule would translate to a loss of four hours pay per week for paraprofessionals. Transportation, cafeteria and custodial staff would all lose one day of work per week, while secretaries would work longer days, according to the draft proposal. It would have to be decided whether the central office would be on a four- or a five-day work week.

School board member Carl Whaley said he was concerned that absenteeism could have a more significant effect with a four-day week. My concern is this year we’ve had more absences due to illness than any other year I can think of,” he said. “Sure next year may not be as bad but it could be worse as well. And extended days are hard on students, especially the elementary school children.”

School board member Teresa Ann Martin said the four-day week would have less of an impact on the high school students, including those who work after school. “Most of the students that do work after school, they go from 5 to 9 p.m. Most of the workday is in the afternoon, and most are driving their own vehicles.”

Franklin High School student Robert Johnson, and the Rev. Themo Patriotis, were the only two members of the audience to speak on the plans, with Johnson questioning whether the longer days would have an impact on students who work after school.

“Have we discussed any options for bringing revenue into school, sales taxes or anything like that?” asked Patriotis. “I realize cutting is important. Is there any way to bring money into the budget?”

Gander responded by saying “we tried with the referendum and it failed.”

Patriotis said he liked the fact the district was examining the effect a shorter week has had on districts in other states, including Peach County, Ga., as well as the plan now being discussed in neighboring Gulf County.

“It would be beneficial to see what were the outcomes, if we’re even contemplating this, aside from the financial ramifications, is what happened on an educational basis and what were the incidental costs to the community,” said Patriotis.

Bidwell said he attended a public meeting in Gulf County conducted by Superintendent Tim Wilder. “Quite a few states went into this four-day program, in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Georgia, and there were no effects positive or negative,” said Bidwell. Test scores did not go up nor did they go down. They maintained the status quo.”

He also noted that Mondays comprise a larger proportion of days missed than the other days of the week, and that absenteeism decreases with a shorter week.

Hinton said he believed a shorter week and longer day would probably result in the need for fewer teachers, since the staff is made more efficient since they teach all day without a break in their schedules.

The only item of business handled at the special meeting was a unanimous vote to offer professional services contracts to four staff members. Such contracts, often referred to as tenure, are set to be outlawed in Florida on July 1, 2014.

Marks said all four educators, Bidwell, Kris Bray, Sherry Joyner and Al London, had been tenured in prior districts, and had been told when they were hired they would be granted tenure here, while serving as teachers on special assignment.

Bray, a middle and high school reading coach, was formerly in Taylor County, while Joyner, a high school English teacher, was in Altha, and London, the high school dean, in Pinellas County. Bidwell worked previously in Gulf County.