Schools look to spike 17 jobs, give modest pay hikes

Difficult  budget relies on employee attrition

 

 

 

The Halifax County School Board is poised to subtract five teaching jobs, four administrators and eight others in an effort to balance its $63.9 million budget. The plan being mulled allows three percent raises for teachers and administrators, four percent hikes for classified employees and a five percent boost in health insurance premiums.

Trustees met in a Monday night work session but delayed approval of the budget until they can see it in writing: Thursday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m. This is too important, to vote on without seeing in print, said Board Chairman Steve Anderson at the close of the two-and-a-half hour meeting. No pink slips are going out; the personnel in all the jobs cut are retiring or resigning and simply won't be replaced. Of teachers, two are at the high school, two are at the middle school and one is in an elementary school. The board had concerns that the move would widen pupil-teacher ratios, crowd classrooms or hurt instruction, and went into closed-door session to hash out the specific impact, but emerged seemingly satisfied. I believe that the personnel cuts that will result from the budget situation will have a minimal impact (if any) on instruction.  There was a real concern prior to [the] meeting that there might be more

significant cuts, even to the point of  laying off teachers, however, we obviously avoided that issue this budget year,  wrote Chairman Steve Anderson in an e-mail later. There will be an absolute minimum of negative impact,  Deputy

Superintendent Larry Clark had assured the board. Stapleton noted that during his tenure this would make 11

administrators eliminated; these are the first full-time teaching jobs to be cut. Beyond the teachers and administrators, the budget eliminates two support staff, one custodian and five transportation workers for a total savings of $789,937 ñ†about $72,500 more than the reduction needed.

 

Obviously, it has been a very difficult budget session,  wrote Anderson. It was my hope that we would be in a position to do much better with salary increases and make ourselves more competitive with neighboring divisions.  We failed to accomplish that and it is very disappointing.  It is a positive, however, that we could absorb the personnel cuts by attrition and not by taking jobs away from our faculty and staff.  I now look forward to putting the finishing touches on the budget and then be in a position to move on to other issues facing the school board.

 

Other savings over the current year budget will come from:  financing the cost of 10 buses rather than purchasing outright(saving about $450,000)  refiguring South Boston bus routes so that five drivers travel two routes each rather than 10 drivers covering one each (saving the cost of drivers and some expense with buses)  extra duty pay and contracted maintenance service reduced A number of other issues popped up in the discussion:

 

Trustees floated the idea of putting all ages together on buses instead of running two separate bus lines, one for middle and high school students and another for elementary grades. This would necessitate longer days for elementary pupils, Superintendent Paul Stapleton warned, plus safety and social issues that come with mixing

ages. More likely is the idea to, in some remote areas where few students of any age live, combine the two age groups, or send small buses to fetch them, and then take them to a central point where they would catch a

larger, age-segregated bus.   With fewer and fewer schools, why is there not a greater savings, asked Trustee Arthur Reynolds. Stapleton said there is actually more square footage now, but that he hoped maintenance costs could be saved with the new and newly renovated schools.

 

Trustee Joe Gasperini suggested expanding recess and physical education areas at the two new elementaries, recommending that blacktop areas be paved. But Stapleton and Director of Academies Dr. Melanie

Stanley said principals weren't necessarily fond of that idea as blacktops led to skinned knees and worse. They said a thick grass cover on existing grounds would make for better, safer play areas. Staff was asked to get principal input on recreation needs. Gasperini also pushed for more playground equipment at the new schools. Stanley said playground items from the old schools couldn't all be moved because they didn't pass muster with the Playground Safety Commission. Grants once given to schools for expensive playground equipment are now going toward research to fight childhood obesity, she said, predicting the grant opportunities will return. Gasperini also said he'd like to see the summer sports camps returned because they benefited so many kids.

 

Gasperini suggested a bigger raise for classified personnel, saying teachers were underpaid, but that classified were really underpaid He suggested a two percent hike for teachers and four percent for classified. But to give greater pay increases, it's gonna start being human bodies we're getting rid of, said Clark, instead of mere job slots; Gasperini

agreed. One Trustee questioned $40,000 for administrative travel. Answer: for conferences and in-service training.

 

Gasperini suggested increasing the instructional materials budget by $150,000 because teachers spend hundreds of dollars from their own pockets on such items. Clark countered that he thought such expenses could be tax write-offs for teachers. Stapleton said, in response to Anderson's inquiry, that no private bus contractor was likely to want the job of transporting the county's students. The mileage is too daunting, he said. if they did, they'd want to charge you a lot of money Is there any way to double up on instructional aides, asked Trustee Devin Snead. Clark said probably not because most are attached either to a specific special-needs child, or to a specific class. Can maintenance trucks and personnel be stationed more diffuse places to keep trucks from crisscrossing the county? Answer: no.

 

Salaries and climbing fuel costs account for the bulk of budget growth. Overall, the $63.9 million school budget is 3.31 percent more than the current year's. The system received 3.85 percent more from the state and 2.59 percent more from Halifax County. A 19.34 percent hike in other fund's directly reimburses the division for high school students earning college credits in the dual enrollment program; its a flow-through type of deal said Finance Director Bill Covington. The trustees had adopted $66.4 million budget, which included $2.6 million more in local funding than the current year. But Halifax County Supervisors gave the schools $343,000 in additional local money, or $2.4 million less than the trustees wanted. Ultimately, the county put up $13.6 million, or $2.3 million less than

the $15.9 million originally requested by the school board. With state and federal monies largely out of the trustees influence, some lay blame on the Supervisors for the tight budget.