A year later: District 207 officials say they emerged from layoffs stronger

This time last year, the Maine Township High School District 207 community was wrestling with the prospect of losing more than 130 employees — including 75 teachers — to help cut $15 million from its budget.

A year later, with a much leaner work force of roughly 840 employees, 500 of them teachers, the district is on firmer financial footing and officials are working hard to keep it that way, said Mary Kalou, District 207’s assistant superintendent for business.

The layoffs that took effect this school year — representing a 13 percent reduction in staff — and other spending cuts in facilities improvements, supplies and travel, helped the district significantly minimize a structural deficit, Kalou said.

At the end of the 2009-10 school year, an anticipated $10 million deficit shrunk to $6 million, leaving the district with little over $100 million in reserves.

“If we had done nothing, (the deficit) would have been $17 million,” Kalou said.

District officials continue to curb spending, yet still expect a $4 million shortfall built into a $140 million budget at the end of this academic year.

Next year, expenditures are expected to be roughly $146 million, which includes a projected $6 million deficit.

“One of the assumptions that we made is that we would not let the deficit grow greater than $6 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year,” Kalou said. “So by doing that we know that we would have to cut about $1 million.”

About $250,000 of those cuts will come from hiring a part-time employee to replace a retiring administrative assistant, absorbing the position of another retiring administrative assistant through attrition and buying fewer supplies next year.

“We have about $750,000 to go,” Kalou said. “When you spend 80 percent of your money in salaries and benefits, the first step is to look there. Our goal this year is to take a look at attrition because it’s a lot easier not to replace someone than to have to lay somebody off.”

In December, the school board approved a 2.5 percent increase to the district’s property tax levy to help cover increases to employee salaries and benefits, as well as hikes in natural gas and electricity costs.

As a result, a homeowner with a $6,000 tax bill would see an increase of about $40, Kalou said.

District officials won’t be spending a lot of money on capital improvements next year. The only projects planned this summer involve repairing and repainting tennis courts and replacing aging bleachers at all three high schools at a total cost of $1.5 million.

The district may also look to save money in its next contract with its teachers. The current agreement calls for a 3.5 percent increase on top of step raises of roughly 2.5 percent, but pay hikes may not be part of the next contract, Kalou said.

“The economic circumstances that we are in today are very different than five years ago when they were negotiating this contract,” Kalou said. The district is still a year away from beginning negotiations on a new teacher’s contract, she added.

“I think everyone is certainly aware that the economy still is not good,” Kalou said. “We are all just trying hard to take a look at how we can reduce without having layoffs. Last year was horrible and no one wants to go through it again.”