Cary Dist. 26 maps out steps to balance budget

The Cary Elementary District 26 school board mapped out a timeline for approving a school closing and staffing reductions that will be needed to balance the district’s budget if wage and benefit concessions requested of the teachers union are not reached before May 1.

Board members approved a resolution Monday to take action on the district’s second tier of reductions at a special board meeting scheduled for Monday, May 2. The meeting is required to provide the time needed to complete a potential school closing, Superintendent Brian Coleman said. The closing would result in new student placements and a number of staffing reassignments.

Coleman presented a calendar of events the district needs to complete before the end of the school year. Items include packing and moving, determining principal assignments and various infrastructure changes. Coleman said regardless of whether the district closes a school, there still would be some staffing moves.

“The goal is to let the teachers and staff know where they will be (next year) before they leave for the summer,” Coleman said.

“At this time, concessions from the Teachers Association have not been realized,” Coleman wrote in a memo to the school board. “It remains the administration’s recommendation to approve Tier II reductions in order to reach the goal of a balanced budget for FY 2012.”

If concessions are met, Coleman said the savings would be used to rehire teachers and reduce class sizes.

Administrators have proposed closing either Briargate or Prairie Hill schools. The school closing and subsequent staffing reductions would save the district about $1.4 million.

The board in March approved personnel reductions equivalent to 14½ full-time positions. Although the district has not approved the closing of a school, the reductions were approved in order to meet a legal deadline for notifying teachers.

The district’s two-tiered approach to reductions are aimed at saving the district at least $2.1 million, with the goal of saving $5.5 million over the next four years.

First-tier reductions saved the district $703,500 through the reduction of 5½ full-time equivalent positions, reinstating in-house payroll services and savings in unemployment payments. The district also approved increasing some class sizes to 35 students. In addition, the board approved $2.5 million in wage and benefit concessions from the teachers union, the Cary Education Association.