District 303 seeks $5.5 million in cuts of jobs, programs
Almost 22 teachers in St. Charles Unit District 303 would be laid off and experimental changes put in place under a plan to address a $5.5 million budget deficit.
District staff presented the plan to the community and school board members Monday night. No action was taken to put any cuts in place, but questions arose as many of the cuts are changes the district hasn't had to deal with to make ends meet in recent years, and the deficit itself is a moving target.
Neither the consumer price index nor the total state funding the district will receive are completely known right now. Both, however, are major factors impacting the budget. The district currently assumes an increase in the Consumer Price Index to about 2.9 percent and state funding to remain flat. However, Superintendent Don Schlomann warned that those are risky assumptions. The actual deficit may be as much as $5 million worse depending on what the state funding levels come in at. The state is currently about $5 million behind in payments that it owes the district.
The district's plan to address the currently projected deficit of $5.5 million spreads the pain throughout the district in a plan designed simply to get the district through the 2010-2011 school year. After that, contract negotiations with district employees will be the focus of addressing what's expected to be another deficit year in 2011-2012.
The current plan eliminates 22 full-time teaching positions from the district. However, it's likely that many of those teachers will find employment in other teaching positions within the district. That's because 16 other teachers are expected to retire at the same time the cuts are needed. The teachers slated to be let go would simply be moved to fill the slots of the retiring teachers. There are some teachers that this may not be possible for, as some programs are also falling by the wayside in the plan. Intramural groups with low enrollment will be eliminated. The drama program will be gone from the middle schools along with French and German foreign language classes. Driver's education class sizes will be increased to free up teaching time for other course subjects. A total of about 75 support staff positions would also be eliminated. That includes hours for assistants who help regular teachers with classrooms of more than 25 students. There will also be no gifted education programs with a dedicated teacher at the elementary school level. A total of six dean's assistants, who help monitor security at the middle and high schools, will also be cut.
In another high-profile move, Stacy Anderson, the assistant director of prevention and parent support services who oversaw much of the district's approach to dealing with student suicides, would also be terminated.
The school board is expected to vote on the proposed cuts at a special meeting on Jan. 21.
"I'm not going to claim that things will not be different," Schlomann said of the impact of the planned cuts on the education of students and their safety. "We're still about putting teachers in front of kids. Everybody is going to have to do more."