Crunching The Numbers
More than 40 people came out to Glenwood Community High School Media Center last Monday to watch the Glenwood Board of Education in an hour-long budget work session.
Yes, a budget work session.
The topic of discussion was more than just tax levies, budget guarantees and line items. With rumors swirling that the financially-strapped district will have to make heavy cuts from the fiscal 2010-2011 budget, the question on the minds of most in attendance was just how much and how deep those cuts will impact programs and teachers.
The Glenwood School District cut more than $800,000 from its budget last year and another $300,000 this year. Along with a 10-percent across the board cut in state funding costing the district nearly $1 million in revenue this year, the district will likely have to trim at least $400,000 more from next years’ budget, said Shirley Lundgren, school board secretary.
Margo Young, a Northeast Elementary teacher and vice president of the Glenwood Education Association, was at Monday’s meeting. Young presented the board with a list of GEA approved ways the district might trim costs. The list included adjusting heating and air conditioning to uniform temperatures, cutting down on paper use, several cafeteria cost-saving measures (no more disposable trays or utensils), shifting health care to a “cafeteria-style” policy, sharing administrative positions with other districts and cutting salaries on an equal percentage for all district employees.
Young said she was glad to share the GEA’s ideas with the district, but she couldn’t help being disappointed the board didn’t share their own cost-cutting ideas. Young said she was under the impression after she presented the GEA’s ideas there would be an “exchange of ideas.”
“I was under the understanding they were going to share their ideas publicly,” Young said. “I think that was a concern for a lot people in the audience.”
Romens said she was glad to see such a good turnout for the session and appreciated the GEA's ideas but offered no apologies for not discussing cuts the district is considering or what board members have proposed.
“We want to try and help reduce the cuts we have to make. There’s too many variables out there right now to know exactly what or where we will have to cut,” Romens said.
Many of those variables can change daily, said Lundgren. Right now Lundgren is predicting cuts will need to be made in the neighborhood of at least $400,000 for next year, but cautioned that number is fluid and many factors affecting the district’s financial situation are still up in the air.
Gov. Chet Culver’s latest 2011 state budget is asking for 2-percent allowable growth in education aid. That proposal, if passed, would be up from last year when the governor froze allowable growth.
“Every projection (of our budget) can change daily depending on what the legislature decides and where we are with retirements and insurance,” Lundgren said.
During the meeting Romens did address rumors circulating that teachers will be laid off as a result of the cuts and hoped to put to rest the idea any specific programs or teachers have been targeted for cuts, saying “No decisions have been made, no cuts have been decided.”
That’s nice to hear, said Karen Bueltel who has taught in the district for 12 years and attended Monday’s session, but she would have liked to hear the board’s ideas.
“You have to hope everyone is on the same page as you,” Bueltel said. “And if you have to make cuts you cut the things that are furthest removed from the classroom. You hope it’s not personnel and it’s some of the other things that were suggested.”
Young has taught in the district for 33 years and she can recall only one other time where the district went through a similar financial crisis. But she can’t recall a time teachers feared losing their jobs.
“I hope we’ll be safe there,” Romens said when asked if it’s inevitable teachers and programs will be cut. “This year, depending on retirements and some others things, we might be OK. There may be some associates or some other things (lost), I’m not sure on the particular programs. I’m hoping 2010-2011 is a little safer but 2012 looks like it will be our really tough year so we need to lay that groundwork. As far as I know we’ll try and stay away from the classroom as much as we can.”
Compounding issues with the budget are on-going contract negotiations between the board and the GEA.
Young said the GEA was very cognizant of the district’s current financial situation when they made their initial proposal of a 3.8-percent total package increase for next year. She said the offer is the lowest she can recall.
Romens agrees.
“There’s not a lot of money to negotiate so that does make a difference in negotiations,” said Romens. “But they (the teachers) have been very realistic about what they came in with.” Susan Reed, a teacher at West Elementary and GEA’s chief negotiator has a solution that could appease both her constituents and the district’s financial issues: tap the district’s cash reserve to cover any potential cuts to teachers or programs.
The cash reserve is actually two funds: the main reserve is the fund balance, which is money left over at the end of the fiscal year, and the cash reserve, which is money the district keeps on hand for paying bills and needed spending.
Reed said encouraging districts to spend their cash reserves is one of the reasons why the governor slashed state funding by 10 percent in the first place. She estimated there is more that $500 million in ending fund balances among the state’s school districts and nearly $4 million of that is in Glenwood. Financial records show the district had an ending fund balance of $3,880,931 last year.
“He felt since we weren’t using the money given to us, he’d make a cut. And he also recommended districts start using that money to backfill what was cut but this district chose not to do that,” Reed said.
Reed said the district’s teachers have already taken a hit this year with the state’s cut to supplemental salary, which will have district teachers seeing $85 less per paycheck starting this month, and she doesn’t want to see the teachers take another hit.
Glenwood Superinten-dent Dr. Stan Sibley confirmed the district did decline to backfill teacher salaries with cash reserve funds. Sibley added these “supplement dollars” are appropriated by the state and school districts are authorized to negotiate how the dollars are distributed but are otherwise only used as a flow through agency for this money.
“The vast majority of school districts in the state, including ours, have clearly spelled out in their negotiated agreements that they will only distribute those dollars that they receive. When we received the 10-percent cut this year, we didn’t know if the salary bonus dollars were included. The Iowa Department of Education subsequently issued a declarative ruling that they were included in the cuts. We are therefore following our contract language,” Sibley said.
Sibley said some districts have indeed decided to backfill teacher supplement salary but doesn’t see Glenwood having the cash to do the same.
“They would like us to backfill those dollars with cash,” said Sibley of the GEA. “Now we don’t have a lot of cash reserves, and when we’re looking at having reductions in state aid next year and we have reductions this year, we’re really kind of hesitant to pass those dollars through to teachers (salaries).”