BOE talks cuts, takes no action
By RYAN CHRISTNER
After receiving news last week of another 2-percent cut to public education funding from the state, Hays USD 489 administrators might be one step closer to knowing how much money they'll have to work with this fiscal year. But Monday night's school board meeting provided no definitive picture for what will be done to make up for their losses.
Again presented with a list of possible reductions to services and staff positions to cover cuts from the Legislature, as well as new information regarding the $220,000 decrease announced Thursday by Gov. Mark Parkinson, school board members have yet to vote on budget adjustments beyond the nearly $400,000 it saved in April after approving a measure to eliminate summer school and not fill vacant staff positions.
The new recommendations given last night include adding a $250-per-semester fee to the full-day kindergarten program, closing off two more certified staff positions and reducing the usage of substitute teachers in all district buildings.
Elaborating on those suggestions, Superintendent Fred Kaufman said full-day kindergarten would not be mandatory to parents, only those who would be willing to pay the extra fee.
The reduction of substitute teachers, he added, most likely would be handled differently in each building.
"We'll hold each principal to reducing their use of substitute teachers by 10 percent," Kaufman said. "At Hays High, that may be putting some children ... in a study hall. At the elementary (level), it may mean dividing the class up between two or three other sections of the same class. At the middle school, it might be sending students to the library."
The many budget fluctuations that have occurred throughout the past year often have resulted in comments by district administrators who are critical of the Legislature for not adequately funding education. But not all board members believe the fault for the district's current situation lies solely in Topeka.
Commonly at odds with district leaders for their handling of the budget shortfalls, Greg Schwartz again blasted administrators for not having created contingency plans.
"Why are we always having to play catch-up?" Schwartz asked Monday. "Every time that these cuts come up, we're never prepared."
Schwartz harkened back to his request months ago to have administrators and school principals create prioritized lists of district programs and services that could be adjusted should state funding be reduced.
Such lists never were provided to the board, and now many other money-saving options no longer are available, he said.
"We've already approved the administrator's contracts, which we did back in February and March, and the superintendent asked us to approve those and, mind you, extend those for an extra year," Schwartz said. "We've approved the (National Education Association) agreement, which we don't have any ability now to go back and re-negotiate that. We took off the table any staff-reduction plan because we didn't act before May 20. And now, we're sitting here and we're looking at all the things we can cut.
"All of them affect students and none of them are for their best interest."
Making a motion to decrease the salaries of all district superintendents, principals and directors by 10 percent, Schwartz said the board has not looked at any cuts to administration.
Kaufman countered that argument by reiterating one administration position is being decreased this year. That change, and all of the other recommended modifications, will create extra duties that will then be picked up by the administration that remains.
Schwartz's motion eventually was voted down, but a second to have financial information about such a pay reduction be provided to the board was approved.
Schwartz said he would be "embarrassed" if he was an administrator who had presented the kinds of proposals that have been made, and also lashed out at the school board at large for not making time to come up with solutions.
"This board should be ashamed of the job they've done," he said. "If we're not willing to sit down and spend the time to address this ... I think everybody on this board ought to look at (resigning)."
The board had a lengthy agenda Monday. In other business:
* The board elected new leadership. Sharon Befort will serve as board president for the next year, while Alan Moore was appointed vice president.
* New school lunch prices were set, as the board approved the recommendation for a 10-cent across-the-board cost increase in food costs.
* Negotiated agreements with the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union was approved. The agreements include a list of calendar holiday breaks for 2009-10, which includes two additional paid days, the alteration of employee sick leave to allow for one additional personal day and a freeze on salaries for the fiscal year.
* A revised school calendar -- reflecting a negotiated change with the Hays NEA to eliminate spring parent-teacher conferences -- was approved. The 2009-10 school calendar ends two days earlier than originally planned.
* The board got its first look at preliminary budget figures, as Superintendent of Finance Richard Cain presented a form with the estimated legal maximum general fund budget.
Cain said the nearly $15 million general fund estimation is slightly deceiving, as some possible unlikely enrollment increases were built into calculations.
The figure is more than $600,000 less than last year's numbers, which is below the $770,000 the district knows it has lost from its current budget.