With news from Springfield worsening by the week, the District 300 School Board will vote to release 112 teachers this Monday to help bridge the potential gap. The Board will also consider eliminating all special busing for parochial students, which would be voted upon April 26 along with other proposed transportation cuts.
According to union contracts and state law, the Board cannot release teachers from their contracts after the March 8 Board meeting. Therefore, the Board will vote on the teacher releases Monday to ensure maximum flexibility with teaching assignments as the District's budget picture becomes clearer over the next few months.
State leaders' latest proposal for 2010-2011 education funding would decrease the state foundation formula by 10 percent and funding for categorical expenses (such as transportation and special education) by 15 percent. If this occurs, District 300 would face an estimated 2010-2011 deficit of at least $6.5 million - above and beyond the cuts the Board has already made ($4.6 million) or have been proposed for approval at meetings in March/April. In other words, even after cutting over $6.5 million this spring to try to balance the budget, D300 could face a deficit of more than $6 million in 2010-2011 if the state cuts education funding as Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed.
This deficit estimate is perhaps overly optimistic, because it assumes the District will receive all state categorical payments currently past due this school year and which will become due during 2010-2011. The Board has not determined to what amount, if any, of this potential deficit would be addressed by further cuts.
In addition to precarious state funding, the other major unknown in D300's fiscal future is the outcome of negotiations with three employee groups: DESPA (custodians, secretaries, and Central Office support staff), administrators, and LEAD (teachers and other certified staff). The Board is seeking more than $2.5 million in budget reductions through employee negotiations in its plan to cut about $6.5 million from the 2010-2011 budget.
(Note: The Board will vote later this school year on roughly $815,000 in additional savings through cutting pay and/or benefits of year-round employees, including administrators, through furloughs or other means. Administrators and other year-round staff will make financial concessions, but the Board wants to refine its plan so as not to hurt school operations.)
The Board will vote this Monday, March 8, to release all 1st and 2nd year LEAD members who are not in "hard to fill" job positions, effective July 1, 2010. This totals 112 teachers. ("Hard to fill" areas include: special education, bilingual special education, bilingual, high school family & consumer science, high school industrial technology, social workers, counselors, high school physics, high school and middle school Spanish, high school French, and elementary and middle school English as a Second Language).
State funding will directly impact 2010-2011 class sizes and how many teachers D300 could bring back to work this summer. Superintendent Ken Arndt said it would be the District's intention to call back as many of these teachers as possible this summer, but only if the budget allows.
"Non-tenured teachers are the only ones who can be called back at a later date once more definite budgets have been established," Dr. Arndt said. "These are truly difficult times for everyone. I wish I had better news to share, but maintaining a balanced budget for 2010-11 has to be our priority at this time."
The Board will also consider releasing 26 teachers on March 8 for performance problems, effective July 1, 2010. These positions will be re-filled this summer; the positions are not being "cut."
Lastly, the Board will vote March 8 to release 6 preschool teachers. The Board will vote on April 26 on whether to cut preschool transportation (except for special education students). It is unknown whether this busing cut would result in fewer children enrolling in D300 preschool programs. Once enrollment figures are known this summer, some of these 6 preschool teachers may return to their positions or be reassigned in other areas.
Also on Monday (March 8), Administration will make a formal presentation to the Board on proposed cuts to transportation. The proposed cuts now include:
- Eliminate Preschool For All program transportation at Perry, Gilberts, Wright, and deLacey. Estimated savings: $672,000
- Change deLacey bell times by 30 minutes to better utilize buses. Estimated savings: $100,000
- Eliminate all special services and shuttles for parochial students. As required by law, parochial students would still be able to ride on D300 buses, but only on our established routes at our established stops. Estimated savings: $285,000 (D300 leaders met with parochial school principals March 2 to alert them to the proposed change and its state-level financial cause.)
- Eliminate Dual Language transportation. Estimated savings: $111,000 (This figure was recently refined to show that 39 of the 74 students currently in the program would still be close enough to walk to their Dual Language school.)
- Eliminate transportation for the Elgin Community College partnership. Estimated savings: $118,000
- Eliminate transportation for non-special education students in the Ombudsman program. Estimated savings: $75,000
- Restructure supervision of bus loading areas. Estimated savings: $230,000
TOTAL PROPOSED TRANSPORTATION CUTS, FOR APRIL 26 BOARD VOTE: $1,591,000
** For a memo summarizing the various budget scenarios D300 faces in 2010-2011, please attend the Board meeting Monday (March 8) at 7:30 p.m. in the Carpentersville Middle School auditorium, 100 Cleveland Avenue. Those who wish to make comments to the Board should arrive early and sign in at the podium. The Board will listen but not directly respond. The Board continues to welcome public feedback on the state fiscal crisis via email, board@d300.org, so long as the author frames the feedback constructively and provides his/her name and street address.* *
###