Idahoans Oppose Education Cuts

Posted on: April 27th, 2010

Do you oppose or support the legislature’s decision to cut nearly $130 million from Idaho’s K-12 education budget?

Recently, 500 randomly selected Idaho voters were asked this, and many more questions, to determine their views on education funding.

Not surprisingly, more than eight in 10 Idahoans oppose the legislature’s decision.  Opposition to the cuts spans the partisan divide with majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents opposed to the action.

A more detailed analysis of the poll results will be made public in the next few weeks.

Bonneville School District Seeks Help to Slash Budget

Posted on: April 27th, 2010

The Bonneville School District Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday evening, April 27^th at 7 pm   to discuss the district’s finances.

Trustees are seeking parents’ and residents’ views on potential cuts and on declaring a financial emergency.

Legislative action resulted in a decrease in state funding of about $4 million for the 2010-11 school year.  Some budget-cutting options that have already been mentioned are eliminating the district’s water safety program, midday busing for kindergartners and field trips.

The district is asking patrons to offer other suggestions.

District 25 hearing set on budget emergency

Posted on: April 21st, 2010

BY KENDRA EVENSEN

kevensen@journalnet.com

POCATELLO — The Pocatello/ Chubbuck School District is holding a public hearing today to help board   members decide if they should declare a financial emergency, which could mean cuts in teachers’ salaries for the second year in a row.

School officials are trying to figure out the best way to cover a $7 million   hole in the budget caused by cutbacks in state funding and the possibility of another 5.5 percent holdback in August. But roughly 90 percent of the district’s funding is tied up in teachers’ salaries and benefits, which is basically untouchable without the declaration, said Marianne Donnelly, board chairwoman.        “We’re already operating on as lean a system as we can operate. Most of our budget is tied up in salary and benefits and there are (not many other places) we can go,” she said.

School districts are able to renegotiate contracts right now due to the Legislature’s decision to declare a statewide fiscal emergency, but District 25 teachers have already taken a hit. They received a 1 percent pay cut in their salaries last year with additional cuts in benefits; and if another emergency is declared, they could face as much as a 7 percent loss in pay for the upcoming school year. Officials say they can’t cut   staff positions without losing state funding, so another reduction in salary may provide the best option.

“It’s a tremendous blow to morale with people working as hard as they do to try and provide an education,” Donnelly said. “It’s hard to keep motivated when they keep whacking your pay and you’re not making much to begin with.”

Officials have already made several changes to cut back on spending, eliminating roughly $4.3 million from the budget. Kindergarten has been changed to all day, every other day to eliminate noon busing, and the school district no longer provides transportation to other locations if students are interested   in taking a course not offered at their school. In addition, field trips have been eliminated, Donnelly said, and the school district is looking at cutting some   extracurricular programs and raising fees for others; they’re hoping to eliminate roughly $300,000 from the extracurricular activities budget next year.

School officials know they have some tough decisions to make, so they are encouraging the public to share their ideas and concerns at today’s meeting. The board will meet in executive session at 4:30 p.m. to discuss teacher negotiations and personnel issues, and the public portion of the meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will take place at 3115 Pole Line Road.

School officials did not finalize the agenda until Friday night so some people may not have received a copy, Donnelly said, but anyone who would like to view the full agenda can look at it on the district’s Web site,  www.d25.k12  . id.us

Nampa schools will switch to full-day kindergarten to cut busing costs

Posted on: April 21st, 2010

Statesman staff – Idaho Statesman
Starting next fall, the district will provide full-day, alternating-day kindergarten classes. Midday busing will be eliminated.

Parents of incoming kindergartners can review the schedule Tuesday when they register their child at their neighborhood elementary school.

State funding for the district will be cut by about $5.2 million next year, and eliminating midday busing will help reduce the district’s transportation costs by $273,000, district spokeswoman Allison Westfall said Monday. Changing to a full-day, alternating-day schedule also provides an more hours of instruction for the district’s youngest students and allows for some innovative approaches to provide extra help for students who need it, officials said.

Meridian schools must trim $8 million

Posted on: April 16th, 2010

The 2010-11 budget shortfall means employees will be paid less and benefits will cost them more.

BY JOE ESTRELLA - jestrella@idahostatesman.com
Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman
Published: 04/12/10

District officials are projecting state general funding of $150 million for next year, down from the $158 million this year. At the same time, enrollment is forecast to increase by about 900 new students next year.

The result: Salaries will no longer be sacrosanct, and all of the district’s 5,000 employees will be paying a higher percentage of the cost of their benefits, according to Superintendent Linda Clark.

“It’s a given,” Clark said. “Statewide, 85 percent of a school district’s budget goes to salary and benefits. When the state cuts salaries for the second straight year, there is no way the districts can balance their budgets without cutting salaries.”

The Legislature gave Idaho’s 114 school districts the ability to cut teachers’ salaries by declaring a financial emergency in its 2010-11 education budget. That allows school districts to get around a state law that prohibits paying teachers less than it did the previous year, said district spokesman Eric Exline.

Clark said the board’s emphasis next year will be on spreading the cuts across the system rather than cutting jobs. The board will discuss the budget and take public comments and suggestions during its regular meeting on Tuesday.

All Idaho school districts depend on the state for the bulk of their funding. Ninety percent of Meridian’s $200 million general fund for 2009-10 was money received from the state.

The public education budget Idaho lawmakers approved for next year includes a 6.5 percent reduction for administrative salaries and a 4.1 percent reduction in salaries for teachers and all other district employees. It is the second consecutive year the Legislature has earmarked less money for public education than it did in the previous year.

Overall, $1.21 billion in general fund money has been allocated for public education in 2010-11, or 1.4 percent less than the $1.23 billion for the current school year. Last year’s budget, however, got an additional $179 million boost in federal stimulus money that was used to backfill cuts, said Paul Headlee, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. That money was not available for next year’s budget, which means the reduction in the state education budget will actually be 7.5 percent next year.

“The federal stimulus money prevented falling off the funding cliff for one year,” Headlee said. “But it was a one-time thing, and then you have to take it out of the budget.”

Meridian won’t have the $15 million rainy-day fund it had at the beginning of 2009-10, having spent $8 million of that reserve on salary increases called for in the second year of its contract with the Meridian Education Association, which represents 1,800 teachers.

Exline said there is about $7 million left in the rainy-day fund. Exline said the board has not decided whether to tap those funds any further.

Not everybody thinks teacher salaries are the place to look for savings.

Mary Berg has four children in three Meridian schools. She wants the district to look at eliminating programs that require hiring judges to evaluate required projects for fifth- and eighth- graders, as well as the transportation costs for the program that allows students to attend schools outside their geographic area.

“I think there are some things that we’ve become accustomed to that we don’t necessarily need,” Berg said.

Bridget Colpitts has two students at Meridian Middle School, where she is the president of the Parent Teacher Student Association. She says the cuts will eventually filter down to student activities and the availability of supplies.

Colpitts said parents are going to have to become more involved with their schools to help raise funds to offset cutbacks.

Exline said some parents already are mistakenly convinced that the board plans to eliminate programs or extracurricular after-school programs.

“The board’s philosophy is that it wants to shrink programs, not eliminate them,” he said.

Joe Estrella: 377-6465