July 3, 2009

Schools: A smaller pie, but still a pie
District has scaled back, but has not cut educational programs

By Rodger Nichols
of The Chronicle

     School in North Wasco County will look a lot different this fall.
That’s because the district has had to make some drastic changes in the face of an 11-percent revenue shortfall.
     For the school year that ended June 30, the North Wasco County School District 21 had a general fund budget of $27.59 million. For the school year that started July 1, that figure drops to $24.33 million, a drop of $3.26 million.
     The majority of that shortfall comes from a budget crunch at the state level, resulting in a drop in state school funding.
     We should note the general fund is not the total school budget, which dropped 18 percent from $42.85 million last year to $34.79 million this year. The total budget also includes the special revenue fund, debt service fund, capital project fund and trust fund. They are targeted for specific projects and do not affect the general fund, which covers the majority of district activities, including salaries, utilities, and supplies.
     How did the district cover the shortfall?
     The short answer is by selective cutting. Among the cuts were 30 positions, all the assistant coaching slots, eight contract days, two rented buildings and one school day per week for junior high and high school students.
     District officials want parents and students to know that, despite the cuts, all current district programs were retained.
     That was very much a conscious decision, said district officials.
     “If you’re not careful, you end up with a program that is not attractive,” said District Superintendent Candy Armstrong. “Parents will vote with their feet and move out if you lose those things.”
     And that can cost the district dearly. “If 30 kids leave, we lose $200,000 [in school support],” said Randy Anderson, chief financial officer for the district. “It doesn’t take very many families to find the district unattractive to offset what you might be spending on extracurriculars.”

School days

     The biggest adjustment for middle school and high school parents and students will be the change in the school week Elementary school schedules will remain unchanged, but grades six through 12 will move to a four-day school week.
     Those will be longer days.
     Both middle-schoolers and high school students will move to seven one-hour periods per day, instead of six one-hour periods at the middle school or four 90-minute periods at the high school.
     Students at the middle school will be in session from 8:05 a.m. to 3:55 p.m., and high school students will be in session from 8 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.
     “We started looking at a 7:30 a.m. start,” said Armstrong, “But we went to 8:05 because the buses from Mosier would have run incredibly early.”
     There is an extra twist to the four-day schedule for both middle school and high school students. On 16 of the 40 weeks of the school year, there will be half-day of school on Fridays — but not for everybody.
Friday school will be required for all students with grades below a “C” in any subject or students who need extra help with their studies.
On those 16 Fridays, school will be open for two 100-minute periods, starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 11:25.
     “This schedule is actually going to be better, they feel, at the middle school especially,” said Armstrong, “because they’ve had an increase in the number of students getting Ds and Fs. This way they’ll be able to focus, have smaller groups on Fridays, and make sure those kids are helped.”
     The four-day week also means on weeks with a Monday holiday, the school week will simply shift to a Tuesday through Friday schedule.
     How does the classtime compare between the new schedule and the old one?
     District officials calculated that the previous schedule resulted in 360 “contact minutes” per day. That is, minutes in which the students are in class. Last year, that resulted in a total of 60,120 minutes (167 days multiplied by 360 minutes per day).
     The new schedule results in 412 contact minutes per day for an annual total of 57,680 minutes next school year (140 days x 412 minutes per day).
     The difference — 2,440 minutes — equals 40 hours and change over the school year.
     But those students who attend Friday school will have 60,720 minutes in classroom seats, 10 hours more instruction than under last year’s schedule.
     The problem with the new schedule is that it presents supervision concerns for many families in which parents are not home during weekdays.
     District officials said they hope community organizations can step up and provide additional Friday programs to avoid potential problems with teens and preteens with extra time on their hands.
     Expected savings: $394,400.

Positions

     The district reduced staff by 30 positions district-wide, but only had to lay off 14 people. Attrition accounted for 16 people who either retired, resigned, or were in temporary positions that were not refilled.
     Three employees reduced their jobs voluntarily from full to half time and two worked out a job share program.
     “We were as creative as we could possibly be to hang on to people,” said Armstrong.
     Expected savings: $1.28 million.
     Though not counted as part of the staff reductions, officials cut costs in the athletic department 20 percent by eliminating 10 assistant coaching slots.
     Expected savings: $130,000.

Compensation

     Teachers did receive a 3.3 percent cost of living adjustment in accordance with their contract terms, but will earn slightly less than the previous year.
     “We gave them the raise and then took it all away with the eight days,” said Randy Armstrong. He said the eight days amounted to about a 4.1 percent reduction in their wages.
     “Actually,” he said, “we come out $125,000 to the good.”
     But the teachers weren’t the only ones who cooperated in that respect.
     Education support professionals — who used to be known as the classified staff — also took an eight-day reduction, as did the district staff, including the superintendent and the chief financial officer.
     “We started back in November when that first revenue forecast came out,” said Armstrong. “Through this entire process — and it hasn’t always been easy — we worked in lockstep with all these employee groups.”
     That kept everyone up to date about projected shortfalls, she said, and made it easier to reach agreements.
     These agreements on contract reductions are for one year only, she said. None of the parties were confident in predicting future finances.
     Net savings from teachers: $125,000.
     Expected savings from administration reductions: $284,400.

Consolidation

     “This year, TDWHS high school regular grades 9-12 will all be under one roof for the first time in five years,” said Principal Stephen Jupe in a message to parents and students.
     That’s because ninth-graders will be shifted from the Wahtonka campus to the city center campus to join the other three classes.
     “Frankly, no one was really happy about consolidating the campuses,” said Anderson. “But it became evident at some level that it had to happen. We couldn’t maintain two distinct parts of the high school.”
     Expected savings: $384,000.
     The Discovery High School alternative school will also shift to the Wahtonka campus.
     Expected savings: $37,000.
     There were other projected savings in various technical aspects, but Anderson said there should be one clear message:
     “I think what the public ought to know is that we just made the whole pie smaller, but the pie is still here,” he said.
     And Armstrong agreed.
     “We’re going to offer the very best education for every student that enters the doors that we possibly can, given the hand we’ve been dealt… for as long as we can,” she said.
     Though students and parents may face changes, some of them unsettling, TDWHS Principal Stephen Jupe had this word of advice:
     “Be prepared for an exciting year with as many opportunities as any other,” he wrote in his message to students and parents. “Student success has and always will be defined by personal choice and initiative. Although change can be difficult, it can also be managed to our advantage. Take charge of these changes and make the best of them; the chances are this could be the best year of your life.”