Schools cut $8M

Schools cut $8M

$2 million more cuts coming. 'protecting classroom' top priority

Publication Date: 04/17/08

St. Johns County schools are facing substantial funding cuts not only this year, but for the next two years, according to school officials.

"Right now it's $8 million less than we started this year. We anticipate we'll need to make another $2 million cut sometime after November. So it comes to $10 million less for the year," School Superintendent Joe Joyner said Wednesday.

Joyner said he expects the budget crisis to last two more years.

The current operating budget is $204 million. The budget for 2008-2009 will be around $196 million. It will go to $194 million after the expected $2 million cut at the end of the year.

The school district bases its projections on budgets approved by state House and Senate lawmakers, who began negotiating the $65 billion state budget this week.

Locally, cuts are planned in hiring and staffing, transportation services, travel, energy consumption and textbooks and instructional materials. Schools and the district office also will see major cuts in their budgets.

The cuts come even as enrollment grows. About 300 additional students, mostly in northern St. Johns, are expected to enroll this year.

While growth is slower than in past years, the new students will increase the school population by about 1.5 percent.

Despite the cuts, the district has worked to protect classroom instruction, Joyner said.

"We have to put all our resources into teaching," Joyner said.

The budget reductions facing the St. Johns District are also being played out in district across the state. Joyner said the poor economy and the passage of Amendment One, which cut property taxes as well as money to local governments, are the cause of the problem now, something not everyone is aware of.

On Wednesday, he spoke to a journalism class at Pedro Menendez High School and the first question was why he let the funding loss happen.

"People don't understand where this comes from," Joyner said.

Joyner said the "ebb and flow of the economy" have made a difference.

Property taxes and sales tax are two major sources of funding for the state and both "these elements of funding have been monkeyed with," said Conley Weiss, chief financial officer for the school system.

"As long as we have this (tax structure), we will have this problem," Joyner said.

Passed by voters in January, Amendment 1 doubles homestead exemption from $25,000 to $50,000 and allows homeowners to transfer their Save Our Homes tax benefits from their old home to a newly purchased home. Portability only applies to homes purchased in 2007 and later, and the benefit is capped at $500,000.

"It's choices made by leadership as well that are also making an impact on education," Joyner said, noting a recent study in U.S. News & World Report article showed Florida ranked next to last out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for spending compared to relative wealth.

That means for every $1,000 of residents' personal income, Florida spends an average of $33.51. The national average is $43.34. Neighboring Georgia is ranked 13th, spending $48.21 for every $1,000.

"If we choose to have our per capital expenditures 50th, that's a choice, too," Weiss said.

Budget going 'backwards'

Joyner said it's the first time in his 37 years in education that education spending has gone backwards.

"We will focus on the classroom as a priority," Joyner said, noting cuts will be "what has the least impact on the children."

Even so, there will be fewer teachers.

Typically about 100 new teachers are hired each year, said Weiss.

This year there will be about 32 fewer teachers district wide although officials hope retirement and resignations will take care of the needed cuts. Some 14 new teachers will be needed to handle the 300 new students expected to enroll. That makes a net reduction of 18 teachers.

There are about 27,500 students in St. Johns schools.

Once the first round of cuts are made, the district will continue to look for new ways to economize in order to handle the expected $2 million shortfall after November.

The district also will delay teacher contract negotiations until the fall so that the school system will know how much money they are getting from the state.

Joyner said the district will "look at salary reductions," Joyner said. "... There's not money in a sock somewhere."

Class sizes to grow

Beginning at the first of this school year class sizes will go up at elementary, middle and high schools, although the teacher-student ratios will stay lower than Legislative-mandated averages.

There will be a drop in the number of support personnel as well. Sixty positions will be eliminated, but retirement and resignations are expected to take care of those posts.

With both teachers and support personnel, vacant positions are not being filled and a hiring freeze remains in effect for administrative and support personnel.

At the district level, vacant positions are not being filled. Administrative staff will not receive pay increases this year. Joyner said performance pay bonuses that normally are earned by about 85 percent of the staff will not be paid this year. That's a savings of about $200,000.

About 85 percent of the school district budget is spent on salaries and benefits. Reductions in the numbers of teachers and support personnel will save about $4 million.

This summer the school district will go to a mandatory four-day work week to save money.

Also, the district expects to save $1 million in insurance costs, in part because of better rates.

New schools will open

Three new schools being constructed will open this year although teachers and most personnel to staff them will be moved from other schools. Some new positions are being hired, including principals, bookkeepers, secretaries, athletic directors and head custodians. Assistant principals will be moved from other schools.

Money for construction of the schools comes out of the capital outlay budget and will not affect the operating budgets. Joyner said there will be cost savings since portable units at other schools can be closed out when the schools open and that will save money. At Bartram Trail, for instance, there are 62 portables in use.

At least $800,000 will be saved from the transportation budget, although $300,000 of the savings will be offset in bus routes for the new schools.

Students and their parents will feel some major day-to-day impacts in routines.

"We will have less services for transportation," Joyner said.

The district will no longer pay for out-of-zone busing, activity buses and operational assistance. That means students attending schools other than in their assigned area will have to provide their own rides, buses that take students homes after school activities will be canceled and bus substitute drivers will be eliminated.

Officials say grants will absorb some of the costs of the activity buses and office personnel and mechanics will serve as substitutes. Clubs and organizations can pay for the use of a bus.

New school hours

To make school scheduling more effective, middle school students will find themselves in class earlier. Home rooms and silent reading times are being eliminated, but students will still have six class periods for curriculum each day.

Beginning in August, middle schools will begin at 7:50 a.m., elementary schools at 8:30 a.m. and high schools at 9:15 a.m.

Late starts are being eliminated and all schools will go to an early release each Wednesdays. Staff development, teacher planning and parent conferences will be held on those days.

The district hopes to save about $400,000 next year through energy consumption savings. Energy Education Inc., developed an energy conservation plan that projects a savings of more than $18 million over the next 10 years.

Another $500,000 savings is estimated by cuts to the textbook and instructional materials budget. The district will stick with its current elementary reading series and delay purchase of some textbooks. Reading material will be updated with technology tools.

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