School board delays action
Members want more time to mull cuts

By Michael Stewart
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Escambia County School Board members decided once again to delay a vote to eliminate employee positions.

Facing a packed room of mostly district employees Wednesday night at the J.E. Hall Center, board members said they needed more time before voting on Superintendent Jim Paul´s proposed $1.7 million cut in non-teaching positions.

“This is not a simple task,” board Chairwoman Patty Hightower said. “That´s why we are having such a hard time with this. ... There are people whose positions will be lost.”

The board scheduled a workshop at 11:30 a.m. May 15 to discuss the proposed non-teaching cuts with Paul and his staff. A location is yet to be determined. No decision on the cuts will be made at that meeting.

Two weeks ago, the board delayed a vote on Paul´s recommendation to cut $1.7 million by eliminating, among other things, a surplus inventory manager, administrative clerks, a paint shop manager and a payroll specialist.

“I hate to see anybody lose their jobs,” Montclair Elementary School teacher Darzell Warren said. “It would be better to look for ways to cut and not affect employees.”

The cuts are included in the school district´s personnel planning document, which is up for school board approval.

School board members want Paul to eliminate some of the top administrative positions. Paul has declined to do so and said he already is short-staffed.

Figures compiled by the Florida Department of Education show that during the 2006-07 school year, the district´s administrative cost per student was $473, compared to the state average of $525.

Santa Rosa County spent 60 cents more per student in administrative costs during the same time frame, and Okaloosa County taxpayers paid $624 per student for administration.

There´s hope some common ground between Paul and the school board can be reached at the workshop with a final vote on the issue taken at the board´s regular May 20 meeting.

“There still might not be any changes,” Paul said. “I cannot promise you this personnel planning document, in the end, will be to your liking.”

Paul said it is his responsibility as superintendent to bring a balanced budget to the school board, and they only have the authority to vote his recommendations up or down.

Some school board members have said they might vote in administrative cuts themselves, a move Paul said he would challenge in court.

Board member Jeff Bergosh asked if Paul would be willing to seek an Attorney General´s opinion to clarify the issue. Although Paul said he would, it is unlikely the Attorney General´s opinion would be offered before the May 20 meeting, School Board Attorney Donna Waters said.

The board has approved $6.2 million in cuts that will eliminate 115 teaching positions and require high school teachers to pick up an additional class. More cuts are likely.

West Florida High School 11th grader Devon Warren, 16, said there already is talk of cuts at her school.

“We´ve heard they will cut down on a lot of our extracurricular activities,” she said.