Leon County School Board Leery of Cuts

By TaMaryn Waters
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The tension was apparent among School Board members Tuesday as they got a glimpse of what´s being proposed to reach $12 million in cuts next school year.

Board members identified items they´re leery of seeing removed or reduced, such as music, art and physical education teachers at elementary schools and a reduction in the amount of sick and annual leave paid to teachers.

One suggestion that stirred debate was the possibility of closing under-utilized elementary and middle schools. Cutting salaries of board members also raised some eyebrows.

School Board member Fred Varn said the district can´t shy away from talking about what most people don´t want to hear.

“What we really need is to look at the possibility of closing some schools that are under capacity,” Varn said. “Even that´s a tough decision. We´re getting to the point now where we are not cutting fat. We are cutting bone here.”

Varn´s prompt to address under-capacity schools drew a reaction from board member Joy Bowen, who has raised concerns in the past when the subject has surfaced.

“I will probably get heartburn when we start looking at which schools we are going to close,” Bowen said. “But we´ve got to make some cuts somewhere.” She also said she doesn´t want to see cuts in the number of aides working with exceptional student education.

Board members make about $31,800 a year. Varn said the board may need to “lead by example” and sacrifice their salaries. Board member Sheila Costigan and Superintendent Jackie Pons said that won´t help much, since the district needs to make significant cuts.

Costigan also said she doesn´t want to see professional development and technology support services stripped from the budget. But she was hesitant to say what needed to stay or go since some dollar figures were not available on several items offered up by Pons.

“For me to prioritize without information would lead the public astray,” Costigan said. “It doesn´t do me much good to speak on these things if I don´t know where we can get the most bang for our buck.”

Pons presented the proposals during the board meeting in an effort to get feedback. He will present his final recommendations for cuts on May 13, and the board is slated to make a vote on whether to approve them at that time.

“There is not anything on this list that doesn´t´ bring value to this school system. We all agree on that,” Pons said.

But board members and staff acknowledge it´s time to face a hard reality.

Merrill Wimberley, chief financial officer for Leon County Schools, said the state is cutting $5.1 million from the district. Combine that with the $7.5 million in expenses the district can´t avoid, and that figure reaches $12 million.

The district had to cut $3.3 million in October as a result of significant reductions in state revenues. Another $2.7 million was cut in March, making it $6 million in losses for this fiscal year.

Student School Board member Netia McCray said she felt the board was “sugarcoating” the issues, and she said students are talking about the cuts next year. And they want the news: good or bad.

“The budget is going to kill students one way of another. I think most students would rather you just give us the bullet,” McCray said. “If you keep sugarcoating it, we´re going to think it´s actually worse than it really is.”

Board member Maggie Lewis-Butler agreed the district will need to make sacrifices.

“The process is very painful,” she said. “However, we realize that everything is budget-driven.”