Story by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Feb. 4, 2010, Villager)
LITTLETON — Sunken heads, sighs, moist eyes, apologies to nobody in particular.
These were the sobering sentiments on the dais at the Jan. 28 Littleton Public Schools Board of Education meeting.
The LPS Board directed central administration to arrange for about 100 teacher positions –58 classroom teachers – to be cut from the district for next year. This represents about 10 percent of the district workforce.
“For so long we've done more with less, and now we're at a point where we're going to do less with less,” said Board member Renee Howell. “There's only so long you can maintain that. It's just distasteful that we're at this level. This wasn't the top of the list of things to do. This is grovelling down at the bottom.The district needs to cut $7.5 million from this year's budget for the 2010-11 school year. Although the Board approves the budget in May and June, principals start working on individual school budgets in February.
The district had to cut $6 million combined the previous two years in response to declining enrollment and to the recession. In the last two years, the district made up some of the shortfalls by closing two elementary schools, slowing salary increases, eliminating 20 central administration and district-wide staff positions and increasing by 50 percent athletic fees. About 30 teacher positions were cut, or 3 percent of the district's workforce.
This year, central administrators plan to take salary cuts of 8 to 25 percent, and all employees will take 3 furlough days. But teachers, whose salaries make up 81 percent of the general fund budget, couldn't be exempt any more. Supplemental teachers were targeted – AVID and 14 positions for reading specialist and instructional coach. Extra money for International Baccalaureate at an elementary and middle school will be taken away.
But classroom teachers will take up the bulk of the cuts – 58 teacher positions.
Core classes at the high school might be between 30-35 students, while third, fourth and fifth grade classes could have 25-30 students. The district plans to keep as much kindergarten, first and second grade teachers to keep those grade levels low in classroom size, said Superintendent Scott Murphy.
“It's like an onion. Gradually we'll peel off the quality pieces of what LPS means to people, and we're going to get to a part where the tears start to flow,” Murphy said. “Or it's like choosing two doors: behind one is a lion and the other is a tiger.”
Every school will have at least a half-time reading specialist position, although most had a full-time reading specialist and some had more than a full-time reading specialist. Every elementary school will also have half of an instructional literacy coach position, according to district numbers.
“It works, but we have to take it apart anyway. It's really crummy,” Howell said.
This isn't the end of budget concerns, either.
The state legislature will adopt the state budget in late April or May, and cuts for LPS might increase, to $9 million. Plus, the district might get $500,000 less in revenue from local sales taxes.
“We're just shooting darts at this point” when the district figures out the final numbers, said Board President Bob Colwell.
Howell added: “This $7.5 million is the most positive we can get. It's only going to get worse.”
Further cuts are expected for the 2011-12 school year – $3 million or more forecast by the district – and federal stimulus funds and the state's Amendment 23 will run out as well.
“Everybody talking about the economy stabilizing, that's rhetoric right now,” Murphy said. “Even if the state stabilizes, we're all at a lower level. As schools, we lag by a year or two.”
Littleton's last mill levy increase is running out. Construction and maintenance are often included in mill levies, and the average age of LPS buildings are 50 years.
“Even if we had a normal budget, we would have needed to do a mill levy election. It's a cycle, and the cycle is ending,” Howell said.
During previous budget cuts, the Board maintained a policy of keeping cuts away from classrooms, but that wasn't possible anymore. Other values are still being maintained, including keeping funds separate. For instance, money from insurance reserves can't be used for the general fund, and federal stimulus dollars aren't funding continuing expenses, like teacher positions. The district's reserves were $13.1 million last June, but only $2.8 million isn't part of a particular program or fund, which can't cover a week of general operations, said Scott Myers, chief financial officer. Also in the reserves, the TABOR emergency fund, $3.6 million, can't pay for a financial collapse and has to be repaid in six months, Murphy said.
“We have more money tied up than other districts. We don't have extra cash lying around once you get rid of the designations,” Myers said.
The district's financial office received a Meritorious Budget Award for excellence from the Association of School Business Officials. The award was released in January.
“We do have a plan. We do have high expectations. This is a big dip in the road to getting there,” said Board member Mary Nichols. “We have systems in place. We're not trying to rearrange from one place. That's what we're talking about neighbors to the north and south doing that, and they're now in a world of hurt.”
The Board, staff and superintendent are still optimistic.
“People come to this district because of the potential for their children to do well, and they stay because of the depth of programs we offer” Murphy said. “We have top teachers. I'm an optimist – I hope not blindly so. I do believe we'll find a way.”
IB not getting bang for buck
Parents and students showed up in droves to the district's Jan. 14 meeting, attempting to persuade the Board to keep International Baccalaureate at Newton Middle School and Field Elementary School.
Parents had petitioned to get the recognized program in their school, and they begged to keep it.
On Jan. 28, Colwell told them they could keep it, but the district shouldn't keep putting extra money into it, and parents shouldn't find alternative ways to pay for staffing for next year because whatever they might do might not last.
The district also hasn't seen much difference in enrollment from the IB program at the schools to warrant special treatment.
“If other schools around them can do it with their normal funding, we should find a way to do it,” Colwell said.
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