Next year, the Leander Independent School District will is anticipating a budget shortfall of anywhere from $19-29 million dollars. While nothing is official until the state legislature votes in June, schools are in the uncomfortable position of having to prepare now. As of press time, schools all across the district are considering the possibility that they will not have enough money to pay all current teachers or fund every single program. Students, staff and the community expect a major change.
“We are in a state-designed mess. The way the state funds public schools has a structural problem,” LISD superintendant Dr. Campion said Tuesday night at a budget input workshop at Four Points Middle School.
In preparation for the cuts, the district has already delayed the openings of Middle School #8 and Elementary School #24. Nobody will receive a raise next year, and the maintenance fund shrunk. Dr. Champion said that even though he expects that the state will “move around the coconuts” [meaning find money they aren’t factoring in to decision making at this point], Dr. Champion expects an 8-10% cut of target revenue for the 2011-2013 school years.
“We have never had to deal with this in Leander ISD, so we continue to work through it,” Dr. Champion said. “That is why we haven’t launched the boat yet.” Because no definite information is coming from the governor or the legislature at this point, LISD hasn’t made any official decisions.
In regard to Vandegrift, the school will most definitely be undergoing multiple changes. One of the cost–cutting solutions brought up by Dr. Champion has been the reduction of staff. The contracts of all probationary 1 teachers, who have only one year of experience or have only been in LISD for one year and have fewer than five years teaching experience in previous districts, are currently not being renewed for the next school year. Legally, probationary teachers can be non-renewed without cause. Which means as of now, we will lose 16 teachers for next year.
“District wide, it will be [a loss of] 250 teaching positions. The base teacher salary is 42,500 not including benefits, so it is a considerable amount of money and well over 10 million dollars,” Mr. Little said.
In contrast, term teachers within the district will be guaranteed a job – even if it means they have to shuffle campuses or positions in the event that there isn’t room for them on their current campus. According to Dr. Champion, LISD has 190 probationary 1 teachers, and VHS currently employs almost 20.
According to Dr. Champion, the probationary teachers who were not renewed may have the opportunity to be rehired after more definite information comes out of the legislature, which should come out as early as April.
“It will be at least a month before I know how many we can rehire,” Mr. Little said. “We continue to teach school and do our best to place all of the surplus teachers and work to rehire our P1 teachers back as quickly as possible for next year. “
While many schools are anticipating having to cut teachers, the enrollment of a fourth class will enable our school to gain back lost faculty, as well as take in term teachers from other LISD campuses.
“Half of our teachers are coaches or directors, so any cuts will affect all areas of our campus,” Mr. Little said. “Although our focus is always on the core student learning, since we are a new school, we have started with the very fiscal responsible staffing model, so we will be in a better position to respond if we need to reduce our staffing.”
In response to the budget buzz, the community has proposed a list of budget considerations for the district to contemplate. Increasing teacher to pupil ratios would mean a $1,664,808 savings. Staff compensation and benefits reductions have also been considered, and eliminating contract duty days, meaning less work for less money, would save $900,000 per day. Making changes to bus schedules would also decrease financial costs for the district. By changing middle school and high school start times, only one bus per route would be needed, rather than the current need to run multiple routes. The adjustment would result in $525,688 in savings. Nevertheless, with all these contributions, the savings would still not meet the shortfall of $19-29 million dollars.
“Budget cuts are stressful on staff, students and families,” Mr. Little said. “However, the upside is that schools must become more creative an innovative to continue to meet the needs of students with diminishing resources.”
According to Dick Ellis, the LISD communications director, the opening of Vandegrift High School was planned several years in advance when the district did not face such a large deficit. The delay in opening the middle and elementary schools came as an effort to save money. Vandegrift was able to slide past the delay, but will not go without change.
The future of our school will overcome changes such as losing teachers, adjusting to larger class sizes and suffering through cut programs. The relationship between students and staff will likely cease to be as strong as we are used to because of the strain the cuts placed on our campus.
“I know this is a difficult time we are facing,” Dr. Champion said. “But we are in this together, and together we continue to do what we do best- focus on student learning.”
The district welcomes suggestions and comments. They are also encouraging LISD parents to contact state representatives.
