Lawrence school board on Monday and Tuesday approved budget cuts of $4.6 million as the district seeks to close its $5 million budget gap before next school year. The plan was a compromise to not close any elementary schools next year and also keep the sixth-grade instrumental music program that board originally cut Monday. Board members will likely need to consider dipping into their contingency reserve to cover the rest.
Here is the plan:
• Raise the student-teacher ratio by one student across the district: $1.1 million.
• Close the East Heights Early Childhood Center and move the program into Kennedy School and likely redraw boundaries with New York School: $350,000.
• Have one less elementary principal in the district: $92,896.
• Restructure school nurses and cut one full-time nurse: $43,520.
• Tap into an instructional materials fund: $200,000
The remaining $2.8 million in cuts were made Monday. They include:
Administration
• District administration, including salary reductions: $557,295.
• Reduce positions, days or hours for clerical aides: $161,407.
• Reduce the number of high school assistant principals: $102,597.
• Require Lawrence Schools Foundation to cover its administrative assistant position: $34,047.
• A 3 percent cut in the district’s contracted services, such as legal services: $60,000.
Instructional Support
• Eliminates teaching positions for elementary enrichment classes: $122,580.
• For learning coaches, no additional contract days and eliminate all positions not federally funded: $495,717.
• A 25 percent reduction to the professional development budget: $75,000.
Libraries and Media
• Eliminate 11 work days for library media specialists: $12,167.
• Not filling junior high librarian vacancy and restructuring secondary librarians: $107,270.
• Cut two full-time positions for library media assistants at junior high schools: $46,760.
• New York and Wakarusa Valley schools share one library media specialist: $53,635.
Student support
• Reducing additional contract days and hours for guidance counselors: $35,604.
• Eliminate high school prevention specialist: $36,445.
Special Education
• Delay replacing a vehicle, reducing hours and contract days and not filling a vacancy the East Heights Early Childhood Center: $177,877.
Virtual School
• Stop absorbing indirect administrative costs to assist Lawrence Virtual School: $223,970.
Activities and Fine Arts
• Eliminate the supplemental assignment for Generation Y at each junior high school: $15,393.
• Athletics, mostly by efficiencies if ninth-grade sports are moved to the high schools: $150,000.
• Secondary school fine arts stipends for vocal and instrumental ensembles: $9,695.
• Reduction in rental expense for the All City Choir Concert at the Lied Center and Eliminate Choral Connections: $3,394.
• Reduction in additional contract days high school teachers can supervise career and technical education clubs competitions: $15,000.
• Eliminate KU Theatre for Young People and Lawrence Arts Center for kindergarten: $11,291.
Facilities and operations
• Five percent cut in salary reductions: $40,000.
• No substitute custodians until third day of absences: $40,000.
• Deposit lease funds from the cell phone tower at Free State High School into a new account: $25,163.
Food Services
• Increase meal prices at least $0.12 per meal: $246,932
Comments
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seanj (anonymous) says…
Well,
In need of building leadership, medical support, professional expertise, library support, or a healthy facility to limit the spread of germs...you'll need to wait until the odd or even day (or maybe the following week) that a professional is available in your building. Oh, need some additional support from your classroom teacher, wait your turn in line behind the other 30 children (unless you are fortunate to go to a school with extrmely small class sizes). Better yet, at the junior high or high school setting, that teacher no longer exists.
What do we get for it? A decreased education for over 9,000 students here in the district, especially if you have an exceptionality. I say over 9,000 because the few hundred students attending Cordley and New York...they have it made. However, Save Our Schools should realize the War they started with the Us Against Them mentality has not ended. This idea of temporary cuts will soon turn into millions more needed in cuts. I think we have not heard the last of building versus students. I also trust, from the emails I have received, that the majority of parents representing the majority of students here in Lawrence will begin to realize what these cuts are going to mean to the majority of students. I trust these parents will let their thoughts be heard and work to ensure the appropriate education for ALL students in Lawrence.
greywolf85203 (anonymous) says…
Have you been to the schools? SeanJ have you gone and seen what it is like? Okay close two schools those 200-400 children have to go somewhere then class sizes go up more than just one. I am not apart of any organization just a parent of the school district and I for one think the board made the best decison for the children. And as I have heard it the number of teachers lost is for the most part what will be retiring. If you are going to sit there and get a mad about lack of services to your childs school then move you child to one of the schools that has more room its a nifty little thing called a transfer!
PitBullGrandma (Paula K) says…
Be glad that no school closed and that no vital services were cut...yet. SONS did a fabulous job and will, I am sure, take this to the next level to try to right the wrong at the source...the legislature. I support them and wish them much success.
Much thanks to the school board who did the right thing for the children. The cuts were made at the appropriate level and I think the only real concern left regarding those would be the nurse issue. There is time to work that out. It was great to watch the board make the right decision for most everyone, although everyone knew there were going to be difficult decisions.
I hope that everyone remembers that this is not going to stop and that these issues will rise up again and that they must stay informed and always stand up for what is the best for their children. If the board found a way to do this then so can the parents.
ivalueamerica (anonymous) says…
• Eliminate high school prevention specialist: $36,445.
????? Smokey Hussain the Bear says..only you and prevent high schools.
• Five percent cut in salary reductions: $40,000.
?????? Cutting salary reductions saves money?
guess_again (anonymous) says…
I am pleased that everyone seems pleased. My nearby school remains open. This does please me, but I am not naive.
I am sorry I must rain (well, drizzle perhaps) a little bit on this parade.
To the degree this issue was solved using one-time money (reserves and and the materials fund, delay the purchase of this or that) for the next year, the budget by definition is not balanced for next year, nor for subsequent years.
In my mind, the budget approved last night is $400-$700 thousand out of kilter of a balanced budget for next year, depending on which numbers you utilize. I have no particular problem with utilizing these balances for this purpose, but all must recognize that this can not be done on an ongoing basis.
So I want to caution everyone, while all are congratulating ourselves, that further reductions and/or increases in student-teacher ratios will need to be made in the future, very probably twelve months from now. And this will occur *despite* any sales tax increase in Topeka this year, which will do nothing but protect the district against cuts beyond the $5 million they are talking about *for the current year.* And this would be for a totally flat budget for 2011-2012, with no allowances for health insurance increases, teacher step raises, or restorations of any of this years so-called "temporary" cuts, etc.
Please drive to Topeka to protest and show support. But do not be confused: Even at the most optimistic levels of support from the legislature this year, the Lawrence School Board will be facing unpleasant funding problems a year from now. The only question will be the magnitude.
bullseye (anonymous) says…
I am happy to say, and somewhat surprised to say the Board did pretty well with what they had to work with,but obviously not without a fight. Every year they are faced with a financial crisis,but what confuses me is, How can they afford building a new football field and planning to build new schools while abandoning others? I feel maybe some priorities have been misplaced which could have help prevented some of these cuts.
DougCounty (anonymous) says…
Perhaps the best thing that has come out of this complex and difficult process is that many, many neighbors, parents, and kids became educated about how a democracy doesn't just "happen." For a community to work, it requires folks to take the time to actively educate themselves, roll up their sleeves and get involved. A lot of folks on all sides also learned that the simplistic solutions are typically oversimplistic. Community building is slow, requires participation and compromise. It seems to me that, contrary to the first comment, the polarization has been reduced by this kind of participataion.
And yes, it's a dynamic situation that does not stay fixed forever. It requires continuing participation. Welcome to democracy! Does make me proud to be from a community that cares enough to do just that--everybody has a lot to be proud of.
PitBullGrandma (Paula K) says…
Bullseye - The football fields were built from money from a bond election...completely separate from the district's other funds. Except for the fact that now that they are here there will have to be a lot of maintenance...
caton1982 (anonymous) says…
This is very sad. do any of you know of the headstart program! This makes a huge effect on this. There are a class at East Hights and one at Kenndy. This means they will be removed. My son goes to headstart Kenndy and starts school at Kenndy next year. I was going to have my youngest son who is delyed with a I.E.P. to go to headstart as well.
I'm apart of the headstart policy board. This is not good news for kids who need the extra help we have been short on money every year and never make our kids suffer.... now the school board did it for them. support headstart!
PitBullGrandma (Paula K) says…
They didn't touch the Headstart program. All they did was move it to Kennedy.
amberT (anonymous) says…
Sorry Grandma you're off on that. Headstart is NOT the program being moved into Kennedy. It is a different program that is using a room in Kennedy right now. It will have to be moved out of the building to make room for the Pre-K program at East Heights to move in. Two different early childhood programs.
fly_on_wall (anonymous) says…
To caton1982-
I am sorry for your loss of the head start program at Kennedy. Any school or program closing is hard. I know of people who worked very hard in the sons program that lost there own jobs with the cuts. To keep the facts in order. If New York closed the headstart program would have been moved out of Kennedy in order to fit the kids in. Because of linguistics and Safety they chose to move the Pre-K program( which is not part of the head start program) into Kennedy instead of New York. They are trying to keep the program together instead of peppering it throughout the schools. I don't know what will happen to the head start classes that were housed at Kennedy and East Heights. I suspect Boys and Girls Club will be using the East Heights building maybe something could be worked out with them. New York and Kennedy will either become sister schools splitting lower elementary and upper elementary or be K-6 with boundary line changes to bring kids from Kennedy into New York. Is either idea ideal for either schools, no. This is some of the sacrifices we made for the district. New York has always been open to a pre- school program and head start might move a class room there. New York is looking into a magnet program and a pre school program could help that as well. I know the cuts are deep and not permanent but there are grants that could help for any one wanting to fight for a program it is up to us.
volunteer (anonymous) says…
I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that for decades school districts across the state have quietly transferred money from "the general fund" to the "capital outlay fund." This way Boards and Administrators can try to hide the money from teachers during negotiations. "Sorry, this money can only be used for buildings."
In a crisis, such as a horrible recession, the smart thing to do-perhaps- is simply NOT place or transfer any money next fiscal year into a fund that is so restricted as to its usage.
However, I do think it is pretty fair and deserved, the salary contract the Lawrence teachers have negotiated. (Someone placed a link to it a few months ago) A thousand dollars for each year of experience. One reaches the top pay for his education column in just ten years. This is what the KNEA encourages all teacher bargaining units across the state to strive for: to "compress" their pay schedules so that more money is paid to the teachers as early in their careers as possible.
I'm still waiting for details on the reductions/job sharing in positions or salaries among the central office bigwigs.
anonymous110 (anonymous) says…
How are the schools going to meet the needs of the students with IEP's, according to the law they have to give every student an appropriate public education. How can they do this for the kids who need the much needed support.
What schools have federally funded learning coaches?
Eliminates teaching positions for elementary enrichment classes: $122,580.
• For learning coaches, no additional contract days and eliminate all positions not federally funded: $495,717.