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Teachers resigned to making cuts work
It was a grim group of teachers that gathered Friday to hear Mountain Home Education Association President David Phillips deliver the bad news about the upcoming layoffs for next school year.
"They're willing to do what is necessary," to overcome the $1.5 million funding shortfall the district is facing, Phillips said, "but sooner or later, if the cuts continue and put more people under stress, tempers are going to flare."
The district anticipates it will be forced to cut 60 employees, half of them teachers (certified staff) and half non-teachers (classified staff), between the end of school this year and the beginning of school next year.
Friday, Phillips answered questions about the district's Reduction in Force (RIF) policy, which is a part of the master contract between teachers and the school district. The RIF policy calls for three teachers and three district administrators to sit down and determine recommendations to the school board for implementing the RIF.
"Whatever we come up with, I think the board will probably accept it," he said. "The hardest thing I've ever had to do as a professional is come up with a policy that determines who and who won't be able to support their families next year."
Phillips said the anticipated cuts, coupled with job losses in other sectors of the economy (an estimated 75-80 Mountain Home residents lost jobs at Micron recently), "is a big hit for this community. And a lot of them aren't going to be able to hang around and wait until things get better."
As part of the process, the board is opening its books to the teachers' union, which is part of the provisions of the master contract.
"We'll be looking real close at where the money is being spent, and see if we can come up with some alternatives," Phillips said, but both he and the teachers know that it is unlikely there will be any major areas to slash, in order to meet the funding shortfall, that won't involve cutting staff.
Most of the cuts will come from the teachers with the least seniority in the district. "What we're anticipating," Phillips said, "is that, as programs are cut, people with the least seniority (who aren't released) are going to get moved around to fill in holes where they're certified" to teach classes.
Phillips said the teachers will be looking at possibly recommending reductions in administrative staff, "but realistically, it takes a lot of people to run a district with over 500 employees and 4,370 students. At best, there might be a vice principal or two that could go," but the district isn't all that top heavy with administrators, whose staff is about half the size it was ten years ago, Phillips admitted.
The teachers have one basic priority, Phillips added, "to keep class sizes as low as possible. They know you can give a child a better education when you have fewer children to work with.
"A lot people say the association (union) is only for teachers," Phillips noted, "but that's not true. We're here to make sure the kids are educated to the highest standards possible."
Phillips said the teachers recognize there is little they can do. "There are a lot of people who are concerned, but I don't think there's anybody who doesn't realize we're in a financial crisis.
"Right now, it is really difficult on everybody, be it administrators, the school board, the teaching staff or the classified staff." He said the planned loss of classified staff, such as teachers' aides or library aides, will hurt some teachers who rely on those personnel for extra help. "Their jobs will get much more difficult."
Phillips said some suggestions to change to a four-day school week "really aren't going to fly." Teaching contracts this year couldn't be amended, so savings would be minimal, "and a lot of us are parents. I know what kind of problem that sort of schedule would cause parents. It would, at the least, drive up their day-care costs. I don't see that happening. I haven't found any teachers that are in favor of that."
The teachers -- and the district -- know more cuts are possible. An education funding bill scheduled to be voted on in the legislature this week, could cost the district up to $150,000 more in lost revenue. That's the equivalent of the pay and benefits paid by the district for three additional teachers making an average salary. Realistically, it means four to five additional first-year teachers or their equivalent would have to be let go.
Phillips and the teachers have directed most of their anger and frustration at the legislature, and the Bush administration, "who talk all the time about how much they're in favor of education, then turn around and cut it.
"Some of them, who don't have a clue what it takes, think school districts are just filled with 'fat' that can be cut. Well, they're not. Most districts, like ours, are pretty lean and every cut they order hurts the future of our society -- the children. In the end, we all lose."
Phillips said the teachers were counting on Gov. Kempthorne to veto any bill that would further cut educational funding.
"He said he wouldn't hold back (education funds) this year and that it would be unacceptable to cut education in next year's budget. Now, the question is, will he follow through on that pledge."
Phillips admits the state budget is tight and there are few places to cut. "Health and Welfare, Corrections, those are important programs, too." He said finding some additional source of revenue would be the only recourse "or we're going to wind up with a disaster across the board."
He said the attacks by the legislature on teachers' competence is perhaps the unkindest cut of all.
"The vast majority of teachers go to work every day because they love what they are doing. We're not getting rich. But we all believe we can make a difference in society," by reaching the students.
"Occasionally, they'd just like to get a pat on the back and be told they're important and doing a good job. Instead, the legislature attacks them for being money-grubbing incompetents," while requiring more work and higher standards without providing the funding support to reach those goals, he said.
He said planned cuts in the "exploratory" and elective curriculum, along with anticipated cuts in extra-curricular activities, will only hurt the students, some of whom stay in school largely because of those extra programs.
"These programs keep kids in school and keep them interested in school. A lot of kids take part in them. In just the 6-12 band program alone, I've got 350 kids. Add in the choir, and it's 500-600 kids, and that doesn't count the music program that all the elementary students are part of.
"The football program has at least 100 kids who participate, and Lynn Knudsen, who's built one of the best wrestling programs in the state, probably has close to that.
"These programs keep kids off the street, off drugs and keeps them focused.
"But do we cut some of these programs because of state cuts? We may have to agree to do that, because if it is a choice between teaching reading and writing, or extra-curricular activities, I'd have to recommend cutting the activities."
Realistically, Phillips said, he doesn't expect most of those programs to be cut, but some assistant coaches will be cut from the payroll (although they may continue to "volunteer" their time) and district financial support of some of the programs may be cut, forcing those programs to seek other funding sources to pay their costs. "But you can only have so many bake sales," he noted.
In the end, however, he said the teachers "may not like this, and we don't, but we're going to go do our best, under whatever handicaps we're put under, to still go out and try and give the kids the best education we can."