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State holdbacks put schools in 'grave' situation
Superintendent Tim McMurtrey asked the Mountain Home School Board Tuesday night to declare a financial emergency in the wake of a 1.6 percent holdback in state funds ordered by Gov. Butch Otter.
The measure was expected to be approved by the board and eventually could lead to the district asking the voters to approve a special one-time supplemental property tax levy.
Before that happens, however, the school district will hold a public hearing in the near future to seek input on possible ways to cut expenses in a district that has seen its funding from the state fall for five years in a row.
"We're in a grave financial situation," the district's financial director, Cliff Osborne, said bluntly.
The district ended last year in the red, largely as a result of state funding cuts and declining enrollment in the district, and with the holdback forcing the district to cut $300,000 in expenses between now and June, by the end of the year -- if nothing is done -- district officials anticipate a shortfall of nearly $870,000.
In 2006, during the brief term of Jim Risch as governor, a special session of the legislature eliminated school district property taxes, replacing it -- for one year -- with a one percent increase in the sales tax. After that year the extra sales tax money went back into the general fund "where schools have to fight for it along with everything else," McMurtrey said. But the move meant school districts are now more dependent than ever on the state for funding, and most of that money comes from a formula for Average Daily Attendance (ADA), which represents the number of students attending class on any given day. ADA funds represent about 80 percent of the district's state revenue.
For five years the school district has seen enrollment either decline, or hold steady, but no growth. Combined with cuts in funding and holdbacks due to economic conditions from the state, the district has seen its revenue during that time drop significantly.
It has closed schools on base where the decline in enrollment, due to changing demographics by base personnel, has been most severe.
It has cut almost all the teacher aide positions except for those required by law, such as in the special education programs.
Not all teaching positions were replaced when teachers retired or moved on to other jobs, and the reduced number of teachers has resulted in fewer elective classes and higher student-to-teacher ratios in classrooms.
In the past, a class with 30 or more students in it was rare. Today, at the high school at least, it is common, and even at the elementary schools, where the district has worked to keep ratios low, teachers have seen an increase in the number of students in each class.
"Our class sizes are as high as possible, right now," said Deputy Superintenent James Gilbert. "That's not good for the students, and we know it."
In fact, McMurtrey said, the district is exactly at the minimum levels right now for teachers and administrators based on state standards.
The administrative staff is half what it was 15 years ago, even though the paperwork requirements for federal and state programs, such as the No Child Left Behind laws and mandatory state performance testing, have risen dramatically in recent years.
"They keep mandating programs, but they don't fund them," McMurtrey said. "I'm all for the state's math initiative. I think the kids need that. We need to do a better job teaching math. But where are we going to get the extra teachers we need, or even just the textbooks, if we don't have any money?"
Furthermore, McMurtrey said, with the legislature unwilling to raise taxes "all they've left us is the emergency levy. Now it's a local issue. It's not their problem anymore. It falls back on us."
The holdback represents roughly the pay and benefits for six teachers, but McMurtrey noted that he can't cut teachers in the middle of a school year. Not only would it disrupt student schedules, but it would violate the union contract.
A declaration of emergency would allow the district to reopen the teachers' contract, but after years of fighting for the pay and benefits they get now, plus the extra workloads that have been thrown at them, McMurtrey said he didn't expect the teachers would be amenable to taking a pay cut. "They could. They might. They understand what is going on, and they care about the kids. But it's asking a lot of them."
And because the drops in enrollment don't occur in one class at one school, but are scattered throughout the district grade levels and schools, cutting teaching positions midway through the school year just isn't a workable solution, he said.
Some district maintenance could be defrayed, but some, such as replacing the roof over the senior hallway at the aging high school, simply have to be done for safety reasons.
The holdback probably will result in the well-kept grounds of the school district starting to look a little shabby, he added. "We'll have to cut back the number of days we mow," he said, "and that hurts us in a lot of ways. When somebody comes into the community looking at our town as a place to locate, if the grounds look shabby, it's a negative impression. But the grass will get longer."
He's been working closely with administrators to find additional areas to cut.
"Right now, if we don't absolutely need it, we're not spending money on it," he said.
The district already has cut funding for a number of "enrichment" programs and elective classes, and athletic programs have quietly taken some hits, even though McMurtrey readily admits it's those sorts of programs that often keep students interested in staying in school. Cutting them could lead to higher dropout rates, which means less attendance, which means less ADA money, which means even less money for the district. "It's a vicious cycle," he said.
But the district already has made some cuts in athletic programs. It's scheduled fewer away games, for example, saving some money for busing teams to other districts, but McMurtrey notes, "when you play five fewer basketball games than some of the other schools in the conference, it puts our players at a competitive disadvantage."
McMurtrey and other area superintendents have been talking about cutting athletic programs, for example by eliminating freshman and sophomore programs, but trying to keep varsity and junior varsity. That would cut down on the number of coaches that would have to be paid (even though about half the assistant coaches in the district are now volunteers, anyway) and reduce busing costs, but the trade-off is fewer opportunities for students to participate.
"One thing I don't want to do is cut entire programs, if I can help it," McMurtrey said. "Once you do that, it takes a very long time, if ever, to get them back. Right now, everything is seeing some cuts in support, but we're trying to keep the programs themselves alive, if we can."
At the same time, programs such as elementary music and PE programs already have seen reductions. "I don't want to, but I've had to," McMurtrey said.
In addition to ADA cuts from the state, the district also has seen state reimbursement for its general student busing costs drop from 85 percent to 60 percent. "At the same time," McMurtrey said, "the state didn't change the rules for who we have to bus, so we had to shift money from other parts of the budget to cover those costs."
McMurtrey said some state officials and Boise media have suggested the school districts dip into their cash reserves to cover the lost revenue this year.
"That's great, if you're a Meridian that has cash reserves. We haven't had any in years. All the fat's gone. All the reserves are gone. We're cutting into bone, now."
That's why McMurtrey and the school board want to hear from the public about areas citizens feel can be cut, or are willing to see eliminated.
"We're going to hold a public meeting soon to get that kind of feedback. And maybe somebody will have an idea we haven't thought of that could save us some money," McMurtrey said. "Everything is on the table right now. It has to be. Even if the cuts are small, they can add up."
One option would be to cut the number of school days. That would result in a functional annual salary decrease for teachers, who largely are paid based on the number of days in class. But McMurtrey doesn't want to do that. "In the world these kids will be entering, really, we need more school days, not less."
In the long run, however, McMurtrey said the board is likely to have to go to the voters for a supplemental emergency levy.
"If we do, it will be only for what we absolutely need. We won't be slipping any 'extra' things into our request. No hidden new high schools or anything. We know times are tough for everybody. The voters in this district have always been good to us. We need to make sure we repay that trust by only asking for the minimum necessary to operate."
Although the district no longer levies a property tax for general fund revenue, it does levy property taxes for bonds and other special levies, such as the critical plant facilities levy, which will come up for renewal by the voters next year. With the majority of the district's buildings at or beyond the half century mark in service, that levy is critical just to maintain the district's infrastructure.
McMurtrey and the school board both worry that asking for a supplemental levy now just for operating expenses could jeopardize future requests such as the facilities levy.
"This is new territory for us. We've never done it before, and we're concerned about it.
"We're in trouble," McMurtrey said. "But bottom line, we'll keep educating kids to the best of our ability. It's what we do."
At the same time, the problem that keeps him up at night, worrying, is the rapidly diminishing capability to do the job of educating students they way he'd like to.
Dates for the public input hearing to solicit ideas on cuts for this year, and possibly beyond, have not been set, nor has any date for a supplemental emergency levy to go before the voters.
McMurtrey is holding out a slim hope that the legislature will modify the governor's holdback, and/or decide to increase funding for education, at least for next year's budget, "but I'm not going to hold my breath and count on it. Right now, we have to plan based on what we know, and it's not good."