Balancing budget could mean staff cuts, increased class sizes

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PROPOSED 2020-2021 BUDGET

• Wayne County Public Schools are facing a $5 million deficit.

• Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore did not address the resignation of finance officer Michael Hayes directly — although he did make a couple vague comments about being “kept in the dark” regarding certain aspects of the budget shortfall.

• No board members discussed Hayes’ departure publicly.

• There was no discussion of cuts at the Central Office. That budget for FY2020 was $2,213,080 — state funds: $1,046,689 and local funds: $1,166,391.

• School officials are recommending increasing class sizes in grades 4-12. Average class size would move from 26 to 30 in grades 4-8. The average class size would be 25 in grades 9-12. There would be no leeway for schools with at-risk student populations.

• Increasing class sizes would eliminate 9 positions at the elementary level; 27 positions in grades 4-8; and 10 positions in grades 9-12. School officials have said they intend to eliminate the positions through resignations and retirements.

• The school district is anticipating no fall sports because of COVID-19, so the budget eliminates stipends for all fall sports coaches.

• The district is projecting a loss of nearly $1.3 million in local and state funding to local charter schools — Wayne Preparatory Academy and Dillard Academy are the most significant.

• The school district is asking the county commissioners for $5 million additional in local funding — $1.5 million to boost salaries for classified personnel to make them more in line with those at other local employers; $2 million to offset the Exceptional Children funding difference; and $3 million for capital projects (like roofs and other major maintenance projects at the district’s buildings). Last year, the county’s local funding for schools was $21,325, 991, with a capital outlay of $2 million.

• The state provides funding at a rate of 12.75 percent of school population for Exceptional Children programs and services. Anything over that amount has to be covered by local funding. Wayne County’s percentage is about 15.13 percent. The shortfall is about $750,000.

• The district is looking to reduce the assistant principals’ months of employment to 50 months, at a projected savings of $750,000. According to the state, WCPS should have 18-19 assistant principals. “We’re very, very overstaffed for what the funding allotment is,” Dunsmore said.

• School officials say that drops in enrollment as well as state and federal funding cuts are factoring into the budget shortfall.

• The district is looking at enhancement classes — like theater, music, dance, fundamentals, world languages — to see if the enrollment supports offering the classes and if the available funding will allow the district to cover the 70 positions that are not covered by the state.

MORE DETAILS FROM THE MEETING

Wayne County Public Schools has a few options to cover a proposed $5 million shortfall, Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore told the school board Friday.

Cuts in state and federal funding, an underfunded Exceptional Children program, funds lost to local charter schools, lower student enrollments, increasing costs in benefits, retirement and some potentially serious capital outlays in 2020-21 mean that the district is going to have to look at everything from class sizes and personnel to what courses are going to be offered for students in the coming year.

“We have some really tough decisions moving forward,” Dunsmore said.

The district is asking the county to increase the funds it provides schools by an estimated $5 million to cover increasing expenses in some areas and increasingly critical capital needs.

“We will be operating on the edge financially — no room for any emergencies, extra people or added expense,” Dunsmore said.

The superintendent did not address the recent resignation of county finance officer Michael Hayes, although he did refer to being “left in the dark” about some aspects of the budget and the district’s financial picture.

No board members discussed the circumstances of Hayes’ departure or questioned Dunsmore about them in open session.

The board did, however, meet in closed session to discuss “personnel” immediately after the conclusion of public board discussion. This was in addition to a four-hour closed session at the board’s May 27 meeting.

PROPOSED CUTS

Included on the list of “budget reconciliation” options — potential cuts to get the district budget balanced — are anywhere from 30 to 40 teaching positions at a savings of $1.6 million to $2 million, cutting the length of assistant principal contracts by 50 months for a savings of $750,000 and cutting media assistants and assigning them to open instructional assistant positions at a savings of $418,000.

Dunsmore and Dr. David Lewis, assistant superintendent for accountability/information technology, have said in previous budget meetings that the district hopes to accomplish the cuts through increases in class sizes in grades 4-12 and through attrition from resignations and retirements.

CLASS SIZES

The district is required to have certain size classes for K-3, and those numbers have been very consistently state-funded, Lewis said.

However, for the other grades, the state allotment for teachers has not kept up with the district’s needs — meaning that maintaining low class sizes is no longer sustainable.

“We are not going to be able to do that again,” Lewis said.

He said the district has proposed increasing target class sizes from 26 to 30 in grades 4-8.

In grades 9-12, where there has not been a targeted class size, the number would be set at 25 — for all schools, even low-performing schools where class sizes had been lower to allow for extra help for struggling students.

Lewis added that the average class sizes in core subjects like language arts and math vary greatly from school to school.

With the larger class sizes, the district will be able to eliminate nine positions in elementary schools, 27 positions in grades 4-8 and 10 positions in grades 9-12 — and that would include special classes, called enhancements, which account for an additional 70 teachers over the state-funded allotment, Lewis said.

ENHANCEMENT CLASSES

Keeping those enhancement classes — which also allow scheduling flexibility and help cover state-mandated teacher planning periods — is important, the assistant superintendent said.

“If you reduce that number by 100-plus (teachers), those (core subject) teachers are going to be overworked,” he said.

Basically, Dunsmore said, the state provides funds for the essentials — teachers for core subject areas.

“Anything above that is considered a luxury,” he said.

As the county continues to look at its budget for the year, the district is going to have to look carefully at its current offerings and staff needs and what the budget will allow, Lewis said.

That could mean cutting back on some extra classes like fundamentals courses as well as electives like arts, certain physical education courses, world languages and music.

“We cannot keep offering everything we are offering,” he said.

In the past, money from low-wealth funding and other programs could help offset some of those costs. But with projected state and federal cuts, those dollars are in increasingly short supply.

School officials also mentioned that Johnston County Schools, which recently faced bankruptcy, cut its staff back to the state-funded allotment, as did Sampson County.

That is a dire reaction to a budget crisis, Dunsmore said, and one Wayne County hopes to avoid by looking carefully at personnel and course offerings.

The same is true with regard to the number of assistant principals, whom Lewis said are essential personnel.

“We need to find a balance between what we need and what we can afford,” he said.

OTHER POTENTIAL SAVINGS

The district’s budget cuts proposal also includes eliminating some athletic and certified extra duty at a savings of $239,000 and what the district predicts will be a $275,000 savings in fall coaching supplements due to cancelations caused by COVID-19.

Dunsmore also said the district is seeking a reduction in custodian expenses of $350,000, which he says will be accomplished primarily by cutting a contract with High Standard Cleaning.

The district is also recommending cutting $500,000 in career and technical education positions.

THE EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN FUNDING SHORTFALL

Dunsmore said the district is also pointing to a $750,000 difference in the funding provided by the state for Exceptional Children’s services and the amount the district needs to maintain its programming, which includes everything from special services like psychological, physical, occupational and speech therapy, as well as one-to-one nursing and instructional support.

And those services are state-mandated, he said.

“I must stress that this is a serious issue,” Dunsmore said. “We have no other revenue stream to legally meet the needs of our Exceptional Children. As federal and state budgets are cut, it becomes the responsibility of the local governments to provide the additional funding needed for WCPS to meet the state and federal mandate for EC students.”

The state funds schools for 12.75 percent of the school population. The district’s percentage is closer to 15.2 percent.

That discrepancy is made up with local funds, Dunsmore said.

“From Day 1 (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) has been an unfunded mandate,” Dunsmore said. “The majority of these services we have to contract out. What the IEP (Individualized Education Program) says, you have to pay for or they are going to sue us.”

To this point, the county-provided funding has had a line item for Edgewood Developmental School, which is what started arguments earlier this year when questions were raised about continuing to maintain services at the building or moving the students to a new location at Meadow Lane Elementary.

Dunsmore said he has asked the county to change the Edgewood line item to a general Exceptional Children category, which would better reflect the need for the extra money to cover the needs of the schools’ special needs student population, which, he said, can be very pricey.

The school district is asking for an additional $2 million to cover those extra costs.

Dunsmore also added that state legislators should be encouraged to fix the discrepancy in state funding so that the Exceptional Children category is fully funded based on a district’s actual costs.

CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEE DISCREPANCIES

The school district is asking the county for a $1.5 million in local current expense to be used to supplement classified personnel salaries.

Dunsmore said the county schools employ 652 classified staff members, including maintenance personnel — all salaries that are funded through local dollars.

He told the board that the costs of health care and retirement have risen so significantly that the district can no longer meet the budget needs — or compete with city, county and Cherry Hospital salaries.

That means at a time when conditions in buildings are a serious consideration, Dunsmore said keeping qualified employees in the job is critical.

“When you are looking at the number of buildings we have and you don’t have the money to upgrade them and the staff who are keeping them running are leaving, that’s a concern,” Dunsmore said.

CAPITAL OUTLAYS

In addition to concerns about retaining employees, the district also is worried about some serious repair needs in the county — including the roof at Rosewood High School — which officials had hoped to take care of through revenues gained from the increase in the county sales tax.

Dunsmore said the district has asked the county for an additional $3 million to address issues on the building “needs” list.

“If one of those roofs goes, I don’t know where we are going to put those students,” the superintendent said.

The county also provides funding for technology, WISH, WeeWings and supplements.

Dunsmore warned that while the technology funds the county has provided have helped get the district ready for online learning, there is still “a ways to go” to keep that technology current.

He added that the district is anticipating some help from the state and federal governments for distance learning options in the wake of COVID-19.

PAST COUNTY SPENDING

This year’s county spending totaled $21,325,991 — an increase of nearly $1.5 million. There is also an additional $2 million in the capital outlay category — the number the school district wants to increase to $5 million for 2020-21.

The question moving forward is what the state is offering and what districts can fund locally and how that will affect personnel and course offerings.

“The question is are we going to prioritize public education and the needs of our students,” Dunsmore said. “The new normal scares the bejeezus out of me.”