What Exactly is Being Cut in the Schools

The budget proposal and adoption last night at the Board of Education meeting specified $500,000 in cuts to a variety of programs and school departments. Here is a full breakdown of what was cut.

As previously reported, the $500,000 will be split between $110,000 in administrative cuts, $40,000 in support services, $290,000 in kindergarten and special education aids and $60,000 from eliminating course offerings in American Studies and Japanese. Board of Education finance chair Lou Carlucci explained the specifics of each of the cuts after the budget hearing.

Administration

The district will save in administrative costs by choosing not to replace one administrator leaving on maternity leave. The projected savings from the change are roughly $110,000.

Support Services

The reduction in support services will focus on eliminating or combining clerical roles among current staff, Carlucci said. The district hopes to increase efficiency and save $40,000 through the change.

Kindergarten and Special Education Aids

Educational aides are hardest hit in the proposed new cuts. Superintendent Valerie Goger said that eight kindergarten aides and 12 special education aides would be let go for 2010-11. The projected savings from eliminating the positions is $290,000.

The district did preserve a full-day kindergarten model and a one-to-one instructor-to-child ratio in the autism special education program at the schools. The Board had previously considered making reductions in both programs.

Goger defended the district's comprehensive review of all programs, including kindergarten and special education, at the hearing on Wednesday. "We don't have any sacred programs," she said. "We can no longer afford to have any kind of sacred programs. We have to make sure that the services we are providing are being provided in the most efficient way with the best benefit to our students."

Goger said that in the review of some special education classrooms, there were times when children would be outnumbered two-to-one by teachers and aids. "Sometimes there are five students and ten adults in one classroom," Goger said. The superintendent said the schools will let one of those aids go.

Course Offerings

The $60,000 saved in reduced course offerings will eliminate the equivalent of two teaching positions without actually laying off any teachers, according to Carlucci.

William Annin Middle School will no longer offer sixth grade Japanese, and American Studies courses will no longer be offered at Ridge High School. The district will combine or reduce teacher roles to preserve jobs while still saving the schools money.

What Was Not Cut

The $500,000 in proposed cuts does not affect the nine-period day schedule at Ridge, switch the Kindergarten model or change the payment plan for extracurricular activities – all programs considered for cuts at the March 24 Board of Education budget meeting.

Some residents expressed their concern that the items that were cut were not discussed in the Board's previous budget meetings.

Elaine Kusel of Granville Way, a candidate for the Board of Education, asked, "Why are the programs cuts things that weren't talked about last week ... It's great that the cuts are down," Kusel said," [But] I'd like to know more about the facts."

Board member Michael Byrne said, "[We have] a continuously changing agenda because the information is constantly changing for us." The Board was initially looking at making $1.4 million or more in cuts, but new information from the teacher salary negotiations as well as enrollment and retirement figures allowed the Board to focus on smaller cuts. "As the cuts were reduced we were able to look at areas that wouldn't have helped at all [previously]," Byrne said.