School budget cuts run deep

PALMER -- In total, 88 school district jobs are slated to be cut to help balance the FY05 budget, but even more positions will be affected than that, Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle said Wednesday, because many jobs are being restructured. At five elementary schools a library tutor-advisor will replace the certified librarian or teacher. Seven schools will reduce the number of hours nurses will work, converting positions from full-time to half-time. The duty hours for a half-time nurse will be from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. The district also proposed to replace 12-month custodians with nine-month custodians. All of the above are considered changes in job classifications, so were not included in the final number of jobs to be cut, but people in these positions could still receive pink slips.

Some of the jobs on the chopping block will be completely eliminated, while others will have their operating fund support eliminated, meaning that if there is a grant to fund the job/program, it can continue, but if the grant funding is lost, the district will not be able to pick up the tab.

Co-curricular activities, or extracurricular activities, have rarely sustained any budget cuts during the past decade, though recently students have been asked to pay between $75 to $100 per activity. While these activities are ever popular with students, funding for many of these programs is part of the district's proposed cuts. The district has proposed to eliminate all co-curricular funding for elementary and middle schools, all 'C' team sport funding at the high schools, all funding for co-curricular travel and transportation to and from competitions, including those in-district, and all high school athletic director positions. The district will, however, increase the amount each school can collect per activity to $125 at the high school level, while middle school activity fees may increase from $40 to $70. If each individual school can self-support co-curricular programs through fee increases, booster clubs, vending machine sales and a proposed $50 per semester parking fee, schools can choose to continue co-curricular programs slated to be cut, without funding from the district. This would mean that a middle school could choose to have a basketball team or a high school could still participate in athletic travel, but the students, i.e. the parents, will have to pay for it.

To save an additional $656,000, the district has proposed to follow suit of the combined transportation at Houston and Colony middle and senior high schools and combine student transportation at both Palmer and Wasilla middle and senior high schools. The funding saved, says the district, will be equivalent to 13 teaching positions. The bussing proposal would change school schedules in all the schools in the Colony, Palmer, Wasilla, Big Lake, Meadow Lakes, Houston and Sutton areas: Elementary school (K-5) would go from 9:35 a.m. to 4:20 p.m., middle school (6-8) would go from 7:40 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. and high school would go from 7:20 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.

The fiscal shortfall will result in further reductions to teaching positions at the middle schools, along with other areas in the district. Last year, teaching positions and team planning time were cut at the middle school level, allowing team teachers to teach one extra class period per day, with a total of five. With the proposed increase in diminished staff at the middle school level, these schools can no longer operate as intended. As a result, middle schools will return to the junior high school model. Team teaching will be eliminated, allowing teachers to teach at more than one grade level -- a change that the district says will allow flexibility in class scheduling, keep class size within reasonable limits and provide more variety in class offerings.

School-Within-a-School proposed for elimination

High School 'House' programs and middle school School-Within-a-School programs, set up to provide an effective learning environment for 'at-risk' students, are slated to disappear in FY05. HHS was originally funded through state Learning Opportunity Grants, which no longer exist as a source of revenue. Both HHS and SWS are structured similarly. Instead of attending up to six classes per day with different teachers, students are assigned to a small team of teachers, creating a smaller learning environment within the larger school. While these programs are on the list of elimination recommendations, the district says it will continue its support of alternative high schools, with plans to expand enrollment at Mid-Valley High School by 120 students.These are only some of the cuts proposed by the district in order to balance the FY05 budget. Other purposed budget cuts include the restructuring of Title 1 funding to increase to eligibility from 35 to 50 percent, meaning that 50 percent of a school's students must come from a low-income family and be eligible for the free or reduced lunch services for the school to receive Title 1 funding. There will also be changes to the extended learning program, providing services only to students with an IQ of 145 or higher with an appeal process for those students with IQs ranging from 140 to 144.

"[The cuts] are difficult to get your arms around," said Chmielewski. "They are so enormous in their impact that most people will only understand the effect well after they're done."

The district is holding a "Budget Crisis Summit" for the community from 6-8 p.m. today at Wasilla Middle School. Those interested in finding out more about the proposed cuts, and what they can do to help, are encouraged to attend.