Annie Goeller, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
Greenwood has six fewer teachers this school year than last school year.
Center Grove didn't fill teacher and staff vacancies for a savings of $765,000.
And Clark-Pleasant administrators didn't get a raise this school year.
School districts already had made spending cuts before the news that Gov. Mitch Daniels planned to slash $300 million from education funding. Now local schools - the biggest employers in Johnson County - expect to lose as much as $8 million combined over the next two years. School officials are in the early stages of making plans to cut from their budgets. Again.
More than 90 percent of the money schools get from the state is for teacher and staff salaries, and the rest is for daily expenses such as utility bills.
"When we're talking about the general fund, we're talking about people," said Paul Gabriel, Center Grove chief financial officer.
School officials say nothing is off the table when it comes to possible cuts, but schools are constricted when it comes to staff layoffs. School districts can't lay off teachers until after June because of their contracts, and administrators let go next year would need to be notified by January.
Support staff positions, such as secretaries and custodians, can be cut at any time during the year because they do not work on contract.
Local school officials consider laying off teachers a last resort, but staffing cuts of some sort are possible.
Salary freezes are a possibility, too.
Teachers in all but one of the county's six school districts still are negotiating their contracts for this school year. Clark-Pleasant teachers received a 0.5 percent raise this school year, and the superintendent said he likely won't ask to take that raise away.
In addition to cuts, Center Grove school officials are considering a special election to ask voters for permission to collect additional property tax dollars to retain teachers and prevent layoffs.
Franklin school officials said they may have to consider a special election for a property tax hike, too. Previously they said a special election, or referendum, was unlikely because of the taxes residents already pay. But now school officials think a special election may need to happen to make up for the cuts.
Schools would have more flexibility if lawmakers allowed them to shift money from property tax-supported funds that are used to pay for building projects and maintenance, for example, to pay for teacher and staff salaries, Gabriel said.
"There's not a business manager in the state who wouldn't tell you that would be a good thing," he said.
Currently, schools use property tax dollars to pay for capital projects, technology and transportation, and that money can't be shifted to the general fund to pay for salaries. Districts expect further losses from property tax caps, which limit tax bills to a percentage of a property's value. Those caps started this year and will lower to 1, 2 and 3 percent next year, meaning more losses in tax revenue.
Center Grove
Center Grove expects a $1.2 million cut from about $43 million in state revenue expected next year, in addition to a $1.8 million shortfall in 2011, Gabriel said. This means the district will have to cut $3 million next year.
Every option is on the table as a possible way to cut the money, Gabriel said.
"I think it's too early for us to say how we're going to do this," he said. "We have to go back and look at everything."
The school district plans to ask voters for permission to raise property taxes to retain its 430 teachers, but the district still will need to make cuts next year, as well as have a backup plan in place in case voters say no to a tax increase, school board member Mark Dietel said. School officials need to figure out how much they will ask for.
Center Grove already has cut $125,000 from teaching positions, $345,000 from non-teaching positions, $295,000 from support staff and $55,000 from miscellaneous costs. These cuts to the 2010 budget were made by not filling positions left vacant because of retirements and resignations.
Even with the cuts, officials were expecting a $400,000 deficit in 2010, and they were going to use their cash balance to cover that amount. Now the total deficit is estimated at $1.6 million.
Center Grove could dip further into its cash reserves to cover at least part of the deficit. School officials expect to have $1.97 in reserves at the end of the year, before any losses are absorbed, Gabriel said.
He expects the district will decide to use a combination of budget cuts and money from cash reserves to cover the drop in state funding, he said.
A salary freeze for non-teaching staff members is an option. But a salary freeze for teachers would need to be negotiated with the teachers union if the school decided to pursue that as a cost-savings option, Gabriel said.
Earlier this week, the school board delayed making a decision about a contract agreement reached by the teachers association and administration because of the governor's announcement about pending cuts to education funding.
The board now plans to discuss the contract in the context of the pending budget cuts before making a decision about whether teachers should get a salary increase.
School officials also are considering whether administrators should continue to pay only $1 a year for health insurance.
Center Grove already made one health insurance change that went into effect in July. New administrators hired by the district pay $1,200 per year for health insurance.
Clark-Pleasant
Clark-Pleasant expects to lose between $1 million and $1.9 million in state funding because of the cuts Daniels has ordered, Superintendent Kevin Caress said.
The district is in a unique position in Johnson County because it is the only local school district where teachers already have negotiated a new contract for this school year. The contract calls for a 0.5 percent raise for teachers. He likely will not ask the district's 277 teachers to forgo their raises, he said.
The administration intends to start planning cuts from the $35.4 million general fund proposed for 2010 by looking at reductions that do not affect the classroom, including benefits and support staff, he said.
Currently, administrators at Clark-Pleasant pay only $1 a year for health insurance, but the district could have administrators pay higher health insurance deductibles.
The school district already had made cuts earlier in the year. Administrators will not get a salary increase this school year, and seven teacher aide positions were left vacant.
Edinburgh
Expecting a shortfall of $100,000 or less this year, Edinburgh schools eliminated a bus route and laid off a maintenance and custodial position.
Those decisions will require the school district to pay $25,000 to $50,000 in unemployment insurance, Superintendent Richard Arkanoff said.
"It's a domino effect when we start doing some of these things. When you eliminate one thing, it affects the others," he said.
After the state's recent cuts, the school district is facing a shortfall of $204,000 to $288,000, cut from an expected budget of $6.8 million.
Arkanoff isn't sure how the school district will make up for those losses.
"This is a lot deeper than what we had looked at," he said.
With a staff of 178 people, layoffs are a possibility, and if a teacher retires in December the position likely would not be filled.
But they are struggling to find other reductions, especially after cutting all equipment spending for all three school buildings and reducing supply costs by up to half, which was part of the overall cuts earlier this year.
Eliminating the school corporation's cell phone plan, a suggestion by the state, may not make sense, he said.
Under the current plan, the district gets 60 percent of what they pay in the plan back to buy computers for students. Without the plan, they won't get that money anymore, he said.
Officials already are starting to look at immediate cuts and likely will continue looking for the next few months. But the cuts are a large chunk of their budget, and they will have an effect, he said.
"When we talk about this kind of money, it's not just going to affect one area, it's going to affect all of them," Arkanoff said.
Franklin
The lights are being turned off earlier at Franklin school buildings, administrators hope at least 10 teachers will agree to an early retirement offer and other staffing cuts are possible.
School officials were expecting a budget shortfall of about $1.4 million this year and formed a committee to look at ways to save money.
But with the state's announcement that schools will take a bigger hit in their budgets starting next year, they are looking at cutting more than $2.3 million from their total budget of $31.4 million, school district director of operations Jeff Mercer said.
So far, the committee looking for reductions has focused on increasing efficiency and cutting costs through supplies. But, with the recent announcement, Franklin schools will have to look at cuts to its staff, he said.
The district has 655 employees, including 316 teachers and 339 other employees. Staffing makes up most of the budget.
School officials have been resistant to the idea of going to taxpayers to ask to increase their property taxes, citing tax increases associated with building new schools. But that may be unavoidable at some point, too, Mercer said.
"We are trying to live within our means. I'm just not sure that a (nearly) $2.5 million cut is in our means," he said.
Officials aren't sure how they will make the cuts.
"It's going to be drastic. I'm concerned," Superintendent David Clendening said.
Before this school year, when school officials knew they'd face shortfalls, they didn't fill at least four non-teaching positions that came open; offered early retirement to teachers, which they hope at least 10 teachers will take; and made changes to reduce utility costs, such as turning off outside lights after 9 p.m.
Already, the school district saved about $20,000 last month on utilities, which they hope will continue. They cut $1,000 a month of a cell phone plan. And a change to administrators' benefits plans is expected to save about $70,000 a year, Clendening and Mercer said.
"It's not any one huge thing, but it's a smattering of little things. I think there's some misconception that there are large and obvious places to get large chunks of money, and there's not," Mercer said.
What will happen next isn't known, officials said.
The committee is turning its plan over to Clendening, who will review, make changes and then present a list of cuts to the school board in January.
Clendening and Mercer did not want to give specific examples of cuts that are being considered since they could change before they are presented to the school board.
But the state board of education's suggestions, such as eliminating or charging a fee for extracurricular activities, stopping overtime, furloughs for non-teacher employees and changing benefit packages already have been considered, officials said.
"There's nothing here that isn't being looked at," Mercer said.
Greenwood
This school year, teachers and principals switched schedules around and adjusted classes to make up for the loss of six teachers who left Greenwood schools and weren't replaced.
Not replacing those teachers saved the school district about $600,000, a cut officials decided was needed based on projections of how much they were expecting to go over budget this year.
With additional cuts the state has made, the district needs to cut another $700,000, Superintendent David Edds said.
And he doesn't know how the schools could manage losing another six teachers, he said.
"I just don't know how we could do that many again," Edds said.
Officials plan to look at other ways to save money that wouldn't require cutting staff. But when a cut is that significant, the school district has to look at laying off or not replacing workers, Edds said.
"No matter how you slice that pie, it comes down to people," he said.
Greenwood schools employs nearly 500 people, including 233 teachers and 265 other employees.
The district also will look at the number of administrators, which already is lower than other school districts, he said.
But that may not offer significant help starting next year, when the state will start giving them less money.
The school district's current staff already is on a contract for this school year, meaning they are required to continue paying them through then.
So cutting employees likely wouldn't help until the middle of next year, Edds said.
He said he isn't sure yet how the school district will make the cuts.
They have in the past, but that may not always be possible, especially if parents complain about changes in their children's education, he said.
"One of our problems is we always find a way to deal with it. At some point in time, we're not going to be able to do it anymore," Edds said.
Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson
A 3 percent cut to Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson's $11.1 million budget would mean the district would have to trim about $300,000, Superintendent Mark Millis said.
The district already has been on a hiring freeze and salary increase freeze for the past year. And school officials aren't sure where else they could cut if they had to slash $300,000, Millis said.
First he wants to know exactly how much the school district will lose, he said.
He is anticipating teacher retirements but doubts enough will leave the district to make a $300,000 cut by not filling vacancies, he said.
Everything would be an option for further cuts, he said.
Teachers and administrators have delayed contract negotiations until mid-January because of the governor's announcement, said Lloyd Greenwell, president of the teachers association. They want to wait because the 2009 financial books will be closed by then, providing a better picture of the state of the school district's finances, he said.