By John Martin, Evansville Courier & Press
EVANSVILLE - Gov. Mitch Daniels said Monday the previously announced funding cut to Indiana's K-12 school districts will begin in January, and it will occur over 12 months.
In total, schools will lose $297 million in 2010. That comes to 3.5 percent of current state funding and 2.7 percent of the funds schools receive from all sources, according to the state.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, in a news release that accompanied Daniels' announcement, said school districts can find 3 percent savings without laying off teachers.
Teacher layoffs, state officials have said, should be considered a last resort.
The Indiana Department of Education, in fact, is providing what it calls a "citizen checklist" of areas where it believes school districts can find savings without laying off teachers.
Those suggested steps include salary and hiring freezes, changing health plans, outsourcing transportation and custodial services, consolidating with other school systems and suspending matches of retirement benefits.
The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. - Indiana's third-largest school district, with 22,498 students - is implementing much of the state's list, Superintendent Vincent Bertram said.
Teachers and administrators in the EVSC are receiving 2 percent salary increases for the current academic year.
Teacher compensation beyond this year is not settled, and administrative pay for 2010-11 has been frozen, Bertram said.
The district considers its vacant employment positions on a case-by-case basis, Bertram said, although the district recently saved $211,000 by merging vacant administrative jobs.
More costs will be cut in a realignment of the EVSC's alternative education program, which starting in 2010-11 will be housed in the current Harwood Middle School building; the district's move to K-8 formats in four buildings; and the pending closures of Howard Roosa Elementary School and Henry Reis Alternative High School, Bertram said.
The school district has a purchasing cooperative with 78 local schools and organizations and has saved funds through on-time delivery rather than warehousing, Bertram said.
He said the district is looking at administrative and School Board compensation packages, and most travel costs are being funded through grants rather than the general fund.
"I completely agree with the checklist," Bertram said. "We said from the beginning we would do everything we could to protect our teachers and our core business of educating children."
While the EVSC is the largest local school district, its enrollment has seen only minuscule growth. The Warrick County School Corp., with 9,522 students, is seeing consistent enrollment growth, and officials said the funding cuts could mean even larger class sizes.
Warrick has added 25 employees, including 12 teachers, in the last four years, while building one school and expanding others.
"We already have some of the larger class sizes in the area," Superintendent Brad Schneider said.
"We added 200 kids this fall. We're going to do everything in our power to maintain our current level of this staff, but (the cuts) are going to make it near impossible to add new staff to accommodate the additional students we're seeing.
"Our parents need to understand these cuts will have impact on the classrooms. We're doing everything we can to keep people working in the schools, but they have to understand the times of us adding four or five teachers a year to help with class sizes, that option is being taken away."
Todd Armstrong, Warrick's assistant superintendent for finance, said the district "takes a lot of pride in not hiring people we don't need."
Warrick school officials bristled at the state's suggestion that transportation, custodial services or other school-related functions be "effectively outsourced."
"We understand we want to keep our teachers, but we want to keep all of our employees," Armstrong said. "Those people are some of the biggest supporters of your schools ... your community people."
Asked about that specific state recommendation as it relates to the EVSC, Bertram said it is possible that some school functions could be handled in cooperation with other organizations, similar to the way EVSC has been handling purchasing.
"We're looking at all areas to determine if it's more cost-effective to look at strategic partnerships or outsource to other vendors ... are there other ways we can share services," Bertram said.
K-12 school funding covers about half of the state's total budget. Daniels, in announcing the cuts, has said education is such a big part of the budget that cuts were unavoidable to ensure Indiana doesn't have a deficit when the two-year budget cycle ends in July 2011.
The Republican governor also has ordered cuts at state agencies and universities.
Schneider said the list of suggestions released Monday seems in conflict with the concept of local control of schools.
"It seems to me they are saying that they know better, that they know how to run our schools," he said.
"My comment is, Warrick County schools are being run exceedingly well with the dollars we are provided."