Sue Loughlin, The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — An early retirement incentive, a reduction in the number of administrative positions and a four-day summer work week are some of the ways the Vigo County School Corp. is looking to reduce costs as it faces millions in state funding reductions.
The school district will not lay off any employees next year, said Superintendent Dan Tanoos. Elsewhere around the state, it’s estimated that up to 5,000 teachers could lose their jobs by next fall, or about 8 percent of public school teachers statewide, according to the Indiana State Teachers Association.
However, the Vigo County School Corp. must cut costs. State funding to the general fund is being cut by $4.7 million, or about 4.6 percent.
What’s unknown at this time is whether the state will make even more cuts to public education, Tanoos said.
A few months ago, Tanoos asked each school to come up with ways to reduce costs.
The district now has a lengthy list of cost-cutting measures, most of them “for immediate action,” while other measures are included as part of a “future list of possible reductions.” Various groups reviewed and revised the list.
“We felt we had a real strong buy-in from our staffs at our schools” because they helped develop the budget-reduction measures, Tanoos said.
Immediate action items include reductions in paper consumption, supplies/materials, utilities/energy consumption, personnel and other areas.
Tanoos said there will be fewer employees next year, but that will be accomplished through attrition and early retirement, not through layoffs.
Administration will take its share of the budget reductions, he said. “We always kept in mind that before we looked at any other employee group, we had to look at administrators first,” Tanoos said.
Specifically:
The district is looking to eliminate assistant principal positions in middle schools with less than 450 students. Those affected would be reassigned to other administrative positions, potentially principal openings resulting from early retirements. “No one will lose their job,” Tanoos said. The measure would affect three positions and would generate more than $200,000 in savings, he said.
Later this month, Tanoos plans to announce some measures related to the salaries of central office administrators; the measures will generate savings, he said. “I have to lead by example in this process. When I’m asking others to make sacrifices, I think those of us with bigger salaries need to make the first sacrifices,” he said.
High school principals and assistant principals are considering a voluntary reduction in contract days, from 12 months to 11 months. It would mean a cut in pay, but it also would mean more time off, Tanoos said.
In another effort to generate savings, the school district is offering an early retirement incentive to administrators and teachers.
“The whole idea of a buyout is to help the employee out who, by retiring, helps the budget of the school corporation,” Tanoos said.
The savings would be generated by hiring new staff at entry-level salaries, or not replacing the person who retires.
Tanoos said the goal is to have at least 60 teachers take advantage of the early retirement incentive, and not all 60 would be replaced. “You’ll have some classes sizes that may be larger,” he said.
But having fewer employees through attrition “is a whole lot better than having to fire people,” Tanoos said.
Those eligible for the early retirement incentive must be at the top of the pay scale, said John Orr, director of human resources. It’s for those close to retirement, and the incentive would go toward helping them pay their Anthem health insurance premiums until they reach Medicare age.
For those not on the school district’s health insurance, the incentive would be applied to their school-district-funded, tax-sheltered annuity.
Tanoos said there’s “a lot of interest” in the early retirement proposal, and the deadline is April 30.
Those who had already announced retirement effective at the end of this school year will be able to take advantage of the early retirement incentive, Tanoos said.
There are many other budget-reduction measures. The last week of June and all of July, the district will go to a four-day work week involving 10-hour workdays. Buildings, including central administration, will be shut down and thermostats turned up on Fridays, Tanoos said.
He expects the move to generate significant energy savings.
In other measures, Tanoos said there will be fewer student field trips, and the district also is reviewing ways to save money in bus transportation, athletics and other extracurricular activities.
The school district will continue to have art, music and physical education programs, he said. Restructuring the elementary strings program is listed as a possible future measure, but elimination of the program is not part of the list.
“We are looking at every program to try to make them self-sustaining as much as possible,” he said. The school district had been offering driver’s education for a $100 fee, but the program was losing $70,000 per year.
The school district now charges $300 to cover the cost of the program.
No cost-cutting measure is too small, Tanoos said, because the impact district-wide can be significant.
Some of the more than 120 others measures “for immediate action” include double-sided copying; sending Web site newsletters as much as possible to reduce copying/printing costs; reduce the number of copiers in the school district; reduce/eliminate use of colored paper; monitor paper towel usage; and re-use trash can liners when possible, if not contaminated.
Several measures are aimed at reducing energy costs, including reduction in use of personal appliances. Buildings are using less hallway lighting and more natural light, where possible.
“We’ve even gone to the point where we’re taking the light bulbs out of the Pepsi machines,” Tanoos said.
Tanoos hopes the various measures will generate about $2 million in savings.