Superintendent Makes Dire Budget Recommendations

To obtain the $11 million in spending cuts needed to balance next year’s budget, the Manatee County School Board will have to consider unpaid furloughs up to six days for some employees, elimination of school resource officers in elementary schools and outsourcing some school custodial work.

These were some of the recommendations Schools Superintendent Tim McGonegal presented to the school board at its meeting Monday.

McGonegal said these dire economic times were the worst he has seen in the 30 years he has been in education.

“I don’t see us bouncing back (from the revenue shortfall),” he said. “The current situation is our new economic reality.”

Reduced property and sales taxes and cuts in state funding have left the school district with only an estimated $319.6 million in revenue.

Over the past three years the school board has cut $42 million from spending to balance the budget, McGonegal said.

During that same period, 124 staff positions were eliminated, he said.

Also, state funding per student for budget year 2011-12 will be $542 less than the $6,809 the district received this year, of a loss of about $9.3 million in revenues.

McGonegal said even though Manatee County is one of five school districts in Florida with an increase in student populations, the state constitution-mandated reduced classroom size has meant a higher cost for more teachers, staff and classrooms.

“We made great progress in reducing class sizes,” he said, “but there are limits.”

The superintendent said the budget cuts he presented to the school board were based on the recommendations of the Superintendent’s Budget Committee.

The budget committee consisted of residents, school administrators, principals, teachers and students. School board member Julie Aranibar, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, was the chair of the committee.

To reach the $11 million spending cut target, McGonegal presented a list of district reorganization suggestions, including eliminating several positions, reduced program expenditures and contracting out services, such as maintenance crews in some schools.

Also, he offered a furlough schedule, with higher paid employees having to take six days off without pay and teachers having two furlough days.

Teacher aides and assistants, clerks and secretaries and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee Union members, the lowest-paid employees, will not have to take any non-paid days off.

This will save the school district about $1.8 million, McGonegal said.

These furloughs are in addition to a freeze in pay increases and a state Legislature-mandated 3 percent employee contribution into the pension fund.

To save another $240,000, the superintendent recommended eliminating school resource officers from the elementary schools.

Eliminating one specials teacher, who steps in when the regular teacher is out of the classroom, at each elementary school and replacing the specials teacher with a teacher assistant will save about $1.25 million.

The charter school share of reduction in per student funding will reduce the budget by $2.2 million, while there will be a savings of $3 million in the reduced staff salaries and benefits.

Reducing the individual school funding amounts will save about $2 million, according to McGonegal’s  slide presentation.

This plan was based on the budget being trimmed $11 million, but if the school board wants to create a reserve fund of about $6 million for the employee self-insured healthcare program, the cuts will have to be more drastic, McGonegal said.

To achieve the additional $6 million the superintendent suggested doubling the individual school funding cuts to $4 million and also making all employees take unpaid leave, with the higher salaried administrators getting a 10-day furlough, down to the lower pay scale employees having to take two days off without pay, creating a $4.1 million savings in spending.

The school board will vote on McGonegal's budget recommendations — either the plan that cuts $11 million or the one that cuts $17 million — at its June 13 meeting.

Two of the board members voiced their concern about how the budget cuts will affect the teaching staff.

Board Member Barbara Harvey wanted assurance from McGonegal that no employee will lose his or her job.

The superintendent said if the board only reduces spending by $11 million, “there will be no reduction in force.”

“If you go with the $17 million (in cuts budget) there will be layoffs,” he said.

Board Member Harry Kinnan said any cuts to the teaching staff would be a “non-starter” for him.

“They already are getting a 3 percent cut in pay (with the state mandate to contribute to the pension fund), Kinnan said. “We don’t want to lose teachers.”

McGonegal said he was not in the business of cutting teachers’ pay and it was going against his core value. If he had any other options he would use them, he said.

For Board Chairman Bob Gause, it was a matter of shared sacrifice.

“School cuts are generally unacceptable,” Gause said. “The only reason we exist is for the schools.”

But he said all school employees contribute to the education of the students, and the non-teaching staff should not carry the whole burden of balancing the budget.

Board Member Karen Carpenter did not make any comments about the superintendent’s presentation at the meeting.