School Board Approves $50 Million in Cuts, Spares 37 Library Jobs

members were charged with a difficult and painstaking task last night as they sought to approve a budget reduction recommendation that would cut $55 million from the district’s 2011-2012 budget. 

Items on the chopping block included the elimination of some 400 positions and furlough for 17,000 employees.  A sea of speakers wearing red crowded the meeting room and awaited for their chance to plead with board members to spare what they deemed essential functions of public education.

By the end of listening to over 50 speakers who, in lieu of clapping, waved their hands in a jazz like fashion as each told board members why their voices should be heard, board members shed a little bit of hope on a troubled pack of educators by removing three groups from the list of imminent cuts.

In a 6-1 vote, with only Robin Wikle dissenting, the board voted to allow 37 library information specialists to keep their jobs, with the stipulation that their job description be re-written to include technology services to students and teachers, a function most of the librarians said they already fulfill.

“Two for one specials.  That is how I would like to present the library information specialists to [the board].  Not only am I responsible for all of the library duties, but also all of the technology duties as well,” said Suzanne Shirk who is the library information specialist at 74^th Street Elementary in St. Petersburg.

The board also saved 44 STARS assistants from the budget reduction by a vote of 5-2.  This time Wikle was joined by Carol Cook in voting against retaining the positions.  STARS an acronym for Students Targeted for Achievement, Recognition and Success, educates students who have had significant academic difficulties.

“If it wasn’t for the STARS [teachers] I wouldn’t have passed,” said sophomore and straight A student Viktourea Hamill.  She urged board members to consider the change that the STARS program makes for struggling students.

In the final save of the evening, board members voted 5-2 to retain 20 middle school guidance counselors from the district.  Again, Wikle and Cook were the dissenting voters.  This vote came after several tearful guidance counselors spoke at the podium.

The removal of these items from the proposed budget cuts resulted in a $4.7 million shortfall in the budget, an amount the board reluctantly voted to make up for with additional furlough.

“I’m not comfortable with adding furlough,” said board member Janet Clark, “I’d want to give [the budget] back to Superintendant Janssen and say ‘find something else’”.

Despite hesitation, the board voted unanimously to add more furlough if further cuts could not be found elsewhere.

Transportation changes and new start times were also discussed in yesterday’s meeting that carried on into early this morning.  The board passed an item that would change the start time for St. Petersburg’s Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School from the current 7:20 to 9:30 for next year.  The change will reduce the amount of additional routes needed to accommodate transportation to that campus.