UPDATE: Hudson School Board Approves Small Cuts to Band, Chinese, Business Programs

Update (9:30 p.m., April 27, 2011): At a special meeting held at a conference room at the Hudson School District building on Tuesday, April 27, the Board of Education approved an additional round of personnel cost reductions beyond the preliminary list approved at last week's special meeting.

The additional cuts make up just 0.63 full-time equivalent certified positions—0.27 from the band program, 0.19 from the Chinese program and 0.17 from the business program.

These additional cuts make up $34,041 in cost savings for the district.

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Update (2:45 p.m., April 20, 2011): According to Hudson School District Human Resources Director Nancy Sweet, 36 Hudson School District employees will face layoffs or reduced hours. Four of the individuals impacted are certified employees (teachers and counselors) and 32 are non-certified positions.

Of the 36 affected, 14 face layoffs (four certified and 10 non-certified) and 22 others face a partial reduction in hours ranging from six minutes per day to five hours per day. Six positions worth of cuts will be aborbed through attrition.

Sweet released the following information to the media this morning about district personnel who will soon receive a preliminary notice of reduction or layoff:

• Eight certified positions (seven teachers and one counselor) with an equivalent of 6.10 FTE  are on the preliminary list, however, only four individuals are impacted because of attrition (i.e. retirements, resignations, etc.).
• 34 non-certified positions (media assistants, special education assistants, English as a second language assistants, transportation specialist, custodians, campus monitor, in-school suspension assistant, math assistants and reading assistants) with an equivalent of 106.05 hours per day are also on the preliminary list. Thirty-two individuals are impacted (two additional are covered by attrition).  Of the 32 individuals, 10 have a complete elimination of their employment and 22 a partial reduction in hours (ranging from six minutes per day to five hours per day).

All of the employees affected by the cuts have been notified verbally. Decisions won't be final until the district makes its ultimate decisions in June.

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At its special meeting held at  on Tuesday, April 19, the  Board of Education went into closed three times and approved more than $500,000 of personnel cuts, which is just part of the total $2.163 million in overall reductions in the next biennium's budget.

After calling the meeting to order, the agenda was approved and the board voted to move immediately into closed session. The board spent 45 minutes in closed session to consider preliminary lay-off notices of specific employees, and to discuss negotiations strategy regarding all West Central Education Association union groups.

Upon returning to open session, the board moved on to its topics for action. The first item discussed was the reallocations and reductions for the district's 2011-2012 budget.

Prior to the discussion, Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten said, "We have an estimated $2.6 million reduction in the biennual budget. That's a significant reduction in state aid. It's difficult for the district to address this without going into personnel, and we do that very reluctantly."

Financial Services Director Tim Erickson gave , including $502,000 in total personnel reduction and $2.163 million in cuts overall.

Bowen-Eggebraaten reminded the board that the budget reductions were formulated with the passage of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill in mind. 

“The administration's recommendation on the budget are based on the budget repair bill becoming law. That's significant as we look at these numbers," Bowen-Eggebraaten. She reminded the board that the bill is still tied up in the court system, and its fate remains unknown. 

The board approved the proposed recommendations and moved on to the second action item, a budget repair bill contingency plan.

Erickson said, “We've built this financial forecast and the reductions based on the budget repair bill because that is held up in the courts currently. Due to the uncertainty as to when that is actually going to take place as law, we thought it would be prudent to take a look at having a contingency plan in place if that doesn't become law soon."

Board member Mark Kaiseratt spoke in favor of the contingency plan. 

“Due to the uncertainty of enactment of the State's Budget Repair Bill, I move the Board appeal to the West Central Education Association to extend the required preliminary layoff notice beyond May 1 and direct the administration to seek a memorandum of agreement to that effect to potentially avoid additional layoff of valued staff members. If a memorandum of agreement is not reached, the board directs the Finance Committee and/or Personnel Committee to recommend additional layoffs as a cost saving contingency,” Kaiseratt said.

The motion passed, and the board moved again into closed session for nearly another hour. Upon returning to open session, Bowen-Eggebraaten gave a report highlighting some of the district's accomplishments and progress on HSD 2025, the district's strategic plan, during the past year.

"We've had unprecedented budget challenges. To some extent, that has taken our resources and pulled them away from our primary work to a level I don't want to repeat. We're now focused back on our schools and our classrooms," Bowen-Eggebraaten said. "We have a vision and a direction. As you can tell from the decisions we've made about reallocation and reductions, we've looked at this and considered it all the way through."

Bowen-Eggebraaten gave other updates, including the implementation plan for HSD 2025, the increased collaboration of district teachers, the creation of learning communities and the district's long-term need for space.

"We plan to be accountable for the investment that's made in us, and to monitor and adjust. Accountability is our responsibility," Bowen-Eggebraaten said.

The meeting ended with a third closed session, for the board to consider performance evaluation data of the superintendent and did not return to open session.