Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Friday, April 04, 2003
District could lose 15 teaching positions
At least 15 teaching positions and five support staff jobs will be eliminated by the La Crosse School District under a "best-case scenario" budget it is putting together for the 2003-04 school year.
Doug Happel, associate superintendent of human resources, said the district's budget is based on Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed state budget, although those numbers will likely change depending on what the Legislature approves.
Happel said the district is assuming it will receive $1.5 million to $2 million less than originally expected under the state's two-thirds funding commitment. Doyle has proposed eliminating the two-thirds commitment and reducing state aid by $400 million over two years.
Happel said he's been directed to cut about $1 million from the district's personnel budget, which is 84 percent of the district's entire budget. The remainder of the funds will come from non-personnel areas or the district's fund balance, he said.
Woody Wiedenhoeft, associate superintendent of business services, advised the board in December it likely will have to spend part of the district's $4 million "rainy day" fund to prevent large-scale layoffs for the 2003-04 school year. The district's 2002-03 budget is $86.8 million, and 84 percent of that (about $65 million) is spent on compensation.
Happel said the district will use attrition when possible to make the cuts, although sometimes teachers can't transfer into other positions if they don't have the same certification. The district has until May 31 to notify teachers they are being laid off, he said.
"Some reductions probably would've happened because of declining enrollment, but certainly not all of them," he said. "We've got some good people. I don't want to lay them off if I can help it."
Happel said the district has limited areas to target for cuts because it has been dealing with tight budgets ever since revenue caps were put in place in the 1992-93 school year. This year's revenue cap increase was 1.5 percent despite salary and benefit increases of about 4 percent. Increases of 3.8 percent are mandated under the qualified economic offer, but that does not include pay increases for continuing education.
Happel said several administrative positions at the Hogan Administrative Center have been eliminated during the past 10 years to save money, and those duties have been assigned to building principals. Summit Principal Dirk Hunter is in charge of the English for Speakers of Other Languages program, and Hamilton Principal Jim Bagniewski also is district math supervisor.
"We don't have a lot of places to cut anymore except the classroom," Happel said. "Most of our money is where it is supposed to be - it's in the classroom."
If legislators eliminate the governor's proposed 1.5 percent revenue cap increase, it would result in another "couple of million" the district will have to cut, Happel said.
School board president Mike McArdle traveled to River Falls on Thursday to testify in front of the Joint Finance Committee about the impact the proposed state budget would have on K-12 education in La Crosse. In his speech, McArdle told legislators that revenue caps "are the issue," not funding formulas or even the amount the state pays to schools.
"Since we have spent 10 years cutting every non-classroom resource ... my fellow board members and I could find, we are now down to cutting 15 teaching positions in the school district of La Crosse next year to make up the difference," he said. "We really have nowhere else to go but the classroom."
McArdle also told elected officials that the power to tax should remain with school boards because the decision to assess property taxes is a local issue. He said if school boards can't properly explain a levy, "you know how the taxpayer will solve the problem."
"You folks have enough problems without getting between the property taxpayer and us - the locally elected school boards," he said.
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