District plans staffing cuts

SANDPOINT — Cutting seven teaching positions and nine classified staff will help the Lake Pend Oreille School District meet the $1.1 million shortfall for the next school year.

Trustees settled on a budget plan that includes staff cuts without closing a rural elementary school, something the district had considered would save an additional $150,000.

Christa Finney, PTO president at Northside Elementary School, is glad that her elementary school was spared, but she, as others, are not comfortable with the classroom cuts.

“It’s good news that Northside is staying open,” said Finney, the mother of two Northside students. “But, it’s not good news that there will be staffing cuts. In the end that hurts the children, and hurts their education.”

In a letter to administrators and patrons, LPOSD Superintendent Dick Cvitanich said the reduction of $1.1 million from the state was difficult to swallow. He commended the budget committee members who earmarked cuts, and trustees who voted on them, for keeping the reductions “as far away from the classroom as possible.”

The committee, comprised of staff and administrators, worked several months before bringing recommendations to the superintendent, who passed them on to trustees.

“We listened to their rationale and reasoning,” said trustee Joan Fish, who represents Zone 3 north of Sandpoint and west of Highway 95. “We’re free to follow them, or not to follow them. Generally they have good reasons for what they do.”

At a meeting last week, trustees finalized their plan that includes eliminating a teacher and vice principal at Sandpoint Middle School, eliminating four teachers including a certified librarian at Sandpoint High and one instructor at Clark Fork. Trustees also chose to eliminate all aides and paraprofessionals hired last year with contingency dollars, or approximately nine classified staff districtwide.

Part of the cuts are based on average daily attendance of students, which the state uses as a basis for funding. The LPOSD has seen a drop in ADA over the past two years, and projects a 9-percent decrease, or a reduction of about 350 students over a four-year period that includes next fiscal year, according to the district.

The district will not be certain of actual enrollment numbers until September, and some instructors could be called back, Fish said.

“It’s scary to wait so long to find things out,” she said.

In the meantime, officials will reluctantly make decisions on where the staff cuts will be made and inform personnel.

“The sooner they know, the more opportunity they have trying to seek other positions,” she said.

Trustee Steve Youngdahl, who represents downtown Sandpoint, said the impact of cuts on student education is the district’s bottom line.

“When the debate is on the last bit of money,” Youngdahl said, “the discussion ends up on whether or not this will affect student achievement. That’s where we draw the line.”

Next year’s budget includes eliminating busing to kindergarten in the afternoon. The district will continue busing the children home, Youngdahl said.

“The legislation cut out funding for that, but we bridged the gap,” by providing partial busing, he said.

A 5-percent cut in extracurricular supply and travel budgets, which amounts to $75,000, was also approved, and trustees gave the green light to a $44,000 cut that will eliminate state funded Gifted and Talented, as well as an English language proficiency program geared toward students whose native language isn’t English. Money earmarked for textbooks and classroom supplies was also reduced per the Legislature’s recommendation.

The input of local legislators, who kept administrators and trustees apprised of legislative developments in the tightest budget year on record was invaluable, Youngdahl said.

For the first time in Idaho history lawmakers approved a budget plan that sliced total spending on public education.

The 2010 Legislature ended last week in the thick of economic din leaving Idaho school districts with $128 million fewer dollars to operate next fall.

“You have to make do with what you get, and our legislators worked extremely hard trying to hold education as harmless as they could,” Youngdahl said. “We were in constant communication with them.”

The recently unveiled budget plan was the culmination of several community meetings, and the input of patrons, Cvitanich said.

“What has emerged is a solid plan that maintains staffing at the elementary, reduces staffing at the secondary where enrollment has declined, and recognizes the financial challenges of the future,” he said.