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Although they are facing a “serious budget situation,” in the word’s of school district Chief Financial Officer George Sirogiannis, a majority of school board members indicated Wednesday that they would fight to maintain student-teacher ratios at current levels next year. 

At a special budget workshop Wednesday the board considered two scenarios for reducing or eliminating its $5.2 million dollar budget shortfall by June, when it must present a balanced budget to the county.  

The scenario that completely eliminates the shortfall, and even creates a $1.2 million “cushion” of surplus funds, would reduce funding for teachers’ salaries by nearly $1 million.  

If implemented, the scenario would reduce the number of teachers in the district by a minimum of 13 teachers next year, bumping up class size in grades six through 12 by one to two students, on average. Currently, sixth grade student-teacher ratios are 26-to-1. In grades seven and above, the ratio is 28-to-1. 

The reduction in teaching staff would happen as a result of  

attrition rather than layoffs, said Board of Education President Terry Doran. 

In public comments Wednesday, residents opposed any reduction in teaching staff. 

“Cuts in classroom teachers will impact the quality of our children’s education and the long-term viability of our schools,” said Carol Wilkins, a member of a district planning committee. 

A majority of board members sided with Wilkins, saying it appeared feasible to eliminate the budget shortfall without reducing the number of teachers in the district. 

“We should cut (teachers) as a last resort,” said Director Joaquin Rivera. “I don’t want to take the easy way out and say, you know, if we cut that our problems are solved.” 

Rivera questioned the need for the $1.2 million cushion in the budget scenario presented Wednesday and said that it appeared as if the board could comfortably pay the $880,000 needed to maintain current teacher staffing levels out of this amount. 

School board Interim Superintendent Stephen Goldstone recommended Wednesday that the board keep at least a $1 million cushion to protect the district from any unanticipated expenses in the year to come. 

If the $880,000 needed to maintain the current number of teachers has to come from cuts in other district departments and services, then keeping the current staffing levels may not be justified, according to board Vice President Shirley Issel. 

Both Issel and Doran said Wednesday that the board has cut some district services so steeply in recent years that the negative impact of more cuts “away from the classroom” could outweigh the negative impact of slightly larger class sizes. 

“In the past we’ve done a lot not to (cut teaching staff),” Issel said, adding that she has reached the point where she has “a very low tolerance for the level of dysfunction” in some district departments. 

Doran said Thursday that the district’s custodial department is operating with a “skeletal staff” and its business department is “on the edge” of not having sufficient staff to do the work. Basic classroom supplies are sometimes not available to teachers in a timely manner because the sluggish response rate of an understaffed bureaucracy, he added. 

“Class size reduction has been a very key value in this community, but I also believe that we need to think outside the box,” Doran said Wednesday. “We have seen a great reduction in the efficiency of the school district that has dramatically impacted our students.” 

Goldstone said he will report to the board at its first meeting in May on just exactly where the budget might be cut to find an additional $880,000 for teachers. As for inefficiencies in district departments, Goldstone said some of these problems could be solved through better management alone. 

“Expectations don’t cost anything,” he said. “Accountability doesn’t cost anything. That is a matter of will much more than a matter of dollars.” 

District staff also proposed cutting $1.3 million out of district maintenance expenditures next year, a move that Goldstone has said is justified because last year’s measure BB bond measure provides nearly $4 million for maintenance purposes next year. 

To increase district revenues – a less painful way of cutting the budget shortfall – district staff proposed an aggressive program for renting out district performance spaces.