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NORTHERN UTAH -- The school boards of several districts in Utah met Tuesday night to discuss budget deficits. They're all having to make tough decisions before the June 30 deadline.
Granite to cut programs, not teachers
Coming out of the Granite School Board meeting, high school teacher Charlene Koplin was happy that classroom sizes will not increase next year -- even with the district's $17 million budget shortfall.
There are two things Granite will not sacrifice: teachers and classroom sizes.
"We have the largest class size in the nation, and so to continue to balance the budget based on the backs of the teachers is the wrong thing to do," said Dr. Stephen, superintendent of the Granite School District.
"That's very good news," Koplin said. "Class size affects the students I teach."
We have the largest class size in the nation, and so to continue to balance the budget based on the backs of teachers is the wrong thing to do.
–Granite School District Superintendent Dr. Stephen Ronnenkamp.
To avoid laying off teachers, Granite plans to cut district-level programs. The district also wants to eliminate 30 full-time, non-teaching positions, and employees health insurance costs could go up.
The district might eliminate eliminate paper paychecks. Using direct deposit for every employee could save $60,000.
District spokesman Ben Horsley says an energy conservation program is also on the chopping block. The program paid for workers, conservation education and energy-conserving products like light bulbs and windows. It has already saved the district as much as $1.5 million.
"At this point in time, it's a luxury," Horsley told KSL Newsradio Tuesday. "We're just hoping that the education and the efforts that they've made will be long-lasting and will continue to produce those types of savings over the next few years."
Another program that could go away is the district's newcomer academy. "That program is being shifted out to individual schools and our principals and staff at those schools will take care of those students," Horsley said. "We are eliminating some positions from that program. That could be a pretty significant thing."
Granite is also hoping to recoup $2.5 million for transportation needs through a property tax increase of a few dollars. Horsley tells KSL the increase would not require voter approval because the overall tax rate is going down.
"It's a big deal, considering we can make reductions without laying off personnel or increasing class sizes, is a pretty remarkable thing," Horsley said.
These recommendations will be made to the school board Tuesday night.
Davis seeing influx of students but will have to cut teachers
Granite isn't the only district struggling -- Davis School District faces a $31 million shortfall next year.
"We may have to cut deeper, and right now we're cutting right to bone," Davis School District Spokesperson Chris Williams said.
"We're not like a factory that we can add a shift or increase our output by making more widgets -- 86 percent of our cost is tied to personnel, so when we start cutting budgets it isn't long before we start affecting people's lives," Williams said.
The district has more than 900 new students coming in but can't afford to keep all the teachers on staff.
"We're looking under every rock," Williams said. "We're cutting 90 first-year teachers that were hired on a one-year contract, may have been employed elsewhere but they are here with us for a year."
"It's a very difficult job market, and we are sorry to see these teachers let go," said Joel Briscoe, the Executive Director of the Davis Education Association.
And with fewer teachers in the school, that means more kids in the classroom. The district estimates each class will increase by one student next year.
Briscoe says class sizes are going to get larger for the second year in a row. Teachers will have to do more work, and there's talk the school year may get shortened by a few days -- which means they won't get paid.
Briscoe says teachers feel like they are regressing decades in the progress that had been made.
"We feel like we are turning back the clock and going back to a way of functioning that, we are losing things that we gained over the years. They are disappearing in front of our eyes in two short years," he said.
Briscoe says the legislature promised to hold education harmless, but that didn't happen. He says legislators changed Social Security and retirement funds to flexible WPU funds, meaning districts lost millions more dollars.
The Canyons District budget
Meanwhile, the Canyons School District has a $13 million dollar shortfall. Administrators say there may be furloughs coming, and vacant positions could stay that way.
Canyons District officials say tax and class size increases also remain on the table as budget increasing options.
None of the three districts decided on final budgets tonight. They will hold public hearings in the next month, then make their ruling before June 30.
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Story compiled with contributions from Nicole Gonzales, Andrew Adams, Anne Forester and Mary Richards.
