The Parkway School District Board of Education has approved budget cuts that will lead to the elimination of jobs.
Officials hope the cuts can be done mainly through attrition, but there is a possibility that some employees could be laid off.
This uncertainty will remain until at least April 15 when the district will look to determine if any layoffs are required for the 2012-2013 year, said Mark Stockwell, the district's chief financial officer.
The board voted on Feb. 8 to approve the budget cuts as part of a plan to keep the district from dipping into its reserves. The move is intended to help the district improve its bottom line by $7.4 million to $9.63 million. The money would come from a combination of budget reductions and new revenues.
Parkway's current budget is based on an estimated $217 million in operating expenses and $205 million in operating revenues.
Stockwell said he does not yet have figures for the upcoming fiscal year, but he will have figures by May 2 when he presents the budget to the board. By then, the district will have decided which positions will be cut. It will know all planned retirements, transfers, and other personnel changes which will allow Stockwell to develop projections.
However, board member Bruce Major warned the cuts might be only a first step.
"Our reality is that, if this kind of economy continues, we'll have to look at more of the same in the next few years," he said. "We have a rainy day fund, but it's been raining for four years."
District revenues have declined $1.3 million over those four years while expenses have risen. A forecast for slow revenue growth led the district to propose measures to cut expenses.
Superintendent Keith Marty said the plan for reductions was recently tweaked in response to parents' concerns.
Rather than drop from 23 to 12 math intervention specialists, the reduction will be to 18. Rather than basing one specialist at each school, those specialists will be deployed at schools based on where student need is greatest.
Also, the district revised plans to drop registrars from elementary and middle schools. It will now allow for more secretarial help to handle clerical duties in their absence.
Mollie Gulino, a Chesterfield parent of two daughters, criticized cuts in reading recovery and math intervention program staffing.
She said voters approved the Proposition R tax increase five years ago. Among other things, the increase was meant to provide more personnel in intervention because the district was falling behind in math, science and reading. Since then, test scores have improved.
"Even though we are still paying taxes to fund math and reading assistance programs, you are going to allocate that money elsewhere or in a different manner," she said.
She presented signatures from 242 residents, unsuccessfully asking the board to table the budget cuts that concerned reading recovery and math intervention "until there is a better defined path."
However, Kathy Blackmore, the district's assistant superintendent of teaching, learning and accountability, said the district still would have looked at more efficient use of math and reading intervention specialists, even if cuts had not been required.
She said only a couple of reading specialist posts in grades kindergarten to eighth would be dropped, taking the total down to 46.
Changes approved by the board include:
• creating instructional coach positions, while reducing the number of math, literacy and early intervention specialists and elementary computer resource specialists, to save $1.8 million to $2.5 million.
• centralizing student registration at high schools, eliminating part-time lunch and recess personnel, reducing overtime, and going to electronic report cards for middle and high schools, to save $1.4 million to $1.75 million.
• restructuring intervention programs, eliminating elementary class sizes limits, and dropping one position per middle and high school, to save $1.4 million to $1.9 million.
• eliminating about 20 district administrator and department support staff positions to save $1 million to $1.25 million.
• dropping a teaching assistant from each elementary school, eliminating some middle school teaching assistants, and restructuring secretarial staff, to save $1 million to $1.2 million.
• cutting operating budgets for schools and departments by 10 percent to save $700,000 to $830,000.
The district also plans to add new revenues of $150,000 to $200,000 from increased school building rental and summer school fees.
