School district proposes cuts if override fails
by Kathleen Stinson

CCUSD – The governing board of Cave Creek Unified School District last week released a list of proposed cuts in order to make ends meet, should voters not approve extending a budget override in May.

The revised three‑year plan would reduce district costs by $925,000 a year.

“While we are confident that the override election will pass, it is important to have a plan in place in the event it does not pass,” said Nedda Shafir, district spokeswoman.

In 2002, voters approved a 10‑percent override of the revenue control limit on the district’s  maintenance and operations budget for a seven‑year period. In the first five years of that override, it has provided 100‑percent funding of the 10‑percent budget increase. But in the coming sixth and seventh years, that M&O funding–without an override renewal–will drop to 66 percent and 33 percent, respectively, and to zero in the eighth year.

Approval of the May ballot question would “start the clock running again” for an additional seven years of overrides, according to Dr. Kent Frison, district associate superintendent. The district is asking for $2.7 million a year in its request.

“This (override) is a money pit and not getting down to our children,” said Marti Marino, chairperson of Take Back Control of Our Schools, a political action committee opposing the override renewal.

Marino, a CCUSD resident, said the district is focusing on termination of teachers in their proposed list of reductions, should the override not pass.

The district hired 50‑100 more non‑teaching than teaching personnel over the past few years, according to Marino, and needs to look at more reductions in non‑teaching staff.

Frison said the proposed reductions include eliminating 50 percent of the instructional aides in the 2007‑2008 academic year and the remainder of those positions in 2008‑2009. However, cutting all instructional aide jobs would save only about $260,000. Since teachers earn more money than some non‑teaching positions, cuts in teaching staff create significant reductions.

Voting for the override would not increase taxes, Frison points out, although real property taxes would go down next year if the override renewal fails. Without an additional override, the owner of an average home assessed at $427,320 would save $81.19 per year in taxes starting next academic year.

The election will be held on Tuesday, May 15.

At last week’s meeting, governing board president Javier Ledesma noted the proposed budget reductions would be shared across district programs.

Cuts for the 2007‑2008 academic year would include 10 elementary school teachers, as well as rollbacks in extracurricular stipends, coaches and activities, for a savings of $601,250. As a result, class size would increase district‑wide and athletic fees would go up, as stated in the proposal.

Professional development and conferences for teachers and staff would be cut by $102,750, and high school department chair release time reduced by three chair positions for another $36,000 in savings.

Department chair release time is the non‑teaching periods allotted to allow teachers time to supervise and mentor department members.

Additionally, the budget would reduce instructional aide positions by $130,258 and two clerical staff jobs by $58,500.

These figures add up to $10,979 more than the $925,000 savings goal for 2007‑2008. The board directed that 65 percent of that $925,000 come from a reduction in teaching staff, 15 percent from support services and 20 percent from support staff.

The board assigned those percentages and departments targeted for cuts to administrative staff for determination of specific ways to cut back within those parameters, Frison said.

In the 2008‑2009 academic year, the board proposes eliminating four middle and four high school teacher positions, for a savings of $370,000. The board also proposed eliminating one central office administrator, middle school assistant principals in schools with fewer than 750 students, and shortening elementary/middle school principals’ contracts by one day. In addition, the cutbacks would call for elimination of the high school athletic director position, a savings of $96,600. Total:  $370,000.

Also proposed is elimination of the remaining instructional aide positions and cuts in clerical, maintenance and custodial staff, for an additional savings of $185,000.

Those 2008‑09 cutbacks total $2,109 less than the $925,000 annual goal.

Proposed budget cuts in the 2009‑2010 academic year call for an additional reduction in teaching staff to include 2.5 elementary counselors, one middle teacher and a high school teacher, saving $231,250. The board proposes a cut from support services which would include eliminating two teacher professional development workdays and reduction of the substitute teacher budget by 25 percent per school, as well as custodial services and professional development conferences.

That same year, the board proposes a reduction in support staff, which would include tech support, elementary computer lab coordinators and clerical staff, for a savings of $231,250.

The 2009‑2010 reductions total $6,455 less than the annual goal for the year.