SCHOOL CUTS CONSIDERED; BOARD MEMBERS DISCUSS BUDGET REDUCTIONS

Cape Girardeau Board of Education members Thursday night unanimously favored only one of 14 recommendations they received from school administrators, staff and patrons to reduce the operating budget for the 1998-99 school year

The school district has deficit spent in the past three fiscal years and needs to identify ways to cut about $1 million from its operating budget for the coming year. About $500,000 of that amount will be reduced by an increase in local tax funding to the district, which leaves about $500,000 to be cut from the budget.

In February, school administrators invited district employees and patrons to submit their suggestions for correcting the budget. Administrators Thursday presented board members with a list of suggestions from the public and administration with an estimated savings amount attached for each item.

All board members seemed to agree that the estimated $170,000 the district would save by implementing an early retirement incentive for teachers would be a positive move. Some 14 junior and senior high-school teachers have indicated they might accept such an incentive, which would save the district about $170,000 after hiring replacement teachers at lower salaries.

"It's been done in the past and produced the savings we expected," said board member Harry Rediger.

Administrators suggested the retirement incentive as a means of reducing the budget. They also recommended that all spending be frozen at current costs for the coming year to offset the deficit. This freeze would mean salaries of administrators, teachers and non-classified staff would not go up in the coming year.

For teachers, this would mean they also would not receive their annual salary schedule pay increases for years of service and professional development, increases which are figured separately from any raise they are granted. One recommendation received by the board suggested the incremental increases be granted with no additional salary increases, which would cost $307,594.22.

Business manager Dr. Steve del Vecchio said if approved this recommendation would mean board members would have to find the additional funding to finance the incremental increases. "I have to say from a financial standpoint that's $307,000 that we don't have," he said.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent rarely voiced an opinion on the recommendations; instead, he answered questions or clarified information presented by other administrators. However, he said he did not support eliminating any administrative or secretarial staff positions, as had been suggested.

All district employees are busy and have specific job duties, he said. If anyone is eliminated, someone else would have to be trained to perform that job, which could actually mean increases to the budget because of the increased workloads, he said.

"I don't think we're over-staffed for schools of our size," said Tallent. "The administrative secretaries are on a one-to-one ratio (with administrators), but each also has a specific job description. They perform those job duties, plus provide clerical work for a particular administrator."

A recommendation to reduce from two to one the number of planning periods teachers in upper grades have each day was not well received by some board members. Steve Wright, the Rev. William Bird and Dr. Bob Fox all said they did not want to consider that recommendation because there was not enough space in the schools for every teacher to teach six class periods per day. Also, students would suffer because they wouldn't have as much access to teachers outside of scheduled class time, they said.

Board members said they needed more information about how districts of comparable student enrollment, assessed valuations, and expenditures are making ends meet before they make a decision on the recommendations. Administrators were asked to gather as much financial and curriculum-related information as they could for the board to review.

The retirement incentive will be added to the April 13 meeting agenda as an item for consideration so that teachers can make their final retirement decisions as soon as possible. No action was taken on any of the budget recommendations.