School plan to cut jobs, add on fees

and Heidi Hall ~ Southeast Missourian

The Cape Girardeau schools superintendent released a plan on Tuesday for $1.3 million in cutbacks based on recommendations from a task force made up of school employees and community members.

But even after eliminating several teaching positions, freezing salaries and charging Central High School students for extracurricular activities, the school district still would have another $800,000 to cut from next year's budget.

Superintendent Mark Bowles said even though they fell short of the original $2.2 million goal, he is satisfied the cuts will prevent the district from going broke in the next two years.

"This will set us back, no doubt," Bowles said. "But it's preferable to the harm that would be done if we let our reserves drop to zero."

The 109-member task force met during a two-week period in October and November and developed 153 ideas for cutting $2.2 million from the district's $35 million budget. Bowles narrowed those ideas down to 54 official recommendations he will make to the school board at its meeting Monday night. The board will vote Jan. 26 on what's actually cut.

School board president Sharon Mueller said she didn't find any huge surprises in the recommendations, but noted that the cuts will have a widespread effect on the district.

"Any time you cut a staff member, you are impacting student achievement in some way, shape or form," she said. "This was designed to have the least amount of impact."

More than half of the $1.36 million in savings -- $750,000 -- comes from the elimination of 27 full or part-time positions throughout the district, including teachers, counselors, librarians and custodians.

If the plan is approved, those who don't lose their jobs will have their salaries frozen at the current school year's level and will lose benefits such as dental and life insurance.

Some local parents say they're disturbed by the cuts but don't have any other solutions.

"It is painful to see because it seems like we're going backwards with all this. We had small class sizes, plenty of teachers," said Erika Scheibe, president of the local PTA council. "Obviously, the money has to come from somewhere."

Paying to play

Students at Central High School would have to pay a participation fee for extracurricular activities, which officials believe will save around $25,000. The operational budgets for nonathletic extracurricular activities and for athletics at both CHS and Central Junior High School would be cut by 10 percent for an estimated savings of $24,200.

All cuts would take effect during the next school year.

Under Bowles' recommendations, Central Middle School would eliminate three of its 13 sixth-grade teachers. Central High School would lose one of three assistant principals, a music teacher and a counselor.

Blanchard Elementary and Jefferson Elementary would each lose a teacher. Elementary, middle and junior high school counselors would be cut back.

Community Teacher Association president Trish Schneider declined to comment on the cuts. But Bowles said, with teacher turnover through attrition, there's a chance the district might find other positions for those losing their jobs next year.

The central office plans to eliminate the director of personnel position currently held by Gerald Richards, a technology technician and several administrative assistants.

The loss of the personnel director position would place the district below the state's requirement for the number of assistant superintendents, which could impact the district's accreditation standing.

School officials say they hope to qualify for a waiver that would exempt the district from having to meet the superintendent requirement.

Board member William Bird said he hadn't had time to look closely at the recommendations, but he has faith in the task force process.

"It wasn't just a random thought. It was a well-thought-out and diverse group of people that put time and effort into studying this to come out with the most feasible and least painful solution," Bird said.

The school board officially will receive the recommendations at the group's regular Monday meeting. Mueller said those who feel strongly about a particular cut and have factual arguments against it should e-mail her at smuellerk@hotmail.com well before the January vote.

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128

hhall@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 121

Reports

Here are both the task force recommendations (146 KB Word document) and Bowles' final recommendations (43 KB Excel spreadsheet).