CMS Budget On The Chopping Block
Other board members said the district needed to explore more options before green-lighting a budget proposal that included massive teacher layoffs.
“I don’t see anything positive coming out of that at all,” said Richard McElrath. He proposed that instead of eliminating hundreds of teaching positions, the district consider giving employees the option of taking across-the-board salary cuts.
The district, he said, could save about $30 million if employees making $48,000 to $69,000 a year accepted an 8 percent salary cut; those making $69,000 to $99,000, a 12 percent cut; and those making $100,000 or more per year, a 15 percent cut.
CMS legal counsel indicated that the district has the authority to initiate those types of salary reductions, but would likely run into problems because the cuts would be considered demotions requiring formal hearings and due process. Because state funding is involved for salaried employees, the move would also likely require approval from legislators.
Board member Kaye McGarry said that before CMS made any cuts that directly impact the classroom or trigger teacher layoffs, the board needed to consider other options that aren’t currently included in the proposed worst-case budget scenario: closing under-utilized schools; eliminating or consolidating learning community district offices; cutting CMS-TV; and trimming non-instructional classes and programs.
Defining non-instructional, however, sparked debate. McGarry offered the district’s anti-bullying programs as one example, which drew disagreement from Gorman.
“Because we don’t grade it, doesn’t mean it’s not instructional,” he said.
On the decidedly instructional front, board member Tom Tate said budget cuts that would increase class sizes for the district’s K-3 FOCUS schools above their current 1-to-17 teacher/student ratio, gave him heartburn.
“These are precisely the schools we need to improve if we are going to improve as a district,” Tate said. “I think we’re cutting too much, too deep into the classrooms.”
Given the dire financial projections coming form the county, however, Gorman said such cuts might be inevitable.
“Priorities change as times get worse,” said the $300,000-a-year superintendent. “Services are going to be lost, students are going to be impacted.”
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