District 202 to Trim Another $1.7 Million From Budget for 2008-09

By Jennie Berkson

By cutting $1.7 million from next year's budget, District 202 administrators hope to avoid any more bloodletting for at least a few years.

"... but we have looked in every way we could to minimize the effect on the classroom and classroom teachers."
- Superintendent Eric Witherspoon

"We have anticipated another round of cuts to keep the budget balanced ... but we have looked in every way we could to minimize the effect on the classroom and classroom teachers," Superintendent Eric Witherspoon, told the District 202 Finance Committee, comprised of the entire School Board, on Jan. 29.

According to the presentation, 26.7 percent of the reductions "will have a direct impact on the classroom."

"(Making cuts) every year makes long range planning difficult," said Dr. Witherspoon."By making ... cuts this year ... (we hope) not to make any other cuts for three to five years," he said.

Future District deficits are due to a number of factors. According to District 202 Chief Financial Officer William Stafford, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is used to determine tax caps, was 2.5% this year. The CPI is based primarily on the cost of goods, rather than labor, which comprises the majority of the District's expenses, so the amount the District is able to levy does not match cost increases because the cost of labor has risen more quickly than the cost of goods.

Mr. Stafford also cited higher projected teacher salary expenses based on "the requirements of the current contract and its retirement provisions." Finally, Mr. Stafford said that the district lost $383,000 in interest income this year because of actions by state legislators which delayed sending of tax bills.

"We've done a lot of work on long range planning," said Mr. Stafford. "Long range planning only does you any good if you make decisions to change the future."

Mr. Stafford reminded the Committee of the principles which have guided budget reductions in the past.

"First, avoid reductions in the classroom as much as possible," he said, "and ... second, make sufficient budget reductions to avoid major budget issues for the next three to five years."

Three areas have been identified for expense reduction: management, support staff/professional services and certified teachers.

Management Cost Reductions: $800,180
Mr. Stafford said that the District will be able to save $553,456 in pension system penalties that would have been paid for three administrators who have postponed their retirement for one year. If an employee who participates in the Illinois Teachers Retirement System (TRS) retires before age 60 and before he or she has served for 35 years, the District is required to make a one-time contribution to TRS on their behalf of 23.5 percent of salary for every year that the employee is under the age of 60.

For example, if an employee retires at 58, with 25 years of service earning $150,000 a year, the District has to make a one time payment to TRS of $70,500. According to Mr. Stafford, the three administrators who agreed to postpone their retirement for a year will all either reach age 60 and/or 35 years of service after next year, which will mean that the payment is no longer necessary.

Because of a reorganization in the Information Technology department, two management positions will be eliminated, for a savings of $246,724 in salaries and benefits.

Cuts in Support Staff and Professional Services: $242, 430
Further savings will be realized as a result of Oakton Community College's assumption of the Adult and Continuing Education program eliminating the need for three staff positions. Also, Information Technology consulting expenditures will be reduced by $55,000 for a total of $242,430 in support staff and professional services.

Certified Teacher Reductions And Retirement Turnover: $682,616
The administration is recommending that the number of certified teachers at ETHS be reduced by 6 positions, for a savings of $461,616. "We haven't identified the specific positions yet, because we need to go through sectioning (assignment of students to classes)," said Mr. Stafford. "Our emphasis will be on attrition. There are certain areas where there are retiring teachers who we may not replace."

Mr. Stafford also explained that savings of $221,000 will be realized because any new teachers hired to replace retiring teachers would "be hired at lower salaries."

Committee Response
The administration asked the Committee if they had a preference for cutting teachers in a particular program or "across the board."

"The approach we're taking right now is through sectioning, to maintain the programs we have now and look for efficiencies," said Dr. Witherspoon.

Board members Margaret Lurie and Missy Fleming both commented that they did not feel they had enough information yet about what would be lost if either approach was taken.

"I'm not sure we're qualified to do that," said Ms. Lurie. "I would like to see some recommendations from administrators as to programs they think are not working."

"Across the board sounds better, but I don't have enough information," said Ms. Fleming. "Your approach is let the data tell us the story, you'll bring it back to us like you always do, we can have a more comprehensive dialogue and make a decision at that point. That would be more comfortable," she concluded.

"Let's get rid of the weak teachers," remarked Board member Jane Colleton.

"I think it's appropriate to give the administration the ability to be able to look at specific programs to see if they still ... provide whatever services they were meant to provide and whether they fit within the values based budgeting we're looking for," said Board member Omar Khuri. Mr. Khuri also suggested that the administration consider building the District's surplus in response to a possible reduction in property assessments due to a slowdown in the housing market.

President Martha Burns encouraged the administration to look at the number of students in each class to make sure it is in line with what the Board has set as a minimum number of students per class. "That's a very important point," said Mr. Stafford. "We have already had several department heads volunteer up opportunities in that area." He said that there were a number of classes in which "the number of kids was way too low."

The School Board will review the tentative budget for the 2008-09 school year in June with official budget hearings in September. However, Mr. Stafford told the RoundTable that if there are to be any reductions in force prior to that time, they will be confirmed "at a Board meeting later this spring."

District 65 Board Considers Goals, Strategic Planning and Professional Development

Proposed Goals for 2008-09
District 65 administrators proposed three broad goals for 2008-09, as well as strategies to achieve the goals, in a memorandum prepared by Superintendent Hardy Murphy dated Jan. 31. School Board president Mary Erickson said the Board will discuss the goals at the Board's Feb. 23 strategic planning meeting.

The first proposed goal is, "Increase the academic achievement for all students in the District." The strategies proposed to achieve this goal are to develop and implement a comprehensive professional development plan for principals, other instructional leaders and teachers; to improve instructional quality in all classrooms; to implement recommendations from the District's Differentiated and Enrichment Study Committee and the Technology Study Committee; and to develop and implement a District-wide Response to Intervention model.

The second proposed goal is, "Implement strategies to strengthen District 65 magnet schools." The strategies to reach this goal are to differentiate staffing and resource allocations and to revise curriculum and program offerings.

The third goal is, "Develop a balanced budget that supports student achievement and acknowledges future financial projections." The administration proposes to work toward this goal by identifying and implementing cost controls and identifying and implementing revenue enhancements.

Strategic Planning Meeting Set for Feb. 23
The Board is scheduled to begin discussions about framing a long-term vision and developing a strategic plan for the District at 9 a.m. on Feb. 23 at the Hill Education Center, 1500 McDaniel Ave. The public is invited to attend and to offer input at the meeting.

In preparation for the meeting, Dr. Murphy provided Board members with a report on what the administration had done toward achieving the goals and strategies contained in the District's last five-year strategic plan that covered the school years 2002-03 to 2006-07. When asked if there was anything new that needed to be included in the District's new strategic plan, Dr. Murphy said, "We think we have the building blocks for improving literacy in our schools and also for ensuring a pretty robust mathematics program.

"If you look at where we're headed ... we think that this differentiation/enrichment effort offers us a way to come up with a more rigorous and robust learning experience for students across the range of academic readiness. We see that as a major effort and we don't see that as an effort that's disconnected from the building blocks that we already have in place.

"A second piece to this is ‘response to intervention.' We feel like we've made great strides in addressing the academic achievement of at-risk students - and I keep going back to our third-grade cohort of African-American students where we've got 85 percent meeting or exceeding standards in math and somewhere around 80 percent in reading - our challenge is to make sure we keep building on that effort. So in order to make sure we're reaching students who are historically struggling, we think this ‘response to intervention' is very important, because what you're going to see happening is we're going to continue to keep merging the instructional program with what has been traditionally special education and what is regular education."

Dr. Murphy added that another piece was to "make science and social studies a major part of what we're doing in the District... We'd like to incorporate the energy we now have in place in those particular content areas."

The differentiation/enrichment effort referred to by Dr. Murphy is the work being performed by the District's Differentiation and Enrichment Committee. That committee is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at the Hill building, 1500 McDaniel Ave., and to make recommendations to the Board shortly after that. See page 25.

While the Board has had a number of general discussions about the Feb. 23 strategic planning meeting, no outline or specific agenda for the meeting has been set. It is anticipated that an outside consultant will facilitate the meeting.

Professional Development
The Board's discussion of a draft calendar for 2008-09 created a tension between the amounts of time devoted to staff development versus instruction in the classroom. It also raised concerns about the impact of early release time on working parents' schedules.

The administration proposed seven "early release days," on which students would attend school in the morning, and be dismissed for the afternoon so teachers could attend professional development courses provided by the District. Last year, there were five early release days.

Dr. Murphy said the early release days were important to enable the District to provide training to teachers on two major initiatives concerning differentiation and enrichment and "response to intervention."

He added, "The literature says the most powerful element for change is staff development," and "We would like more time for professional development."

Several Board members expressed concerns that the early release days took away time from instruction in the classroom.

Financially, the choice may be one or the other. Dr. Murphy said adding an extra day for staff development would cost the District about $220,000. The District is currently projecting a budget deficit of about $1 million for next year unless new revenues are found or cuts made.

Several parents added that so many early release days would throw working parents' schedules into chaos.

Board president Mary Erickson asked the administration to consider a way to consolidate some of the early release days and also to schedule the release days on Friday afternoons, which some parents said would be more workable.

The proposed calendar for next year has 176 student days.