Facing Education Cuts

Superintendent Jerry Noble [Click to enlarge]

Schools across the state have been hearing about possible budget cuts for some time. When the Missouri General Assembly went back into session in January, anxiety in the districts grew as they prepared for the unknown.

In the local area, both large and small districts began to prepare to cut programs, positions, and anything they could in anticipation of the state funding cuts they had heard about.

Superintendent Raymond Lasley [Click to enlarge]

According to Kennett Superintendent Jerry Noble, the state was warning of possible cuts due to a decrease in state tax revenue.

"What they are telling us is that we are probably going to have some cuts this school year because they had projected a four percent decrease in state tax revenue and it is down 6.4 percent right now," Noble said. "They are thinking we are going to get some cuts in school funding before school lets out this year. And next year, depending on who you talk to, [they are anticipating] anywhere from 10-15 percent in cuts."

Noble said the superintendents met with Chris Nicastro, Missouri Commissioner of Education, last month, who told the superintendents to be cautious with their budgets as they finished the year and prepared the 2010-2011 budgets.

"[Nicastro] was telling us to be really cautious about our spending and to be conservative with our budgets," Noble said. "We know we are going to have some cuts, we just don't know how severe they are going to be."

Noble said if the budget is cut seven percent, the Kennett School District would lose nearly $700,000. He added that one way the district may battle the cuts is by not replace teachers who will be retiring this year unless it is absolutely necessary.

"Right now, it looks like we have three teachers who are going to retire that we are not going to replace, so that would save us approximately $150,000," Noble said. "The summer school savings would be approximately $200,000."

Noble added that the district will also not purchase a new school bus, which would save the district about $80,000.

Southland Superintendent Raymond Lasley, administrator for one of the smaller districts in the area, is also preparing for cuts.

"From what I have been told so far, [the possible cuts] are going to affect Southland pretty negatively," Lasley said. "It is going to hurt the education of the kids. It is going to increase class sizes [and] decrease the time each teacher can spend with each individual child. That is the immediate thing [the cuts] will do.

"Of course, those sort of ripple out into everything else when you increase class sizes. Southland has worked for years to have very small class sizes so we can address the needs of each individual kid instead of doing it as a whole class. It is going to have to change on the short view."

Lasley said to prepare for the proposed cuts, Southland is looking into each program to see what can be cut.

"[We are] just trying to cut any expenses and any program that we can," Lasley said.

After the General Assembly went back into session, Representative Terry Swinger (D-Caruthersville) said education is the "number one priority" of those at Jefferson City.

"The interesting part about it is, even though the revenues are down so much, the number one thing the constitution says we have to do is pay off public debt," Swinger said. "That is the first thing that we always do on the budget. Then the second priority is education.

"Every attempt is made by everybody to fully fund the education program. It is going to be difficult to say just exactly how that is all going to shake out, but still, everybody [at Jefferson City] is committed to do everything they can to preserve the funding for education."

Swinger said he expects most of the funding to "be there," although he did not rule out any cuts.

"I would say that most of it would be there," Swinger said. "There may be some specialty programs that might get hit.

"Parents as Teachers is something that gets funded better in Missouri than it does in any other state in the United States. We are actually the only state that has a mandate that every school district has Parents as Teachers. I am a big proponent and a big supporter of Parents as Teachers, but that [being cut] is a possibility. Again, that is something that I really support and something I will do everything I can to keep funding reduction stopped.

"[The Assembly is] just going to be looking at things because our revenues are so depressed. Most of the people in the legislature, their number one priority is education. The number one goal of everybody is education. Most folk are going to try to preserve it as best they can."

Late last month, Nicastro sent word to schools that the "state has protected local schools from financial crisis."

Nicastro said Missouri's public education is faring far better than in many states in the nation.

"Despite the state's tremendous budget challenges, the Governor has recommended $63 million in additional revenue to make up for the loss in gaming revenue for the current year," Nicastro said. "School officials throughout the state have been dealing with the economic slump for months, making adjustments in their budgets and anticipating possible reductions in state aid. We think most school districts will get through this year in pretty good shape due to this careful planning.

"There is no question that Missouri is in an unprecedented financial slump, which has affected every part of our state," Nicastro said. "Gov. [Jay] Nixon and the legislature, however, have made unprecedented efforts to shield public schools from the brunt of the financial crisis. School officials are grateful for that support. It has enabled our schools to adjust their budgets gradually and deal with the economic slump in an orderly way, thus protecting classroom services for students."

Nicastro said that while public schools in some states have already been hit with big losses in state aid, Missouri's $3 billion "foundation program" for schools has not been affected to date and updated information will be provided to all school districts soon.