Four teacher jobs cut

CHARLO — Four Charlo teachers found themselves without a job for next year after Friday’s school board meeting, when board members voted for the reductions.

The first-grade, secondary english, music and special education teachers’ positions were reduced in force as part of the district’s efforts to meet next year’s estimated $173,000 budget shortfall. The position cuts, along with other cost-saving measures approved and the cutting of a part-time special education teacher earlier last week during the board’s regular meeting, will save $148,000 general fund dollars. Next year’s preliminary general fund is $1,831,917, compared to $1,948,222 for this year. Total budget this year is $2,737,554.

Other budget saving measures board members approved, along with estimated savings, were: eliminate drama classes, $19,000; eliminate high school music, $27,000; create two part-time K-5 positions to replace one full-time position, $38,000; decrease supplies, $13,000; cut fieldtrips and extra-curricular travel expenses, $7,000; Cut extra counseling days in half to 10, $3,000; cut kitchen aide, $10,000; cut maintenance hours, $10,000; and cut shop supplies, $2,000. The consolidation of bus routes from five to four will save an additional $40,000 in the transportation fund.

The board voted 4-2 for the general budget cuts, with Duane Weible and Danny Krantz opposed. Dave DeGrandpre was absent. Then, the board voted 5-1 to reduce in force the music, secondary english and special education teacher positions, with Weible voting against the motion. A separate motion was made to cut the first-grade teacher position, with Weible again opposed and Krantz abstaining because he’s related to the teacher.

If the expected shortfall isn’t as deep as anticipated, the teachers let go this week will have first option to refill positions, said Superintendent Thom Peck. Teachers have a three-year callback period in their contracts.

“My intent is to not go that deep with those cuts,” Peck said after the meeting, adding that cuts at this point are planning for the worst-case scenario without having a firm budget from the state Legislature, yet. Preliminary numbers are based on enrollment dips and the cost of raises, benefits and increased insurance costs for employees. All cuts were made considering teacher longevity and endorsements to meet state accreditation requirements, he said.

“We’re going to have to make some really, really tough decisions, but these are the people I want to go through making these decisions with,” Peck said, obviously tearing up during Friday’s meeting.

Cuts will be felt school wide, Peck said, including by him and the district clerk, who plan to absorb a kitchen aide’s responsibilities and possibly more.

“Am I going to have to scrub toilets after basketball games? Yeah,” he said. “Are those kids worth it? No doubt.”

Under the changes, several positions are intended to become part time, with the goal of offering as many contracts as possible, Principal Steve Love said.

Both the music and drama teachers are endorsed to teach high school english, Peck said. The intent is to bring both back part time to teach english, with the music teacher also teaching elementary and middle school music, he said.

The first-grade teacher and special education teacher would be brought back part-time to co-teach a K-5 grade, he said. However, enough teachers have K-8 endorsements that the grade impacted wouldn’t necessarily be first, he added.

“With so many people with K-8, you have some flexibility there,” Peck said after several board members expressed concern about first-graders being taught by two part-time teachers.

The decisions were tough ones to make, said Shane Reum, school board chairman.

Already, Charlo’s class offerings are limited, Reum said.

“Now we’re just getting smaller and smaller in our offerings,” he said.

Even though it might not seem like it, cuts were made with limiting impact on students and teachers at the forefront of the decision-making process, Reum said, encouraging community members to attend meetings to learn about what’s happening.

Bringing back teachers part-time will help mitigate some impacts from the cuts, he said.

Increased enrollment would help the budget situation longterm, he added.

“We have a great staff and we just need to find a way to get people to come to our school and be a part of our school.”

Board member Duane Weible was the only board member to vote against cutting teachers and against additional cuts, saying the cuts will have a negative impact on kids.

Weible said he wanted his vote to be consistent with how he’s felt about teachers’ raises all along. While he believes teachers should get raises, he said, he doesn’t believe that giving raises which later cause cutting positions to be a good practice.

“Basically, all I was doing is I haven’t changed my position,” Weible said Monday.

The district can’t do much to control the $116,000 budget decrease because of declined enrollment, he said. However, raises will cost the district about $57,000 next year, he said.

“And that’s an area that we could have controlled,” he said, adding that would be $57,000 more to spend on a teaching position.