School budget draws fire from teachers

The Sisters School Board approved a 2004-05 budget of $8.5 million on Monday, June 14, but not without drawing fire from teachers' representatives.

Rob Phelps, a social studies teacher who serves as a high school union representative, argued that the board was not passing a balanced budget.

Phelps told The Nugget that, at his prompting, the board and Superintendent Lynn Baker acknowledged that the budget is based on the assumption that the district will cut six school days next year.

The district is facing a shortfall of about $400,000.

Phelps and fellow teachers' representative Kelly Powell argue that cutting days means teachers are in effect subsidizing a program that the community can't afford. They argue for more program cuts.

"When you cut days, the employees are paying for the programs," Phelps told The Nugget.

Phelps and Powell calculate that a six-day cut means about $1,500 out of pocket for a teacher earning a median salary of $45,000. In addition, they lose pension contributions for the days that are cut. Administrators and staff on up to the superintendent also take a pay cut when days are slashed.

Administrators point out that they have cut the positions of several retired teachers who were working part-time, which has led to program reductions in Spanish, drama and English. Counseling staff has been shifted around, reducing staffing at the high school, and nursing has been cut back.

"Programs have been cut back to try to get a balanced budget," Baker said.

He noted that the district was originally looking at cutting many more days.

Theresa Slavkovsky, coordinator of Sisters Family Access Network (FAN), said that many people she talks to want to know if the board has looked at cutting sports programs.

"I'm out in the community and people are upset," she said. "There's been several comments: 'has the sports budget been looked at?'"

The board assured her that they have looked the co-curricular budgets, but that programs have been cut back to minimal funding (or none at all), requiring fund-raising to keep them going.

High school Principal Bob Macauley argued that co-curricular programs are vital to keeping kids engaged in school and out of trouble in the critical 3 to 6 p.m. hours.

Board chair Glen Lasken, "We have looked at what value we get for the dollars we spend and decided that what we've got left we should hold on to."

The bind is a tough one. Administrators and board members don't want to slash programs too deeply.

Families might leave or not come to the district and cuts take a long time to restore.

Teachers, who have taken cuts to their schedules twice in the past two years and are looking at another, don't want to pay the price for providing more program than the district can really afford.

Resolution is hard to come by, because the vast bulk of school funding is in the hands of a fractious state legislature. That, Powell said, leaves everybody -- teachers and administrators -- caught in the middle, trying to do the right thing despite different perspectives and philosophies about where cuts should come.

"That's the hard thing," Powell said. "We don't like this either. Everybody cares, everybody wants what's best for the district."

Several people, including Phelps and Slavkovsky, mentioned the importance of passing local option, which is up for renewal next year.

The local tax provides some $800,000 to the district.

"We've got to pass that local option," Phelps said. "After it passes, you've got to decide what kind of program we can really afford."