R-4 cut 51 jobs to save $2 million

For eight months, the Willow Springs School District, and the community it serves, has known that significant cuts to the staff were coming. Due to factors outside the district’s control, however, plans to budget for rebuilding cash reserves gave way to the need to balance a budget funded with lower revenues. R-4 schools join schools across Missouri in the struggle to make do with less money coming in, while also coping with a low reserve balance and a history of deficit spending.

 

As of the May meeting of the school board, next year’s projected budget is passed. It cuts more than $2 million in salary spending alone. Close to 80% of the budget in recent years, salaries and benefits are the only place where cuts could be made to balance the budget.

 

Recently obtained data from the school district shows this is a reduction of 51 jobs as we head into the upcoming school year, 35 of which are certified teaching positions. This is the second year that the district has cut jobs, losing seven teachers heading into last year, a reduction of 19 employees overall, according to figures provided by Superintendent Dr. Marty Spence.

 

Salary and benefit spending for last year’s 190 employees was $12.09 million, according to figures presented by consultant Kelly Lowe at the May board meeting. This year’s budget cuts salaries by $2 million, and benefits have been trimmed by approximately $206,000.

 

The cuts reflect the district’s budget for the upcoming year: $13.5 million. This expected income is a conservative estimate, Lowe told the board, a “worst case scenario,” that “builds in a pocket for gains.” It’s more than $2.16 million less to work with than last year’s estimated revenues.

 

Student/teacher ratios

As the staff has reduced, student enrollment has also declined. In recent years, R-4 has had a ten-or-eleven-to-one student/teacher ratio.

 

The total student body has declined by approximately 40 students, according to figures from the April board meeting. While student populations has fluctuated or increased across the campus, the high school alone reported 39 fewer students enrolled from the start of the school year, before graduation.

 

According to estimated numbers of teachers in each building, compared to these April enrollment numbers, the ratio is up to 15.5:1 in elementary, 14:1 in the middle school, and 13:1 in the high school. For special ed, the ratio is 4:1, overall. The staff numbers, and the ratios they create, are approximate because some employees will be working in multiple buildings and departments, Spence stressed.

 

Incoming superintendent on the cuts

Dr. Jon Johnson will be superintendent of the district when Spence’s contract expires at the end of this month. He has been working with the school board and the rest of the administration to make staff reduction decisions.

 

“We are asking a lot of our teachers, but I have no doubt that we will be focused on the right things and continue to provide great learning opportunities for our students here at Willow Springs,” Johnson wrote to the News via email. “With student enrollment numbers and state funding declining, along with several other factors negatively affecting school funding, we have been put in a situation where some very hard decisions have been made about staffing.”

Student outcomes have been the number one goal of all decisions, Johnson said. In choosing where to cut, the design is, “to keep the class sizes reasonable while maintaining enough staff to offer the core classes along with electives especially at the middle school and high school level.”

 

Though this has been, “tricky” to accomplish, the district has avoiding cutting entire programs.

 

Class sizes will be larger across all grade levels, Johnson confirms, but the district will remain within DESE guidelines for numbers of students per classroom teacher.

 

“Our number one goal will always be student outcomes.  We want to continue to provide the best opportunities for students to succeed. In this process we would always go back to how the decision will affect students,” wrote Johnson.