NLR schools study budget-cut options
District readying for $7.6M loss in aid
Reducing work days, cutting employee benefits, maximizing student class sizes and dipping into reserves were among the budget-cutting measures that North Little Rock district leaders offered Thursday to offset the scheduled loss of $7.6 million in state desegregation aid.
Superintendent Kelly Rodgers presented the list of about two dozen areas from which the district could extract savings at a School Board work session attended by about 50 district employees. Budget cuts are needed, Rodgers said, to compensate for the special state funding that will end after the 201718 school year as a result of a January 2014 settlement agreement in a long-running federal school desegregation lawsuit.
The district’s budget is about $100 million, $12 million of which goes to debt payments on construction bonds.
Rodgers said he compiled the list from ideas generated in past budget work sessions and conversations, and he tried to stay away from cuts in instructional programs, employee benefits and other expenses “that drive and encourage our staff and students. That is hard, hard to do.”
“This board has some very very tough decisions to make going forward,” Rogers said about selecting from various budget-cutting options — some of which will be easier to make than others. “We have already spent money on wonderful world-class facilities and we want to make sure that instruction for our students, all the way up and down, is also world class.”
District leaders anticipate having about $1.05 million available in new revenue as a result of completing the payments on an early retirement incentive program for the district’s veteran, more costly employees. The district also expects savings from a partial hiring freeze put in place earlier this year.
Proposals for the coming school year include cutting $500,000 by reducing central office and school administrative staff members. Another $500,000 could be realized by shortening by seven days the work year for all employees who work 252 days a year. Those include central office employees, secondary school leaders and others who have year-round contracts.
Another possibility offered by Rodgers was paying off $5.6 million in energy bonds with money available in the district’s building fund. Paying off the bond would free up $727,209 a year that would otherwise go to debt payments.
Increasing class sizes to the state-set limits on student-teacher ratios would save teacher costs. Phasing out the International Baccalaureate program, which is an accelerated but relatively small academic program at the high school, would generate a savings of about $37,000.
Still other proposals call for tightening up the use of an employee sick-leave bank so it can only be used for catastrophic illnesses. That could save as much as $125,000. Discontinuing holiday pay is an option, as is renegotiating with vendors to save the district $25 or more a month per employee on benefits such as hospital confinement, dental, life and health insurance.
The cost-cutting proposals also include discontinuing longevity payments and payment for unused sick leave after this school year, which could generate as much as $450,000 a year in savings.
Longevity pay is provided to those employees who work in the district for 10 or more years. It is calculated based on an average daily rate of pay multiplied by the employee’s years of work. In regard to sick leave, the district annually buys back the number of an employee’s unused sick days that are in excess of 100 days. When employees leave the district, they are paid for their unused sick leave days at a rate equal to the cost of a substitute teacher pay times the number of unused days.
School Board member Dorothy Williams told Rodgers that she wanted assurances that everyone in the district is treated fairly in regard to the budget cuts.