Schools struggle with plans, unsure of state funding cuts
Principal Sherri Verble knows how many new students her school will take on next school year, but she has no idea how many new teachers — if any — she will be able to hire.
Deer Creek Intermediate, a fifth- and sixth-grade school in west Edmond, will see its enrollment grow by nearly 100 students next year, an increase of 11 percent.
“I need seven or more teachers next year,” said Verble, citing a figure that would handle the student growth and help make up for recent cuts to staff. “That would be the best case scenario, but I don’t know if I am going to get all those.”
The state Legislature still has more than two months to finalize its Fiscal Year 2018 budget and address a nearly $900 million budget shortfall. But school administrators throughout the state say they have to begin planning for the next school year now, which is a challenging task without any details on projected cuts coming from the state.
At this point, most schools would already be making teacher hiring decisions for next year and in the past a somewhat specific budget estimate had already been identified on what schools could expect.
But the message coming from state education leaders and groups that closely monitor the budget situation is that next year’s public school funding could land anywhere on a wide spectrum of cuts, which makes planning for next year nearly impossible.
“Those of us who have been in education for awhile have never seen a year like this when we didn’t have an estimated budget range of about 2 percent that we could work with in preparing for the next year,” said Ranet Tippens, superintendent of Deer Creek
Schools. “Right now they are giving us a ballpark figure where the best case scenario is no change in funding or it could be as bad as a 14 percent cut.”
Schools rely on funding from a variety of sources, including local bonds for capital projects, and extra state and federal funding for schools with high populations of impoverished or non-Englishspeaking students. But state per pupil allocation, or the amount given out for each student, is what schools rely on to pay salaries, insurance, fund programs and purchase supplies.
Per pupil decline
The state per pupil figure has declined by more than 8 percent since 2008. Adjusted for inflation it has been closer to a 27 percent cut, which leads the nation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“If I could just go back to the 2008 per pupil funding levels, that would allow me to hire 40 or more staff members,” Tippens said. “That would make me feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
In a district like Deer Creek, where enrollment is growing by nearly 300 students annually in this northwest Oklahoma City suburb, the last eight years of cuts have seen average class sizes go from around 23 students to more than 30. Textbook purchases have been halted, math and reading specialists have been let go and counselors are stretched thin with more than 450 students each.
Schools across the state have experienced similar situations where school weeks have been shortened and spending freezes on classroom supplies have been put in place.
Oklahoma’s public schools slashed nearly 3,000 staff positions last year.
But education leaders worry another year of cuts in per pupil funding would take schools to a new level of devastation.
“Our concern about what is happening in our state and the lack of investment in public education has never been greater,” said Tulsa Superintendent Deborah Gist at a board meeting last week. “But we cannot be paralyzed by a lack of hope.”
Gist told her board the district might have to consider further staff cuts or even explore school closings.
Oklahoma City’s superintendent already has outlined a detailed plan to close five schools as part of an effort to shave $10 million from next year’s budget.
Many consider a bestcase scenario as education funding being “held harmless,” or holding flat with this year’s figures, which was the case last year. But even a flat budget would be based on end of the year levels that are lower than the beginning of the school year, meaning it would still represent a cut from what was budgeted last year.
“Holding flat means cutting the budget,” Tippens said.
Unable to plan
Various education groups called on the Legislature earlier this month to meet an April 1 deadline for passing an education budget, citing a 2003 state law that has regularly gone unmet.
“It’s not really a reasonable request because if you tried to fund one agency out of 70 first, particularly in a year like this, it just wouldn’t work,” said Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang, who is also chair of the House appropriations and budget committee. “We need to know the whole picture of the budget first, not just one spoke in the wheel.”
Several superintendents told The Oklahoman they understand why an April 1 deadline is difficult to meet, and some said they weren’t sure it was a wise goal to pass a budget by that date because it could shorten the time to find a revenue source through a tax on fuel, cigarettes or other service.
“We don’t necessarily expect or even want them to set it by April 1 because things may change between then and the end of May,” said Derald Glover, superintendent of Fort Gibson Schools. “But we at least need an indication of what to plan for.”
Glover said he has already been told by two of his veteran teachers they will not return next year, but he isn’t sure he can move forward in replacing them until the budget picture becomes more clear.
The challenge in waiting is that teachers are already entertaining offers from other states and the longer Oklahoma schools wait the tougher it is to find qualified and trained teachers, especially in the areas of math, science, early childhood and special education.
“We are not able to recruit talent like we were once able to, and that is very scary to me,” said Melonie Hau, superintendent of Duncan Public Schools.
Oklahoma set a record this year for the number of emergency-certified teachers, and school leaders worry the trend will continue next year if hiring decisions are held off until the summer when the hiring pool has dramatically shrunk.
Education funding is just one piece of the school financial puzzle before lawmakers this year as there has also been an effort to increase teacher pay. If a teacher pay raise plan were approved by the Legislature it would fund higher salaries for current teachers, but would not address new hiring or general education funding.
While lawmakers still have several weeks to finalize a budget — a process that is often completed in the final days of session — school leaders said their optimism for an improvement in school funding is fading away.
“I felt very hopeful in the fall because all the rhetoric (from lawmakers) was we are going to do something to take care of education,” Glover said. “But as time goes on I’m getting very discouraged that they are not going to have the courage to pass taxes or find revenue sources that will properly invest in public education the way we should.
“It’s going to be bad. I just don’t know how bad it will be yet.”