Districts move on cuts without clear budget picture
Many Oklahoma public school districts are pulling the trigger on major cuts to next year’s budget as education officials brace for the worst.
The Enid school board slashed $1.8 million from next year’s budget during a meeting Monday, the same day Tulsa schools approved a plan to close three schools in an effort to cut $12 million.
School districts in Woodward and Muskogee have also approved cuts of at least $1 million made through the elimination of summer school and staff reductions. Muskogee schools plan to shutter a popular STEM program to save money.
“It’s not about trimming fat anywhere because there is no fat left to trim,” said Kyle Reynolds, superintendent of Woodward schools. “We are looking at everything from cutting staff to cutting programs.”
The state Legislature remains
at an impasse when it comes to filling a nearly $1 billion budget hole. Republicans announced a plan to fill the budget hole Wednesday, which includes tax hikes on cigarettes and fuel, but Democrats quickly said they weren’t on board.
At the start of the legislative session, school officials offered few guesses about what next year’s budget would include as observers of the Legislature said it was hard to tell just how bad the budget cuts could be.
Many school officials said they delayed budget decisions as long as possible, but now are unable to wait much longer as the legislative session draws to an end and the new fiscal year approaches on July 1.
“Schools are trying to do the least harm possible with reductions, but it is not reasonable to believe that students across Oklahoma are not being impacted by the state’s devastating budget shortfall,” said Enid Superintendent Darrell Floyd.
Teachers cut
Tulsa schools recently approved a plan to consolidate five schools and cut 37 teacher positions.
“What happened here tonight was really difficult,” Deborah Gist, Tulsa’s superintendent, said after the board voted to approve her budget reductions.
Oklahoma City Public Schools considered its own school closure plan but community pushback resulted in Superintendent Aurora Lora looking for an alternative.
“We are being forced to make decisions where there are no good options,” Lora said. “There is not enough funding for us to operate in a way that is good for kids.”
Lora said Oklahoma City schools are prepared to cut $10 million from next year’s budget through larger class sizes, reduction in central office staff and selling the administration building.
“It does make it challenging to be able to move forward with the initiative that we want to when we are constantly having to make cuts and identify more cuts and eliminate positions,” Lora said. “We got through last year, but instead of relief being on the horizon we are gearing up for a possibly worse school year.”
School budget cuts have become an annual process in recent years as the state’s per-student funding formula has decreased by a nationleading 24 percent since 2008, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
“This is my third year (as superintendent),” said Reynolds, the Woodward superintendent. “So this has been pretty normal for me.”
Veto threatened
Gov. Mary Fallin has threatened to veto a budget that includes significant cuts to core services and legislative leaders have indicated a bestcase scenario would be for education to be “held harmless,” meaning no funding change from this fiscal year to the next. But because schools have already been hit with more than $90 million in midyear cuts, holding harmless by end-of-theyear amounts would still be a decrease from last year.
“I’ve been optimistic this session that state leaders would live up to their public statements in support of public education and increased teacher pay,” said Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
“That optimism quickly fading.”
In preparing for next year’s budget, the majority of Oklahoma schools are considering an increase in class size, reductions to payroll and combining support positions, according to a survey conducted by the school boards association.
Many school districts also said a move to fourday school weeks, elimination of paid substitutes and reducing or eliminating field trips were on the table.
is
Schools that haven’t decided on specific cuts yet are holding off on hiring decisions.
“We are delaying hiring as long as we can,” said Derald Glover, superintendent of Fort Gibson Public Schools. “But if you delay too long, you might not be able to find the quality teacher you want.”
Fort Gibson, which serves around 1,800 students, would see a reduction of $400,000 if next year’s budget is set at this year’s end-ofyear levels. That’s a sizable decrease for a school system with a $11.4 million annual budget, Glover said.
“I think the Legislature have got an extremely tough job to do and it’s going to take a lot of courage on their part,” Glover said. “I’m hopeful but I’m not optimistic.”