By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
EAST SPENCER — The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education’s personnel and finance sub-committee is recommending the school system ask the county to restore $1 million in funding that was cut last year.
The Rowan County Board of Commissioners trimmed the $1 million last year as a cost-saving measure.
The final decision will be up to the full board, but subcommittee members agreed Tuesday to make the request to the commissioners in April to help fill an anticipated $6.5 million budget gap.
“I think to ask the county for more than the reinstatement is not realistic,” Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom said. “In this economic time it’s not realistic to ask them to offset the state budget.”
Chief Financial Officer Tara Trexler said the loss of $4.2 million in federal Education Jobs money along with an additional $1 million in discretionary cuts creates the bulk of that shortfall.
If commissioners agree to reinstate the $1 million and the district taps $1.9 million from its $4.9 million fund balance, a move Trexler said she’s comfortable making, the hole will shrink to $3.6 million.
That’s where the cuts begin.
“We’re going to have to cut regardless of what happens … unless some miracle happens,” Grissom said.
Trexler said she’s held several meetings internally to come up with a list of possible cuts.
If the district were to nix all 22 of its curriculum coaches it would save about $675,000 annually. Those certified teachers are based in almost every elementary school.
Delores Morris, assistant superintendent for human resources, said many of those teachers have their National Board certification and are tenured.
“These are the cream of the crop,” she said. “They are impacting education and instruction for the whole school not just one class of students.”
The district’s 20 reading assistants, based at each elementary school, could also be on the chopping block.
Trexler said although reading assistant is their title, some schools have moved them into roles as teacher assistants in individual classrooms as needed. Eliminating those positions would free up an additional $570,000.
Grissom said if those positions are cut, the district will work to place those affected in roles vacated by attrition.
About $65,000 can be saved by freezing the position of assistant superintendent of operations and restoring the district’s construction manager, who currently works three days a week, to full time. Gene Miller, who retired last July and returned in October, is currently filling the administrative role.
“Mr. Miller is not intending to be with us forever, he had a taste of retirement and I think he liked it,” Trexler said.
Trexler said an additional $50,000 could be shaved off by nixing both school and central office staff development. And $85,000 could be saved by holding off on the district’s project to digitize all of its records.
“That’s what we’ve talked about internally, we do not have to determine exact cuts at this point,” she said.
Trexler said cuts are getting harder to make because the school system has already lost about $20 million in funding, much of which comes from the state, throughout the past three years.
During the 2009-10 academic year alone, the school system eliminated 14 curriculum coaches, seven middle school Spanish teachers, seven elementary reading assistants, six middle school family and consumer science teachers, five central office positions, four assistant principals and four attendance counselors.
“We are not starting from ground zero,” she said.
The school board will make a final decision about the amount of funding to request from the county during its meeting March 26.
The personnel and finance subcommittee will hold its next meeting at 3 p.m. May 2.
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.
Twitter: twitter.com/posteducation
Facebook: facebook.com/Sarah.SalisburyPost