Whitefish schools may trim jobs

Whitefish school trustees will face decisions on cutting staff at their May 12 board meeting.

It's the fallout from a projected $180,000 shortfall in the elementary school district's budget and a $280,000 deficit in the high school district next year, Superintendent Jerry House explained.

He expects retirements involving 3 1/2 positions by the end of this school year, plus another two resignations. Those vacancies either won't be filled or will be filled by transfers from within the district.

After everything is balanced out, House said he expects to have to trim the ranks of classified and certified staffers by 'single-digit" numbers in each category.

"With the economy the way it is, the district chose not to go out for a mill levy," House said following last Tuesday's school board work session. It wouldn't be right, they decided, to ask for a tax increase from constituents who have lost jobs.

"We have to be responsible to the taxpayers just like they have been to us in the past," House said.

Anticipating a tightening budget, the elementary district has been paring back slightly each year over the past four years. But the high school has used three-year class averaging, House said, allowing the ebb and flow of student numbers to even out staffing needs and budgets from year to year.

State funding each year is based on student numbers from the prior year. Every high school class this year had about 20 fewer students than last year: Freshmen this year numbered 124, last year it was 147; sophomores were 123 this year and 146 last year; juniors were 126 this year and 140 last year; seniors were 126 this year and 147 last year.

Declining numbers are a sign of the weakening economy, House said.

"It's the job market, kids are going to Flathead or to FVCC," he said. "It's the economics of the time. The workers are landscapers, sheet-rockers, the blue collar labor market The people are moving to wherever they can get jobs."

The lost funding for those 81 students, combined with the fact that state school aid does not keep pace with inflation and the need to honor negotiated staff contracts, House said, prompted the budget woes.

"So we looked at personnel," he said. "We were overstaffed in English and a couple other areas [in the high school] and even at Muldown and the junior high. Whether they were certificated or classified, we need to be paring back."

Federal stimulus money may not be much help.

"We're still in the process of waiting for formulas from the state on how stimulus money can be used," House said. "Between May 11 and 15 there will be a release on how we can use it."

The Whitefish School Board has given him the direction to cut out any frills and be sure the school can be accountable to the public in its spending. It means protecting the quality of its educational programs and a slight increase in class sizes, although the latter can be a moving target.

High school class sizes can be small in some courses such as physics but overflowing in others such as physical education.

But the board has made a commitment to keep elementary classes as small as possible because that's where teachers need personal interaction to lay the foundations of reading, math and science with young learners. The district complies with state standards on class sizes, House said, but already is pushing the limits.

"It's a [tough] time. It gives you a lot of anxiety," House said of the pending cuts. "When you hire quality people to work in a quality school district it hurts you to turn good people away. Whether they're classified or certified, when you're all in the same educational family you hate to turn them away."

Individual school district budgets must be approved by the state by Aug. 14. House said trustees are waiting for Office of Public Instruction funding formulas, as set by the Legislature, and "a number of things to help determine the budget. Our first priority now is to protect quality programs and reduce staff to come in line with budget needs."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com