Kalispell schools tackle $820,000 shortfall

While they haven’t yet worked out the details, Kalispell Public Schools officials think they can balance next year’s high-school budget without asking taxpayers for help.

The 2010-2011 elementary budget deficit has been a more challenging problem to solve, and voters can expect to see a levy request on their ballots in May.

That’s the decision from Tuesday’s regular school-board meeting, when trustees discussed the nearly $820,000 shortfall in next year’s budget. Of that, $216,565 is in the high-school district; more than $603,000 is in the elementary district.

Superintendent Darlene Schottle presented the board with a tentative list of suggested cuts compiled by school administrators and central office staff.

The full list includes two levels of proposed cuts. First-tier budget cuts include no raises for administrators, reduced funding for extracurricular activities and some staff reductions, most of which would take place through attrition, Schottle said.

Tier-one cuts would save an estimated $153,250 at the high-school level. By using $63,000 in transition funds the district will not have to ask voters to approve a levy to balance the high-school budget.

Tier-one cuts would save about $233,000 at the elementary level, only about a third of the deficit. Tier-two cuts, which go deeper, would save $77,000 more.

Unless administrators can come up with an additional $250,000 of reductions, trustees may ask voters in the elementary district to approve a levy for that amount. School personnel will look for more areas they can trim, and the board will determine the levy amount at a special meeting on March 23.

Not all board members are certain that using transition funds to balance the 2010-2011 budget is a wise move; the district’s shortfall in 2011-2012 will be significantly greater — an estimated $2 million according to trustee John Osweiler, chairman of the board’s finance committee.

Trustees Tom Clark and Alice Ritzman advocated making deeper cuts than necessary now to reduce the number of cuts the district will have to make in 2011-2012.

“I don’t think we should just do the minimum. I think we should try to get out ahead of this and try to put some reserves out for next year,” Ritzman said.

Not all trustees agreed.

“I would rather use the transition funds. What are we saving them for? A rainy day?” trustee Eve Dixon asked. “If it means a job ... I’d rather keep [staff members] on another year.”

The proposed cuts have not been finalized, and comments from the public at Tuesday’s meeting may impact trustees’ decisions about where reductions should take place.

One proposed cut is eliminating the para-professional position at Bridge Academy. Director Teri Palmer said she learned of the possible cut after the board’s last

meeting, and that no one had discussed it with her.

The para-educator used to work with 33 students a day, she said, but in recent years, Bridge’s population has grown. Now the person in that position works daily with 61 students.

Andrea Baumgardner, the school nurse at Flathead and Glacier high schools, pleaded with the board not to trim the nurses’ positions. A $23,000 cut to reorganize nursing and supplies is a possible second-tier reduction in the high-school budget.

There are three nurses working in two full-time positions and serving about 5,400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. For some of the students in the Kalispell district, nurses are their primary health-care providers, Baumgardner said.

Dr. Wallace Wilder, a Kalispell pediatrician, and Jody Beth White, head of community health at the Flathead City-County Health Department, also urged the board not to trim the school-nurse budget.

“I think that the school nurses are terribly important,” Wilder said. “We do not need fewer. We need more.”

Ken Siderius, former principal of Edgerton School, advocated eliminating 3.5 administration positions.

This year, there are about 2,600 students between Flathead and Glacier high schools, and four administrators at each. State standards say that schools need three administrators when student populations are between 1,051 and 1,550 students.

Both Flathead and Glacier fall within that margin, which means those schools each have one administrator too many, Siderius said. Building administrators have tenure; if their positions were eliminated, they could take classroom teaching positions.

Kalispell Middle School and Edgerton likewise exceed administrative accreditation standards, Siderius said. He also suggested paring central office administration.

“Speaking as a citizen, I don’t understand why we would be over on administrators, as tight as it is in our school district right now,” he said.

But administrators and some trustees say extra administration allows schools to do things that benefit students, including tracking dropout rates and implementing programs that improve student achievement.

“It’s easy to balance the budget on the administrators’ backs,” Flathead Principal Peter Fusaro said. “But if we eliminate an administrator at each high school, it will affect students in the classroom.”

Siderius had other suggestions, including eliminating some “paperwork and busywork and meetings” that pull teachers away from students, and streamlining practices, like sending one staff member on one mail run a day instead of two staff members on twice-daily runs.

“I don’t have all the answers, but I think we can make some cuts that are probably not going to affect the way our school operates,” Siderius said. “I know some people are going to suffer for it, but there’s a lot of people out there suffering right now.

“We need to listen to the public.”

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.