Spring-Ford school board discusses pay cuts, staff reductions, budget woes

Spring-Ford Area School District board president Joseph Ciresi requested at Tuesday’s meeting that the board meet with representatives of the principals and administrators in the district and ask them to take a five percent pay cut for the next school year.

The board also passed new guidelines for class size and three resolutions that will, pending state approval, result in elimination of teacher positions in classrooms at the K-8 grade levels.

Ciresi’s request came during voting on personnel items on the agenda.

“I know the board has met with our administrative team and talked about remaining status quo with the agreement for next year. While I think that’s great, I would almost like to have the administration 'relook' at this and take a possible five percent reduction in pay,” Ciresi said. “We’re furloughing teachers, we’re letting go custodians, we’re letting go instructional aides. I’d like to also see the administration take less, which starts at the top.”

The motion to ask the personnel committee to present this request to the principals and administrators was tabled for further discussion.

Board member Mark Dehnert said that the board needs to be careful in making this request because the low end of the administrators’ salary should not fall below the highest teacher salary. Because being an administrator requires more hours and responsibility, Dehnert said, “I don’t think it’s really fair to have them take less pay than if they were teaching.”

Board member Donna Williams was critical of the motion.

“I’m a little perplexed how this appears on an agenda at this eleventh hour. I think if we had an issue with this, it’s certainly something that could have been shared among all of us in executive session or by private, confidential memo,” Williams said.

The board passed new academic guidelines that suggest new target ranges for class sizes in grades K-8. Class sizes would be 19-25 students per class in grades K-2, 20-25 students per class in grades 3-4 and 23-28 students per class in grades 5-8. Superintendent Dr. Marsha Hurda stated in response to several comments that these guidelines are in line with existing class sizes.

Parent Brenda Johnson expressed her displeasure with the existing class sizes.

“My daughter is in sixth grade and she had 26 kids [in her class] this year,” Johnson said.

The board also passed resolutions 2011-13, 2011-14, and 2011-15, which outline elimination of teaching positions in the K-4, 5-6 and 7-8 grades respectively. There will be five positions cut in grades K-4 and two in grades 5-8, which will save the district approximately $580,000 in salaries and benefits.

The issue of redistricting was brought up in multiple public comments. Ciresi said that while redistricting is an option, the process cannot be done quickly because it is a very extensive process.

“We could not redistrict that fast even if we wanted to,” Ciresi said.

During open comments, board member Thomas DiBello pointed out that the district is facing difficult times. He said the district has gotten calls from district residents who no longer have children in the district and who do not have children, and that residents are saying they cannot afford a tax increase.

“When 60-70% of a budget is salary, there are not a lot of places to look,” DiBello said. “We are required to have a balanced budget. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who’s sitting in these seats. They would have to be making the same decisions, because there’s no money.”