The largest chunk of many school district’s budgets, personnel, also is the most daunting.

“It’s always hard to cut personnel,” said Muskogee Public Schools Chief Financial Officer John Little. “You can’t touch teachers contracts for the year. If there is a reduction in force, it would have to be support personnel or administration.”

However, districts already are finding ways to cut personnel costs, primarily through attrition.

Muskogee Public Schools is offering longtime teachers a $19,200 incentive if they retire early, said Jim Wilson, assistant superintendent for support and personnel. Tahlequah Public Schools might consider its own early retirement incentive.

Wilson said the Voluntary Separation Plan, or VSP, offers retiring teachers an additional $400 a month for 48 months if they tell the district before Dec. 18 of their retirement plans. The retired teachers also are to volunteer to help at a school for five days a year for five years.

When Muskogee schools faced a tight budget in 2004, about 25 Muskogee teachers took advantage of a voluntary separation plan, Wilson said. Experienced teachers were eligible for $7,200 more per year in retirement if they applied before a deadline. Several of those retirees now teach at Hilldale, St. Joseph Catholic Schools or other schools.

Wilson said he believes the VSP from 2004 helped Muskogee cut costs.

Tahlequah School Superintendent Shannon Goodsell said that as the year progresses, the board might consider offering retirement incentives for longtime teachers.

“I do not know if it is a profitable venture or not,” he said. “You can replace a veteran teacher with an entry level teacher and save money.”

But there’s a downside. Districts get more state aid with veteran teachers, he said.

“You can’t be selective, you roll the dice on who will take advantage of the early retirement,” he said.

Fort Gibson School Superintendent Derald Glover said officials there are trying to cut costs in other areas besides personnel. He said about 85 percent of the district budget goes to personnel.

Glover said he feels confident about not having to cut into personnel as long as state cuts are no deeper than 5 percent or last more than two years.

“If we can’t handle personnel through attrition, we have a reduction in force policy we follow,” he said. “If state cuts continue for more than two years, everything will be on the table.”

Some schools, however, already have had to cut personnel in 2009.

At an April meeting, the Okay Board of Education voted not to rehire its band director or girls basketball coach because the district faced a potential 9 percent cut in state funding, Superintendent Mickey Igert said at the time. Igert predicted the reduction in force would save the district $70,000 in personnel costs.

Earlier this week, Igert expressed more confidence in the school’s budget and state funding.

“If it doesn’t get any worse, we’ll be OK, but who knows what’s going to happen with revenues,” he said. “We always plan for the worst and hope for the best.”

Igert said the district received about $1.8 million in state aid this year.

In the meantime, “We’re trying not to spend anything but grant money,” he said. “And our athletic program is paying for itself. But at this time, we’re expecting no cuts in personnel.”

Earlier this month, Gore Public Schools cut 11 support positions, mostly in maintenance and food service. In September, the cash-strapped district adopted a four-day school year.

Some area school officials aren’t sure what future the state budget holds.

“If I can predict what will happen, I need to be in the stock market,” Goodsell said.

“The Legislature has the rainy day fund to assist schools, but from my perspective, it’s raining,” he said. “There’s got to be a happy medium somewhere.”

A potential early retirement program aside, Goodsell said Tahlequah schools will not have any reductions in force this year. He said TPS was able to add $35,000 for extra duty stipends by cutting back on other expenses such as energy costs.

“We implemented a utility management plan,” he said.

Muskogee, Hilldale and Fort Gibson schools also have implemented energy savings plans.

“As far as staff members are concerned, we are cutting through attrition,” Goodsell said. “We have to take a serious look at each opening and ask, ‘Can we fill this position.’”

Even with deep budget cuts, this year’s teaching jobs “are not in jeopardy,” said Oklahoma Education Association President Becky Felts.

“What we want is legislative responsibility to fund education,” she said. “Belts are being tightened as much as they can.”

Felts said teacher contracts protect them from layoffs, called RIFs for “reductions in force.”

“What we see in times of budget cuts is support personnel being cut,” she said.

As support personnel get cut, teachers find themselves taking on support duties, including minor custodial duties and driving buses, she said.

“There are places who look for teachers who also can drive school buses,” Felts said. “With teacher pay in Oklahoma, teachers are having to take extra jobs and driving a bus is what teachers often do.”

Wilson said administrators had to pitch in and do substitute teaching when MPS had its funding crisis in 2003 and 2004.

“We would ask principals if they could substitute for other principals,” he said.

Principals also substituted for absent teachers, he said.

He said he and Derryl Venters, now assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, sometimes substituted for absent principals.

He said principals will be asked to do some substituting for absent teachers this year.

State Superintendent for Public Instruction Sandy Garrett said she expects the 5 percent funding cuts to continue until the first of 2010.

“The entire state revenue is down, but we also have stimulus money, but the stimulus money is only used for specified things.”

Garrett said that had the state not received the federal stimulus money, the state could have lost “well over 4,000 jobs in teaching.”

“We expect another round of stabilization funds, but not enough to meet the needs that I see,” Garrett said. “Budget revenue is down in all areas. Corporate tax is down, oil and gas is down, sales tax is down. It looks very gloomy. It is a very difficult time to balance the budget.”

“The superintendents are all hoping on 5 percent, but most CFOs and economists are expecting a 10 percent total cut for the year,” said John Little, chief financial officer for Muskogee Public Schools. “The last two months, we’ve had 5 percent cuts in state aid.”

Little said the latest letter the district received from the state said more than 5 percent will be cut from state aid for the coming month.

“I don’t know if that means 5 1/2 percent or 8 percent or 10 percent,” Little said. “I’m being optimistic, hoping things will turn around in January.”

However, even if the state economy improves, Muskogee faces a double budget hit over the next few years.

MPS received $1.6 million in federal stimulus money, mostly for special education and Title 1, a federal program to boost education for disadvantaged students. However, the funding, to be allocated in two installments, ends in 2012.

Also in 2012, MPS no longer will get Title 1 funding for its full-day kindergarten program because state law will require all Oklahoma schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Little said the end of Title 1 kindergarten funding could cost the district almost $1 million a year.

In June, Little said the school hoped to build a fund balance of $2.5 to $3 million.

The district began soliciting suggestions on how to cut spending, including going to each school and putting a suggestion list on its Web site. The list included suggestions that had been proposed in past budget crises in the 1990s and 2003.

Little said MPS will solicit more suggestions at a public meeting set for early November.



Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email