Potential Cuts Discussed For Upcoming School Year
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Iowa Legislature continues to debate school funding for the upcoming fiscal year. In the mean-time, school districts are working to certify their budgets without knowing what, if any, budget increases will come their way.
With that in mind, the Oskaloosa Community School Board met in work-session to hear possible solutions to a potential $500,000 budget shortfall for the fiscal year.
Oskaloosa School Superintendent Russ Reiter says there are some potentially tough choices to be made. Reiter said that he hopes to avoid cuts that will impact programs or class sizes.
Salaries, benefits, and expenses associated with staffing the school district accounts for 80% of the general fund balance of 25 million for the district. Overall, the district has a 38 million-dollar budget annually. “Where we are being pinched right now is the general fund,” said Reiter.
“I appreciate the Teacher Leadership Compensation grant we got, but, for me personally, they could take the grant and take it back and don’t worry about the reform efforts right now if they can’t afford regular school education,” said Reiter. “That’s the frustrating part.”
The Iowa Legislature continues to spar over school funding for the 2015-16 school year. The Republican controlled House has passed a 1.25% increase for school funding, but the Democrat lead Senate has called the funding increase “abysmal”. If a compromise isn’t reached, funding for the year will revert to 0%, and the numbers from the state to school districts will remain the same.
Iowa House File 549 is a bill that would allow an arbitrator to find common ground between teacher unions and school districts during contract negotiations. As it currently stands, the arbitrator must choose one side or the other as proposed. Such teacher contract negotiations are now underway in Oskaloosa between the District and the teachers union.
Wisconsin made national headlines in 2011 when they effectively ended collective bargaining for the majority of public workers. In 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the law in a July 2014 ruling. Those conversations are now gaining traction within the Republican Caucus in the Iowa House.
“You know what? If they go that route, would it help us as a school district? Yeah, it would,” said Reiter. “And yet, does it help with moral? Does it help with climate and culture? Not in the least. Because then it pits us against them. We’re all here as educators. We’re all trying to do the right thing.”
Carl Drost, Oskaloosa School Board President, lead the work session this past week, saying, “I think we need to lead the way,” when it comes to looking at the school budget as a whole. “Some of the decisions we make can have long-term effects.”
Drost, who was Board President in 1992, worked with the board and administration that year when a 10% cut to education took place. “And I said I will never sit through another one of these. Well guess what, here we sit,” said Drost.
The work session was a starting point for the board and administration to work on a plan for cutting nearly half-a-million dollars from the school budget for the 2015-16 school year.
