Lincoln school board votes for cut to contract days
By Ben Klenppinger

Lincoln County Board of Education members approved cuts Thursday that will slice about $149,000 in expenses from next year's budget.
 
The board voted 4-1 to cut one contract day from all employees including teachers who were scheduled to work more than 180 days. It also unanimously approved shifting about $20,000 worth of an employee's salary from the general fund to the food services budget.
 
The cuts are part of the school board's effort to reduce next year's budget by $500,000 in order to remain on financially solid ground.

Combined with the school board's earlier approval of cutting six certified positions and one classified position from schools across the district, the board has now cut about $445,000 of that goal.
 
The board stopped short of voting for a half-percent pay cut on all employees, which would have saved an additional estimated $100,000.
 
Board Vice Chairman Tom Blankenship made a motion to approve the half-percent pay cut and Theresa Long seconded the motion, but then board members began discussing their options again and a vote was never called.
 
After the board voted unanimously in favor of shifting $20,000 to the food services budget, Blankenship once again motioned to approve the half-percent pay cut.
 
Superintendent Karen Hatter told board members she felt she needed to reiterate her stance against making salary cuts to teachers before they went any further.
 
"The state's stance — and my stance, too — is that to be student-centered, we have to make decisions that do not directly impact our students. Everything in the school district is important. Anything we do will impact them indirectly. But the most direct impact is from teachers," Hatter said. "So I just can't sit here and say, 'let's cut the teachers' salary.' I'll take a cut; I'm sure administrators would take cut, but if we cut teachers salary, we're hurting our ability as a district to recruit and retain high-quality teachers.
 
"We are a PLA (persistently low-achieving) district," Hatter continued. "…We have to have good teachers in that classroom or we're never going to get out of that status."
 
Following Hatter's comments, Blankenship's motion died for lack of a second.
 
Board Chairman Jim Kelley said the board will need to figure out what it wants to do to make the final $55,000 in cuts.
 
It's possible those cuts could be voted on at a special called meeting, which Hatter said will be necessary anyway to redraw next year's school calendar minus the contract day the board voted to cut.
  
Special ed, preschool cuts on the way, too
 
While the school district is cutting the equivalent of seven positions from its budget for next year, state and federal funding cuts are causing substantial staffing cuts for the district's special education and preschool programs, too.
 
Special education director Terrie Ralston told board members she anticipates having to cut six teaching positions and eight classified positions from her budget next year.
 
Ralston said she will also need to cut three days from her speech language pathologists; end stipends to principals, teachers and assistants; cut 183-day contracted classified employees to 180 days; and consolidate students with severe and profound needs into fewer classrooms.
 
Those cuts add up to a total of a little more than $426,000, Ralston said.
 
Headstart Director Jane Berry provided board members with a tentative plan to cut eight full-time positions and one part-time position from her program, due to federal and state funding cuts.
 
Between the special education and Headstart programs, that's a total proposed cut of 22 full-time positions and one part-time position. Including the district cuts, more than 29 positions could be cut districtwide next year.
 
Berry and Ralston told board members their cuts are due in part to the wide-ranging federal budget cuts known collectively as "sequestration."
 
Ralston said sequestration is resulting in a 9-percent cut to disability funding known as IDEA.
 
"I think I could probably save a few positions if they didn't cut IDEA 9 percent," she said. "If the sequestration doesn't occur, then there won't be that many (cuts)."
 
Berry said she expects at least $191,000 less for her preschool budget next year, but a lot is still up in the air because of federal gridlock.
 
"They don't know what the total Headstart budget is going to be until something is resolved in Washington," she said. "It's hard to project until we know how much our Headstart funding is going to be, because that essentially carries our program."