Education Week - May 11, 2022 - 13

Is your district or school planning
to lay off any employees before
next school year?
Yes
10%
director. Trimming those allocations
didn't take much effort.
But what looks like right-sizing to
an administrator doesn't always appear
that way to a parent or a staff
member.
In the Novato schools, Standring
is cutting 30 teaching positions. The
district has seen class sizes as low as
18 students; these cuts will bring the
average to around 24 students.
" We like to say we're the Chevy,
not the Lexus, " Standring said. " We
offer great education, but it's not a
private school. "
Students in Minnesota's Thief
No
90%
River Falls district won't have the option
of learning German next year.
Some students liked online learning,
and the district wants to keep
them happy, but it doesn't have the
financial breathing room to invest in
a high-quality online program, Monson-Ek
said.
*Results show responses from principals and district leaders.
SOURCE: EdWeek Research Center survey, April 2022
And in the Mount Diablo district,
administrators decided to shift students
in the Day School program either
to a county-run program further
away or an online equivalent.
District leaders have tried to be receptive
to public feedback: They decided
to shrink investment in supplemental
music classes for elementary
students, after a public outcry at the
initial proposal to eliminate it entirely.
" It is very difficult to keep cuts
away from the classroom because everything
is pointed to the classroom, "
said Clark, the superintendent. " If I
cut two positions in my business office,
those one way or another are
related to the classroom-they're
paying the employees who are responsible
for manning the classrooms,
or they're paying for the supplies. "
Becker,
meanwhile, would be
thankful just to have a job. The district
has said it will offer to transfer
him to another school, but he hasn't
heard much in the way of details
since then.
He worries even more for the students.
Some have recently told him
they would rather quit pursuing
their education than attend a regular
school again.
" A lot of these guys and girls tell
me our school got them thinking a little
bit better, about why they did what
they did to get expelled, that 'I have a
lot of self-worth, I'm a good person,
I can think better of myself,' " Becker
said. " If this kind of environment
doesn't exist, that doesn't happen for
an entire population of kids who we're
getting. "
To view COVID relief
aid by district:
edw.link/federalcash
According to an analysis prepared
for Education Week by the Education
Commission of the States, bills
currently under
consideration
in
at least three states-Arizona, Colorado,
and Minnesota-aim to tie
school funding to the annual change
in the nation's GDP or the Consumer
Price Index. Advocates in Tennessee
just announced a push for a similar
change.
In the meantime, many school
district leaders say their states aren't
supporting them enough to maintain
the robust services families and accountability
hawks expect.
In Des Moines, Iowa, a 1 percent
year-over-year increase in state education
funding tends to translate
to half of 1 percent of an increase in
staff wages, said Shashank Aurora,
the district's chief financial officer.
The state recently passed a 2023
budget that increases school aid by
2.5 percent, or slightly above the average
increase the state has offered in
each year of the last decade.
The only problem? " If I were to
keep that 1.25 percent increase in
wages, I can't retain employees, I
can't hire employees, " Aurora said.
Instead, Aurora is aiming to raise
staff salaries by 2 percent or 3 percent,
which means he has to cut
$12 million to $14 million from the
district's $470 million general fund.
The district has shed 1,600 students
in the past two years, causing a
reduction in per-student aid from the
state. Aurora and his team have had
to get creative to minimize the pain
of laying off employees.
One approach they developed is
an early retirement offering that allows
senior employees who have
worked a decade or more in the district
to retire early, at age 55.
" The hope is, if you pay them
money and they retire at this amount
that you give them, we can hire
younger teachers at a lower cost, "
Aurora said.
The district is required to pay staff
using funds that come from local
property taxes, rather than the general
fund, which includes money from
state and local sources. Without that
requirement, " Why should I be paying
an employee to retire? " Aurora
said. " If we had the liberty of spending
$650 million the way we want
to versus how it has been budgeted
today, there are some decisions
we've been making which we would
just not make. "
Many districts are bracing for employees
to expect big salary increases
this year, to account for the hard work
they've done to maintain schooling
throughout the pandemic and the
pain their wallets are feeling due to
surging prices of consumer goods.
Eighty-five percent of the annual
operating budget in Minnesota's
rural Faribault schools, where students
of color make up more than
half the enrolled population, encompasses
salaries and benefits.
" I can't tell you how much our
teachers deserve, but they deserve a
lot, " said Todd Sesker, the Faribault
superintendent.
But, the district has a $2 million
deficit, a growing population of English-language
learners who need
costly specialized services, and the
looming possibility of a state takeover
if that deficit doesn't shrink.
" We can only go so far to provide
them with that funding, " Sesker said.
Separating necessary
reductions from painful cuts
Some cuts are no-brainers for districts.
Lois
Standring, assistant superintendent
for business and operations
for the Novato schools in California,
felt no pain excising from this year's
budget $6,000 for magnetic calendars,
or a $30,000 contract for a marketing
consultant.
" I just don't think an ad is going to
do that much of a difference in parent
choice, " she said.
The Thief River Falls district was
outspending nearby districts on maintenance
and administrative salaries,
said Monson-Ek, the district's finance
EDUCATION WEEK | May 11, 2022 | www.edweek.org | 13
Praise for Improvement
Behavior Feedback and Interventions
Discover how to equip your PBIS teams
(Positive Behavioral Interventions and
Supports) and classroom educators
with meaningful, evidence-based
practices to help students achieve
success in all areas of their education.
Learn how district and school leaders:
* Strengthen PBIS in schools to
improve classroom behavior
* Develop teacher and staff
capacity around PBIS
* Deliver effective, regular, and consistent
positive feedback to students
* Connect behavior analytics
with academic, attendance,
and social-emotional learning
data to plan schoolwide and
student-level interventions
School districts across the country
use PBIS to promote school safety,
supportive school climates, and positive
behavior. Studies have consistently
shown that behavior-specific praise
is a powerful method for increasing
positive behavior in the classroom
and for boosting academic success.
MODERATOR:
* PANORAMA EDUCATION
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 2-3 PM ET
https://edw.link/ImprovementPBIS
Content
provided by
http://edw.link/federalcash https://www.edw.link/ImprovementPBIS http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - May 11, 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - May 11, 2022
