BELLVILLE — Teachers in the valley may not get a raise next year due to state funding cuts.
When the Clear Fork Valley Local School board of education met virtually Thursday, district Treasurer Bradd Stevens said he had removed a salary step increase in 2021 from the five-year forecast projections.
“Because we received such a large reduction in state foundation (funding), the assumption of providing a step increase was eliminated from the forecast,” Stevens wrote in the district’s financial report. “This reflects a freeze in salary steps and base (pay) in fiscal years 2021 through 2024.”
Stevens said the “assumed” step increases were not a part of any agreement with the teacher’s union.
“When the contract was settled last year there was a yearly opener on salary only because during negotiations the board and the union could not come to a three-year agreement on salary, but was able to come to an agreement on everything else for three years,” he wrote in an email.
According to the financial report, certified staff received a 1 percent base increase and 2.7 percent step increase in fiscal year 2020, under the current agreement with the teacher’s union.
The five-year forecast does not reflect any decisions made by the school board, but serves as a projection of how the school’s finances might look in the future.
“Nothing has been approved by the board yet,” Stevens said.
District finances were the main topic of discussion at the meeting. Stevens reviewed a new five-year forecast with the board that reflected state funding cuts triggered by COVID-19’s economic impact.
“As you guys are aware, the district’s expenditures have been exceeding revenues for the past several years and balancing the budget’s kind of been a topic since at least May of 2017,” Stevens said. “These recent budget cuts from the state because of coronavirus have just made the issue a little more urgent.”
The district’s state funding was cut more than $295,000 this fiscal year, taken out of May and June payments.
Based on recommendations made to school treasurers, Stevens projected that another $885,000 would be cut from state funding in fiscal year 2021.
“When you combine those two, you’re looking at almost $1.2 million dollars in cuts in state foundation over the next 13 months,” he said.
School treasurers were also advised to cut projected revenue from casino funds to $35 per child, down from from $52.
Stevens said he and Supt. Janice Wyckoff have discussed possible ways of lowering expenditures over the past few weeks.
Wyckoff said she would like to avoid staffing cuts.
“Our goal is really to try to keep people employed. Not to mention we want to offer the best education we can offer our students. Less staff does not make a better education. More staff doesn’t make better education. We’re right in the sweet spot,” Wyckoff said.
Nevertheless, the district may chose not to fill some vacancies in the staff. There may also be reductions in principals’ budgets, and the district likely won’t go through with the planned purchase of a new school bus next year.
The board also discussed the possibility of putting a levy on the ballot in the next few years.
“We’ve talked about this now since I’ve been on the board and we are definitely going to need a levy. I think we can get through this year okay and keep talking about it,” said board member Gary McCue. “I recommend that we forego filing for a levy for this year and give it another year and see what plays out.”
