Drastic cuts if school mandate sticks
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on April 15, 2017 11:35 PM
General Assembly-mandated school class size reductions would, for Wayne County Public Schools, mean cutting around 70 positions in art, music, physical education and other areas, school officials said during a Wayne County Board of Education work session Thursday.
The changes, mandated as part of the General Assembly's budget process last year, would go into effect for the 2017-2018 school year. They would require class sizes in grades k-3 not to exceed state funding allotment sizes, which fund teaching positions. In kindergarten, for instance, the state gives counties money for one teacher per 18 students. In first grade that number is reduced to 16, and then upped slightly to 17 in second and third grades.
Previously, school systems were given the flexibility to exceed those allotted class sizes by set amounts in order to use leftover money to fund art, music and physical education teaching positions.
"The assumption is that you use the flexibility in the policy manual to set aside enough teacher positions to cover those ancillary classes that you know you'd like to offer your kids," said WCPS Assistant Superintendent for Accountability/Information Technology David Lewis.
With that flexibility removed, school systems would be forced to take money back from those other subjects to cover core subject classroom teachers.
Positions other than the so-called "specialty areas" could also be cut. Guidance counselors, media coordinators, central office staff and even classroom teachers in grades 4-12 are potentially at risk.
Hiring the new teachers also presents a challenge. Finding 70 new teachers by the 2017-18 school year would be impossible for the district, given the state's pre-existing teacher shortage. And since the mandate is statewide, it places nearly every other county in the same situation, further stretching teaching personnel.
Yet another major issue -- creating space. Construction is a lengthy and expensive project, and while the district is currently undergoing efforts to create more classroom space, those projects will not be complete in time for the coming year. Mobile trailer units would be a solution, but the turnaround on those is still not fast enough, said WCPS Superintendent Michael Dunsmore.
"Even if we know today to get them in here, set up, wired, plumbed, everything we need to do, we're not going to make the first day of school," he said.
Instead, schools will likely be forced to increase class sizes in grades 4-12 drastically to free up space.
A decrease in elective classes could also cut into teachers' state-mandated planning time, which could lead to the state reclaiming funding meant to provide that time. Physical education is also mandated by the state. That puts districts between a rock and a hard place when trying to find funding for what are effectively competing, unfunded mandates.
Arnold Flowers, board of education chairman, said that in passing the mandate the General Assembly had effectively defunded specialty positions while passing the blame on to county officials.
County commissioners have the power to as much as double sales tax which Flowers said could be used as an excuse for the state not funding mandated positions.
"They are balancing their budget on the backs of county taxpayers," he said.
The General Assembly could ease school officials' growing fears by passing House Bill 13, which gives back much of the lost flexibility and would lead to the district needing only 25 new classes. But after passing the House unanimously, that bill has languished in the Senate Rules and Operations Committee for nearly two months.
As for what happens should the requirements not be met, Lewis said his guess is as good as anyone's.
"I have no idea," he said. "But you can see how dire these consequences could be in the worst-case scenario."