District 622 School Board Weighs Possible Teacher Pay Freeze Among Cuts, Public Hearing Scheduled

The public is invited to weigh in March 8 on how School District 622 should cut $4 million from its 2011-2012 school year budget.

With a projected budget deficit of $6.9 million in the upcoming school year, the board decided to cut $4 million from the budget, and make up the rest with money from its fund balance.

Following are some of the cuts the district is considering, presented at the Feb. 15 School Board meeting, and how much money they would save:

• Freeze all staff salaries, $1.3 million
• Reduce the middle school activities budget by 5 percent, $14,900
• Re-assign the Enrollment Center duties to other District Education Center departments, $57,911
• Cut the equivalent of 23.05 full time employees, $1.4 million
• Replace all-day kindergarten with half-day, every day schedule, $1 million
• Shorten the elementary school day by 30 minutes or less, $750,000
• Eliminate all middle school activities, $294,000
• Extend the walking distance required to ride the bus to state maximums, $255,000
• Eliminate late activity buses, $75,000

To see the full list of possible cuts, . The list is broken down into Tier 0, Tier 1 and Tier 2 options. The items on the Tier 0 and Tier 1 lists are the ones District 622 administrators are recommending the board cut to reach $4 million in savings, however the Tier 2 list offers alternative options.

Here are some comments on the possible cuts made at the Feb. 15 School Board meeting:

“It’s not an option for me to increase class sizes. We can’t keep asking our students to share a desk.”

—School Board member Theresa Auge in reference to the option to cut the equivalent of 23.05 full time staff positions.

“I think it’s morally wrong for us to tell the public we’re going to balance the budget and force our labor contracts into accepting a hard freeze for something that won’t solve the problem. Even if we’re successful doing that, it just advances the problem one more year.”

—School Board member Steve Hunt on the option to freeze teachers’ salaries.

 “We have teachers out here who are working second and third jobs just to make ends meet. … We have teachers who are feeding their families with food stamps and going on government assistance. … We have teachers who have modest homes which are in foreclosure. Is this best for our students? We can all agree that some cuts are necessary, but a pay freeze for employees is not one of them. It will simply drive away our young teachers and it will make it impossible to recruit the quality staff that our students deserve and are lucky enough to have right now.”

— Rory Sanders, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale Education Association president

Members of the public will get the chance to share their opinions from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8, in the Board Room at the District Education Center at 2520 East 12th Avenue, North St. Paul.