Press Release

Budget Reductions Proposed To Fill $18 Million Gap

Superintendent Bernadette Seick presented a $469 million general fund budget to the Board of Education this week that comes to grips with $18 million in red ink.

"We have worked very hard to avoid changing the heart of what we do - providing the best classroom atmosphere possible for teachers and children to learn," said Superintendent Bernadette Seick.

"Nonetheless," she added, "these budget recommendations are very painful to make. We certainly hope that as state government examines how to spend money raised through Amendment 23 that the district will be given the flexibility we need to maintain these important services and programs.

"We regret having to alarm any member of the extended family in this district, but the gap between revenues and spending is a very real one. This is a budget crisis."

The proposed spending plan now goes to the Board for review. The Board has established a Citizens Budget Task Force to assist in the evaluation of the staff proposal.

The Citizens Budget Task Force will begin its review of the staff proposal Wednesday, December 20. Those task force meetings - held weekly at the administration building, 900 Grant Street - are open to the public. The meetings begin each Wednesday at noon through mid-January.

Among the ideas proposed by staff are:

• Eliminating high school transportation (other than for magnets and special education), $619,000. This would reduce services to about 3,300 students.
• Reducing Gifted and Talented support, $634,000.
• Collapsing three small-enrollment elementary schools into one, $300,000.
• Eliminating district support to Denver Kids, $292,000.
• Reducing Educational Resource Services (video, multi-media library, classroom materials), $234,089.
• Eliminating support for Florence Crittenton, $377,571.
• Reducing from 11 to six the number of sites where Graduate Equivalency Degree programs are administered, $171,560.
• Reducing Curriculum/Instructional Standards, $242,720 (Social Studies staff development, curriculum enrichment, consolidation of support for the Alma Project).
• Reducing support through Psychological Services, Social Work Services, and School Nurse Services, $750,000 total.
• Eliminating one position in the Office of the Superintendent and reducing other accounts, $139,000.
• Reducing expenses in legal services, $122,207.
• Reducing five military science instructors and 50 percent of stipends (reduction of five teachers), $292,000.

The budget given to the Board of Education includes a cost-of-living salary increase of 3.508 percent. The budget includes an unresolved deficit of $6.4 million.

One way to reduce the final portion of the deficit, the spending plan suggests, is to trade off salary hikes with class size allocations to schools. A salary freeze combined with holding class sizes steady would result in a $1 million surplus. Increasing class sizes by two students per teacher and offering a 3 percent raise would result in a deficit of $58,000.

Superintendent Seick said the staff sought to maintain current class sizes to the greatest extent possible. Other guiding principles were to deliver core education, to provide staff development for core subjects, to provide material resources for instruction, run an equitable system, and to maintain choice programs, safe schools and other essential support.

"Your approach has been thoughtful, measured, and aggressive," said Board member Bennie Milliner.

The proposed budget includes a host of new spending, too.

Those include costs for opening new northwest, southwest, and Montbello elementary schools ($696,000), start up for the new Montbello and north central middle school ($203,000), launching a new data warehouse ($2 million), clean and maintain new schools and classroom additions ($1.1 million), and providing for a large increase in health benefits ($5.7 million). Other new costs include $500,000 for use in high priority (low achieving) schools and $100,000 for two employees to boost the district's staff recruitments efforts.

At the same time, an austerity push by district departments this year would add $3.9 million to the beginning balance for next year.

Chief Operating Officer Craig Cook said soaring natural gas prices - which have quadrupled - are a major source of concern.

The budget for the 2001-2002 school year is being proposed now to determine staffing levels so, in turn, schools have a chance to hire the best teachers available. A balanced, adopted budget is not required until the end of June but school staffing determines a very large portion of overall spending. Many unknowns remain - including how the state legislature will ultimately decide to spend money committed by voters through Amendment 23.

"This is very helpful, very well done, and done very early," said Board member Les Woodward.