School district explains cuts

Hot Springs County School District #1 held a public informational meeting on Monday evening to explain recent cuts the district has had to make and what we may be looking at for the future.

Superintendent Dustin Hunt began the public meeting by explaining the district had created a budget task force that met throughout the course of the spring to come up with ideas and solutions because of the downturn in Wyoming’s revenues that are affecting districts across the state.

In some ways, Hunt said, we have been fortunate in that our student numbers have remained relatively even over the last 10 or so years. Larger schools are suffering larger cuts. Unfortunately, with smaller schools, a single cut can mean the loss of a program entirely, whereas larger schools have the flexibility to cut, say, a single coach from a program and the program will continue with the remaining coaches.

The legislative representatives were invited to attend the meeting, however, none of them were in attendance. Hunt said he had wanted to give them background on where the district has been and where we are now as well as open the conversation about finding additional funding streams for schools as a whole.

In 2010, an external cost adjustment (ECA) was built into state statutes that are to account for inflation. The ECA has largely been ignored by the legislature, adding to the problems we are in now.

According to Hunt, there has been a 12 percent level of inflation, yet the district has not received the 12 percent ECA to correct the inflated amount.

To that end, the district has eliminated 19 programs or positions over the last seven years to make up for those shortfalls, including:

• Family and Consumer Science Program

• Business education program

• Alternative School program for students struggling to graduate

• Elementary technology special

• Community job coach

• Dropout Preventions Specialist (student advocate, court liaison for students in trouble with the law, family contact, liaison with community resources such as DFS)

• Food Service Director (job duties compounded on business manager, lead cooks in the buildings)

• Curriculum Director (job duties carried by superintendent and administrative team)

• Federal Funds Coordinator (job duties carried by business office)

• Elementary Reading coach (job duties to teachers and principal at RWE)

• Moved from three Instructional Facilitators to one (last one is being eliminated this year)

• Eliminated one Counseling Administrative Assistant

• Eliminated Indoor Track (two other running sports opportunities for students in the year)

• Reduced Professional Development to national conferences that are only funded by federal funds and not state funds

• Drastically reduced Lights On Afterschool program offerings for students primarily due to loss of federal funds

• Eliminated high school photography program (now offered through digital learning pilot)

• Eliminated middle school and high school math interventionist

• Eliminated RWE and middle school reading specialist

• Eliminated the School Resource Officer

This year, the legislature eliminated $600,000 over the next two years, forcing additional cuts.

• Eliminated the high school library position (media and library duties will fall on the teaching staff)

• Eliminated a full high school PE position

• Eliminated half a high school Social Studies position

• Reduced the makerspace options for middle school students

• Eliminated the elementary writing specialist position (creates larger class sizes for specials in grades K-4)

• Eliminated one computer science position at the high school (combined offerings, reducing number of available student openings)

• Eliminated one classroom position at RWE (combining classrooms)

• Eliminated central office secretary position (duties to be carried out by business office and other secretaries)

• Cut $45,000 from the athletic budget, including the loss of five coaching positions, no longer providing any meals to student activity trips, and limiting paid overnight stays. Teams will have to fundraise to provide needed accommodations beyond two overnight stays.

Hunt said the district cannot stop teaching the core subjects. Those will never change, and the key is to keep teaching at a high level and keep the class sizes reasonable.

“I will not make suggestions to cut educators,” Hunt said.

While members of the school board have talked with our state legislators, Hunt encouraged parents, students and alumni to talk with them as well, passing on their thoughts about what was most important about their education in Wyoming, what they enjoyed, what is important, like smaller class sizes.

The school board can pass along the public’s thoughts on education, but it is much more effective coming from the people themselves.

“The future we’re preparing our students for is much more than what we’re facing right now,” Hunt said. “We’re asking more from them and its just going to get tougher.

“We need to ask our legislators to strongly consider other funding sources. The boom and bust cycle is inevitable, so we need solutions to soften that blow. We need to talk about additional funding streams.

“Share your successes, share your students thoughts and what they go to school for. So many programs are the reason some kids stay in school.”

The question arose regarding what the cuts could mean to the future of the Hathaway scholarships and the programs needed to be successful applicants for the scholarships.

Hunt said the district will not be dropping anything on the high school level that will put the Hathaway program in danger. He said some schools are having to use online teaching for Hathaway success, but our district does not want to get to that point.

Another parent asked if there is any federal funding available that could help with our current situation.

Hunt replied the issue with federal funding is the money has to be spent in a specific way. If a grant is received for help with a reading program for instance, the money cannot be used to hire an additional staff member.

Sometimes you may only see three or four students on a full sized bus heading to school and it was suggested perhaps rearranging the bussing could save some money.

While it could be a good idea for the future, right now, the legislature reimburses 100% of travel costs. It has to be used for student transportation only.

The legislature has enacted a transportation freeze, based on the usage by the district over the past three years. Unfortunately, it will not free up funding for any other areas.

Hunt said the district has been proactive in the transportation department, purchasing busses and other vehicles on a rotating basis to ensure none of the transportation is overly dated, so we have no fear about having adequate busses, something that could be a huge hit for districts that aren’t prepared to buy a new bus now that the cuts are in effect.

Can we just move money from one area to another to save programs?

No, unfortunately, state statutes prevent districts from “robbing from Peter to pay Paul”, moving money from one fund to another. For instance, money cannot be taken from major maintenance to hire another teacher.

The district has about a 15% reserve set aside for emergencies. One parent suggested taking 2.5% out of the reserve for this year and 2.5% out for next year, effectively eliminating the 5% cut being forced by the legislature.

Hunt explained that is not quite the way the reserve fund works. Basically, the amount of money in the fund fluctuates throughout the year, being used to pay for things “up front” before grant funding actually arrives.

Additionally, the emergency fund needs to be kept in place for items such as out of district placements, especially for SPED, which can cost upwards of $300,000 per student. Hunt said it is best used for one time expenditures, not things like wages, which are ongoing expenses.