[school-discuss] our saga continues in jefferson parish

[mike eschman <meschman@engima.com>]

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East Jefferson News

School Board gets creative in calculations

08/14/02

By Mark Waller
East Jefferson bureau/The Times-Picayune

Jefferson Parish School Board members searched Tuesday afternoon for money to 
curtail a rise in class sizes. And they found it, but only on paper.

Rather than cutting cash for existing services or dipping into dollars bound 
for its reserve fund, the board directed administrators to increase their 
estimates of how much the school system will save under a recent decision to 
eliminate, reduce and combine some teacher jobs.

Superintendent Elton Lagasse was against the approach. "It's a calculation," 
he told board members during a special meeting called to revise a budget 
approved last week. "It's not an additional source of money."

As part of a round of cuts designed to meet rising health insurance costs and 
other growing expenses, the board last week eliminated teacher jobs by 
merging some special-education classes, cutting teachers for students 
learning to speak English and increasing class sizes in upper grades.

In all, administrators said those moves would save more than $5.5 million to 
help patch a budget shortfall of $9 million. They used starting teacher pay 
to calculate the savings, even though teachers in some of the positions being 
eliminated have reached higher salary levels.

School administrators said the conservative estimates gave the district extra 
room in the budget in case enrollment is higher than expected and the 
district has to hire more teachers.

Board members argued that the system's financial planners did not need to use 
such conservative projections of how much money the job cuts will generate 
and said recalculating the numbers could reveal as much as $1.2 million for 
smaller classes.

"I do believe they will save more money" than first projected, said board 
member Julie Quinn, "not because they were being sneaky, but because they 
were being fiscally conservative and responsible. That is a chief financial 
officer's job, to be fiscally conservative and responsible. A School Board 
member's job is to be fiscally responsible, but not always conservative."

Last week, class sizes in middle, junior high and high schools climbed to a 
ratio of 30 students per teacher. Board members wanted to revisit the move, 
however, arguing it hurts learning. So they came together Tuesday looking for 
ways to hold the ratio at 29-to-1. The figure is up from 28 students last 
year.

In practice, a 29-to-1 ratio means more than 29 students in many classes 
because the number includes educators such as librarians and counselors who 
do not work in classrooms.

To avoid the 30-student level, board members first discussed using $800,000 
that Lagasse set aside to fortify the system's shrinking reserve fund. The 
current reserve, at almost $5 million, is an inadequate emergency cushion in 
desperate need of reviving, Lagasse argued.

"We are a school system that is in financial trouble if we do not have some 
semblance of a fund balance to fall back on," Lagasse said, "if, God forbid, 
something happens that is beyond our control."

Board members then looked around for other options.

Member Chris Roberts suggested cutting school-based administrator jobs, a move 
discussed previously. But member Ray St. Pierre argued against it, saying the 
administrators help maintain school safety.

Another idea, to have administrators teach some classes, also drew fire from 
St. Pierre, who said that would be too taxing for those employees.

"We will have ineffective administrators and ineffective substitutes in 
class," St. Pierre said. As a former school administrator himself, he said, 
"I'd tell you to take this job and shove it."

Board member Martin Marino s