Tata's budget plan would cut jobs but not teachers

RALEIGH -- Wake County public schools Superintendent Tony Tata today proposed a new spending plan that would eliminate more than 200 clerical and administrative jobs but would spare teacher jobs and calls for teacher bonuses, some smaller class sizes and other education initiatives.

Tata’s budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year is based on the state Department of Public Instruction’s projection that Wake will lose $40 million to help close a $2.4 billion state revenue shortfall.

“It’s very realistic that we will be able to implement this budget,” said Tata, who started as superintendent of the state’s largest district on Jan. 31.

If the financial assumptions work out, Tata says, his budget would protect teachers and classrooms while making schools educationally attractive enough to families that they’ll be in high demand.

Tata would avoid laying off any teachers or teacher assistants by using the $28 million in one-time money that Wake received last year as part of a federal bill to save education jobs. The funding would save 550 jobs in Wake.

The federal funding also will allow Wake to reduce class sizes in grades 4 and 5 by one student and to keep all of the district’s pre-kindergarten classes. Wake had expanded its pre-kindergarten program using federal stimulus dollars that are set to run out this year.

But Tata acknowledged that Wake will have to figure out next year what to do when the $28 million in federal jobs money is gone.

Tata also proposes spending $6.2 million to give all 9,000 of Wake’s teachers a one-time bonus of up to $500, after taxes. Some of the bonus funding comes from a $2.7 million fine in a cigarette tax fraud case. Fines in criminal cases go to school districts in North Carolina.

It would be the first bonus or raise that Wake teachers have received in several years.

“That’s a values statements that I value teachers and all they do,” Tata said.

Tata said one of the goals of the budget is to give schools the resources they need to be in high demand by parents. He said that would help as part of a school choice plan for student assignment that a task force is working on developing for the 2012-13 school year.

To make schools more attractive, Tata is proposing several initiatives:

— Providing $1.6 million for 33 teachers to offer foreign language at every middle school. Schools have cut back on foreign language because of budget cuts.

— Providing $900,000 to keep 19 teachers at five underenrolled elementary schools, including Hilburn Drive, Jeffreys Grove and Root. Staffing is normally based on enrollment, but Tata said the schools would get more teachers than they would normally receive.

— Providing $450,000 to allow six elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools to apply for starting new technology or international studies programs. Tata said priority probably would be given to underenrolled schools.

In an effort to make sure school seats are being efficiently, Tata said he's reviewing whether to recommend converting several undernenrolled year-round elementary schools back to a traditional calendar for this fall. The examples he listed are Rand Road, Lake Myra, Alston Ridge, River Bend and Timber Drive.

The budget also calls for adding an additional 760 alternative school seats. Options include setting up programs inside elementary, middle and high schools.

But Tata’s budget also calls for cutting jobs as part of an effort to make the school district more efficient.

Tata said this includes eliminating 46 Central Services positions, 26 of them now filled. Central Services covers a variety of positions not based at schools.

“We had to make some tough cuts,” Tata said.

The biggest share of job cuts would come from the loss of one clerical position at each of Wake’s 163 schools. This is based on the assumption that the state will not completely make up the $35 million in federal stimulus money legislators used last year to cover support positions in Wake.

David Neter, Wake’s chief business officer, said they’re also anticipating losing some state funding for assistant principals. But instead of layoffs, he said they’d probably cut the amount of months that individual assistant principals are working.

Tata said that more jobs could be eliminated after he receives an outside audit looking at Wake’s organizational structure. The audit is being conducted free by the Broad Superintendents Academy, which trains non-educators like Tata to become superintendents.

While anticipating a state cut, Tata isn’t asking for any increase in funding from the county commissioners. With Wake projected to gain an additional 3,300 students this fall, Neter said Wake would see a $52 drop in per-pupil funding to $2,056 per student.

The budget now goes to the school board for its review and approval. It would then go to county commissioners, who’ve indicated they’ll likely continue to keep the school district’s funding at $313.5 million instead of making cuts as they expect to do with other parts of the budget.

But ultimately it comes down to whatever the state decides on for the budget. If the cut is more than $40 million, Wake could be in line for some tough choices when modifying the budget.

“We’re well prepared, but we feel we’ve have to make some adjustments,” Neter said.