Amanda McElfresh

amcelfresh@theadvertiser.com

The Lafayette Parish School System will send out email surveys this week to all district teachers to get more input on how to proceed with the proposed 2014-15 budget.

Superintendent Pat Cooper said the surveys will include about four or five questions, and the results should be compiled before the next school board budget meeting, scheduled for Thursday.

"We're just trying to determine what the teachers want," Cooper said. "If they want 33 kids in a class and their bonus, then I need to hear that from them. If they want something else, we need to hear that. We're going to try to get factual data on this."

The district is facing a deficit of about $23.5 million for the next fiscal year, because of a combination of losing about $8 million to charter schools, plus increased health care and retirement costs, along with unfunded state and federal mandates. So far, the school board has opted not to use a part of its nearly $70 million savings account to help reduce the deficit, with members saying they do not want to use one-time money for recurring expenses. The district also has money generated from a 2002 sales tax that has historically been used to pay teachers a bonus check of more than $2,000 per year.

Last week, Cooper and other officials proposed cutting millions of dollars in programs and personnel, including about 300 positions. The board took no action on those proposals, and is instead taking time to review the entire budget and submit their own suggestions for consideration next week.

Board President Hunter Beasley said Chief Financial Officer Billy Guidry has provided a template for board members to make their suggestions. Beasley will collect those through Monday, and then submit them to Guidry and his staff.

"Next Thursday night, we do have that special board meeting, and we will have voting on those items, whether to accept suggestions or reject suggestions," Beasley said, adding that it is still undecided how the items will be listed on the agenda.

Some of the suggestions tossed out last week included eliminating the central office community relations department, discontinuing payments of more than $100,000 to a private law firm for board services, eliminating a $17,500 legal bill from Cooper and reducing travel, dues and subscriptions. Several more ideas are expected to be accumulated before next week's meeting.

"There's a feeling that there are some areas that can still be cut, and before we start looking at the excess reserves or the rainy day fund, let's make sure that we can cut what we can cut," Beasley said. "That's the train of thought. The majority of the board is very reluctant to dip into the reserves, but I have a feeling that if we go through and really scrutinize the budget, there's still going to be a shortfall, but, and I can't say for sure, but there might be maybe less reluctance to dip into some of the savings. We'll just have to see how it goes."

Since April, the board has held five special meetings to review the budget and suggestions from Cooper and the administration, but its only votes have been to not use the fund balance or the 2002 sales tax fund. They have not taken any votes on specific program or personnel cuts. The fiscal year ends on June 30. Beasley said he expects the board to pass a resolution Thursday extending the current fiscal year for the next several weeks, thereby allowing the district to continue basic operations until the final budget is approved, probably in August.

"I don't know where the board's coming from exactly," Cooper said. "I think in most situations, you don't have school boards going line by line...To me, that's a little unusual. I know they feel they want to do everything they can do to keep teachers from losing their jobs, but I still don't think they have grasped the idea of $23.5 million.....We're going to take their suggestions and review them and bring them a revised budget still based on a $23.5 million cut."

Beasley said this year's timeline is later than he would like, but noted that a similar situation happened last year, when the board did not approve its budget until Aug. 20.

"On Thursday night, there's going to be a number of votes going on, but definitely one of them would be to take us into the new fiscal year to pay our bills," Beasley said. 'That's going to be OK. That's not going to be a problem."

Cooper said he is worried about the trickle-down effect from the late timeline. Already this summer, the district has lost some of its teachers to charter schools and other districts, seen at least one assistant principal go to a neighboring parish and lost out on teachers they were recruiting who decided to go elsewhere.

"If you wait until the last minute to hire teachers, you just don't get the best teachers that way. It's going to hurt us tremendously," Cooper said.

Kyla Cormier Ardoin, a former Lafayette Parish teacher, said she thinks the continuing budget debates are having an impact on teachers.

"Teachers are so used to rolling with the punches, because there are always so many changes," she said. "Can teachers get ready? Yes. Is there anxiety and apprehension? Yes."

Ardoin said she thinks many teachers are especially watching to see if the budget cuts will mean higher student/teacher ratios, with 33 students in a class a possibility for some grades next year.

"I'm not saying it can't be done, but it wouldn't be easy," she said. "The principals aren't willing to make any moves on their campuses right now because no one knows what will happen."