Not ruled out: School holds off on cutting teachers

The Colfax School District has no immediate plans for layoffs for next school year, but has not completely ruled out the possibility, according to Superintendent Michael Morgan.

The district must cut $195,000 from its budget for the next school year, a cut created by income loss in state funding.

That cut totals almost three percent of the district’s $6,549,262 budget for the current school year, according to business manager Reece Jenkin.

After an executive session during the school board meeting Monday, Morgan announced they would not be laying off any teachers at this time.

“We have not made that decision, and at this point we are not planning on layoffs, very clearly,” Morgan said in a later interview.

Certified staff, largely teachers and administration, must be notified of their employment for next year by Friday, May 14. Classified staff will be notified by the last day of the school year, June 11.

Classified staff, employees that are not teachers or administrators, is a separate category which could still see layoffs if the budget cannot be balanced.

Morgan later said they intend to bridge the $195,000 gap with a combination of a line-by-line look at the district’s expenditures and staff attrition.

Two or three teachers have expressed plans to leave the district at the end of the year, he said. Those departures could bring the district as much as $100,000 closer to its bottom line.

Discussion about which programs and services to trim will begin at the board’s May 24 meeting. At its June 14 meeting, Morgan said they will hone in on the suggested cuts.

Citizens can give input on those projected cuts to school programs at the May 24 and June 14 meetings. A final public hearing specifically for the budget will be June 28.

Morgan listed a few ideas for closing the budget gap, including cutting the school’s portion of funding for lunches and increasing student fees for certain programs. Other cuts considered are cutting back on watering the school grounds and delaying replacement of district vehicles.

“There is no intention of (laying off) certified staff but we are hoping for some absorption of staff through attrition,” Morgan said, describing attrition as employees willingly leaving their positions.

Morgan said one unknown prolonging their final decision on layoffs is trying to refine student enrollment projections for next year.

The state doles out funding to schools based on enrollment, and reductions in enrollment will mean less district income and require more budget cuts.