Sitting on the corner of Richard Johns’ desk is a manila folder. The folder, which contains about an inch high of paperwork, is his wish list for the Liverpool Central School District’s 2010-11 academic school year’s budget.
Inside that wish list, LCSD Superintendent Johns outlines his suggestions to upgrade the district’s utilities and facilities. The twist to his wish list, though, is that it doesn’t account for the status of the economy.
“Those are all the things in the district that if we had all the money that we ever wanted to have, those would be things we ought to spend it on,” Johns said about his wish list. “Some of those will find their way into next year’s budget. Even in times when you cut, you have to make capital investments. There is truth to the saying that you have to spend money to make money.”
But in reality, Johns is aware that nearly three-quarters of his anticipated wishes, such as renovating the district’s buildings or replacing obsolete copying machines, may not come true.
As recently as a few weeks ago, Governor David Paterson announced that he would delay the projected mid-year budget cuts in Central New York public schools, which would eradicate $2.3 million from Liverpool’s budget, until the end of the academic school year. The postponement will ultimately amplify cuts for the 2010-11 academic session.
In the meantime, Johns is preparing to make the necessary reductions as he constructs his budget proposal, which is due to the Liverpool Board of Education by Feb. 8. Once the board receives it, they have until April 5 to make any alterations and will vote the final budget on May 18.
“I’m anxious to see what he proposes,” Patricia Mouton, the board’s president, said. “Unfortunately, we will have to face the economic reality as many of our community members and companies have faced. It’ll take a good deal of analysis. I will have a difficult time seeing where cuts hurt the least.”
And the repercussions of Paterson’s decision are already reverberating throughout the Liverpool school district.
Considering that 82 percent of the district’s payroll goes toward personnel, United Liverpool Faculty Association President Sara Daggett is helplessly coming to terms with the fact that some teachers may not return next year.
“We’re all holding our breaths to see what’s going to happen next,” Daggett said. “It’s very uncertain for all us. There’s always a need to take a look at staffing during hard economic times, but unfortunately right now we’re not in a position to do a whole lot.”
But that sense of uncertainty has been gradually building over time. During the past two months, Liverpool administrators, board members and community taxpayers have been decisively divided over topics involving financial spending.
From integrating new technology into the district facilities to agreeing upon a teacher’s contract, disagreements between those parties have become the norm during recent, board meetings.
None of those confrontations, however, will compare to the prospective disputes looming ahead during budget season for the Liverpool district. And Johns is already bracing himself for the impact.
“My team and I are preparing for rather massive cuts for next year,” Johns said. “Over the years, I’ve tried to avoid eliminating things entirely. We’ve already tried to cut back on areas, like field trips, assemblies, and supplies, which are non-personnel. But we’ll have to layoff employees next year. I’m rather convinced of that. I don’t see any scenario where we’ll have as large of a staff next year as we had this year.”
As he searches through the teaching ranks of Liverpool, Johns said that he would look to layoff elderly teachers, who are on the brink of the retirement age, as a first option to trim costs. If those cuts aren’t enough, however, Johns said another alternative would be to pink slip teachers.
Other people, like John Woloszyn, believe Johns should initially strive to trim payroll on the administrative side. Woloszyn, a first-year board member, said preserving teachers in the district should be the priority and that he would continue promote that agenda come budget season.
“When it comes to staff cuts, I’m going to push for equitable staff cuts between those positions that directly affect our students like teachers and teacher’s assistants,” Woloszyn said. “I would like for more cuts in the support services areas like administration and custodial type of things because I think the most important people in our district are those that directly touch our students’ lives.”
To offset those possible layoffs, Johns said he may have to resort to drastic measures and consider combining classes, shifting teachers internally or even condensing the curriculum to shrink by attrition.
The simple mention of latter idea, however, isn’t going over very well with some parents. Gail Clarke, the president of the Liverpool High School Parent Teacher Student Organization, is vehemently opposed to the suggestion and views it as a limitation to her child’s learning experience.
“They have to find another way,” Clarke said. “My son is interested in attending Newhouse in SU, and I can’t imagine them taking out an elective for journalism. As parents, as administrators, as people of New York state, our kids deserve to be educated as best as possible with the best opportunities. You can’t just not educate them.”
And Johns doesn’t intend to do that. Despite the economic recession, he plans to allocate part of his upcoming budget toward implementing a five-year technology plan that would upgrade the district’s equipment, which hasn’t been updated since 2002, and improve education.
The advances include adding multifunction projectors, iPod touches and SMART boards, which are interactive whiteboards, to all 15 scholastic facilities that cater to students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
In addition to those alterations, Johns also plans to replace all the photocopiers throughout the district and said that it’s an investment that could potentially save the district for money down the road.
“We can’t get by with seven-year-old equipment and hope that it doesn’t crash and burn anymore,” Johns said. “The copying machines that we currently have can be replaced by a new generation of machines that run about 16 percent less costly to run than the ones we currently have, so there will be things we’ll purchase just because it’s good business to make those purchases even though we’re buying things.”
But the additional spending will be met with some criticism. One district elementary teacher, who is part of the teacher’s union, said she is frustrated that technology upgrades have taken precedence over teachers’ salaries and opportunities during this economic time.
“Teachers are smarter than these SMART boards,” said the elementary school teacher. “Instead of spending millions of dollars on new programs to teach kids how to read, write, and do math, they should spend that on a teacher and bring down the class size so we can spend more time teaching our kids one-on-one.”
Because of the shrinking enrollment in the district over the past two years, that doesn’t look to be a plausible option for Johns. As a result of the downward trend, Johns and his team created a facilities committee to evaluate all 15 academic buildings in the district.
Woloszyn said the decision came after the district received a report that indicated less than appropriate use of the buildings.
To amend for the discrepancy, Katie Phillips, the assistant superintendent for support services and a member of Johns’ budgeting team, said they are looking into the long-term future of some of the school’s facilities as a means to reduce costs for the budget.
“It always could be,” Phillips said about the possibility of closing down one of Liverpool’s schools. “No stone is being left unturned. We’re really looking at everything we can possibly look at this point, so we’re really going to evaluate if we really need that real estate.”
Those are prospects that Johns never envisioned when he accepted the job to become the district’s superintendent.
Now, nearly five months into his tenure at Liverpool, Johns is already facing the toughest budgeting task of his career.
“No not at all,” Johns said when asked if this compared to situations at his previous jobs. “Certainly not budget wise. I’ve certainly managed things that were difficult on the human side of things, but on the finance side of things this is the most severe I’ve seen. I’ve been in public education for 36 years and I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”
Fortunately for Johns, this isn’t the first time that he’s undertaken a new challenge in the district. Prior to three weeks ago, the superintendent had never witnessed a situation in which a board didn’t approve a teacher’s contract that it initially proposed.
Still, despite the unusual circumstances, Johns intervened in the situation and personally negotiated a three-year contract with Daggett to help the school district avoid a lawsuit.
And with that track record, Woloszyn is convinced that Johns, and elements of his wish list, could ultimately spare the Liverpool Central School District from the potential perils of Paterson’s budget proposals.
“We have a lot of faith in Dr. Johns,” Woloszyn said. “He’s already proven himself to be the superintendent that we expected and needed at this time in our school district’s history. He proved that with his work on the last contract settlement and other situations. We have faith that he’ll give us a real budget that we can live with.”
