How budget cuts will affect Hickory, Newton-Conover and Catawba County schools

If the current state budget is approved, school districts will have to make several changes in how they operate.

Although the new version of the state budget includes $300 million more than an earlier version of the budget, it still has deep cuts, including eliminating funding for school technology.

The budget has not yet been signed into law by Gov. Bev Perdue. She has until Tuesday night to sign it, veto it or let it become law without her signature.

Even if Perdue vetoes the budget, it will likely still become law. According to an Associated Press article, House Speaker Thom Tillis said he was “completely confident” that the five House Democrats and the 68 Republicans that initially voted for the budget would again vote for the two-year budget to override the governor’s veto, if that’s what she chooses to do.

This week, Perdue has been touring the state to get educators’ thoughts on the budget. The superintendents in Catawba County have plenty of opinions, none of them good.

Newton-Conover City Schools

“Even though the Senate put back the TA (teacher’s assistant) positions, they put in a discretionary reversion for the districts,” said Barry Redmond, superintendent for Newton-Conover City Schools. “For us, it’s $852,000. Last year it was $603,000, which was hard enough to come up with. Although it says they’re not cutting people, we’ll be forced to. Politically, it would be much easier if they made the cuts. Don’t make the budget and then tell me to send back almost $1 million.”

Newton-Conover City Schools will likely have to eliminate six teaching positions if this version of the budget is approved, which will be done through retirements or resignations. An instructional coach will also be eliminated, which was funded out of Title 1 and Title II, Redmond said.

The deepest cut will be the elimination of 14 teacher assistants. Two will be people who are retiring, he said. Of the remaining 12, seven will be terminated because of performance and five will be laid off under the school’s reduction in force policy.

“We look at TAs across the district. We look at performance and base it off that first,” Redmond said. “Those five will be the first to be called back if we can hire any more.”

He said there will still be teacher’s assistants in all kindergarten and first grade classrooms, as well as exceptional children classrooms.

An additional position that will be eliminated is the system’s director of technology. Redmond said that position is being cut through attrition. The duties will be assumed by someone else. And although another assistant principal position will be cut in the state budget, the system plans to continue funding the four positions it currently has, picking up the extra position using local money, he said.

What may hurt the worst, though, is the state refusing to fund any technology for any school system.

“That’s like buying someone a brand new car and saying there’s no gas for it,” Redmond said.

He said he’s thankful the Catawba County Commissioners use one cent on the tax rate toward technology in the schools, something they’ve done for the past few years. For Newton-Conover, this amounts to about $180,000.

“Without that, we’d be really hurting,” he said.

Other cuts Newton-Conover City Schools are looking at include:

-$40,000 in at-risk money,

-$28,000 in classroom materials,

-$47,000 in career and technical education (CTE)

-$4,300 for driver’s education. NCCS has not decided if it will be able to pay for the students’ share of the cost or if it will have to charge $45 per student.

NCCS received $624,000 in federal EduJobs money last year. The system still has about half of it left. Redmond is worried about what to do next year, since the budget the legislature is crafting is for two years.

“The state took away all the money for secretaries and custodians last year and this year. They’ve put $700,000 back, but even that is still short. We’ll probably still have to cut two custodian positions, and we’ll combine two secretary positions in the elementary schools,” he said. “We can’t weather more than one year like this.”

Redmond hopes in the short legislative session next year, legislators will adjust the budget. He’s also hoping the economy will have improved between now and then.

Catawba County Schools

If this budget is passed into law, the school system is looking at cutting $178,000 in the central office, said Catawba County Schools’ Superintendent Glenn Barger.

“We’re looking at two positions at central office, maybe more,” he said.

Another 4.5 positions will be cut in instructional support, such as guidance or library staff, as will $789,000 in non-instructional support positions, like custodians and clerical positions. Another 4.5 assistant principal positions will also be cut, as well as $5.1 million in reversions.

Catawba County Schools reserved most of its federal EduJobs money for the 2011-12 school year, anticipating that money would be tight, Barger said.

“We have the APs covered and the custodial and clerical jobs covered with the EduJobs money,” he said. “That money will soften it some, but we’ll still have to do some trimming. And we’ll have more cuts if there’s no more money for next year.”

That trimming will come at the teacher assistant positions. Although it’s not the number of reductions the system was initially thinking when the House presented its budget, Barger said some positions will still likely be eliminated.

In anticipation of that, Catawba County Schools is going to fleet busing for the Maiden feeder district next year, Barger said. The elementary schools in the district would begin earlier and end earlier, allowing the buses to be used for the middle and high schools as well, and 11 buses will be eliminated from use.

Many buses are driven by teacher assistants. Barger hopes that by going to fleet busing, he will help avoid some possible layoffs later on, even if it means shifting some TAs around. It will also help with the transportation money budgeted for the district.

“There are going to be five more days of school next year, and they cut our transportation budget by 10 percent,” he said. “With fleet busing, we think we’ll be able to survive it.”

There will also be no money being allotted for staff training.

Catawba County Schools will have to eliminate a few exceptional children positions, but for a positive reason.

“We have to cut a few EC positions. Some resigned or retired,” Barger said. “Our head count went down. The teachers worked themselves out of a job.”

Barger said he thinks the system will be able to avoid eliminating any teachers due to the budget. He said some teachers may get new assignments, but will likely not be laid off.

“I think there will be enough retirements and resignations, it will work out,” he said.

Hickory Public Schools

System Superintendent Lillie Cox was reluctant to discuss figures for how many positions could be cut, but said there are several areas that she’s concerned about under this version of the budget.

“I have major concerns about losing five workdays and having less money in the transportation budget,” she said.

Cox also expressed concerns about the More at Four classrooms. Under this budget, the pre-kindergarten More at Four program is facing a 20 percent cut.

“We have three classrooms, and I’m not sure if we’ll be able to bring those back,” Cox said, adding that she’s already spoken to the teachers about it.

She called the budget “disappointing,” and like the other two superintendents, said the lack of funding for technology was not in the best interest of the children.

“With technology, you have to maintain it and upgrade it,” Cox said.

There’s another reason money for technology is needed.

“They’re trying to move all our assessments online over the next three years, but it’s an unfunded mandate,” she said.

Hickory Public Schools’ share of the required reversions, under this budget, is $1.2 million.

“They have tied our hands,” Cox said.

In this budget, the system will:

-lose 50 percent of its instructional supplies money

-lose flexibility for how it can move money around

-lose two assistant principal positions.

“Whether I’m here or at Alamance (her new job), we’ll have to cut the budget,” Cox said. “We have frozen any position that doesn’t have to be hired, so if someone leaves, it won’t be filled.”

This includes positions at central office, she said.

Some teacher assistants may be cut, but Cox hopes to avoid that, since the position has suffered cuts over the past two years. And Cox said teachers may leave through attrition, but there will be no layoffs.

Hickory Public Schools hopes to help get through this budget year with its federal EduJobs money, to pay for people’s salaries. However, Cox said that will only get the system through this year.

“There will be some cuts, but it will not be as bad as next year,” she s