School budget would cut 90 teaching positions
Shawn Clubb
Of the Suburban Journals
South City Journal

The St. Louis Public Schools intend to cut 90 teaching positions and 100 positions in the central office as part of a financial restructuring plan.

The items were announced recently at a school board administrative meeting when the fiscal year 2005-2006 budget was being discussed. The budget had not been approved by Journal press time.

Harry Rich, the district's chief financial officer, said the district would reduce expenses in part by balancing class sizes. He said some classrooms are overpopulated and some are underpopulated. He said as many as 160 positions could be reduced, but for this budget the district will reduce 90 teacher positions.

This can be done by cutting the number of substitute teachers, Rich said. There are currently more than 200 substitute teachers in the district.Advertisement

"We should be able to do this without any certified teachers losing their jobs," Rich said.

The resulting class sizes would still remain within the Missouri standards for student-teacher ratio, he said.

Superintendent Creg Williams said the administration has done an audit to make sure the balancing is appropriate.

"This is a balancing, not a cutting," Williams said.

Board member Vincent Schoemehl said the district better have the statistics ready to prove it or else the public won't believe the district isn't adversely changing the student-teacher ratio.

Board member Ron Jackson still worried that the class sizes would be increased to the detriment of the students. He said meeting the Missouri standards for student-teacher ratio is fine for other parts of Missouri, but he believes those standards might not be appropriate for St. Louis.

"Urban children do better in smaller class sizes," Jackson said.

Williams said there would be a reduction of 90 positions in the district's 91 schools.

"What we've been faced with is a school district that has over 200 substitute teachers. We have not been meeting our certification requirements," Williams said. "We will see an increase in certified teachers versus substitute teachers and we're still going to need to hire certified teachers."

Williams said the plan would also allow for a school to get an extra teacher when a principal can justify the need. He said it is built into the budget.

Rich said the district could save $6.5 million by reducing administrative and support costs at the administration building at 801 N. 11th St. He said that would include consolidating 100 positions with some of the people in those positions being sent out to work in the schools.

Board member Bill Purdy said 100 positions sounded like a lot of people to lose. He cautioned that the district make sure it doesn't "arbitrarily cut before we know what they do. And we've done that before."

Jackson said he would not want to lose people who contribute to the state deciding that the district remain certified.

Williams said had he joined the district earlier than April, he might have been able to reduce the administrative staff more. He said educators would not lose a chance at jobs in the schools.

"We need help in the schools this year," Williams said. "People who are certified will not lose a job opportunity."

Rich said the district would also restructure some major contracts for savings of $5.1 million, restructure special education at a savings of $2.1 million and otherwise trim expenses. He said the total savings for fiscal year 2005-2006 would be an estimated $22.7 million.

Rich anticipates the district will spend $337 million in fiscal year 2005-2006 and receive $341 million to $342 million.

Board member Bob Archibald commended Rich on the budget proposal, which doesn't require cuts as extreme as had been expected, while still working toward bringing down the district's debt.

Purdy also applauded the proposal, especially noting that it did not call for the closing of any further schools.