Posted on 05/05/2010 11:08:54 AM PDT by Sybeck1
DeSoto County schools to make 'drastic cuts'
District will trim salaries; 40 fewer teachers in class
DeSoto County Schools employees will see smaller paychecks next year, and 40 fewer teachers will fill classrooms under sweeping cutbacks announced Monday by the state's largest public school system.
"These are tough times for DeSoto County schools," Supt. Milton Kuykendall said in an afternoon news conference. "We're having to make some drastic cuts."
Altogether, the plan will trim about $17.7 million from the fiscal 2011 budget to offset a reduction from $133 million to $122 million in Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding from the state.
Kuykendall said the district also is coping with mandated but unfunded teacher pay raises of $1.5 million and $3 million in operating costs for three new schools set to open in the fall.
In total, that means about $23 million less this fall than in the current fiscal year while dealing with a projected enrollment increase of about 500 in the fall.
Kuykendall said 85 percent of the budget is salaries, so that's the category taking the biggest hit to avoid a tax increase.
"Basically, every employee in DeSoto County will make less next year than they make this year," said Kuykendall, who met with principals Monday morning to outline the plan.
Principals and teachers will take an average 4.2 percent cut.
As for a reduction in teachers, Kuykendall said he believes most of the 40 slots to be vacated can be made through attrition, though some teachers will lose jobs.
The reduction in teachers will likely raise teacher-to-pupil ratios, which had been lowered from 28-to-1 to about 22-to-1 in some cases, and will be evenly distributed among schools.
"Our hope is that state revenue fortunes will improve next fiscal year," Kuykendall said.
"I'm feeling very sad," said Michelle Kinggard, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade gifted students at Olive Branch Middle School. "I think our leadership is doing the best they can to deal with the hand dealt us by the state, but it's a sad day."
Kinggard said teachers knew there would be some cuts but didn't know what they'd be.
"Most teachers are concerned about their jobs and salaries, but our biggest worry is the students and the effect this will have on them. I go to work every day because I love my students."
— Cuts outlined Monday include:
— Eliminating 22 administrative positions.
— Eliminating 50 teacher aide positions and reducing their workdays to 180.
— A cutback in gifted teacher positions.
— A cutback in vocational teaching positions and reducing their workdays to 190.
— Reducing the salary scale of local teachers by 4.2 percent.
— Reducing coaching/activity supplements by 10 percent.
— Eliminating the KIDZART program.
— Delaying new textbooks.
The district, which will have 40 schools this fall with about 37,000 students, will also hold special education funding to the 2010 level, and new employees will be required to pay for their own background checks.
— Ron Maxey: (901) 333-2019
© 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
MS ping
4.2 percent cut is not really much.
Take a look at what’s happening in the private sector. Most companies are completely dropping 401k matching and other benefits.
Govt jobs from the top down are way out of line as far as compensation.
Where I work there have been no raises since 2007, and very slight ones that year.
LAst year, my wife took a 10% pay cut, followed by another 5% cut later in the year. Also the next 18 months, no money goes into her retirement, so the next 18 months don’t count toward her retirement.
It could be worse for your wife.
You (her) should be able to make individual contributions to your 401k or your IRA over those 18 months. I’m in the private sector and we dropped matching so any retirement contribution is strictly up to me. This is unfortunately very common in the private sector.
I’m sorry about her reduction in pay...but am so thankful she still has a job!
May I ask...did any stimulus money find it’s way there to “save” teaching jobs? Out here...in OR...the stimulus money “saved” teaching jobs. Of course, we are a blue state, so I don’t expect that MS got as much money as we did. And...the stimulus money to the states is about to run out.
Whatever will we do? lol
That’s what I figured. I had heard the red states didn’t do well in that department, but I wouldn’t worry about it. Oregon, and other blue states especially, are about to have the shock of their lives. They are going to have to cut government employees, and their budgets. That kind of thing is most definitely not in their DNA!
You know, it is sad that people in the private sector have been hit as hard as they have. It still does not make teachers losing their pay okay. Teachers that I know spend sooooo much of their own money for students who don’t have supplies, bring their lunch money, and for what they use to teach with. This year especially, my friends who teach have taken on such a burden with all the influx of students from neighboring counties who are behind academically. They are responsible for these students just like they are the ones who have been in DeSoto County for years.
I assure you if you had to deal with what they have to deal with, you would consider their job worth something. People in the “private sector” work hours so long and often leave their children to other people such as daycare providers to do homework, read with, and even more. Often these hard working parents who are working sooooo many hours NEVER work with their children, read to them, or spend any time at all with them. This is the reason teachers have to spend so much time catching children up. So you might want to volunteer some of your time in a school before you decide teachers don’t deserve the pay they get, and before you decide their job is no different than anyone else’s.
FYI. You seem to think that teachers get a lot of “government benefits.” I know several teachers who cannot even go to the doctor when they are sick, because the insurance the state provides has over $1000 for the deductable and even then it rarely pays. My friend had a baby, NO MATERNITY LEAVE. After her 5 sick days ran out, they divided her pay by the number of days she works and took that fraction out EACH DAY. She owed them money for insurance when she returned to work. Teachers get state retirement, and contrary to what the public believes, they do not get paid for staying home in the summer. They get their pay divided by 12 in order to get paid in the summer FOR WORK THEY HAVE ALREADY DONE.
So to the man whose wife “still has her job,” you better make sure you keep yours, because you will not be able to retire on what her retirement will be. Hopefully you will make more than her, because with her pay going down, someone has to support you two.
Hopefully you can get health insurance if you lose your job, because it will cost over $1000 a month for her to add you on to hers! You make sure you have your own retirement or you and your wife will be working way past 65.
Well, not trying to be cold snoopy but facts are facts. Average teacher salary in the state of Texas is slightly over 42K per year. Considering they only work 9 months out of the year for that 42K they are very well paid indeed. As far as the deductible, well I have to pay for my health insurance and the deductible is 1k also. Now let’s talk about job security. It’s true some teachers can end up losing their job but they are many times less likely to end up unemployed than someone not working for the government. Also one last statistic is that 50% of the people working in public education are NOT teachers. Can you imagine a major corporation employing tens of thousands of workers where half the employees were managers? Only Government can create this kind of inefficiency.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.