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Williams Unified School District faces $125,000 budget cut
Proposed state budget would cut 5 percent from non-classroom spending

Williams High School math teacher Jet Feliciano explains how much money Williams Unified School District could lose if a proposed Arizona state budget is approved. Ryan Williams/WGCN

Williams High School math teacher Jet Feliciano explains how much money Williams Unified School District could lose if a proposed Arizona state budget is approved. Ryan Williams/WGCN

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - Schools in Arizona have already been operating on tight budgets for the last several years. Now, the latest state budget proposal calls for a 5-percent cut in non-classroom spending, which Williams officials say would directly harm students.

"The outside notion that cutting non-classroom dollars would not impact students is unfortunately quite false, and cutting non-classroom dollars that are specifically geared towards supporting the entire educational program and supporting all of students' needs is in fact going to hurt students," said Williams Unified School District (WUSD) Superintendent Rachel Savage.

WUSD Business Manager Melissa Ellico estimates the district would have to cut between $120,000 and $125,000 from non-classroom spending if the proposal is approved. Non-classroom spending areas include utilities, fuel, bus maintenance, food and food service supplies, technology supplies, equipment repair and building maintenance, testing materials, student travel, teacher professional development, and governing board expenses.

Non-classroom dollars also include salaries and benefits for the superintendent, principals, business manager, special education director, transportation director, information technology staff, physical and occupational therapists, speech pathologists, school psychologists, counselors, school nurses, school office staff, maintenance and custodial workers, food service workers and bus drives.

The cuts would not be able to come from classroom spending, which includes personnel costs like salaries for teachers and coaches, supplies like paper and pencils, instructional aids like textbooks and computer software, and activities like field trip fees, athletics and band.

According to the governor's office's proposed budget, "The goals of the reductions are to: reduce the size of school administration, and re-focus the schools on students and teachers."

In his State of the State address in January, Gov. Doug Ducey discussed the reasoning behind his educational budget plan.

"Our goal is simple: To improve outcomes in the classroom for all our children," he said. "That's why I propose to spend not less in the classroom than last year, but more. Right now we spend far too much on administrative costs - on overhead - and that's got to change."

Savage said spending more in the classroom is everyone's goal, but taking funding from other areas is not the answer.

"We can't eliminate a bus route to put more dollars into the classroom, because we would have fewer students that we were able to safely transport to school," she said. "So unfortunately everything is interconnected and it will hurt students to pull even from one specific area."

According to a press release from the Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas' office, Arizona is lagging in comparison to the national average when it comes to per pupil spending. In 2014, the state average for school spending was $7,578 per pupil, while the national average for 2012 (the most recent figures available) was $10,667.

"The dollar-to-dollar comparisons of Arizona expenditures to national averages are truly sobering when we consider how much less our schools have to work with. Our schools are doing a miraculous job in comparison," she said.

Options

At this point, the state budget has yet to be approved, so the education cuts are not guaranteed to happen. WUSD officials said they are still in the research phase of which areas could be cut. They plan to ask representatives from each department in which areas they could reduce spending.

A series of meetings regarding the district's budget are taking place for school staff (last Friday), the governing board (March 6), and the general public (March 27) so district staff can receive input about possible areas to cut costs.

"I see us as in a holding pattern, and I think we need to be prepared for one decision or the other," Savage said. "Obviously it not passing is a decision we can be easily prepared to respond to and that is to keep serving kids in the way that we've been serving them and continue on with our goal of adding to their services instead of constantly cutting to their services. If in fact this cut is passed then the goal will be to have a plan, and the folks that are interested in getting involved will have opportunity."

WUSD has already implemented several cost saving measures in recent years. Starting in the fall of 2014, the district combined the afternoon bus routes at the elementary-middle school and high school to save fuel costs. In the fall of 2009, the district transitioned to a four-day school week with the goal of saving utility costs.

"We've already cut all of these different areas," Ellico said. "We don't have those now to cut again. They were already cut once. I think overall our district has been pretty fiscally responsible to combine positions when we can, to combine responsibilities."

Savage agreed.

"You will find folks are wearing many hats, and we don't have a lot of extra positions or folks around that are not highly needed and wearing many hats," she said.

Ellico said the budget cuts might affect smaller districts like Williams more than larger districts around the state.

"I think from what I've been seeing that bigger districts still have positions like curriculum directors and librarians and RNs for nursing services that they could cut and be where we're at without all of those things already, whereas where we're looking is what's the next level down?" she said. "Because we're small and because we've been consolidating so much, we're looking at stuff that's even harder."

Speaking out

Educators and parents have been speaking out against the proposed cuts since they were announced. More than 200 superintendents across the state recently sent a letter to legislators voicing their concern over the proposal.

The letter stated that the budget proposal reduces funding to districts by about $120 per student.

"The well-being of our State and potential of its citizens is threatened by the failure to adequately invest in the development of ALL our young people," the letter stated. "The proposed reductions, if enacted, will affect student achievement, student health, and campus security. By any measure, the proposed cuts will have an overall detrimental impact on student success, making the mission of educating Arizona's youth even more challenging."

Savage was one of the superintendents who signed the letter.

"There becomes a point where you need to draw a firm line on not willing to decrease basic operations and decrease basic services to students, and unfortunately this proposed mandate is really moving us in the opposite direction that we need to be going," she said. "Our kids need more services, they need more support, and taking away will hurt them and impede our ability to fully serve the students. I sincerely hope that the opposition is heard at the state level."

WUSD's proposed budget will be presented to the governing board on June 24. The board is scheduled to adopt the budget on July 8. Meanwhile, schools across the state will wait to find out if the cuts will be approved.


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