Before the end of this school year, Brown County Schools will begin trimming nearly $1 million from the overspent general fund.

The Brown County school board approved the 2017 and 2018 budget recommendations at the May 4 board meeting with an unanimous vote, after a change was made to one suggestion Superintendent Laura Hammack presented almost three weeks ago.

Instead of eliminating one first-grade teacher job at Van Buren Elementary School — leaving just one first-grade teacher in the school — the district will use federal Title I money to fund the second position. That will create two first-grade classes with 14 students each.

“This is a very small class size for that first grade, so what that model deploys is that we abandon the concept of a Title I teacher and we embrace instead the idea that we’re delivering really targeted instruction, which is the best instruction, in a gen ed model, but in a very small class size,” Hammack said.

“The research would say you’re receiving even more benefit in that kind of placement.”

A similar plan is already in effect at Sprunica Elementary School, allowing for three third-grade classrooms.

Next school year, no elementary schools will have a dedicated Title I teacher, who works with students on select skills in a small group. Those will be classroom teachers instead.

At Helmsburg Elementary, Title I money will be used to add a third teacher at the third-grade level, which is predicted to be large next school year.

School board president Stephanie Kritzer, vice president Judy Hardwick and secretary Carol Bowden said they were happy with the revision.

“When we thought they were going to have large class sizes, that was a concern for both of us,” Hardwick said of herself and Kritzer.

“That was a concern of ours, but then Debbie (Harman) stepped right in.”

Harman is the director of student learning and is the coordinator for Title I. Hammack credited Harman and the building principals for coming up with the “creative solution.”

“We think it’s a real win, and we’re excited about some flexibility options that can be deployed as a result of this initiative,” Hammack said.

Hammack presented 16 recommendations to cut about $950,000 from the school district’s general fund in 2017 and 2018 at the April 20 board meeting. She said more cuts could be coming later.

A second presentation for families and school staff took place April 24 at Brown County High School.

Concerns about cutting the number of paraprofessionals and replacing certified teachers in the elementary school preschool classrooms with associate degree teachers were raised by staff and parents.

Kritzer, Bowden and Hardwick all said they agreed with the recommendations, especially after the Van Buren Elementary School first-grade situation was changed.

“It’s so creative, and it shows that our people work together so nicely to come up with a solution,” Kritzer said.

“Any time you’re messing with personnel, you’re messing with people. Judy and I especially have worked in positions with the schools and we know how important those people are and we value them, so we hate to get rid of them and hopefully we’ll be able to find other spots for them.”

Hardwick said the recommendations should not have a large, noticeable impact on the school system.

School board members were aware the budget was facing a deficit. Kritzer said former assistant superintendent, the late Dennis Goldberg, had told them more cuts were going to have to be made to help the general fund.

But the board did not know the specific recommendations until the April 20 meeting.

“This is the time you have to make them, because they’ve got to be implemented at the beginning of school. It gives them time to set everything set up, get everything rolling and move right along,” Hardwick said.

During the meeting, Hammack also addressed a rumor that had been circulating on social media about the school district not intending to use referendum dollars to fund future pay raises for certified and noncertified staff.

Last May, Brown County voters approved a property tax increase of 8 cents per $100 of assessed property value to support the school district and the raises.

“I want to stop that rumor and commit to the community, with our board, that we absolutely appreciate those referendum dollars and could not be more committed to using them how the community expected us to use them,” she said.

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The Brown County School Board of Trustees approved 16 budget reduction recommendations at the May 4 board meeting:

• eliminating 8.5 paraprofessional jobs, spread among schools ($212,500 estimated savings)
• replacing all five certified preschool teachers with instructors who hold associate degrees and reassigning those certified teachers elsewhere in the district ($177,485)
• moving the cost of substitute teachers to the capital projects fund by contracting with an outside company to hire them ($100,000)
• cutting back on outside “professional development” spending, which was $93,600 in 2016 ($60,000)
• discontinuing the Alternative to Homebound program at the Brown County Career Resource Center and eliminating the teacher position ($58,000)
• not replacing a special education teacher/instructional assistant at Brown County Intermediate School who had been serving on an emergency permit ($50,290)
• drastically reducing overtime pay, which was $92,218 through March this school year (at least $50,000)
• switching to Career and Technical Education courses that could be reimbursable by the state, as opposed to offering other, similar types of courses ($50,000)
• not replacing a special education teacher at Brown County Intermediate School who was not going to return next school year ($45,188)
• using Title I federal money to pay for a second teacher at Van Buren Elementary School to create small class sizes in the first grade instead of having a dedicated Title I teacher in that building ($44,000)
• shifting from extended school year services to summer school programming, which is reimbursable ($25,000)
• eliminating a half-time speech-language pathologist job ($22,500)
• cutting additional support that a retired teacher had been providing to the foreign language department at Brown County High School ($20,103)
• cutting back on instructional team leader positions, which are are extra duties for which 16 teachers are paid ($16,051)
• discontinuing the contract for a retired teacher who had been helping to run the district’s website and produce video projects ($12,000)
• eliminating all building technology leader positions, which are extra duties some teachers are paid to do (10,320).

TOTAL PROJECTED SAVINGS: $953,437

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