Cave Creek Unified slashes 87 positions
Fate of administration still unknown; board hopes to
keep cuts out of classrooms
North Scottsdale Independent 4/22/2009
By Dave Casadei, Independent Newspapers
More than 80 veteran Cave Creek Unified School District teachers received their walking papers April 14 on the heels of one of toughest decisions the district’s school board has ever faced.
“ The meeting went as well as anyone could have hoped being that over 80 certified staff members were notified within the past week that they would likely not be offered a contract for next year,” CCUSD school board member David Schaefer said. “It is tragic that we are forced to not only reduce certified teaching positions at such a magnitude, that we are also forced to reduce by seniority rather than performance.”
Officially, 87 staff members from CCUSD’s certified personnel were told their jobs were not going to be renewed. Cuts were made to comply with state statutes, which require school districts to notify their teachers by April 15 whether they are guaranteed a job for the next school year. State legislators, however, have not told Valley school districts exactly how much, or in this case how little, each district will receive because the Legislature is not required to complete its 2009-10 fiscal budget until June’s end.
The issue has caused an already tough task to be even more vexing.
“I am frustrated that we are halfway through April and
we know little more than we did over two months ago
with regard to our funding,” Mr. Schaefer said.
“ We are forced to wait for some budget certainty as we play with our employees’ lives and deliver reduction-in-force notices and nonrenewals based on arbitrary deadlines. With regard to the myriad statutes, legislative processes, policies and budgetary formulas we have to contend with, as a state we couldn’t make this a more confusing mess if we tried.”
Mr. Schaefer said the board has tried since January to involv e many varied groups and individuals in the process of identifying potential areas to cut, and then prioritizing those cuts. He said CCUSD has transitioned to a tier system similar to other districts to segment and further prioritize items.
“During the discussion on item 5.3 (regarding future administration decisions) the governing board basically agreed that we need to re-prioritize the items as our thoughts have continued to evolve as we have learned more,” Mr. Schaefer said.
The first-term board member plans to focus on moving the process along as timely as he can, and to put the classroom first.
“ We need to reduce overhead proportionately more than student-facing areas, to cut enough out of overhead to be able to avoid cuts to physical education and specials programs, to minimize any increases to average class sizes, to retain sufficient counseling staff and to restore some funds for curriculum so we can reinvest in our product,” he said.
“Going forward, we need to spend more time understanding the inevitable trade- offs before us. I do not believe we can continue to afford to operate eight schools. Consolidating middle schools directly impacts the least number of students and optimizes our remaining facility utilization.”
The savings can be re-deployed to the classroom, he added.
While Mr . Schaefer believes pay cuts are dangerous because there is no assurance to recover funding reductions when the economy improves, he supports finding ways to raise revenue through fees and other means. He also had a parting shot for state legislators.
“It is a little disingenuous for state officials to imply that local school districts have the control to manage and organize their districts according to the community’s wishes when they continually underfund, limit our local revenue raising capability, and require that we compete with charter and private schools on an uneven playing field,” he said.
CCUSD administrators expecting to be cut received a reprieve during the April 14 meeting. But for how long is another question.
“ We decided to hold off on any decisions because we don’t know anything more from the Legislature,” said Dr. Debbi Burdick, CCUSD superintendent. “Everything we’ve heard they’d be doing would be speculative. So we’ve decided to discuss what we know at a minimum to start the process.”
Potential cuts still looming include eliminating assistant principal secretaries and the district’s public information officer, reducing school facilities and construction budgets, and laying off suppor t staff from various departments.
The next CCUSD Governing Board meeting will be 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 28.