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No school pay cuts, middle schools go to seven-period day
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 |
PINELLAS COUNTY – At a May 29 workshop, the Pinellas County School Board approved shifts in funds so there will not be any pay cuts for the upcoming school year.
This will be possible by keeping bus transportation at a three-tiered system instead of moving to a two-tiered system as planned.
Previously, in order to make the model with no pay cuts possible, the budget team needed to find $2 million more. Postponing the tier shift would save $3 million this year. Although previous analysis assumed moving to the two-tiered system would save money in overtime costs, further study proved that it would take a few years for savings to occur. They agreed the two-tiered system can be implemented later, after it’s more clear where the transportation needs shift due to students attending their close to home schools.
The most difficult decision the board discussed was whether to move a number of assistant principals in the middle and high schools back into the classroom. None of the board members or the budget team wanted to do this because they said these are important positions. As a last resort to balance the budget, the financial team suggested that most middle schools get reduced to two assistant principals and high schools to four.
Deputy Superintendent Harry Brown, part of the budget team, said he has spent most of his career in the county as an assistant principal and this is the cut that brought the most hesitation.
“In my opinion, none of these schools can afford to lose an AP because they’re not sitting there with nothing to do,” Brown said. “We’ve come to the point in the budget where the budget team said we now have to go to a deeper cut within the district, and the superintendent and the board has tried to tell the schools that we’re not going to cut in the classroom. The only way to avoid that was through the administration at this point.”
The board members pushed back, saying some schools have more problems, thus they need more assistant principals than other schools. The original proposal was to cut 16 assistant principals from the middle schools and 11 from the high schools.
“In my mind, this would be the cut of last resort, but we may already be there,” said Peggy O’Shea, vice chairwoman of the board. She said she would support the cuts if necessary and if those positions would be some of the first to be reinstated whenever the district has the money.
Finally the board came to a compromise that it would only cut 13 middle school assistant principals and take money for the extra three positions from the last $1 million found by remaining at a three-tiered transportation system.
Because of this decision, the district may now begin to give teachers their school placements for next year. The district had waited so that any assistant principals who return to the classroom wouldn’t be disadvantaged by having last pick of schools.
The board also decided the middle schools will move from a six-period day to a seven-period day, but the high schools will keep their current schedule. This change for middle school will save money and allow students to take mandated courses such as physical education and a career course, Brown said.
Teachers will teach six out of seven classes a day, which will save the district money, Brown said. The state pays districts money the closer teachers come to teaching 300 minutes a week, Brown said. On the current schedule, teachers have 240 minutes with students; on a six out of seven schedule, teachers would teach 288 minutes, or 86 percent of the time.
The new middle school schedule will add 14 minutes to the school day, but it’s still unclear whether this will show up in the school day.
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Article published on Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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