School district focuses on cuts

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Weston County School District No. 1 knows that budget cuts are coming. It does not yet know, however, how big the cuts will be and what impact they will have on the district’s 777 students.  During a board retreat on Feb. 17, trustees outlined the facts about the district’s budget and any potential cuts to school funding by the Wyoming Legislature. 
 Trustees are considering various scenarios in school funding cuts from the state, including a proposed reduction in the average daily membership of 6.54%. Such a change in the ADM would result in a loss of $869,793 in School Foundation Program funds to the district. House Bill 89, currently moving through the Wyoming Legislature, proposes about $50 million in additional cuts to education funding. 
“This bill would modify the block grant, eliminate funding for instructional facilitators, reduce student activities funding by 50%, reduce salaries by 10% for superintendents, business manager, principals and assistant principals, eliminate the 2022 external cost adjustment and reduce teacher development days from 10 days to 5 days,” states information provided by the district. 
The cuts would mean a loss of $94,514 for instructional facilitators in the district. Currently, the district budgets $165,191 for this item, which affects the district’s ability to provide professional development. 
To deal with these cuts, the board is considering the following. A reduction of staff development days from 10 to five would save $141,000. Cutting activities funding by 50% would save $198,138. Reducing administrators’ salaries by 10% would save another $34,458. 
The total general fund budget for 2020-21 is $14,826,760.05. Eighty percent of that money is dedicated to salaries and benefits for the 180 district staff. Under the current ADM, the district receives $16,453.02 per student a year. 
WCSD No. 1 Superintendent Brad LaCroix reported to the News Letter Journal that the likely funding model that will come from the legislature will include approximately 23-student classrooms at $15,000 per student, instead of the more than $16,000 per student currently funded. He noted that class sizes vary in the district depending on the school, fifth grade being the closest to the 23-student suggestion, and high school being the farthest away. 
The board prepared a list of ideas generated by staff and stakeholders during the retreat. The list includes eliminating certain staff positions, consolidating teachers between the middle school and high school for certain subjects, providing physical education credit for sports, moving to a seven-period day at the high school, charging admission for events, reducing classroom budgets, decreasing district insurance costs and consolidating sports with other towns. 
“We have been very fortunate,” LaCroix told the News Letter Journal in a follow-up interview about the retreat. “If we want to keep programs that we want, that aren’t paid for [by the state], then we will have to figure out how to pay for them.” 
Looking at the programs offered within Newcastle schools is one of the biggest challenges of looking at budget cuts in a small district, according to LaCroix. 
“When you look at programs you are looking at people. It is just like anything — sports, the children’s center and mental health — if we want those things we are going to look at how to have them differently,” LaCroix said, explaining that with budget cuts and revenue downturns being a potentially ongoing issue for Wyoming, these funding issues will not go away soon. 
“We can’t always look to the legislature. We are going to have to come up with solutions ourselves,” he continued. 
To reach solutions, LaCroix said, it is crucial that the community comes together to look at things as a whole. 
“We can’t be thinking this school against this school,” he said. “We have to look at things as a whole, all of us — teachers, students, parents, the community — all of the stakeholders. We have to work hard and work together.”