The Parent Network is a non-profit organization, serving parents of Kyrene Elementary, Tempe Elementary and Tempe Union High School Districts.
They are providing us with critical district budget information that will affect our children beginning next school year. We are sharing this information with you so that parents are not caught off guard with the changes in our schools.
There are many updates. The Parent Network is suggesting that if you do not have time to read through all the updates, you may want to concentrate on the first three major changes listed below facing the Kyrene Elementary School District. There are also additional details provided in the attachments. We realize the following is a lot of information, but we wanted to pass it along to our PTO network. Also, at the end of this email is a list of upcoming meeting dates, so if you are interested in learning more and/or having a chance to ask questions of District officials, this is your chance.
Total M&O Budget Reduction/Deficit for 2011-2012 = $5.3 million
(In other words, $5.3 million needs to be CUT from the budget for the upcoming school year)
Proposed Reductions or Cuts for 2011-2012
1. Raise Class Size (lose teachers) grades K-3: increase by +2 students, grades 4th-8th: increase by +1 student
SAVINGS: $1,350,000
2. Change 4 middle schools start time to 9:00am. [PUEBLO, Akimel A-al, Centennial, Kyrene Middle School] (lose 14-15 bus drivers)
SAVINGS: $540,000
3. Change grades K-5 Specials [includes music, PE, art & library] (Note: library will now be considered a special in the rotation and be the same at all schools)
Current Specials Scheduling in Kyrene Schools:
· PE- twice a week for 30 minutes each
· Art- once a week for 40 minutes
· Music- twice a week for 30 minutes
· Library- varies among schools
THERE ARE 3 OPTIONS FOR THE GRADES K-5 SPECIALS SCHEDULING CHANGES:
OPTION 1:
Music, Art, PE and Library will be ONCE a week for 50 minutes each.
Teacher Hours-
· PE teachers go from 25 to 17.6 hours
· Music teachers go from 24.3 to 16
· Art teachers go from 15.6 to 17.6 hours
· Library goes from 19 to 17.6 hours
(total loss of teachers: 13.5)
SAVINGS: $756,000
OPTION 2:
Music, Art, PE and Library will all be ONCE a week for 45 minutes each.
Teacher Hours-
· PE teachers go from 25 to 16 hours
· Music teachers go from 24.3 to 16
· Art teachers go from 15.6 to 16 hours
· Library goes from 19 to 16 hours
(total loss of teachers: 19.9)
SAVINGS: $1,121,120
OPTION 3: (Hybrid)
PE stays like it is – twice a week for 30 minutes each
Music – once a week for 30 minutes each
Art stays like it is – once a week for 40 minutes each
Library would be once a week for 40 minutes each
Teacher Hours-
· PE teachers stay the same at 25
· Music teachers go from 24.3 to 16
· Art teachers go from 15.6 to 15.5 hours
· Library goes from 19 to 15.5 hours
(total loss of teachers: 11.9)
SAVINGS: $666,400-$722,400
4. District Office Reductions includes reduction in positions, budget & benefits
SAVINGS: $600,000
5. Prevention Services: Loss of Prevention Specialists at KMS & Centennial and Loss of Social Workers (from 4 positions)
SAVINGS: $220,000
6. Limit on Substitute Budget (not benefits)
SAVINGS: $500,000
7. Elementary School Gifted Program: combine 4th and 5th grades (already being done at some schools)
SAVINGS: $250,000
8. Grades K-3 IA Allocation – 15% reduction in allocation (pertains to use of aides)
SAVINGS: $150,000
9. Transition additional campuses to contracted custodians (will retain those long-term custodian employees. Note: some campuses already use contracted custodians)
SAVINGS: $120,000
10. Resource sharing among schools (for example, if a school needs 20 more desks, a search would be made throughout the district to find these, rather than order new ones)
SAVINGS:$75,000
11.Changes Temperature Settings for Heating and Cooling (raise in summer, lower in winter)
SAVINGS: $62,000
12: School Budget Reductions (includes non-personal budgets by 5% and change in allocation based on differentiated needs-based model)
SAVINGS: $141,000
13: Substitute Costs (eliminating stipend and require administrators to substitute)
SAVINGS: $40,000
14: Maximize Capital Override (some expense in personnel in technology will be shifted to Capital Override)
SAVINGS: $260,000
TOTAL SAVINGS: $4,874,000 - $5,329,000 (rounded to nearest $1,000 range because it depends what option is chosen for specials)
Additional information from last Kyrene Governing Board Meeting provided by The Parent Network:
Last night (4/26), at the Kyrene Governing Board Meeting, a list of 40 teachers to reduce in force was given to the board to approve. The meeting lasted over 4 hours and at the end of the meeting, the vote was to approve.
K to 6th grade: 27
7th -8th grade Language Arts: 2
K to 8th grade PE: 5
K to 8th grade Music: 5
K to 8th grade Art: 1
Under the budget agenda item there were approximately 15 speakers from the audience. (Note, this is Sandy Lowe's summary.)
· 4 Cielo parents in support of the Hybrid specials model
· 2 Librarians supporting Library as a "special" and consistent at all schools
· 2 social workers/prevention specialists supporting keeping these critical services at Centennial and KMS
· 3 PE teachers supporting the Hybrid specials model. One suggested a revenue generating idea of collecting a small amount of money from families to offset cuts.
· 1 classroom teacher supporting the process of the sub-committee made up of teachers, who brought recommendations to the K-8 committee regarding the Specials options
· 1 KMS parent asking for process involving shareholders in the community begin earlier than late April.
· 1 parent who was asking questions clarifying reasons for changes and offering revenue enhancement solutions as a possible alternative to cutting programs.
· 1 community member asking for consideration in providing more information about possible changes earlier in the year.
What's Next:
May 3rd at 4:30pm at District office:
K-8 program committee meeting with the governing board to discuss budget options.
This would be an excellent meeting for parents to attend to understand what changes are being considered and to see how governing members are responding to the proposals.
Kyrene continues to have meetings with school communities:
April 28th:
· Paloma 3pm
· Sureno 3:30pm
· Waggoner 5pm
May 2:
· Akimel A-al 1pm
May 3:
· Sierra 9am
May 4:
· Lagos 3:15pm
· Kyrene District Office –COMMUNITY MTG 6:30pm
· KMS 8:15pm
May 5:
· Estrella 7pm
May 6:
· Brisas 7:15am
May 9:
· Norte 7pm
May 12:
· Centennial –COMMUNITY MTG 6:30pm
