By Derek Spellman
Globe Staff Writer
JOPLIN, Mo. —
A proposal that would institute a pay freeze next year and slightly reduce starting pay for new teachers is to be taken up tonight by the Joplin School Board.
Superintendent C.J. Huff said the salary schedule that will come before the board will include changes that would reduce the annual starting pay for new teachers with no experience next year from $33,372 to $33,122. That revision, along with an across-the-board pay freeze for all employees, is part of the district’s efforts to reduce spending in anticipation of deep cuts in state funding for the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2011.
“(That year) is what we are concerned about,” Huff said Monday. “So we are bracing for that.”
A couple of weeks ago, Huff said the district planned to use a mixture of layoffs, vacancies and a reduction in capital spending to cut a total of $2.3 million out of the operating budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. The operating budget for the current fiscal year is about $65 million.
Huff said the district plans to reduce its teaching rolls by a total of 14.5 positions, largely at the elementary school level and spread through the elementary school buildings. Eight of those 14.5 positions will consist of layoffs, with the balance to come from leaving positions unfilled.
The district also is to reduce capital expenditures by $1 million this year en route to the $2.3 million goal.
“We’re real close,” Huff said Monday of the overall goal, noting that the district is still “looking for anywhere to save money.” He said he thinks the district has completed nearly all of the personnel cuts.
Randy Steele, president of the Joplin School Board, said the district is planning financially under a worst-case scenario for fiscal 2012.
“You always hope there is a turnaround,” he said. “Until then, we really can’t say.”
The board is expected to take up the budget for fiscal 2012 next month.
In other business tonight, the board is to receive an update on the latest developments in terms of summer school.
Joplin, along with other area school districts, has been in a holding pattern as state lawmakers review different proposals amid a budget crunch. School districts are reimbursed by the state for summer school sessions based on attendance.
Huff said various proposals range from leaving the funding as is to putting a cap on it to eliminating it altogether.
“We still don’t know how that will play out,” he said.
The superintendent said school officials plan to contact state lawmakers for the latest updates before briefing the school board.
Last year, Joplin’s summer school programs drew almost 1,830 students from the elementary, middle school and high school levels, according to the office of Angie Besendorfer, assistant superintendent of teaching, learning and accountability.
The program cost $397,175, and the district received $365,400 in reimbursement from the state, according to Paul Barr, the district’s chief financial officer. Barr said the district used its own funding to make up the difference.
On tap
The Joplin School Board will meet in a work session at 5:30 p.m. today in the Eagle Talon Room at Joplin High School. The regular meeting will follow at 7 p.m. in the Reynolds Multimedia Center at the high school.
