Major and significant cuts are going to have to be made in the 2010-2011 budget of the Eddyville-Blakesburg School District (E-B). How much will have to be cut? No one seems to have a definite answer to that question at this point in time. It appears there will be a major reduction of state funding of $338,000 or possibly more; a loss of funding of $208,000 due to a decline in student enrollment in the past year and a projected loss of $58,000 for the following year due to a continuing decline of enrollment; and an end to the funding that was received last year through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition to the major losses in funding, the cost of employee benefits will increase significantly: health insurance is expected to cost an additional 30% to 40%; and the retirement plan, IPERS, will increase another 1.5%. Altogether, E-B may be forced to reduce costs and/or make up a difference of anywhere from $400,000 to $800,000.
The major reduction in funding is the bad news. But the good news is that E-B, unlike some other school districts, is presently in good shape, financially, with cash on hand and unspent budget authority. This positive balance or reserve will help ease the reductions and may allow a transition period of two or three years to make the necessary adjustments, but this will be dependent on the economy, state funding and student enrollment. The Cost Savings Committee has considered various proposals for reducing expenses. Brian Chambers, a committee member, said that significant reductions will have to be made, but they shouldn’t be made all at once. There are many school districts facing the same type of situation and he believes that the State is going to have to do something to help these schools in the future.
The Committee has looked at many cost saving proposals including the proposal of moving the middle school to Eddyville. But as Dave Friedman, a school board member, stated at the board’s meeting in January: whether the middle school is moved or not, the major cost savings will have to come from a reduction in the number of teachers.
In fact, it appears that there should have been more of a reduction of teachers in the past as student enrollment declined over the years. For example, the number of students at the start of this past decade (October 2000) was at 833 and by October 2009 it had dropped to 695 – a loss of 138 in student enrollment; whereas, the number of full-time teachers only declined by five, from 69 to 64. In the past year alone, there was a drop in the certified enrollment of 36 students, but the number of teachers remained the same.
Much of the state funding, which is presently around $5800 per student, is based on the school’s “certified enrollment.” In addition, the enrollment number is also used by the State to determine the “spending authority,” which limits how much money the school can spend directly on education under the “general fund” category of the budget. In other words, even though some schools are “cash rich,” they cannot add any more of their tax dollars to the “general fund” than what the State authorizes. The “general fund” includes such items as teacher and staff wages, employee benefits, services and supplies, student transportation, school maintenance, etc. The major expense items under the “general fund” category are for teachers’ wages and benefits. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the number of teachers in proportion to the student enrollment to stay within the spending authority allowed by the State.
How does the student/teacher ratio compare to other schools? The Iowa Department of Education publishes an annual “Public School and AEA Teacher Information Report” which includes data on all of the 361 Public School Districts in Iowa. The latest report was for the school year of July 2008 – June 2009, and during that year the E-B certified enrollment was listed at 731 and the number of teachers at 64. Below are some school comparisons of student teacher ratios based on the figures in this report:
Student -
School Teacher
District Ratio
E-B 11.42
Pekin 13.73
Oskaloosa 14.74
Ottumwa 14.48
Albia 13.93
The average student-teacher ratio for all of the 361 school districts in the State of Iowa is 13.95 students per teacher.
If the state-wide ratio was applied to E-B’s certified enrollment of 731, then the district would have 52.40 teachers instead of 64. (731 divided by 13.95 = 52.40)
But as of October 2009, the E-B’s certified enrollment dropped to 695. Therefore, if the state-wide ratio was applied to this lower number, the district would have 49.82 teachers.
How does E-B compare to schools of similar size and enrollment? The Iowa “2008-2009 Public School and AEA Teacher Salary Report” lists all the school districts by size or enrollment number. The report shows last year’s figures; but if the current E-B certified enrollment of 695 is inserted in that listing, the average of the student-teacher ratio for the next ten higher and the next ten lower schools in enrollment would be 13.21 as versus the state-wide ratio of 13.95. Using the lower ratio number for E-B’s certified enrollment of 695 would give a result of 52.61 teachers as compared to 49.82 teachers using the state-wide ratio.
Based on the above comparison to other schools throughout the State and to schools of similar size, it appears that E-B could reduce its number of teachers by as much as 12 for the 2010-2011 school year. With this number of reductions, there would be a total of 52 full-time teachers and an average of 13.37 students per teacher.