Lewis-Palmer district may cut 50 teachers to balance budget

Lewis-Palmer School District 38 could cut 50 teaching positions as it grapples with ways to slash $3 million to $3.5 million from its $39 million budget for the 2010-2011 school year, district officials said.

Administrators hope to handle most of the cuts through attrition rather than layoffs.The board hasn’t taken a vote on budget line items, but the district will hold a town hall meeting 6 p.m., Thursday to update the community on what is now on the drawing board. The meeting will be in the Lewis-Palmer Middle School cafeteria, 1776 Woodmoor Drive.

The proposed cuts include the $2 million in teaching positions, and $300,000  in non-teaching positions from areas such as technology, health services, pre-school and central office.

The district also is considering outsourcing food services to save $300,000.

The district, headquartered in Monument, expects that a triple whammy of state education cuts, an anticipated decline in student enrollment and skyrocketing utility bills will force the painful cuts.

Districts across the state are in similar straits. The Colorado Department of Education, which pays the bulk of school districts’ operating costs, has said that by June it will cut anywhere from $260 million to $509 million.

“I’ve been an educator for 14 years and this is the worst I’ve seen it in Colorado,” said Cheryl Wangeman, District 38 assistant superintendent of operations.

“Our budget numbers are very fluid right now because the state figures aren’t in,” Wangeman said.  

A survey of 1,528 parents, employees, and residents without children, indicated that most would prefer budget cuts be addressed by keeping  but reducing programs and increasing school fees and taxes. Top priorites were teacher pay, class size, course offerings, classroom materials and campus safety. At the lower end of preferences were building maintenance, transportation and upkeep of aheletic fields and grounds.

Lewis-Palmer is expecting its student enrollment of 5,900 to drop by 100 to 150 next year, which would result in a $1 million loss. The district opened a pre-school, but those numbers won’t fill the void left by a particularly large graduating class this year and an expected smaller kindergarten class.  

The board voted in December to close Grace Best Elementary School and convert Creekside Middle School into an elementary school, which will amount to $800,000 of the $3.5 million cuts. The elementary schools will be converted from pre-school through fifth to pre-kindergarten through six, and Lewis-Palmer Middle School will have all the seventh and eighth-graders.

Other cuts being considered: high school teachers will teach 12 classes instead of 10;  bus route consolidation; student fee increases, including an additional $35 for sports; capital reserve cuts of $350,000 by postponing maintenance; dropping vision and dental benefits for administration, increasing threshold for part time staff benefits to those employed at least 6 hours a day.