District, superintendent proposes $1.5 million in reductions for staff, materials costs

Recently, Jeremy Weprich, member of the Principal’s Advisory Council and sophomore, said he sat in one of his classes and listened while one of his teachers spoke of the possible effects of recent plans to cut spending at Carmel Clay Schools. He said he was concerned.

“If (the budget cuts) bother teachers enough that they actually consult the students about it, that’s a big deal,” Weprich said.

It’s no secret that the struggling economy is affecting most Americans and school districts, including this one, are no exception. Because of budgeting concerns, this school must cut its spending by nearly 2 percent for the 2009-10 school year. However, the way to meet these budget concerns has been met with differences in plans, between the superintendent and the teachers’ union here. To address this issue, Superintendent Barbara Underwood introduced her initial budget cut proposal on Jan. 26. The proposal called for cuts of roughly $1.85 million. Underwood produced a revised proposal to the school board of $1.5 million in cuts. $611,178 of the latest proposal on Feb. 9 comes directly from this school. (Click here to see the specifics of the proposal.)

However, the Carmel teacher’s union, the Carmel Clay Education Association (CCEA), created an alternative proposition, which they presented briefly at the Feb. 3 school board meeting and is available on its Web site, carmelclayteachers.org. The CCEA’s plan includes losing six teachers to attrition and seven administrators; according to the CCEA’s plan, five of these administrators are part time assistant principals at elementary schools. The goal of the plan is cut less teachers and to “cut spending from the top down, making cuts as far away from the students as possible,” according to the CCEA proposal.

According to Indiana State Law, schools are not allowed to operate in debt, which in turn leads to school having to cut spending. During this school year, Carmel Clay Schools reduced spending by $300,000, including loss of summer school classes, field trips and instructional aides. Extracurricular activities will experience a $10,000 reduction. With the superintendent’s current proposal, some teachers worry about the impact it will have on their teaching as well as their students’ education. After reducing six teaching positions, under the superintendent’s plan, 30 teachers may gain a sixth period to compensate for the loss of teachers.

Math teacher Matthew Wernke said, “If I taught a sixth period…I’d be unavailable for students to come and ask questions during regular SRT time.”

U.S. history teacher Matt Dillon also addressed concerns for his students. “Assuming that I had a sixth period assignment, I don’t think I would change a lot of the lessons in class,” he said. “However, I would be very hesitant to assign essays, papers or other large assignments. Essays can be hard to grade and they are time consuming.”

Dillon said he also worries about the effects budget cuts could have on students visiting him during SRT. “SRT is an excellent time to sit down and address any issues that my students may have. If I taught a sixth period, I would not be able to meet with students during SRT,” Dillon said. “I think that will affect their individual performance at school. If I am not assigning essays or other large assignments, student will have less exposure to those type of assignments.”

Weprich said he is also concerned that the lack of teacher availability might influence student performance. “If some of my teachers aren’t available during SRT, it takes away from the original purpose of having an SRT.”

However, Underwood said her proposal is designed not to greatly affect students. “Different people feel in different ways. I don’t think, for the most part, students are going to feel a huge difference. I hope not, but you will when you cut 2 percent of what you are doing. You can’t help impact students in some way.”

Underwood also said the proposal tries to keep original classes. “What we have tried to do is not eliminate programs. There is only one area in the district where we have probably greatly impacted a program,” Underwood said. “People in other programs may have changed such as we reduced the number of teachers in a certain area. The only thing that has changed is that maybe class sizes will be larger in some areas or how we have organized things may have changed.”

However, current proposals are not final. According to Underwood, the board should decide the final budget in March.

“There will be concerns. I expect there to be. If some ideas come forward, we have to find another idea to replace it,” Underwood said regarding the budget cut proposals. “I want everyone to think about it and help us evaluate it.”

Weprich said, “It’s unfortunate that our teachers are the ones that will have to feel the repercussions of the budget cuts because without the support of the teachers, there really is no education system.