LJISD could see millions in personnel savings
LA JOYA — A staffing audit that revealed a surplus of personnel will guide much of the La Joya school district’s cost-cutting measures over the next three years, administrators told the school board this week.
In the board’s third budget workshop — with several more to come prior to final budget approval in August — school officials proposed reducing the number of registered nurses and elementary school coaches, increasing some class sizes and requiring all faculty to carry a bit more weight.
“This is a huge project,” said Adriana Villarreal, assistant superintendent for human resources. “It’s all of us working together. Everyone needs to do their part.”
She estimated the district could save nearly $7 million by lifting six suggestions from a Texas Association of School Boards, or TASB, staffing audit, with more implementation to come in future years.
But the staffing changes won’t help the district absorb a potential 5 percent state funding reduction next year, Superintendent Alda Benavides said. She added that the board already has trimmed $7.1 million from the current budget.
“We still need to find $4 million, possibly more,” Benavides said. “We want to go a little bit over to be safe.
“Most of that will come from not hiring any extra teachers and keeping a real tight lead on any new teachers,” she said.
Still, state lawmakers also appear ready to cut another $5 million, about 1.5 percent, in 2012, so pruning overstaffed departments may help soften the second blow.
Villarreal’s proposals included:
>> Slashing 41 non-campus clerical support positions.
>> Replacing most registered nurses with cheaper licensed vocational nurses.
>> Hiring instructional assistants rather than costlier teachers to monitor in-school suspension.
>> Eliminating one of two elementary coaches.
Fueled mostly by attrition, those four measures alone could save nearly $3.1 million, Villarreal said.
To reassign some of the 41 clerks — and have coaches and elective teachers pick up more classes — HR will urge them to invest their own money into additional certification programs.
“What are we going to do for incentives to encourage them to get second certification?” asked Board President Irene Garcia.
“They get to keep their jobs,” Villarreal answered.
Though his son now attends Salinas Middle School, 43-year-old father Rey Ozuna said he was glad his child got out of elementary school before these staffing changes went into place.
A former coach himself, Ozuna said he could not imagine an elementary coach – even with two or three assistants – handling one class alone.
“The worst preschool places I looked at (for his youngest child) have at least three teachers for every 15 brats,” he said. “You’re telling me one coach can keep track of 20-plus hyper kids?”
TASB’s audit included many other suggestions, which Benavides said may come to her district soon.
And though he did not know the details, Ozuna hoped administrators kept the effectiveness of a classroom at heart.
“You can’t keep jamming kids in one room and hope they all learn something,” he said. “If any big changes go to the middle schools…I might go to Mission” schools, which has open enrollment.
The district did say it would consider enrollment and class sizes before it asks the board to dissolve 11 at various elementary campuses, which could save $550,000.
But the audit’s most financially beneficial recommendation was increasing middle school class sizes from an average 16.1-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio to 20-to-1, eliminating 67 teacher positions and saving $3.4 million.
“We’re leaning toward that, but nothing’s set in stone,” Benavides said. “It’s a minor increase in class size, and we clearly started low already.
“TASB also suggested upping class sizes at the high schools,” she added, and “we may explore that in the future.”
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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4472.
