BARTLESVILLE — The school board voted Monday to reduce Bartlesville Public Schools’ budget by $1.9 million — including the elimination of 39 jobs — for the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
The jobs to be eliminated are 21 teaching positions, 15 support positions and three district-level administrative positions.
The position of executive director of secondary schools will go unfilled after Chuck McCauley moves from that position to superintendent July 1. The other two administrative positions being cut are custodial and transportation supervisor and director of special services, McCauley said after the board meeting Monday evening.
Although some other school districts have approved budget reductions with the understanding that additional cuts may be necessary if the state’s anticipated revenue collections are off target for a second year in a row, Bartlesville’s superintendent says that’s not likely in his district.
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“We feel like we’ve taken everything into account, and we don’t think we’ll have to change that after the Legislature does finish their work,” said Superintendent Gary Quinn, who is retiring at the end of this school year. He said the committee developing the district’s 2016-17 budget worked off the high end of the state’s estimated cuts.
Many school districts have been constructing their new budgets based on rumors and speculation because the Legislature has yet to adopt a budget for fiscal year 2017.
Tulsa Public Schools was told its 2017 fiscal year budget will have to be cut by about $13.5 million, though it could go as high as $20 million. The Tulsa school board has already voted on cuts totaling $8 million, with 270 positions being eliminated.
With the loss of 21 teaching positions and a savings of $993,000, Quinn said there was an important increase in the budget of $141,000 that will go toward a salary step increase to retain teachers. He said it’s especially important as the district feels the effects of the state’s teacher shortage.
The average Bartlesville teacher advancing on the salary schedule would receive a 1.2 percent pay increase, according to the plan.
“Your most important asset is your teachers, and it’s very important to us to treat them with the appropriate respect and pay them adequately,” Quinn said. “The least we should do is the step increase, so we’re going to try to do that even in a difficult year like this.”
The average class size is expected to go up to 23 from 21 in pre-K through fifth grade, with middle school and high school class-size averages difficult to calculate but expected to be around 26 to 28. According to the 2016-17 budget plan, a significant number of core classes will have 30 or more students, as four teachers in those subjects will be eliminated.
“We don’t want to increase any class sizes, but if you’re going to reduce the teaching staff, that’s what happens,” Quinn said. “We have kept our class sizes smaller than most of our peer schools, … and we have fought hard to keep those, but we’re finally at a point where we’ll have to let those go up a little bit to achieve this reduction in our budget.”
Other cuts include $374,000 that would have gone for new textbooks for English/language arts or foreign language classes and a $29,000 cut to athletics that eliminates the district’s slow-pitch softball program.
