Charles City school district facing $575,000 in 2018-19 budget cuts

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

The public got the first look at almost half a million dollars in potential budget cuts in next year’s Charles City School District budget Monday night.

Superintendent Dan Cox presented a list of ways the district could shave spending by up to $498,000, but that’s still short of the amount he estimates the district will have to cut to balance the budget.

“We are anticipating $575,000 worth of reductions for 2018-19, and that’s due to a combination of declining enrollment and reduced state aid,” he said.

The school board has already taken action to reduce $323,460 next school year by approving the early retirement of 10 teachers and staff, then replacing those positions with less veteran  — and therefore lower paid — persons, and by combining some duties among fewer people.

The total changes in personnel would result in an equivalent reduction of 3.92 total positions, Cox said.

He also presented a list of nine potential actions that could save up to $174,566.

He presented them in the order of most preferred to least preferred.

At the top of that list was the potential to save $4,205 by keeping administrator salaries at the current 2017-18 rates.

Other items, from most favorable to least favorable, were discretionary budget savings, $88,000; reduce assistant coach for seventh-grade volleyball, $3,685; reduce assistant coach for eighth-grade volleyball, $3,035; reduce one high school wrestling coach, $5,999; reduce one high school boys basketball coach, $5,264; share communications and community engagement position with one or two neighboring districts, $14,457; and least desirable, reduce one elementary teacher, for a savings of $49,911.

The total suggested savings are still almost $77,000 short of the $575,000 reduction Cox said is needed.

He said a significant part but not all of that remaining cut could come through reduced insurance costs.

The district has proposed moving to an insurance package that would require covered members and family to pay 5 percent co-insurance on health care costs after deductibles are met. Currently those expenses are covered at 100 percent after the deductible.

Current new collective bargaining laws in Iowa do not allow public employees to bargain for insurance coverage, but Cox said, “Where the rate ends up will be part of that process.”

“That’s one unknown,” he said about insurance savings. “We will continue to look for other ways to cut.”

Here is the full list of recommendations: Charles City School proposed cost reductions 2018-19