Guiding Principles & Issues from the 2011-12 Budget
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Capital Budget – strategic, responsible, and long term
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Save valuable programs and people – 2011-12 and 2012-13
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Fund strategic initiatives – re-purpose current resources
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Employees will be negatively impacted by legislative FRS reduction
* Presented to BPS School Board
As most people know, the current
budget was created following the Legislature making significant cuts to
per-student funding. Because Brevard Public Schools had already funded
class-size mandates, reduced spending, reserved all of the Federal Ed
Jobs Bill money and received .25 critical needs millage approved by our
community, we were positioned better than most districts to absorb those
losses. In the end, we still had to cut an additional $7.3 million to
offset losses in operating and capital funding. Keeping with the Board’s
priorities, we were able to do so without laying off any employees or
eliminating any of our most significant academic programs.
During bargaining, the Board focused on providing
additional compensation for all employees while protecting them from any
loss of take-home pay to address rising health care costs. Additionally,
efforts were made to increase valuable planning time for teachers,
particularly at the elementary school level. Accordingly, important
aspects of the Board’s offer are as follows:
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A 2.2% one-time salary enhancement for all employees.
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The Board will contribute $1.8 million to the health trust fund to avoid health insurance increases for all employees.
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The school calendar would go from 2 to 8 early release Wednesdays for the purpose of teacher planning and collaboration.
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Increase by 6% the substitute allocation provided for all elementary schools to be used to provide additional time for teacher planning and collaboration.
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Provide stipends to teachers serving on PGP Peer Review Teams
The Board is able to provide these increases in compensation and benefits by utilizing dollars that were saved from the 2010-11 budget. Some dollars were available through unexpected sources of revenue (Back-payments for 2009-10 of Medicaid and federal Impact Aid: $0.8 million, tax collection above 96%: $1.1 million, class-size penalty from other districts: $0.4 million). Other dollars were captured through efficiencies (7.9% drop in electricity kilowatt hour usage: $0.8 million, renegotiated contracts). Still other operating dollars were saved by a very conservative approach to spending in all programs and departments. In the end, we were able to cut expenses by 1.8% of new revenue. Putting this in perspective, this equates to a person with a $30,000 annual salary being able to have saved $540 dollars at the end of the year. To demonstrate that these savings can’t be taken for granted, two years ago, the district needed to take money from the Workman’s Compensation trust fund just to meet operating expenses.
There was general agreement in bargaining with both unions on the amount of compensation increase for the current year. We came to impasse, however, as both unions would only consider pay increases that would become a part of the permanent salary schedule, thus recurring in subsequent budgets. This would create a $7.9 million dollar deficit at the start of the 2012-13 budget. $14 million in federal Ed Jobs Bill money will be gone from our 2012-13 budget and the state is predicting an additional $1.5 billion shortfall beyond that. To guarantee recurring compensation increases next year before we know if the state can replace any of this funding would increase the possibility of required employee layoffs seven months from now. Jeopardizing many employees’ livelihood, not to mention valuable programs that serve students, in order to make these raises recurring at this time was something the Board was not willing to do.
The employees of Brevard County Schools serve our community with great dedication and distinction. As an organization, we are committed to providing them with outstanding working conditions and competitive salary and benefits. We have preserved robust programs in science research, robotics, media services and the arts when they have fallen victim to budget cutting throughout the state and nation. We have funded lower class size mandates when others did not. Our secondary teachers retain two planning periods while most Florida districts have taken one away to reduce expenses by cutting teaching positions. As noted above, we have resisted that and, in fact, are seeking ways to increase elementary planning time. We have done that because we know that if our teachers have the tools and classroom spaces they need along with time to plan and work collaboratively, they will continue to provide learning opportunities for our children that are second to none. For the second year in a row we have been able to give employees a compensation increase drawn from dollars saved through organizational efficiency and fiscal responsibility. In these challenging economic times, we will continue to do everything possible to balance the obligation of protecting valuable people and programs with the desire to reward employees for exemplary service.
For more information, please visit http://documents.brevardschools.org/Updates/Budget/default.aspx.
Sincerely,
Brian T. Binggeli, Ed.D.
Superintendent