• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

School officials face ax

JANESVILLE — Cut the administration!

That's a solution often proposed when budgets must be cut, and the Janesville School Board will consider cuts in administrative staff when it meets Tuesday night.

No vote is scheduled, but the board will review a series of reports and memos related to administrative staffing.

Officials have said for months that cutbacks in positions and/or services will be needed to balance the 2009-10 budget.

The district has some of the lowest administrative costs when compared with the 21 other largest school districts in the state, according to statistics collected by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

And it's not as though the administration hasn't been cut before. One memo states that 22.25 "administrative and support-staff positions" have been eliminated since 2003.

Nevertheless, the board faces a shrinking enrollment, a possible exodus of families in the wake of layoffs at the General Motors plant and state budget difficulties, all likely to affect the district's income.

A Dec. 31 memo to the board from Superintendent Tom Evert and Director of Administrative and Human Services Steve Salerno offers several courses of action:

-- A hiring freeze. The board would fill only those jobs considered critical. Considered critical would be teachers, principals, the superintendent, the four directors who report directly to the superintendent and secretaries to the superintendent, directors, principals and assistant principals.

Temporary workers would be hired through an employment agency and would be employees of that agency.

-- Attrition, which means not filling positions when people retire or resign. The difference from a hiring freeze is that once a hiring freeze is lifted, the positions could be refilled, but with attrition, the positions would be lost, Salerno said this morning.

"Attrition could impact the district's senior-level administrative team at a critical point, given the retirement announcement of our highly respected business services director, Doug Bunton," the memo states.

Bunton, like Evert, retires in June. Bunton earns $129,894 this year.

One option would be to shift Bunton's responsibilities to the new superintendent and/or to other directors, the memo states.

Or, the superintendent could take over supervision of the principals, something Salerno now does, and Salerno could take over some of the business department's responsibilities, the memo states.

Salerno, however, would need to go back to school to become certified in school business administration.

-- A furlough program, which would require certain employees to work fewer hours or to take unpaid time off. Or, some employees could be required to take "a week or two without pay sometime during the year."

-- Cutting positions. The memo does not reveal which positions might be cut but says the administration would propose the cuts in March.

No matter which course the board decides to pursue, the memo states the result is likely to be difficulties in retaining and recruiting staff "and/or overburdened staff, leading to increased medical leaves and Employee Assistance Plan support."

"These are suggestions. We are trying to give the board a menu of options to make this important decision," Salerno said.

A key piece of information is next year's enrollment. Officials are waiting for the results of a semiannual enrollment count that was taken on Friday, and Evert is considering surveying families to find out how many will have children in school next fall, Salerno said.

To examine these and other ideas, the memo proposes a 19-member task force comprising Evert and other administrators, teachers, parents, secretaries and community members.

The task force would work through March and report to the school board in April or May.

The board also will review an "efficiency audit" of central-office staff by Strategic HR Solutions of Verona.

The audit report recommends that the district cut its manager of transportation and purchasing position and absorb those duties elsewhere.

That's the only outright cut recommended in a report. The position is held by Steve Eichman, who earns $81,402 this year.

The report also suggests increased use of computer technology to save staff time, increased staffing for the information-technology department and a variety of reorganizations at the central office.

ON THE AGENDA

The Janesville School Board meets at 7 p.m. in the Educational Services Center, 527 S. Franklin St. The meeting will be telecast live on Janesville cable channels 96 and 993. Also, the board's buildings and ground/finance and personnel commitees both meet at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday.

Tuesday's agenda includes:

-- Discussion of the roles of the retiring Superintendent Tom Evert and the new superintendent, expected to be named this spring, in the hiring of administrators during the spring semester for jobs that would begin July 1. This concerns, at minimum, the hiring of a business director to replace Doug Bunton, who is retiring.

-- Discussion of a "leadership profile" of the next superintendent prepared by the superintendent-search consulting firm based on interviews of district and community members.

-- Discussion of the policy that controls when students are held back a grade.

-- A vote on a proposal to make up a snow day Friday, Jan. 23, and to make up the next snow day—if needed—Monday, April 13.

-- First reading of a revised policy on student fundraising. The change would allow sports teams to raise money for equipment, with the approval of the principal.

-- A vote on a change of status for Parker High School interim Principal Steve Schroeder, to principal, starting July 1.