ROCKWALL —  

Superintendent Jeff Bailey gave a “dollar squeezing” presentation to the Rockwall Independent School District’s Board of Trustees Monday night, detailing options that could help the school district deal with possible state funding cuts projected to range between $15.1 million and $23.9 million the next school year.

  Board members already have taken action to save $1.8 million by reducing the work force. That action could lead to 20 employees losing their jobs and outsourcing for auxiliary services such as transportation and custodial.

During Monday night’s budget work session, Bailey provided details on many other options to cut expenses and generate income. Those options included the possibility of increasing class sizes and charging activity fees for students who participate in athletics, band and orchestra.

“Nobody wants to be talking about a reduction in force, laying people off, class sizes going up or charging fees back to parents and staff,” Bailey said near the end of the meeting that lasted an hour and 15 minutes. “We’re going to have to make some hard decisions in the next two months. But we want to make them with the best information we can get.”

According to information presented by Bailey, increasing class size ratios could result in the loss of 51 teacher positions.

Increasing the 22:1 ratio cap on the elementary school level to 23:1 could lead to the reduction of 11 teacher positions, a cost savings of $550,000.

Increasing the student/teacher ratio on the secondary level from 21:1 to 24:1 could lead to the reduction of 40 teacher positions, a cost savings of $2 million.

At the beginning of the meeting, Bailey made a reference to an illustration on the first slide of his presentation -- a hand squeezing hundred dollar bills.

“As you can see on the first slide up here, Rockwall is squeezing the dollar just like much of the 1,030 school districts across the state,” Bailey said, adding that state funding to schools is being cut because the state has a budget shortfall of about $25 billion.

And the state’s message to public schools, Bailey said, is that it will not raise taxes, access its “rainy day” fund, fund federal stimulus dollars or provide revenue for new student growth.

Bailey said the state has about $9.8 billion in its “rainy day,” fund, which is a savings account or emergency fund. Regarding stimulus funds, that’s a loss of about $10 million to the school district.

And Bailey said revenue for new student growth is “something that has benefited Rockwall over the last number of years.” As student growth occurred, Bailey said, the school district got more revenue for students.

The superintendent said the school district’s goal is to prepare a budget based on estimated funding with the least amount of impact on classroom instruction.

“We wanted to look at all areas of reductions before we started impacting the campus and students in the classroom,” he added.

But a key question at this point, according to discussions, is which funding option the state will choose. The option selected will determine the amount of the funding cut.

Option No. 1 would be a 14.95 percent reduction, amounting to a $15.1 million cut. Under Option No. 2, all school districts would share in the budget deficit. Rockwall ISD’s share would be about $19.4 million. And under Option No. 3, Rockwall ISD’s targeted revenue of $6,100 per student would be reduced to $4,400 or $4,500 per student. That option could lead to a $23.9 million cut.

Following are other highlights of Bailey’s presentation:

* Study-Shared Staffing Model: Staffing cuts would include three in the fine arts program; six in the gifted and talented program; six in the language science program; and replacing a librarian with a library aide. Total cost savings, $803,000.

* Staffing Model: AVID Program change, replace one registered nurse with a licensed vocational nurse; restructure the summer school program; reduce full-day pre-kindergarten to half-day pre-kindergarten; reduce two safety resource officers; and reduce secondary paraprofessional positions. Total cost savings, $667,000.

* Compensation: 1 percent salary reduction, all employees; 20 percent reduction of non-extracurricular stipends; eliminate librarian stipend. Total cost savings, $897,160.

* Charge activity fee of $100 for each student who participates in athletics, band or orchestra, and charge tuition to employees who have children who live outside the school district, but attend RISD. The suggested annual fee would be $500 per student. Budget revenue, $577,100.

* Targeted Revenue Additions: expanding the ROCK after-school program, $250,000 additional revenue.

* Department Reductions (savings): Administrative services, $42,916; athletics, $119,729; communications, $27,544; curriculum and instruction, $250,675; finance, $117,503; transportation, $500,000 if out-sourced; human resources, $33,348; maintenance, $362,804; custodial services, $425,000, if out-sourced; policy, planning and research, $41,796; safety and security, $20,833; and superintendent/board of trustees, $15,000.

* Campus Reductions: campus allocations, 10 percent at each campus, $301,000 savings.

* District Reductions: debt payments, $546,485; health center, $700,000; and district level staff reduction (the expected 20 layoffs), $1 million.

* Equity Transfer: self-funded health insurance, $3 million.