NLR School Board told cost of employee raises needs offset

North Little Rock School Board members on Thursday reviewed the costs of pay raises for employees and the effect those raises could have on the district’s efforts to cut $15.9 million in yearly operating costs by the 2018-19 school year.

The board’s work session on raises Thursday was a continuation of a budget work session Saturday, when board member Tracy Steele had urged that employee raises of as much as 3 percent be considered.

Board members made no decisions.

“What we are doing is laying out the pieces of the puzzle,” School Board President Luke King said in asking for advice and feedback from employees and the public to find optimal solutions.

“This doesn’t exclude us doing anything for teachers,” King continued. “This doesn’t exclude us from doing anything with programs. We want to bring you all up to date. These are all the pieces of the puzzle. We’ve got to put them together. These are the decisions out in front of us.”

The district, which paid one-time bonuses to employees in the 2014-15 school year, has not included ongoing raises or bonuses in the budget so far for this school year because of its efforts to phase in cuts that will amount to almost 16 percent of the district’s $100 million-a-year

operating budget.

The district is seeking to apply as much as $8.3 million in operating cost savings toward debt payments on 30-year school construction bonds. That $8.3 million is in addition to the anticipated $7.6 million a year the district will lose in state desegregation aid. The special desegregation aid to each of the three Pulaski County school districts will stop after the 2017-18 school year.

An across-the-board raise for all employees of 0.5 percent would cost the district about $300,000, while the price tag on a 3 percent raise is approximately $1.8 million, Chief Financial Officer Denise Drennan said Thursday.

The cost of either raise would increase the amount of money the district will have to cut elsewhere in the budget by the end of 2017-18, she said.

While the School Board has already enacted budget cuts that included eliminating certified and support staff positions, cutting department budgets by 30 percent, limiting staff travel, a voluntary shortening of employees’ work year, better tracking of employees taking sick leave and an early retirement buyout plan, the district still needs to identify about $2.8 million in cuts by 2017-18, Drennan said.

A 0.5 percent raise would push that amount to about $3.2 million, and a 3 percent raise would increase the cuts to almost $4.5 million, she said.

Drennan told the board and an audience made up of school principals and teacher and support staff representatives that the amounts are daunting.

“I’m out of ideas,” she said. “There’s no money hidden in my pockets or in a desk drawer.”

Board member Scott Teague pointed out that the district’s finances are complicated by the fact that the expected $2 million renovation of Ridgeroad Elementary grew to $9 million and that the district had to trim some of its construction costs to furnish the newly built and renovated schools.

He urged that the district’s budgeting efforts include revenue-generating plans and targets.

A 300-student increase could generate the $2.8 million for the district in state aid.

School Board member Dorothy Williams urged that the board and district leaders go to the public and ask them what they want from the school district in terms of academics.

Williams lamented that the district eliminated its Mandarin Chinese language course and the elementary Spanish program as part of the recent budget cuts. She warned that the district will have beautiful new buildings with no children in them.

Steele said that the 9,000-student district needs to increase its enrollment and questioned whether there is a plan to do that.

“I’m not just talking about recruiting Pulaski County kids. I’m talking about all kids,” Steele elaborated in an interview after the work session. “There are kids at LISA Academy and Lighthouse,” which are public but independently operated charter schools.

“We need to promote what we are doing better,” he continued. “I’m not talking about recruiting kids from one particular place. Any kid who comes to our district, we will benefit. We just need to sell this wonderful district we have.”

He said the district leaders to this point have been focused on construction and renovation of its schools.

“I understand that. Now we moving to a different phase. We are going to do that together.”

“I’m out of ideas. There’s no money

hidden in my pockets or in a desk

drawer.” — Denise Drennan, North Little Rock School District chief

financial officer