Getting ready

Schools prepare to cut their costs

By Rebecca Mayer

The Lake Oswego Review, Dec 17, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

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At Wednesday’s Lake Oswego School Board meeting Superintendent Bill Korach asked the school board to prepare for a $1 million cut to staffing costs in next year’s budget. If staffing cuts are teaching positions only, that is equivalent to 16 teachers.

“There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty but we have to anchor somewhere,” he said. “We have to start somewhere or we can’t start the conversations we need to have.”

The strategies for this economic recession are different than ones that have been used in the past. Unlike the Measure 5 implications in 1990, there is no certainty about what the end game will look like, said Korach. For that reason, he hopes to stretch out as many cuts as possible.

The district will consider reducing the number of non-teaching management positions. Since most of those were eliminated during the downturn following 9-11, the district will also look at re-establishing a teacher-student ratio for both regular and special education.

In order for a $1 million reduction to work, the LOSD Foundation would need to raise $1.5 million, and the governor’s recommended budget needs to be approved by the state Legislature next year. Last year, the foundation raised $1.75 million, providing the equivalent of 30 teaching positions.

“That may seem to be less than we have to cut, but if we do all of these things, we think we can get it down to a $1 million cut. This is what I consider to be a reasonable worst-case scenario. Is it a worst-case scenario? No,” said Korach. “It could be worse, but we’ve got to start somewhere.”

Board Member Linda Brown emphasized the importance of clear communication during the implementation of these strategies: “What we’re living on is energy that people bring into classrooms every day. That’s morale,” she said. “Making sure those reasons that are behind decisions are clearly communicated is absolutely essential.”

Over the last month, the district put cost controls in place to limit spending to essentials and items that are helpful for instruction. Additionally, any non-instructional position that becomes vacant will be evaluated to see if it can remain unfilled for the rest of the school year.

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