Staff, program cuts, larger classes forecast for Va. schools

Last year, local schools avoided deep budget cuts with federal money. There will be no such bailout this time.

"Unless somebody comes in on a white horse with some money this year, people are going to start to see employees being laid off by school systems," said Milton Liverman, superintendent of Suffolk Public Schools and president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.

Liverman said school finances are the worst he's seen in 37 years.

"You're going to see programs being closed, even schools being consolidated to save money" statewide, he said. "Things we haven't seen before."

A survey of the superintendent association's members found 84 to 88 percent are considering increasing student-teacher ratios or cutting teacher positions. Half said they may cut back programs like summer school, preschool and tutoring.

The stress is a result of the squeeze on schools' three main sources of funding - the federal, state and local governments. School divisions don't have taxing authority in Virginia.

The financial straits on the state level are so dire that Virginia plans to borrow next year's federal stimulus money to fill the current year's school budget gaps. And local governments are seeing dipping tax collections.

That all means less for the schools, which spend most of their budgets on salaries.

Cities dedicate up to about half of their funds to schools, which have budgets ranging from about $150 million in Portsmouth and Suffolk to nearly $700 million in Virginia Beach.

Local superintendents plan to release first drafts of their 2010-11 budgets over the next few weeks, but they will be preliminary until divisions know how much money they'll be getting. Final budgets won't be adopted until the spring.

In Portsmouth, Superintendent David Stuckwisch said class sizes will increase in the fall, though he doesn't know by how much. Many programs will be cut back, and 100 positions will be eliminated through attrition, including many teachers, he said.

Norfolk Superintendent Stephen C. Jones called his division's budget situation "grave" in a memo last week to employees and parents.

"We will be forced to consider such unpalatable options as larger classes, fewer alternative, specialty and extracurricular programs, and reductions in technical and instructional support provided to our schools," he wrote.

Liverman, on behalf of the state association of superintendents, is pushing lawmakers to give school divisions more leeway this year. That could include relaxing staffing requirements for positions like technical support specialists and pushing back new initiatives, like a new class on economics and finance. The state Department of Education requires the course of all students who will enter high school this fall.

Superintendents also want to hold off on a new mandate that schools write personalized academic and career plans for each student by eighth grade. That could require additional guidance counselors, Liverman said. "We're looking at having to reduce guidance staff to meet budget," he said.

Chesapeake and Virginia Beach schools are also leaving all options on the table but hope to preserve jobs as much as possible.

That will be the budget year's biggest challenge for Suffolk and other divisions, Liverman said. "Teachers are going to be the last people we cut, but there will be some reductions in teaching staff," he said.

Even charging for sports is possible, Liverman said.

"We've got to consider everything that costs money."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com