On June 16, Austin ISD Superintendent Pat Forgione announced his revised 2003-2004 budget proposal, which would increase teacher and staff pay, reduce 10th- and 11th-grade class size, and cut by $8 million the amount of money the district will need to take from its fund balance (savings account) to help eliminate a $51 million deficit (“New Money for AISD Raises,” June 20). The changes are not confirmed — the AISD board of trustees will not approve a final budget until August — but AISD spokesman Andy Welch told us that based on the trustees’ preliminary endorsement, the administration has begun the hiring process for 61 new high school teachers in core courses (math, English, social studies) to reduce the 10th- and 11th-grade target class size from 32 to 28. The administration “doesn’t want to be scrambling in August or September to hire teachers,” Welch said, “and the board was supportive of reducing class size,” particularly in light of the initial Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills results that found more than half of district 10th- and 11th-graders failing the new state test.
Forgione’s other recommendations were not so readily embraced. Some board members questioned whether a 2% across-the-board increase in salary and benefits is the best way to spend $7.5 million in “new” state money, especially following this spring’s layoffs of 550 teachers, administrators, and staff. (Welch says that nearly all of the laid-off personnel have found other positions in the district — mainly filling jobs left vacant by a hiring freeze that had been in place since January.)
However, as Louis Malfaro of the faculty-staff organization Education Austin points out, the proposed “increase” would only give back with one hand what the state took away with the other when it cut funding for teacher health insurance and mandated increased retirement contributions. Indeed, thanks to the Legislature’s take-backs, some staff members would still end up earning less money after any proposed “increases” take effect.
But even more puzzling is a set of big numbers buried in the back of Forgione’s “Preliminary Budget Proposal” dated June 12. As expected, there is an itemized list of $21.8 million in major budget reductions (administrators, teachers, and programs) that were already recommended by Forgione and given preliminary approval in April, after months of discussion, by both the board of trustees and by a 28-member citizen task force. But that approved list is followed by an additional list of 23 items totaling $16.5 million in “other decreases” from the current 2002-2003 budget — cuts that have appeared, well, out of nowhere. Nobody needed to be laid off to realize these savings; five big-ticket items alone (supplies, infrastructure contracts, data systems contracts, insurance reimbursements, and computer equipment) total $9.75 million.
In all, the $16.5 million equals roughly 75% of the cost of the AISD personnel and programs that the administration insisted to the budget task force, the board, and the public that the district absolutely must cut to bridge the district’s $51 million budget gap. Together, the district is now recommending $38.2 million in budget cuts — and now wants to spend less from AISD’s $80 million to $90 million fund balance to make up the difference.
Yet in his June 16 press conference to announce the revised budget, Forgione referred only vaguely to “$8 million” in additional savings identified by budget officers, and board members contacted this week remained surprised and puzzled by the new numbers. “I’m quite frankly very disappointed with the budget process,” said Dist. 7 trustee Robert Schneider. “There’s a real disconnect between what we say are the district priorities, and what we budget for.”
Malfaro, who served on the budget task force, told the board he felt “betrayed” by the administration’s last-minute revelation of the additional money available and that he frankly believed the task force had been manipulated into making “draconian” cuts because it was told there were no other options. Ramon DeJesus, who served as co-chair of the citizen task force, was somewhat less critical. He told the Chronicle, “We would have been a lot better off if we had been given these numbers. … But perhaps they thought people wouldn’t make the necessary cuts unless they felt there was some sense of urgency.”
“It would have been very beneficial,” DeJesus repeated, “to have had this list first.”
Asked if an observer might conclude, based on this mysteriously found money, that the administration had made its budgetary decisions before it ever brought them to the task force and then the board, trustee Schneider responded, “I would not disagree with you on that point.”
AISD’s “Other Decreases”: A Summary
On p.8 of the new AISD budget report is a list of previously undisclosed savings that neither the AISD budget task force nor the board of trustees had been aware of when drawing up next year’s budget. These include five items of more than $1 million each, plus 18 other items of smaller dollar value.
Supplies and Materials for Campuses and Departments: $2,294,202
Contracts for Buildings and Grounds: $2,357,379
Contract to Implement State Data Software Systems: $2,121,460
Insurance Reimbursements for Flood and Fire Damage: $1,682,195
Computer-Related Equipment: $1,295,272
18 Additional Items: Equipment, Buildings, Other Cuts: $6,749,734
Total of new cuts: $16,500,242
Cuts Already Approved by Budget Task Force & Board: $21,764,803
Grand Total of Approved Cuts and “Other Decreases”: $38,265,045
Source: “Preliminary Budget Information: 2003-2004,” Austin Independent School District, June 12, 2003
This article appears in June 27 • 2003.
