The city will have to make tough decisions on its budget soon. The South Milwaukee School District is already there.
The district — faced with a significant reduction in state aid contained in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed biennial budget — is recommending more than $1.4 million in cuts for the 2011-12 school year. And that assumes passage of Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill.”
Among the cuts, fee increases and other changes proposed at the School Board meeting Wednesday:
- Closing the school pool, saving $150,000;
- Eliminating 1.5 music positions at the middle and high school and one instrumental position, saving a combined $249,000;
- Eliminating high business and technology education positions, saving a combined $218,000;
- Eliminating an elementary school teacher ($72,500), custodian ($73,000) and high school attendance secretary ($34,000);
- Reducing police liaison services, including elimination of the DARE program, saving $25,000;
- Increasing by $5 annual student fees for all middle and high school students and increasing by $25 fees per sport for athletes;
- Eliminating the high school debate club, photography club, among other extracurriculars; and
- Closing most school buildings on Fridays during the summer.
The complete closure of the pool may not happen until the end of 2011, following a full study of the issue. Interim grant funding would cover pool costs until that study is complete. If and when it does close, it would also mean the elimination of the high school swim teams, all South Milwaukee Rec Department usage of the pool and usage by high school physical education classes. The custodian position to be eliminated is tied to the pool closure.
The music cuts would also mean the end of the orchestra program, but only after further study of the issue.
Driving the cuts and fee increases is an approximately $1.4 million “structural deficit” caused by a $1.86 million decrease in revenue (thank you: Scott Walker) combined with a nearly $450,000 reduction in district expenses, according to detailed information on the district’s recommended budget and cuts here. Looming retirements are actually minimizing the proposed cuts.
From the district budget document: It is anticipated that the district will have numerous retirements in the teacher and support staff groups. The administration has estimated that the savings from salaries from an experienced staff member to a new staff member will result in a total savings of $340,000.
The proposed budget, and the cuts, will be discussed at at public hearing on Wednesday, March 9, at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, with final decisions made on the cuts expected at the School Board’s March 23 meeting.
I’ll keep you posted on this, and please post your comments below.
If that meeting is anything like last year’s, it should not lack drama.
South Milwaukee Blog 
Erik,
This is beyond Scott Walker’s doing. Blame Tommy Thompson and his successors for kicking the can. The history goes back almost two decades.
It also needs to be said that the State’s education funding formula is still broken. It’ s a complex system put into play in the 1990’s based on your school’s enrollment, property values, and other factors. South Milwaukee and other districts have been short-changed from this broken formula for almost TWO DECADES.
To save our teaching staff, many cuts that are not close to the students (librarians, custodians, aides) have been made. We’ve come to a point (unless the state fixes the funding formula) that there is nothing left to cut BUT critical staff .
There are also legisative rules that school districts cannot easily merge to save funding on admistration/health ins. benefits/hot lunch/IT support, etc..
Until this funding system is changed, any new monies thrown into the current state system (like Federal funds) will still bypass our kids.
LEARN why the system is broken – attend a meeting at Greenfield School District – on Saturday March 5th ADDRESS: 4850 South 60th Street from 1pm to 4pm –
You will learn why South Milwaukee (and other districts in the area) have had to cut staff, while other districts have not, as well as the campaign for a penny sales tax to help our schools.
Concerned parents have created the Facebook page “Forward South Milwaukee” please join and get up to date news, links to the SM district financials, as well as upcoming meetings and possible protests.
Write your legislators (if you can get him to come back from Illinois) and tell them to get back to work on fixing the school funding formula. There are many ideas out there that can make it more equitable, however in Walker’s campaigns I recall he wasn’t going to touch education until year two of his term.
This isn’t the school board’s fault the cuts continue to happen – the root cause is at the state level.
Agreed. Our school funding system has been broken for some time, and structural deficits (albeit not at this level) are not new. I wish there was a governor and legislature with the political courage to fix this problem, not just cut, cut, cut and then tie the hands of school boards who are left to pick up the pieces.
We know that as soon as this starts the special interests are going to jump in with “Do what you need to but don’t cut my __________ program because studies show it’s good for the kids”. The blank is anything from sports to music to languages to activities. In any good plan, the first step is to define the parameters. In this case, the basis is “reading, writing, and arithmetic”. Everything else is up for discussion.
Therefore, we need to think outside the box. You mentioned a cut in music. I’m sure you know that that particular group will be very vocal but not offer anything. However, take a look at some of the trips out of state and out of the country they take. “But”, the music parents will tell you, “those are self funded by the parents”. True, so if the program itself is so important, why don’t they kick in extra help with the money they are spending on these trips. This is just an example. All non-core (reading, writing….) programs and especially activities should be self funded.
Next, you mentioned some things such as photography being eliminated. Since you use this as an example, you need the “why” attached. There are certain sunk costs (cameras) that I’m sure the school already owns or 99% of the students have on their cells. This isn’t the 60’s so, you can afford to eliminate the dark room and go all digital. All that’s left, then is software, of which you can get good packages for free. A public school does not need the latest and greatest. Just a teacher talking about composition and software tools. (See the next point before you point to the cost of the teacher)
You’re list also misses a lot of options. 1) The guy next to me gets laid off. Guess what – His work still needs to be done and I’m not seeing a raise. Activities, study hall, lunch monitoring, detention, should all be part of a teacher’s job not “extras” and (Thank you Gov. Walker) you now have the freedom to do that. 2) My company recently changed health insurance (even though it was never forced to buy it from a company owned by the employees). I have to pay more and it doesn’t cover as much…and it never covered Viagra. (Thank you Gov. Walker, you now have the freedom to do that too). 3) Except for long term disability, I get 5 sick days a year. If I don’t use them, they go away. If I use them all, especially multiple years in a row, I will be strongly reminded that they are for sickness only. 4) We have a grossly underutilized “soccer” field. Sell it or find some income making uses for it. 5) We could eliminate the maintenance and safety issues regarding the swamps and weeds surrounding the school. 6) Just about every business that I am aware of has decided to focus on their core competencies and replaced thier janitorial staffs with firms dedicated to that purpose, yielding significant cost savings. (Thank you Gov. Walker) you now have the freedom to do that.
It has always amazed me that our school system has been complaining about funding issues for years, but we were able to “afford” to build the biggest / fanciest school on the entire south side.
Want to correct you in the trips out of state statement you made. The kids have not gone on a trip in four years and this years trip was funded entirely out of the kids own fundraising and parents pockets. It was not required and not all kids are going. If we have kids pay that can play, many kids will not join music as 39% of our student population is on free and reduced lunches already. We already have a severe underutilization of kids in activities and athletics and money is more than likely the issue.
I should have been a custodian, $73,000.00 a year. WOW!!!
Melanie, that 73,000 includes their pension, healthcare, unemployment contributions, etc.
I know, it’s still alot. Although I would imagine the custodians are working alot harder than the music teachers who are making $100,ooo. On second thought, give the custodians a raise and take it from the music teachers, it’s only fair.
Based on information available at http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/newasr.html, there are roughly 250 teachers in the SMSH district. During the 2009-2010 school year, the average salary was about 62,500. The average benefits paid to teachers in addition to their salary was about 26,500. If teachers (and other staff) would agree to pay a portion, say 20% of their benefits (about $5,000 for health and retirement contributions) like most other working people, we could save about $1.3 million without making cuts. By the way, does anyone else think that $250,000 for 2 1/2 music teaching positions sound a bit high for professional, but essentially 75% seasonal work?
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I have to say I am really sad to see the comments toward music educators on this post. These music teachers make between 55 – 66,000 and the other costs are costs that are negotiated through the union that are due to all teachers not just them in the form of pensions, insurance, and unemployment insurance. I get to see first hand how hard these teachers work, they are working a minimum of 50 hours per week, working weekends and evenings trying to make our community a better place. I am sorry to see that you feel they are not contributing to our community. If you look at the data the other HS teachers that are on the block are compensated at similar levels. It is based on their experience and education which has been negotiated by the union.
I believe that our state legislature is more than likely to pass the suggested contributions by Governor Walker. If you really examine the budget you will find that the cuts are after the contributions have been made. Anything beyond that requires additional negotiation.
We have an unfair system that does not allow local control of expenses with revenues. The revenue caps for the last 18 years have not matched the expenses and a legislature unwilling to make changes is what got us into this mess.
We need to look beyond the party rhetoric, roll up our sleeves and fix public education. It is a constitutional right for all Americans to receive a free and appropriate education.
Two additional points.
1) I’m all for local control of expenses and revenues. However, I don’t see any of the players on either side offering that as an alternative. Recommendation: The state turns over all control to the local community. State taxes go down proportionally, since the state will no longer be funding the local community. As long as the state is paying a portion of the expenses, the states needs to have control as to how they are used.
2) Constitutionality? Really? Back to my original post: “Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic” – Guaranteed and free. Where else do you draw the line? Yes, health, gym, languages, music, sports, photography, business, technology, music, K4, summer school, “nutrition breaks” may all be good things to have and if you look hard enough you will find studies to say they are good, but just like everybody out there who has been hurt in these economic troublespots, we need to cut the non-essentials. Raising taxes and hurting businesses who provide the engine for the economy is not going to help.
Wow. All the don’t cut my ____ program finger pointing going on here.
My kid is a 3rd generation SMHS graduate and SDSM district Life-er. I’ve watched my alma mater crumble before my eyes the last 10 years, and the block schedule and perceived benefits of AP classes give our high school students less class choices.
All the SDSM staff are putting in extra hours the last few years. The support staff has been cut, the custodians have been cut, if teachers want things done, they usually have to do it themselves, including their normal day-to-day work.
What class can you have 50 students and one teacher (legally?)?
Music.
If music is cut, all those kids need to be absorbed and the other class sizes bloat.
Think about the domino effect before suggesting a program is cut.
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Since the money has to come from somewhere, what could be changed?
How about taking the Health class as a summer online course? (what other courses that do not require labs, could be offerred online?)
If a student is in marching band or 2 + sports, they can be exempt from gym.
Save on utilities by having all extra curriculars at the 6-12 campus.
Should SM explore the opportunity of merging with Cudahy? they could share costs of lawn care, snow removal, food service, IT support, security, copy center, etc. (as it stands right now, state laws prohibit this).
FYI: Hawaii and Utah have tried 4 day work weeks – this model was horrible for working parents, who could not afford after school care and tweens ran the city unchecked. Test scores plummeted. Both have returned to 5 day weeks.
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Thank you Rocket Mom! That is exactly what I was getting at. Somebody is finally starting to throw out ideas to address the money issue. So many posts simply focus on the a favorite program without giving any recommendations on how to fund those programs.
If the schools don’t want to be merged, maybe certain programs can be merged. Since this thread seems to have a bunch of for and against music people, how about a merge there. Individual lessons at both, but marching band at one. (Neither has a “championship” band that they used to…and I’m talking about basic marching techniques). Same with sports, clubs, or elective classes.
(Question – Rocket Mom: What does state law prohibit? Could we do something like the “Oak Creek – Franklin” district?)
How about outsourcing rather than merging the non-educational functions. Most companies do that.
K4 is not a state requirement. Maybe eliminate that before even thinking of touching music. Formal studies are now showing no long term advantage by the time the kids get to 2nd or 3rd grade. K4 (or historically Head Start) is more of a daycare program. As such, they can be self funded.
If we are so underfunded why are we paying for a “nutrition break” in grade school along with lunch? We never had that growing up (other than milk and cookies in kindergarten).
SM Guy – the food is an integral piece of our continued success. There are so many kids now on free & reduced lunch, than we had in our day. Hungry kids don’t learn, especially the little ones.
From my basic knowledge of the complicated state funding dilemma, there are state laws (or maybe it’s a union issue) that makes it extremely difficult for school districts to merge.
Last year, I was following two smaller districts that were consolidating (I’m thinking it was in central Wisconsin) It’s an extremely emotional process. The school board spent an entire meeting on what the new district name would be, the school colors and what the mascot would be (sheesh!)
Law dictates that the districts also incur the DEBT of the merging districts. I’m not sure if Cudahy wants to incur a $42 million high school mortgage. There is also a bus mandate, that if a child lives beyond a certain block limit, school bus service must be offerred. I’m not sure how Cudahy gets the County Transit service Route 88.
Again – so many MANDATES! that does not give school districts any flexibility.
Fingers keep pointing to Madison. (sigh)
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.. and a plug for the “non-core” classes.
When I was at SMSH, if it wasn’t for music and art class – I would have been skipping school and killing brain cells at 5&6. These non-core classes saved my life.
Arts is the “anti-drug.” There is so much pressure these days for kids to start early on to perform at a college level. The block and perceived AP classes can be brutal for kids who crave creativity and they will seek out risky behavior to fill that need.
Thanks.
I just want to thank everyone for keeping the dialog civil on this and the other state and local budget issues of the past few weeks. I know this is a passionate topic for all involved, including me, but it’s good to see people having a calm, rational debate about this. That’s an important reason why I created this blog — to provide a thoughtful, reasonable forum for talking about big ideas and big issues.
What I’d really like to know is what has this issue over the last few weeks done for the traffic coming to your blog?! Heck, if you had ads, you’d be making a fortune by now! LOL!
You’re right — and I could use the ad revenue. Don’t forget, I’m married to a teacher who won’t get rich until retirement, or so the argument goes 🙂 Seriously, I’m getting between 150 and 200 views a day most days now, and February was easily my most-trafficked month (3,702). I appreciate and thank all of my readers, even if we don’t agree all the time.
If anyone is interested in bending the ear of the Vice-Chair of the State’s Education Committee tonight (monday 3/7) at 7PMis the time to do it.
Also in attendance will be Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner and Rep. Dale Kooyenga.
Location: Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 W North Ave.
Monday, March 7th at 7:00 PM
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Although it’s the worst real estate market in history, maybe it’s time for the district to sell the land it’s holdings? (Memorial Drive, 15th & Rawson, Blakewood lots?)
Desperate times call for desperate measures and as long as the community knows these land assets are out there, it is a perceived revenue source (however, only a temporary revenue fix).
Must say as a life-long South Milwaukee resident, even though I send my kids to private school, I am happy to see so many creative and thought provoking ideas being discussed here. So much better then the usual, raise my taxes and save the music program arguments I usually hear. So many entitlement issues, if parents can’t afford a bag of goldfish crackers to feed their kids a snack we have bigger issues then class size, etc., maybe the teachers could negotiate free snacks for all kids in their next union contract?
Excellent observation!!!!
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A couple thoughts. Enrollment at the grade school level (high school isn’t listed?) is down by almost 10%. If I understand this correctly that is contributing to about $50,000 of the deficit (a third of the cost of the pool). This also in theory reduces the class size so it relieves some pressure on teachers. If the costs go up (hiring of additional staff) when enrollment is on the rise, doesn’t it make sense that there would be reductions when enrollment goes down?
Also, while the district is getting some help by the proposed increases in contributions by the staff they are also giving 2/3 of that back in raises to that same staff. Isn’t this kind of a big part of the problem? The ability to negotiate these raises would help a ton in the future. I’m not saying that people don’t deserve an increase but in tough times we can’t be structurally forced to give that raise.
The closing of the pool, in a goofy way is the part that bothers me the most as the others are mostly reductions not eliminations. The loss of rec. swimming stinks but parents can still get there kids into neighboring cities programs (admittedly at a slightly higher nonresident cost). In the summer the city does have a county funded pool so that is still available. As for swim team couldn’t the district look into in some way using the YMCA which is only a couple blocks away? I understand there would be a cost but it has to be less of a cost than maintaining our own pool, right? That really just leaves gym class from having a swimming option, which I agree is a bummer.
I admit I personally have never even thought about any of these issues until all the recent news. I think that more people should be involved. Sadly the previous school board meeting was my first and I can’t attend tonight. I found it shocking that there were so few people from the community present. I have 3 kids that all are/will be attending SM schools. The last thing I want to see is a reduction in offerings for my kids but I respect those that are paying taxes that fund all this. We need to seriously keep an eye on how other communities are using some “of the tools” that our governor is potentially giving us to help reduce the salaries/benefit costs in this budget process. To agree with the governor or not is your choice but if aproximately 70-75% of the budget is wages, that is probably where 70-75% of the reductions should come from, not the services offered.
Raf, Regarding your last sentence – Welcome to the wonderful world where public service union collective bargaining meets tenure. If you study this for a while you will notice an interesting trend. More often than not, when major cuts are required, the unions (not just teachers) will fight a wage cut tooth and nail, even if they’ve been warned that layoffs are the alternative. There a two reasons for this. 1) Tenure – In a business office if someone says “layoff” just about everyone gets a knot in their stomach. In a tenured union environment, the at-risk people are the “juniors”. For most members the choice is an x% cut vs. somebody else losing their job, so there is no incentive. 2) Cutting programs gets better play with the activists. If the school announces an x% cut in salaries, a lot of people realize that their own salaries have been cut too. But if they say Program Y is being cut, the unions know that Program Y has a handful of outspoken proponents who will be singing the praises of Program Y, how many studies show how “good” it is and we can’t afford to cut Program Y. If you’re free, go to the meeting tonight and you will probably hear the “Program Y” proponents out in force – regardless of what it happens to be this time around.
SM guy, in talking with more people closer to the district, IF the budget repair bill passes, the distict is still short $1.4 million. How bad it will be for the District, if the budget repair bill does not pass?
After watching this continued process (“how much do we have to cut this year?) the last 10 years, the school board seems weary and they’ve heard every sob story out there. They want to hear some good ideas, new efficiency processes. They’re cutting on the “bone” with nothing left, except staff cuts or wage/benefit concessions.
I always wished we could just “get off the grid,” find our own funding system, and do our own thing. The State laws are just too rigid and the state union laws are too controlling to effect change.
Unfortunately it has taken 10+ years for people to take notice on how our schools are funded. It could have been fixed a long time ago.
This has to stop. Let’s not “kick the can” into another future generation of kids.
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Why don’t they cut a few of the school psychologist positions instead of the music program? I asked for a cognitive test for my son who has a rare brain disorder and the school psychologist refused to do the test because they said he was too young…even though I had research and documentation to say that it was the right time to do the test. If you look on the SDSM web site, what they say the school psychologists do for the district, and what they actually do are completely different. Completely embellished description if you ask me. So, save the music, get rid of a school psychologist (or two).
A few??? How many are we paying for? I would have thought that one for the district would be more than sufficient. (You are talking about “psychologists” as they are called in the medical profession as opposed to an glorified term for the “guidance counselors” we had back in the day, right?) What are they being paid?
I don’t want to see ANY cuts… again, the fingers point towards Madison, as well as our community. How should our schools be paid for? Is $10,000 per kid per year, enough?
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http://www.sdsm.k12.wi.us/District/PupilServices/SchoolPsyc/
Check this out. When Pat Graves left she was making almost $90….I don’t know how much the TWO make…where can I found out recent salaries? I’m assuming it’s a lot because they are both Doctors.
BTW, #1 on the list of what they provide is what they denied for my child. As a mother of a child with special needs this was VERY disappointing. I went and had a test done at Children’s instead, because it was important to the education of my child. The school was unwilling to budge on giving him the test – they said he was too young….
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