Welcome to morganton.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

Morganton.com - Morganton - The News Herald

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

School staff will give up income to save jobs

Burke County School Board Controversy

More articles about the Burke County School Board Controversy

By Steve Welker | The News Herald

Published: June 11, 2009

Morganton, NC - Burke County Public Schools' teachers have agreed to sacrifice 2.25 percent of their salaries next year in an effort to save 30 colleagues' jobs.
And the custodians, secretaries, teachers' assistants and support workers – what's called the "classified staff" – will work fewer hours, reducing their income about 6 percent in order to preserve 19 teachers' assistants' jobs.
The school administration presented the proposals to the board of education at an early morning meeting Thursday. On a 3-3 tie, the board failed to approve the plan. However, it's almost certain to come back, and soon, with details about salary cuts school administrators will take.
The school district is making what board member Sam Wilkinson described as "agonizing" choices with the new fiscal year less than three weeks away. Contract offers go out to teachers on Monday.
The school administration and board hope to keep as many teachers and staff working as possible. And the employees evidently feel the same way, even if it costs them some income.
"They felt that to not make that kind of concession is selfish," said Finance Officer Keith Lawson. "If you refuse to give up nothing, maybe your next-door colleague doesn't have a job July 1. Instead, everyone gives up a little."
Chief technology officer Dr. Angie Blalock set up a poll on the Survey Monkey Website and Burleson sent an e-mail describing the proposal and telling teachers where to vote. Slightly more than 1,000 — virtually every certified staff member — voted. Two-thirds endorsed reducing their local supplementary salary support by 50 percent for one year. Slightly more than a fourth added comments, the majority supporting the decision, but asking for assurance it would be temporary. Lawson said the plan applies only to the coming year.
The shorter work week, as well as four other options, were proposed to the classified staff. The preference is to reduce most of the certified staff's work week to 37.5 hours and the teachers' assistants from 37.5 hours to 35.25.
"Folks were a bit taken aback" by the idea, Lawson said, "but they were willing to understand and absorb the fact that it's necessary."
Both groups showed a lot of compassion, he added.
The administration recommended different approaches because the classified staff doesn't receive much local supplementary support in comparison to the certified staff. The teachers' concession alone amounts to $1.5 million.
"We tried to make (the cuts) fair and equitable across the entire school system," Lawson said.
North Carolina school districts have known since February that the legislature would reduce state support for education. First they expected a 3 percent reduction from the current year; then they were told 5 percent, then 7 and, finally, 11 percent.
Lawson and Associate Superintendent Rick Sherrill spent hours over months talking with principals, department heads and directors about ways to cut the budget. They used a surgical approach in sharp contrast to the meat ax some other districts applied, simply whacking off 11 percent of the last-hired staff.
"I'm very proud of the fact," Lawson said, "that through reductions throughout the entire gamut of the school system, without putting an unfair burden on any class or group, we got the 120 teacher cuts from the state down to 14 and 60 TA positions down to 27."
However, the situation could change again if the Burke County commissioners cut local school support. That's why school board Tim Buff led the opposition to a vote Thursday on the administration's proposal.
"First, I'd like to clear up where this is coming from," Buff said. "The fact is, $9 million is what we've been asked to cut by the state of North Carolina. Not this school board; the state of North Carolina. That's who has asked for this cut.
"Folks, we don't have something that grows money. The only sources of money we get are the federal, the state and the local governments.
"My understanding is the county commissioners also have their eyes on cutting some money out of this budget. Now, for what reasons? We all have our own thoughts about that. They're meeting on Monday to go over that. I'm not going to vote on something today when, after Monday, we might have to come right back again."
Buff said the county, if it cuts the local support by approximately $500,000, could force the district to eliminate nine to 10 more teachers or classified staff in already shorthanded departments.
Karen Sain and Tracy Norman also voted against adopting the proposal Thursday. Norman said she wanted to see more detail, in writing, about what the high school principals and top administrators would lose.
Superintendent David Burleson said he, personally, would sacrifice a half percent more than anyone else.
Rob Hairfield, who heads the finance committee; Buddy Armour; and Sam Wilkinson voted for the plan.
Before the vote, however, Wilkinson said "dozens" of staff members told him, "OK, we will sacrifice for our colleagues if it means 30 positions are going to go if we don't do this. But we resent the way some of the money is being spent by this school board."
He said people "are outraged because money is being, in their opinion, wasted in this system on legal fees, on attempts to fire the superintendent, on ... what they feel is ... part of someone's personal agenda. And they will feel very violated if they make this sacrifice of these supplements and this waste continues, is what I've been told by many, many people."
Sain replied, "As far as I know, there has been no money paid out of the school budget for law fees as of yet. We were told the other day that our insurance was paying for our legal fees."
Wilkinson conceded the point, but added, "I do know we paid $8,500 for a superintendent search that's completely unnecessary."