Teachers, community face realities of MCCSC budget shortfall

The Monroe County Community School Corporation’s teachers union gathered for an impromptu meeting at 8 a.m., just before its 8:30 a.m. Teacher Appreciation breakfast.

“In five minutes we found out we were losing everything,” said Steve Philbeck, Bloomington High School North ethnic studies teacher and Spell Bowl supervisor. “We had a half-hour to digest everything.”

The meeting was planned to discuss the MCCSC budget cuts. Teachers were given two choices: save the jobs of most of the district’s librarians or preserve extracurricular stipends for about 400 positions.

“I could have been blown over, I was so shocked,” said Kathleen Mills, Bloomington High School South newspaper adviser and English teacher. “I don’t like how the union handled it. We had 30 minutes to discuss what was in our contract and vote.”

If the teachers did not relinquish the stipends they received for extracurricular activities, all but one librarian from each MCCSC school would be gone, Philbeck said. And MCCSC administrators wanted to be able to afford media specialists in the hope of improving literacy rates, Thrasher said.

After the half-hour had passed, the teachers were served their Teacher Appreciation breakfast.

“I may have lost my $3,200, but I got some pitchin’ omelets,” said Ryan Gunterman, Bloomington High School North English and journalism teacher and newspaper and yearbook supervisor.

“And all the coffee and orange juice you can drink,” Philbeck added. “You felt appreciated, didn’t you?”

More work, less pay

“The last month and a half was not fun,” Philbeck said.

By the end of the year, more than 100 teachers received reduction-in-force notices, which meant teachers who did not have seniority were temporarily out of work.

Teachers were afraid of facing reduction-in-force or being laid off. Mills said overall she felt as if she had job security because she had greater seniority than others, but some days she felt unsure about her position.

MCCSC Comptroller Tim Thrasher said 43 staff members accepted retirement incentives as well, which made the process easier.

Gunterman and Philbeck said they saw a teacher who was told she was laid off during their lunch break and then had to face her class.

Aside from not being paid for extracurricular activities, teachers are no longer receiving yearly pay raises except for automatic 2 percent raises for teachers in the district fewer than 16 years. Philbeck said their salaries are already below the cost of living.

The average salary for teachers at Bloomington High School South is $51,226, while the average salary of teachers at Bloomington High School North is $49,188, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

With a smaller staff, the MCCSC has to compensate for its losses. While the teachers’ salaries are decreasing, their responsibilities are increasing.

In Bloomington High School North, the student-to-teacher ratio will go from 27-to-1 to 32-to-1. Philbeck teaches many required classes, and some of them will go over the 32-to-1 ratio. In fact, Philbeck said he has already been promised that his average class size will be 40.

Several years ago, Gunterman recalls he had 40 to 45 students in one of his classes, and students were sitting on the floor.

With more students, Philbeck might have to change the tests and assignments he gives out to his classes.

Scantrons, which he said are not a valid form of education to him, might be necessary with large classes.

Philbeck said with larger class sizes, some students will get lost and the teachers will not be able to give some the individual attention students need
and deserve.

No thanks, no stipend

About 400 MCCSC faculty members will be affected by the extracurricular budget cuts.

Philbeck has only received monetary reimbursement for the Spell Bowl, but he has also helped with the speech team, African-American and Latino student organizations, Brain Game and “Philbeck’s Phriday Phlicks,” where he serves snacks and watches movies with his students.

He said he used to justify all that he does with the $1,500 stipend he received for being Spell Bowl supervisor — actions he can no longer execute.

“We were grossly underpaid anyway,” Philbeck said. “By eliminating our stipend, no matter how small, my employers are showing me that your time is not a big deal. We bust our butts and we don’t even get a thank-you, but at least we used to get the stipend.”

But the teachers are put in a difficult situation. If they do the extra work, they work for free. But if teachers no longer supervise, they will disappoint the people they care about most: their students.

“If we say we aren’t doing it, then we are bad and greedy teachers, but if we still do, then we are called chumps,” Philbeck said. “The teachers can’t win. ... If I was wealthy I would do it for free, but we can’t feed our kids on good intentions.”

Philbeck’s students were already concerned about not going to State competitions for the Spell Bowl. When asked if there will still be Spell Bowl,
Philbeck responded by saying, “I just don’t know.”

But most likely, Philbeck said, teachers will continue their work without any compensation.

“We are almost all going to do what we do,” Philbeck said. “The kids expect us to go to the Spell Bowl. How can I look at them seriously and tell them we are not going to be going to Spell Bowl next year?”

Mills was paid a stipend of $1,800 a year for the extra time she puts into the newspaper. But although that money has disappeared, she said she can’t imagine not doing it.

With all of the work she puts into the newspaper, she said she could be spending more time with her young children.

Mission (im)possible

As for the referendum that will go on November’s ballot, Philbeck, Gunterman and Mills are wary that it will not pass.

Philbeck said he is worried Bloomington residents will not support the referendum if it is on the ballot because residents will have to pay higher taxes — even though the tax raise will be minuscule.

According to the MCCSC Referendum Information website, a property tax increase of less than $100 per year for the average Monroe County household would be necessary to raise the $7.5 million revenue goal.

However, only about 20 percent of the Monroe County population has a child in the MCCSC, which means much of the population might not necessarily care about the MCCSC financial situation, Gunterman said.

But if the referendum does not pass, Bloomington could lose its competitive edge in more than just sports.

“If we keep making cuts, then Bloomington can possibly become a less attractive place,” Thrasher said. “If we pass the referendum, then we could have smaller class sizes. The viability and attractiveness can have an impact on the community.”

‘A high price to pay’

MCCSC currently has 10,700 students — including part-time kindergarten students — in the district, Thrasher said.

However, MCCSC has lost 350 students during the past two years because of about 150 students attending a new charter school, students moving and overall demographic changes and economic difficulties, Thrasher said.

Indiana government policies have also affected MCCSC’s financial situation.
Ninety-four percent of the school district’s general fund is sponsored by state sources and is no longer supported by local property taxes.

However, Thrasher said property taxes are more reliable sources of revenue. This year, MCCSC lost $3 million in revenue, and Thrasher said he is concerned similar budget cuts will occur in 2011.

Gov. Mitch Daniels made the decision to cut state education funding by $300 million in December as a response to state tax revenues.

But MCCSC will not be dealing with the budget cuts alone. The Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools has a goal to raise $750,000 by Aug. 1 so the MCCSC teachers can keep their extracurricular stipends.

The foundation has raised more than $140,000 so far by reaching out to parents as well as the whole community, said Tina Peterson, the foundation’s executive director.

On Saturday, the foundation put on a phone-a-thon to ask alumni for support. Other events, including an ice cream social and a golf tournament, are planned for this month to help raise money.

“It changed the urgency of our mission,” Peterson said.

In 2009, MCCSC ranked 240 out of 293 public school corporations in funding per pupil, placing MCCSC in the bottom 20 percent in funding for Indiana school systems with regard to the general fund.

Thrasher said general state funding allots $5,825 for each pupil.

He also said that because the MCCSC tax rate is low, the school corporation suffers from a lack of state funding — a fact the MCCSC will use to gain momentum for the referendum.

“This works in our favor,” Thrasher said. “I hope people can say, ‘Well, I can pay more because I want my community to have more.’”

Thrasher said the whole situation has been draining on him and the entire community.

“We have a number of excellent teachers who were in danger of losing their jobs,” Thrasher said. “The referendum has the potential to impact the lives of the students in school right now.”

If the referendum does not pass, the opportunities available at MCCSC schools will become more and more scarce.

“It is a high price to pay if the referendum does not pass,” Thrasher said.