INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – The Indian River County School Board is expected to vote on the final proposed budget cuts and changes tonight at a special meeting as well as discuss whether to levy a higher – temporary – property tax increase in order to make the district’s financial ends meet.
Such proposed budget changes include eliminating 49 teachers, relocating the Piper program, implementing pay-to-participate for athletics, and eliminating supplements to two high schools’ athletic directors.
The School Board is facing a $12 million budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year, forcing district staff to recommend various cuts and changes.
One such change they had considered was reassigning Vero Beach and Sebastian River high schools’ athletic directors back to the classroom part time, which would have saved the district nearly $47,000.
The athletic directors, however, presented an alternative solution that will allow them to stay out of the classroom and continue their focus on athletics.
Sebastian River’s Michael Stutzke and Vero Beach’s Tim Tharp have agreed to give up nearly $7,600 each in supplements from the district. They had also suggested making up the remaining $31,700 through their school’s internal account.
Stutzke said their suggestion to the School Board was not an attempt to stay out of the classroom but to make the best and most use of their time on campus.
“I’m a teacher, first and foremost,” Stutzke said. “I love the classroom.”
However, he said, serving as Sebastian River High’s athletic director does not leave enough time in the day to be both the A.D. and a teacher – even if only part-time.
“It’s a little farfetched” to think that the directors can do both, Stutzke added.
Vero Beach High’s Tharp agreed.
“It’s definitely a full time job,” he said of being the athletic director. “No doubt about it.”
Tharp estimates that he works approximately 60 hours a week, dealing with anything and everything related to coaches, athletes and their facilities.
Stutzke does the same, as well as serves as the facilities coordinator for the school’s performing arts center.
The School District, through its budget workshops with the board, has found a way to keep all but four media specialist assistants. Throughout the process, numerous assistants and specialists have begged the district to keep them on staff at the schools.
Julie Milliman, a librarian at the Vero Beach High Freshman Learning Center, told the board at its regular meeting Tuesday that the assistants are needed – especially when handling 2,000 students.
“Sometimes the library is the only haven for them,” she said of students, explaining that the media specialists reach out to students in a way that is different from other teachers or guidance counselors.
While the current budget proposal would save all but four media specialist assistants, the board is considering levying an increase to its millage rate.
The district estimates the .25-mill increase would result in $3.5 million extra for the district, which would be used, in part, to spare the four assistants.
The property tax increase requires at least four affirmative votes from the School Board. That increase, if approved, would be in effect for one year. After that, if the board wanted to continue the new rate, it would have to ask the county’s voters through a special referendum question during the 2011 elections.
The increased tax would also be used to pay for $1 million worth of new textbooks, keep the reading program for certain students at the middle school level and provide a reading elective for stronger readers also at the middle schools. Two health assistants would also be spared for the upcoming school year.
The School Board has recommended that if they approve the property tax increase, that they reserve $1.9 million for mid-year budget cuts and to restore the 2011-12 fiscal year’s fund balance.
The School Board’s special meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the County Commission Chambers at the County Administration Complex, Building A, 1801 27th Street, Vero Beach.
