AURORA | The Aurora Public Schools Board of Education heard public input June 5 about an adopted budget totaling about $505 million for the 2012-13 school year during a first-of-its-kind townhall meeting.
The discussion came during the board’s regular meeting June 5, following a quick summary of the financial outlook for the coming year by Director of Finance Adrienne Bradshaw and Superintendent John Barry. The open forum drew dozens of teachers and Aurora Education Association officials, a few of whom voiced concern about a budget-cutting measure that would implement a wage freeze for the second year in a row.
By state law, the district must approve an adopted budget by the end of June, and the board is set to vote on the budget during its regular meeting on June 19.
Even though the state Legislature approved a school financing act in April that kept per-pupil funding flat at around $6,474, APS administrators have cited the need to trim $5 million from next year’s budget. That financial pressure, officials say, come as costs rise and funding remains flat. That message came up quickly during the district’s presentation, as Bradshaw and Barry detailed the main sources of increasing costs: health care, rising dues associated with the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, upticks in energy costs and rising inflation.
“That is the problem element that we have to look at for multiple out years. We didn’t get one nickel more than we had last year .. but we have additional expenditures,” Barry said. “We have four things that increase our debt with no new money.”
Barry added that the APS district relies more on state funding than other districts, largely because of the lack of large industrial and commercial infrastructure in the district that could generate large amounts of property tax.
“Right now, if you added up the state budget stabilization factor and then added up the state sources we get 73 percent of our funding from the state. We get 27 percent from property taxes,” Barry said, adding that the average breakdown for school districts in Colorado is 66 percent from state funding and 33 percent from local sources. “When the state takes a hit, that’s when we take a hit. You have to keep that in mind. We do not have the valuation, we do not have the infrastructure that a lot of these other districts have.”
That message didn’t suppress criticism from teachers and other AEA members gathered at the meeting. Two teachers from the district spoke during the public input portion of the townhall event, and both urged the board to reconsider the wage freeze, now in its second year. That point has been a major obstacle in negotiations with the teachers’ union this year — the AEA and the district were scheduled to enter mediation negotiations on June 6.
“We’re going into that with positive intent that we will be able to have some detailed discussions on what has been budgeted and what might really be available,” said AEA President Amy Nichols. “When we do freezes like this, it’s harmful to everyone. But it’s particularly harmful to those teachers who are just starting out … Right now, if you have a teacher who was frozen who is going to stay in the profession, they’re going to lose approximately $45,000 in their career.”
The issue brought questions from APS board member Cathy Wildman, a former teacher in the district who voiced concern about the prospect of larger class sizes. She hinted that the priority should be on less administrative positions and more teachers.
“I personally would like to see better numbers for the classroom versus on up the pyramid,” Wildman said. “It’s just a real concern of mine.”
Barry and other board members said that the district’s administration was already lean, and that adding fewer than five teachers across the district wouldn’t affect the classroom ratio in APS.
“There are about 122 people (in administration) who could affect hiring a teacher. (It’s) not going to make much of a difference,” Barry said. “Those are the tough decisions that we’re going to have to make in order to run a half a billion dollar operation.”
Board member Matt Cook also stressed the inevitability of making difficult cuts in the coming years.
“There is no more low hanging fruit. There is nothing in this budget that has not been scrutinized to the minutiae,” Cook said. “We’re at a really hard point.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707