BOE trustee proposes major staff cuts

PINE PLAINS — Pine Plains Central School District Board of Education (BOE) trustees were caught off-guard by a proposal late into the 2011-12 budget process from Trustee Todd Bowen, who asked the board to consider eliminating one of two Stissing Mountain Middle/High School principals and the building’s dean of students.The issue arose following a budget presentation made by Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer at the Wednesday, April 6, Board of Education (BOE) meeting. The budget Kaumeyer presented totals nearly $28 million, up a little more than $1 million (a 4 percent budget-to-budget increase) from the year before. The estimated tax levy percent increase is 4.61 percent (for a more detailed recap of the budget presentation, turn to Page A5).The board discussed the long-term ramifications of a tax cap bill (which, if passed, would not affect the 2011-12 budget but would start the following year) and how the district might best prepare for the upcoming years. When Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finances Michael Goldbeck presented the board with a list of areas where further reductions could be made, if the board wanted to do so, Bowen said he had his own ideas. Bowen said that with the district’s low student enrollment, he didn’t see how both a middle school and high school principal could be justified to guide a shared building.“With the cost of two principals, including salaries and benefits,” he said, “I just don’t see the need for two principals in one building. And we also have a dean of students. Years ago the dean of students was the principal. I don’t see the need for that position, either. “There are areas that can be cut,” Bowen added. “With only 1,110 students [total in the district], I believe we can make cuts there, and I think those positions should be eliminated.”The BOE is supposed to adopt the budget at its April 19 meeting. The state allows it an additional day, until April 20, for final adoption. Bowen’s suggestion comes very late into the budget process in Pine Plains, which began in earnest with budget workshop meetings in January. It also came at the tail end of last week’s meeting, right before the session was to wrap up.Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer said there was “quite detailed discussion” about the need for two Stissing Mountain principals several years ago, while the district was looking for a new high school principal. The responsibilities of the two principals, including the health and safety of the student body, factored into the decision to keep the two positions.“With over 600 students,” school board President Bruce Kimball said, “there’s no way that one principal can handle all the things that need to be done. We would at least need to have a principal and an assistant principal. And it turns out that with the difference in salaries and services, it’s just not worth it.”Bowen pointed out that the district has operated fine without two principals in that building, but Kimball rebutted that structuring the building with one principal was last done decades ago. Kimball, a math teacher in the district during that time, said that he knew specifically of one teacher who didn’t get evaluated in eight years. Teacher evaluations are conducted several times a year now.“There were a lot of things not happening in ‘the good ol’ days,’” Kimball said.As for the dean of students position, Kaumeyer again said the position had been looked at carefully a number of times in the past few years. Prior to the 2010-11 school year, the dean’s responsibilities were handled part-time by two teachers in the building.Under that configuration, “it became evident that the management of the building and discipline of students was not to your satisfaction,” Kaumeyer told the board.This year, retired teacher Dennis Malloy stepped in as a full-time dean of students. Kaumeyer said he receives no employee benefits and his annual salary is only $30,000.“It’s a cost-effective way to handle health and safety issues in the district,” board Trustee Helene McQuade said to Bowen. “We were having problems in the past. In other districts, they have far more layers of administration that we do.” Board Trustee John Shea said that he would rather see the dean of students position eliminated than the board have to make any cuts to programming that directly affects students.Discussion eventually became more of an argument between the two sides, and Kimball pointed out that the conversation was going in circles. He went around the table, asking each member if they wanted to accept the budget as presented or look for further cuts.Kimball himself said, “At this point in time, I’m perfectly comfortable and I think it’s in the best interest of the district to adopt the budget as is.”Trustee JoAnn Wolfe said that before she came to any decision about eliminating a position, she wanted to see more information about the impact it might have on programming and on the students.“You have to know the facts and what the impacts will be on operations,” she said, without taking a firm stance on either side.“You don’t just decide this at a moment’s notice,” McQuade said about the proposal. “We really don’t have time as far as I’m concerned to seriously consider what you’re suggesting.”When it came time for Bowen to speak, he accused the board of not taking “every penny” spent by the district seriously, an accusation that the board vehemently denied. Another argument ensued and Shea walked out of the meeting.“Every dollar counts,” Bowen insisted.“But it’s also what you get for your dollar,” Kimball replied, additionally questioning why Bowen had waited until two weeks before the budget needed to be passed to bring up these concerns.“I take offense at being blind-sided with this,” he said.“Every time there’s a budget, there’s never anything said about [making cuts to] administration,” Bowen persisted. “If the taxpayer has to tighten their budget, so does this school district.”McQuade pointed out that looking at possible scenarios involving tax caps for upcoming years, Pine Plains may find itself needing to make $1.2 million in cuts the following year. Earlier, Goldbeck had shown the board that regardless of what cuts were made this year, it would not lessen the number of serious cuts needed the following year. “It will only make it that much worse next year if we cut this year,” McQuade said. “There are a lot of sacred cows we’re going to have to look at.”The board decided that it would schedule a special Board of Education meeting the following Wednesday, April 13 (after this paper’s press deadline). Kaumeyer said that she would bring information at the board’s request to that meeting about the cost-savings involved with cutting the two positions as well as any impacts that would result from it.