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Tough year for Janesville school budget

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Karen Schulte

JANESVILLE — Despite years of budget cuts, the Janesville public schools have the money they need to ensure a quality education this year, the superintendent said.

“If I thought they were getting less of an education, I would go to the board and ask for those things we need,” Superintendent Karen Schulte said in an interview last week.

“But we have made significant cuts that I think makes it more difficult to deliver that quality education,” Schulte said.

Many of those cuts this year were in administration. The result: It’s harder to manage the myriad programs and projects that go on in a district of 10,000-plus students, Schulte said.

This is not the first year that fewer administrators have taken on more responsibilities. Even principals are taking on duties that used to done at the central office.

“We’re managing the best we can, but we feel it,” Schulte said.

Schulte said some projects have to be shelved.

“I’m really trying to give it the student-achievement test: If it does not help student achievement, I tend to say, ‘Let’s wait,’” Schulte said.

The annual budget will be finalized this month.

The district has been cutting budgets for several years. Earlier cuts affected programs and jobs at the classroom level. This year, the board and administration vowed they’d keep cuts as far from the classroom as possible.

But teacher staffing was held to a minimum, and that resulted in some large classes around the district. Some elementary schools are at or near the maximum allowed by school policy.

If it becomes necessary to hire another teacher, Schulte said she’d ask the board to dip into a reserve fund called the Fund 10 balance.

The reserve fund was at $27.43 million June 30, but the board has set aside some of that money for specific purposes, such as a backup in case the district’s self-funded insurance plan goes over budget.

After the reserves are subtracted, there’s $22.57 million available, or about 19 percent of the district’s $114.62 million operational budget. That money is used to avoid short-term borrowing but also is an emergency fund.

Schulte said she’s heard of districts with fund balances at only 5 percent of their budgets, so Janesville is comfortable in comparison.

The proposed budget includes a 1.91 percent increase in the tax levy. That would increase taxes on a residence valued at $141,000 by $37.54, officials said.

School board member Bill Sodemann is pushing for a no-tax-increase budget. To get there, the district would have to cut spending by $643,000 or take that amount from the fund balance.

“I’m not sure I can think of more places to cut,” Schulte said.

FILLING THE GAPS

Cuts in administrative positions in recent years have meant others had to pick up the slack.

Here’s a sampling of some of the ways responsibilities have been divvied up when positions were cut in the curriculum-and-instruction department.

-- Maria Meier, a Craig High School teacher, now oversees the district’s math curriculum.

-- Language arts curriculum coordinator Judy Schmitz added social studies to her duties.

-- Washington Elementary School Principal Scott Garner has taken over coordination of elementary science and health curriculum.

-- Franklin Middle School Principal Kim Ehrhardt is now in charge of the district music curriculum.

-- Steve Huth continues as coordinator of career and technical education, the Janesville Schools Outdoor Lab and school but now takes on coordination of middle and high school science.

-- Julie DeCook continues as ELL program support teacher but picks up coordination of the world language curriculum in grades 6-12.

-- Carol Tyriver, an elementary phy ed teacher, is in charge of the K-5 phy ed curriculum.

-- Edison Middle School health and phy ed teacher Mark Little is in charge of health and phy ed in grades 6-12.

-- Kristen Moisson continues to oversee Preschool for Janesville but now picks up the Title 1 program.

Other departments also lost administrative power. Business services lost its manager of buildings and grounds, for example. The district athletics director’s position was cut. High school athletics is now in the hands of high school assistant principals.