Presented to

Joint Education Interim Committee

Presented by:Wyoming School District Coalition for an External Cost Adjustment

October 23, 2014

WYOMING SCHOOL FINANCE AND THE EXTERNAL COST ADJUSTMENT

2

Campbell County School District #1 – Dr. Boyd Brown

Carbon County School District #1 – Fletcher Turcato

Johnson County School District #1 – Gerry Chase

Lincoln County School District #1 – Teresa L. Chaulk

Sheridan County School District #1 –Marty Kobza

Sheridan County School District #3 – Charles Auzqui

Sublette County School District #1 – Jay Harnack

Sweetwater County School District #2 – Dr. Donna Little-Kaumo

Teton County School District #1 – Dr. Pam Shea

MEMBERS OF THE COALITION

Sublette County

School District Number One

3

Jay Harnack

4

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE COALITION?

Mission Statement

To work collaboratively with the legislative and executive branches to ensure an annual external cost

adjustment, as required by law, to support and maintain continued improvement in education for

Wyoming’s students.

5

OUTCOMES FOR THIS DISCUSSION

The Coalition believes the JEC understands why an ECA is significant for students. The purpose of today’s discussion is to provide the JEC with information to inform the remainder of the Legislature.

The Coalition is dedicated to resolving this issue by working collaboratively with the legislative and executive branches and appreciates this open forum for dialogue.

6

WHY IS AN ECA REQUIRED?Impact in Sublette #1

PERSONNEL/PAYROLL/BENEFITS REDUCTIONSReduction Effect

Reduce all paraprofessionals from 1.0 FTE to 0.81 FTE (8 hrs/day to 6.5 hrs/day).

Loss of extended day services to students. Salary reduction for all paraprofessionals. Significant reduction of health benefits for all paraprofessionals.

2.0 FTE Elementary Teachers (Attrition) Increase elementary class sizes. K-3 class size currently 19:1

3.5 FTE High School Teachers Loss of Business, Technology, Driver's Education and 0.5 Music programs.

1.0 FTE ELL Coordinator Combined with assistant principal position. Reduced services for ELL students and their families. Reduced time for instructional leadership responsibilities by assistant principal.

1.0 FTE Administrator Eliminated curriculum director. Reduced curriculum, instruction, and assessment support for teachers and administrators. Delayed curriculum adoptions.

2.0 FTE Secretarial Eliminated curriculum secretary and business office secretary. Reduced support services for district staff.

1.0 Maintenance Staff (Attrition) Deferred maintenance work.

IMPACTS ACROSS THE STATE

Survey Report to the Governor

96% Response Rate Across All 48 Districts

7

8

SUMMARY RESPONSES OF THE WYOMING ECA QUESTIONNAIRE

In 2013-14 school year alone, 70 percent of districts had to lay off staff –and some are being forced to combine jobs. In one district, the superintendent is also the business manager and curriculum director. In another, a business teacher was cut to half time and is now also the school cook and food service director. Other districts are being forced to increase class sizes and/or hire less experienced teachers with fewer credentials due to budget constraints.

62 percent said that the lack of inflation adjustment has affected the type or nature of existing program offerings, and 73 percent said that it has affected the type or nature of any new programs or initiatives, such as science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programming.

80 percent said it has affected the quantity of resources they are able to apply in meeting the required basket of educational goods and services in their schools.

71 percent of respondents said that the lack of an inflation adjustment affected the quality of education they are able to achieve within their district.

9

Conclusion

10

SWEETWATER COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT #2320 MONROE AVENUE, GREEN RIVER, WY 82935

Dr. Donna Little-Kaumo

11

HIRING CHALLENGES

Sweetwater County School District #2

12

HIRING CHALLENGES

Impacts across the State – Survey Report to the Governor

Districts are having more difficulty attracting, hiring and retaining highly qualified staff;

Applicant pools have become smaller for both certified and classified positions and applicants are less qualified than they have been in the past.

There are fewer applicants in the pool for hard to fill or specialized programs, such as special education, languages, or math;

Districts need to consider, and sometimes hire, less experienced candidates either because they are the only candidates or specifically because of their position on the pay scale;

Increased health insurance premiums and reduced benefits makesome districts less attractive to applicants.

13

HIRING CHALLENGESPositions Remain Unfilled

PositionUnfilled

Positions

Business Office (Manager, AP) 2

Coaching / Phys. Educ. 4

Elementary 4

Family & Consumer Science 1

Foreign Lang. 1

Hearing/Vision Impaired 2

HS Principal 2

Lang. Arts, Reading & Literacy 3

Math 3

Occupational Therapist 1

Pre-K / Early Childhood Educ. 1

School Psychologist 4

Special Educ. 5

Speech/Lang. Pathologist 6

Support Personnel * 4

Technology 2

Transportation 2Total 47

Source - WSBA Website

14

Sweetwater County School District #2

INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS

“Additionally, the funding shortfall has stopped the implementation ofnew relevant curriculum enhancements in science, technology,engineering and math (STEM), as well as career vocational-technicaleducation, which could provide our students with the sought-after 21st

century skills necessary to compete in a rapidly evolving workplace.Implementing these valuable enhancements has proven especiallychallenging because it requires the purchase of expensive curriculum andinstructor training, extensive upgrades to the district’s networkinfrastructure, and the replacement of obsolete computer hardware withwireless devices. The adoption of just one of these educational subjectareas across all schools within our district will cost more than one milliondollars in the upcoming school year.”

- Letter to Governor, August 14, 2014.

15

Marty Kobza

16

Overview of the Block Grant Model

School Resources District Resources Base Resources

Base

Resources

Regional Cost

Adjustment(through salaries)

External Cost

Adjustment

Hold Harmless(if necessary to SY

2006 levels)

Reimbursements

I. Base Resources

Foundation

Guarantee

II. Foundation Guarantee

The RCA is

applied by district

to all FTEs

positions

Greater of the

2005 HWI, WCLI,

or minimum of 100

ECA is used to

adjust for

inflation

Special

Education

Special

Tuition

Teacher

Extra Pay

Transportation

Isolation &

Maintenance

* Supplemental funding includes summer school and extended day funding; instructional facilitator funding and other funding.

17

Sheridan #1 – Letter to Gov. Mead

“Below is a chart that includes our district’s FTEs (Full Time Equivalents) by position type for the past four fiscal years (FY11-14) as well as what our FTE count will be for this year (FY15). Our FTE reduction from FY11 to FY15 is 23.57. In addition, our FY15 General Fund Budget of $14.5mm is $1mm less than our FY12 General Fund Budget of $15.5mm despite the fact that our student count will rise from 919 in FY12 to an estimated 990-1,000 in FY15. As stated during our meeting, we have not received an ECA (External Cost Adjustment) from school foundation funding since FY10.”

- Letter to Governor, August 13, 2014.

FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15

Administrators& Certified Staff

114.99 113.86 114.44 106.42 107.42

Classified Staff 75 71 60 61 59

Student Population 911 919 896 957 Est. 990-1,000

Total FTEs 189.99 184.86 174.44 167.42 166.42

18

EQUITY ISSUE: SMALL VS. LARGE DISTRICT LOSSES

Smaller districts experience disproportionate effects from lack of an ECA on a per student basis

CONCLUSION

19