Fremont Elementary schedule set to change

Fremont Elementary staff won't have a six-week lapse in insurance or pay as had been proposed, but plans continue to move the school from year-round to a traditional schedule.

Superintendent Richard Stokes said he is working to ease the transition for teachers and other staff by extending the pay period. Although employees will earn the same salary, they will receive it in 26 paychecks rather than the standard 24.

Insurance premiums for the six-week gap will be divided among the 26 pay periods.

"I met with the staff to let them know it was my recommendation to change them to traditional," Stokes said. "Unless the board directs me otherwise, that is the direction we're heading."

Changing the school's schedule is one component of a plan, known as Plan B, that would cut $3.8 million from the budget to help meet an anticipated

$7.2 million deficit.

Other components include laying off 56 employees " including kindergarten aides, bus drivers and some teachers " as well as closing eight portable classrooms and other operational costs, such as banning personal appliances in the classroom.

School board trustee Joe Enge said he still favors this plan over the alternative of closing an elementary school, but is opposed to changing Fremont's schedule.

He said the district has a "moral obligation" not just to provide insurance coverage to teachers during that six-week gap, but to pay for it.

"This isn't a schedule change the teachers chose," he said.

The cost to cover those teachers would be around $50,000, far outweighing the $23,000 anticipated savings in shifting the schedule.

"I don't see where the disruption of students and parents warrants $23,000," he said. "It doesn't help us in meeting the $7.2 million gap."

School board members advised Stokes during Tuesday's meeting to prepare the entire budget to be presented next month to the board.

Board vice president Norm Scoggin said "cherry picking" items from the proposed budget would dissemble any progress.

"There will be nothing left," he said.

Enge, however, said, "it is the duty of the board to speak up."

"I would like to see the budget presented to the board where we can vote item by item and not an all-or-nothing packet," he said. "Plan B seems like the best way to go, definitely. There's just that one caveat."

The school district must draft a budget based on assumptions because funding levels will not have been determined by the Legislature before the June due date.

The funding level determined this year will carry over to next, so Enge suggests waiting until next year to make a decision about Fremont.

"We don't know how much we're getting from the state or from the federal stimulus package," he said. "We could find we have to cut a lot less than we think. Once you change a schedule, it's hard to go back."

He also criticized the Legislature for not yet figuring out the education budget. He pointed to a joint resolution this week from the Legislature promoting physical fitness in schools.

"Instead of figuring out the budget, these guys are sending out joint resolutions that are absolutely meaningless," Enge said. "If they have time to make these meaningless joint resolutions, they're not spending their time properly."