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Many school districts in the Valley are planning big staffing and program cuts as they prepare to absorb millions of dollars of lost education funding.
State-imposed cuts are compounding budget problems for many districts, which are already dealing with failed bonds and overrides, decreased tax revenue, and funding cuts due to declining enrollment.
Districts are planning for the worst because they have to reduce costs in time to meet a fast-approaching budget deadline without knowing exactly by how much their state funding might be reduced.
The Scottsdale Unified School District recently announced that it would cut 221 teacher positions in next year's budget. Paradise Valley Unified could cut 184 teacher, clerical and administrative positions. Mesa Public Schools, which could have to cut $30 million-$60 million, expects to have to ax 310 teacher spots and 130 other positions.
District administrators have spent the past month crunching numbers and creating worst-case scenarios to prepare for potentially more than $900 million in cuts to K-12 funding in the 2009-10 state budget. The Legislature is trying to close an estimated $3 billion budget shortfall.
Cuts will never reach those heights, according to Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
"That's a menu. We haven't decided on anything and they'll be nowhere near that number," Kavanagh said. "I would never let that happen. We will be way, way below that."
But Valley districts find themselves in a bind. Even though districts do not have to approve budgets until July 15, they have to notify employees by April 15 whether they will be offered a contract for 2009-10, said Chuck Essigs, director of governmental relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials.
"They would take a terminal risk by not notifying a significant number of teachers to be able to survive the worst-case budget-cut scenario," Essigs said.
President Barack Obama's federal-stimulus funds, which would mean roughly $832 million for Gov. Jan Brewer to spend on education, should offset education cuts. Schools are also expected to directly receive about $195 million in funding for low-income students and about $184 million in special-education funding, spread over two years.
But the U.S. Department of Education has not yet created guidelines for how to spend the education funds, leaving districts uncertain on a time line for aid and on where it could be spent. Districts should see the money by July 1.
Scottsdale, like many districts, spends about 90 percent of its $169 million operating budget on salaries and benefits. Facing $28 million in budget cuts, the district has plans to cut at least 28 administrators and 37 classified staff in addition to the planned teacher layoffs.
Some districts are holding out hope that legislative cuts will be lighter than expected, but Scottsdale's co-interim superintendent, David Peterson, did not wait to tackle possible cuts.
"I have to be prudent, I have to be fiscally responsible . . . I have to build a budget based on the information that's been given to me," Peterson said.
Peoria Unified, which could see as much as $37 million in cuts, would have to trim 700 certified staff, many of whom are teachers. John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association, estimated that thousands of Valley teachers will lose their jobs and many will leave the profession.
"This wreaks havoc on peoples' lives, on their home lives, on their professional lives, on their planning for next year," Wright said. Districts will make deep cuts and then "cross their fingers" that they'll be able to call people back.
Administrators will also look to run schools with fewer and fewer resources, which means larger class sizes, salary and hiring freezes, reduced materials and supplies, lowered utility costs by raising temperatures in the classroom, and fewer custodians.
"Just go down the kinds of things that you're paying for outside of personnel and you'll begin to see the impact," Wright said.
In Scottsdale, high-school athletics will move to "pay for play" and elementary- and middle-school principals will have to decide whether to keep band and strings programs.
"It's very sad that they're considering music and band in the elementary school so that children will not be able to learn an instrument until middle school unless they take lessons privately," said Sandi Kravetz, a Scottsdale parent of two middle-school students.
Pawitter Mangat, a Gilbert father of three, said the state needs to keep class sizes low.
"If the student is not able to get attention in the class, if the student is not able to swim, he or she sinks," Mangat said.
Avondale Elementary School District already announced that it would be laying off 38 employees because of declining enrollment. The district could see further layoffs due to state budget cuts, losing up to $6 million of its $34 million operating budget.
The administration is looking at hiring freezes, pay decreases for all staff, and transportation reductions, Superintendent Cathy Stafford said.
"We've got to be prepared for anything," Stafford said.
The state needs to find a way to invest in schools, Kravetz said.
Arizona is already ranked 49th in per-pupil funding, as rated by Education Week.
"Whether that means we need more taxes, all I can tell you is if you think education is expensive, try ignorance," Kravetz said.
Republic reporters Pat Kossan, Ray Parker, Emily Gersema, Chelsea Schneider, Megan Gordon, Eugene Scott, Sadie Jo Smokey and Jeffrey Javier contributed to this article.
