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Milder School Cuts Come With Strings Attached

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: April 1, 2009

Florida's senators would spare schools from much of the cuts they feared but would force conditions that education leaders call too heavy-handed.

A Senate budget committee late last week proposed a plan that would leave per-student spending unchanged but would make financial decisions administrators and school boards say are best made locally.

School boards would have to cut their pay by as much as $10,000. Principals would do a 12-month job in 10 months. And for teachers with experience from out of state, districts wouldn't have to count all their years of work when determining the terms of a contract.

"This is an extreme level of micromanagement," said Jim Warford, the executive director of the Florida Association of School Administrators. "Anybody who thinks that a school principal can take two months off a year hasn't been in a school recently."

But lawmakers behind the moves say school officials had their chance to make tough choices such as cutting executive and school board pay and failed to do so.

"So this time, we decided that we would do it for them," said Sen. Stephen Wise, a Jacksonville Republican who is chairman of the Senate's PreK-12 Appropriations Committee.

In exchange, senators would soften other cuts.

The Hillsborough County School District prepared to slash its budget by as much as 15 percent, but Wise's committee proposed cutting less than 2 percent.

The measure would prohibit school districts from paying for cell phones or out-of-state travel unless approved by school boards. Elected superintendents - there are 43 of them in Florida - would have to cut their pay by 5 percent.

In January, lawmakers asked school boards to consider reducing their pay by 5 percent.

This time, senators would force board members to cut their salaries to at least the amount paid to legislators, which comes to $30,336.
School board members say the difference is that they don't have the full-time office staffs who work for lawmakers.

"It's like being nibbled to death by ducks," Hillsborough County School Board member Candy Olson said of the proposed cutbacks. "But these ducks are toxic."

Also, the proposal calls for cutting online elective courses at the Orlando-based Florida Virtual School.

That may end up costing the state, said Julie Young, the virtual school's CEO.

"Severely limiting access to virtual school courses will ultimately cost the state and have a negative impact on districts that use online courses to help meet class-size requirements," Young said Tuesday in a written statement.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski contributed to this report. Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

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