By MONICA JOSEPH
NAPPANEE — “It’s not a lot of money, but it’s a start,” was Wa-Nee School Board member Christina Eshelman’s opinion right before voting for a 2 percent cut in salary for board members and administrators that will save the district $13,900.
Board members Eshelman, Eric Brown and Don Lehman voted for the 2 percent salary cut, while Cletis Miller and Ed Moser voted against it at their Monday night meeting.
Miller said he had no problem taking a pay cut from his an annual stipend of $1,960 a year before taxes.
“If they don’t pay me at all, that is fine with me,” he said. He does, however, have a problem cutting the pay of administrators, who he believes are already under-paid.
The cut affects principals, assistant principals, Superintendent Joe Sabo, Director of Curriculum Jim Bennett and Business Manager Roger Zentz. The savings is $18,138 per year (minus the board salaries, which were not figured in), but at three months into the year, the savings will be $13,900 after the April 1 start date.
The school board members and administrators have been working to cut around $894,484 from the budget to make up for shortfalls in state funding.
The 2 percent cut from administrators and board members is part of the first round of cuts. The second phase of cuts is likely to have a similar reduction for all classified workers — secretaries, Prime Time assistants, media staff, cafeteria staff, custodial staff and bus drivers — anyone without a teaching license. Those cuts will wait until the next school year.
School officials have asked teachers to open contract negotiations to discuss cuts in their salaries. Sabo said he received a letter last month from the teachers union stating teachers preferred to wait to see what the Indiana General Assembly was going to do in its latest session before sitting down to talk.
The teachers agreed to a contract last year that called for a 1 percent increase in salary for this school year and the following. Talks this year would re-negotiate the terms of that contract.
Other cuts discussed have been to make a major “reduction in force” — a RIF as it is known in the education world. A RIF is basically a layoff, with the possibility of bringing people back at some point. Other potential cuts are to close the middle school pool and cut extra curricular activities.
Sabo said some kind of forward movement is needed to get things moving toward shaving the deficit and he recommended the 2 percent cut starting in April. He met with principals about the cut prior to the board meeting.
Eshelman agreed with the dissenting Miller that the administrators work very hard, but she said the cut was a way of saving money that will not directly impact students.
“I appreciate their willingness to do this,” Eshelman said. “If we are trying to keep cuts as far away from the kids as possible, this is the way to go.”
Miller said he was afraid cutting salaries now will make it difficult to hire the most talented people to fill those positions in the future.
“I felt for a long time that we need to pay our administrators more,” he said.
He also said he felt it was the wrong way to go to cut the salaries of the administrators until it is known if teachers are going to make similar concessions.
Brown voted for the 2 percent cut, but he said new teacher contracts were still needed.
“We can take out dimes and nickels, but until we get teachers to re-negotiate contracts or we do a major RIF, we are just spinning our wheels,” he said.
