Ideas generated and shared by small groups consisting of community members, school board members and staff at the Budget Reduction Community Engagement Meeting held on Wednesday, January 29th, 2020.
- Cut vocational busing (look at liability waiver)
- Would BP want to share costs?
- Freeze athletic uniform cycles
- Increase activities/athletics fees
- Increase parking fees
- Increase gate fees for contests and games
- Early buyout options-retirement packages
- Reduce honors programming at JES and JMS
- Class size thresholds increase at all buildings to reduce teaching staff
- Elective thresholds at HS increase to reduce teaching staff
- Hard enforcement of busing routes
- SRO (Review agreement with City)
- Increasing parent supply fees
- Review and evaluation of need for special education director position
- TOSA/instructional coach position reduction (Teacher On Special Assignment) (see value, but need to reduce and consider bringing back when they can be afforded)
- Reorganize the equity specialist position
- Use existing staff for behavioral support
- Reduce/streamline the number of electives at our secondary buildings
- Use Jordan Boosters to assist with uniform cycle versus taking out of district funds
- Look at highest “passion cuts” to insure voters turn out next referendum and follow through with them
- Look at using free versus paid programming (ie: Google Classroom in place of Schoology)
- Eliminate 6th period pay for teachers
- Reorganize teacher schedules and assignments to create efficienciesR
- eview administrative assistant needs and/or duties (check coding of salary and benefits)
- Review the Joint Powers Agreement with the City of Jordan
- Staff Development - can this go to General Fund
- Reduction of non-special education paraprofessionals and/or reorganize paraprofessionals to create efficiencies
- Reduce classroom supply budgets
- Add more fundraising
- Gifted and talented - can it be run more efficiently?
- Cut honors programming for 6th through 10th grade
- Develop computer science or GT courses to attract more students and raise money
- Look at school athletics and shift to clubs
- Reduce HS and MS paraprofessionals due to low student to paraprofessional ratios
- Expand revenue opportunities to capitalize on enrollment trends
- Think about using Targeted Services to run some programming
- Enforce the 1 mile bus radius for K-6 and 2 mile bus radius for 7-12 and review crosswalk supervision/hazardous roadway designation
- Charge a “ride for fee” if students live within these boundaries
- Cut MS activities
- Where there are traveling organizations
- Consider staggered starts for our schools to save on transportation costs
- Reduce the working hours for paraprofessionals
- Review K-2 class sizes
- Reduce or stop irrigating the fields and grounds
- End use of subs for data days and other professional development days
- Eliminate the use of Kelly Services as sub finding service
- Decrease the amount of RTI (response to intervention) programming in the ES and MS
- Consider larger class sizes of 50-60 for lecture based classes such as social studies
- Consider 4 day school week
- Review number of assistant coaches a program can have
- Some assistants paid from Booster Account now
- Add more supplies to class lists for parents to purchase
Other Notes
- Restricted/Reserved Accounts - don’t help with unassigned fund balance
- Look at marketing and branding costs - restricted/reserved account
- Community Ed reductions were talked about, but doesn’t help as it is a different fund
Amendment of Contracts
- Questions about admin benefits and teacher benefits
- These are negotiated items and need to work through collective bargaining process
- Questions about insurance contributions for certain employee groups
- Another Referendum?
- Questions surrounding whether or not the district plans to run a referendum again in the near future
- Community engagement survey will be conducted in late April/May to determine why this past fall’s referendum failed and what, if any type of referendum and tax increase the public may support in the future
- Run another referendum with basic needs only
- A survey and strong citizen group is important
- Other Notes/Questions from groups
- Cut non-essential positions
- Review equity issues prior to making cuts
- Follow through with cuts outlined in fall 2019 referendum discussions
- Retain great staff
- Choose cut items with the least impact on kids
- Need to make sure reductions are felt so voters understand the needs
- “Untouchables” need to include our SRO, ES class size levels and our Summit Academy
