Right now, the state needs more than $7 billion dollars to balance its budget and even if the Feds gave them every bit of that amount in the coming stimulus plan, school funding wouldn't go up a dime.
Superintendent Eugene Sanders knows some of the state's revenue shortfall will have to come out of funds the state gives Cleveland schools. And it could be quite a lot. More than half the district's operating budget comes from the state. Governor Strickland's worst-case scenario is a 25 percent, across-the-board spending cut for all departments. Sanders translates that into a possible 12 percent loss in school funding here…an amount roughly equal to the salary and benefits of nine hundred teachers. He promises, though, to include administrators and other employees in any layoff plan.
Sanders says any substantial cut in resources is particularly problematic for Cleveland which got the equivalent of a grade of "D" in its latest performance report card from the state.
Sanders: "It has the potential to have a dramatically negative effect on our ability to achieve the academic and improvement goals that we've laid out. Whether it be improving our graduation rate, our ability to continue programming for our special schools or whether it be our ability to deliver instruction at a quality level that meets our expectation."
Sanders says the district is already looking at large and small cost cutting measures. A hiring freeze is in place and a consultant is looking at which of Cleveland's 110 schools could be closed or merged. The district may provide less busing, offer fewer programs and schools may charge students to participate in sports. But, he says, that still wouldn't be enough in a "worst case" scenario.
Sanders: "With a deficit of $83 million though, those things are candidly small in nature. Two thirds of everyone's budget is personnel driven. So, two out of three decisions you make will have to involve a person. That's what it comes to."
The current union contract with the teachers dictates that seniority rules, that is, last hired, first fired. Sanders has said that could mean a potential loss of 30 percent of the teachers working at Cleveland's single gender and specialty schools. And those schools are among the best performing Cleveland schools. The specialty schools got to handpick the teachers they hired without regard to seniority. But teachers Union president David Quolke says he won't support scrapping seniority in layoffs. To do that, he says, would protect specialty schools at the expense of neighborhood schools, and pit the needs of students against each other.
Quolke: "I think in terms of our communication with the district, we've been absolutely clear, that we're looking at the city of Cleveland as a whole. We have fantastic teaching that occurs in all these schools."
On pay, the union is somewhat more flexible. Quolke says he and Sanders have agreed to postpone a March raise to at least the end of June, when they'll have a better idea of the level of state support.
The last big teacher layoff was sparked by budget cuts and a substantial enrollment decline in 2004. Back then 14 schools were closed 1,400 teachers lost their jobs.
About half those teachers have returned to work since then.
Quolke says each time the system goes through one of these massive shake-outs its traumatic for all involved.
Quolke: "We shifted an enormous amount of the student population around and shifted an enormous amount of the teaching population around. When I say it's devastating, I mean it is devastating."
Whatever Strickland proposes for education funding in his state of the state message today, will almost certainly not be final. More specifics are expected in the governor's budget which goes to the legislature February 2, and the state probably won't know till after that how much new assistance will be coming from the federal government.
So, for now, there is speculation, worry and waiting.
--Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3.