Freezing All Pay, School District Slashes Budget Without Affecting Kids

On March 25, less than three months ago, the Wauwatosa School District when the state budget battle in Madison blasted a $6.5 million hole in its own budget projections.

Superintendent Phil Ertl said more than once in April, "This is the biggest challenge we have ever faced." And 34-year veteran School Board member Lois Weber echoed and confirmed that statement: It was like nothing she had ever seen.

On Monday night, district officials did what seemed impossible a few weeks ago. They presented the board with a balanced budget that contains no significant cuts in jobs or school programming.

The feat was done as Ertl said it would have to be done — not on the backs of children in the classroom but on the backs of school employees through major pay and benefit concessions.

Every person who works for the district — union and non-union — accepted a pay freeze and agreed to make higher contributions toward the cost of their pensions and health insurance for at least one year and in some cases two.

The board on Monday unanimously  with the district's unions — in this case it was the union that represents administrative assistants.

Thanks to those concessions, the proposed 2011-12 budget is projected to be $8 million below last year, a 9.3 percent reduction. The total budget is $77.5 million, down from $85.5 million last year.

Education is a labor-intensive field, and reductions in salaries and benefits accounted for $3.4 million in reduced spending, with nearly $2.5 million of that realized from higher pension contributions. Salaries and benefits still will make up a whopping 82.6 percent of the total budget at $64 million.

The total property tax levy supporting the schools, including the Recreation Department, will be about $43.6 million compared to $43.7 million last year, a decrease of about 0.2 percent. That means the owner of a $250,000 home in Wauwatosa will pay for schools about $5 less — a little more than a fancy cup of coffee, but still less — than last year.

"What you're seeing here is the opposite of what happens every year," said John Mack, the district's director of business services, noting that usually tax levies, spending and salaries go up in every budget.

Board President Lois Weber asked Ertl whether adjustments to the budget could be made depending on the outcome of the budget debate in Madison, and Ertl assured the board that changes could be adopted through September.

The crisis management mentality that overcame the district in April was predicated on calculations that showed a projected $3.1 million reduction in state aid without the hoped-for savings contained in the provisions of the stalled budget-repair bill.

At the same time, federal aid that spiked last year with an infusion of stimulus money plummeted by $3.3 million as those programs ended.

On the educational side of the budget, Ertl ticked off about two dozen new or proposed program initiatives that would still go forward even with the reduced budget.

"This is the largest budget reduction ever," Ertl said, "But I'm beyond optimistic and really pretty excited about what we're going to be doing with the money we have."

Among many items, he ticked off spending for reviewing science offerings, implementing a new elementary social studies program, the elementary Spanish program and the Montessori School — for both of which new teachers have already been hired — as well as a host of technology improvements and much more.

All this was done while keeping class sizes at better than area, state and national averages, with about 22 students per class in elementary grades and about 25 per class in secondary levels.

"All this would not be possible without those concessions from our employees," Ertl said.

Board member Mary Jo Randall echoed that, with added thanks to Ertl and his administrative staff, saying, "I don't think you can say enough about our employees and our leadership."