Weber Takes Helm – Again – as School Board Debates Budget

School Board member Lois Weber on Monday called the upcoming 2011-12 Wauwatosa schools budget the most difficult situation she could remember the district having to face.

Weber has served on the board for 34 years.

That is a testament to just how uncertain times are for the Wauwatosa School District and perhaps also a testament to the steady influence of Weber herself, who was elected president of the School Board for the – well, she couldn't remember how many times.

Superintendent Phil Ertl and Human Resources Director Dan Chanen recapped progress on the budget with details on an interim agreement with the teachers union that would save $4 million against a projected $6.5 million shortfall.

The huge budget gap is the result of the impasse at the state level as the budget repair bill is held up in court, while the proposed state budget itself would go into effect with more than $800 million in cuts to state aid for education.

At the same time, the district is facing a deadline of June 1 to announce any planned layoffs, and a June 30 deadline to present a balanced budget. To complicate matters, the teachers contract agreement ends June 30 as well.

The $4 million interim agreement calls for a pay freeze, a continuation of a 50 percent contribution by teachers to their pension plan and movement to a high-deductible health care plan in the fall.

Teachers agreed to the deal to avoid what would have been a heavy round of layoffs that would have resulted not only in job losses but also in increased class sizes for those instructors who remained – predicted to be up to 10 more students in each class.

"The most exciting part for me is we are working together for the best for our children," Weber said. "I think this is the very best we can do at this point."

Board member Michael Meier was the lone voice of dissent. Admitting that he is pessimistic by nature, Meier warned that if even tougher measures were not taken now, the same situation would surface next year with less room to maneuver.

"In 12 months, it'll be just the same," Meier said. "There's nothing in (the agreement) that allows us to reopen it.

"I'm just saying that there's reasonable people who think that next year is going to be bad. Let's take our medicine now."

Outgoing board President Anne Fee said she agreed that it was "an unsustainable structure" – freezing pay now while facing ongoing negotiations toward the following year – but she went on to say, "It saves the district $4 million without affecting the kids in the classroom. It affects the adults but not the kids."

"If we were not to adopt this agreement, we would need to do precautionary layoffs," Chanen told the board, referring to pink slips that are often recalled. But, "In the meantime, some of our most talented teachers might go elsewhere.

"This agreement puts control of these decisions in our hands."

Ertl was even more direct.

"Waukesha is hiring 100 teachers," he said. "We would have to lay off more than 100. We hired the people we have for a reason, and we want to keep them."

Ertl was able to announce one other small victory: The district had reached another interim agreement with the union representing just more than 100 teachers aides.

The aides' contract expired last spring and has been in negotiations since, and in exchange for a retroactive 1.5 percent raise this year, the union agreed to the same terms as the teachers next year, taking a pay freeze, higher deductible health plan and 50 percent pension contribution.

Administrators and non-union represented staff are taking the same three pills, board member Mary Jo Randall noted.

The remaining gap in the budget has to be filled with concessions by two more unions, the Wauwatosa Educational Support Association, representing non-teaching administrative staff, and custodians represented by AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees).

Those negotiations are made more difficult by the fact that their contracts remain in effect beyond this year.

The School Board also voted unanimously to adopt an Advanced Placement foreign language program at a cost of $66,000, recommended by district staff, and heard a presentation on a new elementary social studies program the district would like to implement next year at a cost of $163,432.