Reduction of staff through attrition may be only way to balance Waynesboro's school budget

WAYNESBORO — As Waynesboro Public Schools works to balance a budget where, for now, expenditures exceed revenue by $1.7 million, they don't have a lot of wiggle room in how to make the numbers work.

The plan as of Tuesday night's work session was to make up the difference through attrition, meaning reducing staff by not filling all vacancies in the school system. Just how many positions that will be is still very much up in the air. The entire budget process is in a holding pattern as Waynesboro, and all school divisions around the state, wait for Virginia to pass a final budget.

The General Assembly adjourned this past weekend without approving that budget, so just how much money will be available for education is an unknown. There was a stopgap budget approved that addressed the $201 million error in calculating education funding, but school divisions like Waynesboro still aren't sure what their own budgets will look like until the state passes the two-year budget.

That leaves a school division like Waynesboro in a bit of a time crunch. It is required by Waynesboro's city code to have an adopted budget to council by the fourth Monday of March. That's less than four weeks away. The school board's monthly meeting where they are scheduled to adopt a budget is less than two weeks away.

Superintendent Jeffrey Cassell told school board members Tuesday that he doesn't see any way that the state will have a final budget by that March 14 monthly meeting or even March 27 when the budget is due to council. What they'll do is recommend a budget that will, in all likelihood, change.

The big issue is just how far apart the General Assembly is in their budget. Waynesboro schools would face varying amounts of a deficit based on which version — the governor's, the house's or the senate's — of the budget is passed. There's also the question of just how much of a raise teachers get in those budgets — the senate and the house want a 7% bump in pay while the governor's budget calls for just a 5% raise.

The budget summary put together by Waynesboro staff has the school division anywhere from $224,000 in the black to a $2.7 million deficit.

"The compromise will be somewhere in the middle," said Cassell, which almost certainly means Waynesboro will be looking at a deficit.

The superintendent told school board members what he is recommending is to use the governor's revenue as a conservative estimate of what the compromise will eventually look like. That means giving a 5% raise to employees, leaving the school division $1.7 million out of balance.

"We'll need to take a balanced budget to the city," Cassell said. "And the only way to balance that is in personnel and benefits at this point. There's nothing left to cut."

As of Tuesday, there are 23 positions that will be open through retirement or resignation in Waynesboro Public Schools. Fourteen of those are professional teaching staff. Cassell said the school division would make up for the deficit — he's hoping the state's compromise means it's closer to $1 million — by not filling some vacancies and filling others with new teachers, who would make considerably less than veteran teachers.

Cassell estimated the school would save approximately $100,000 in salary and benefits if it didn't fill a position and about $35,000 if a top-of-the-pay scale teacher retires and is replaced by a new teacher. Cassell feels confident whatever the deficit ends up being, reducing staff through attrition will make up the difference. He told the school board he didn't anticipate having to do a reduction in workforce.

"What that will result in will be higher class sizes," Cassell said. "We've enjoyed some very small class sizes this year and last year during the pandemic and coming back from the pandemic."

He did say that Waynesboro isn't in danger of having class sizes larger than the state's limit.

More:Waynesboro City Council calls for Jim Wood to relinquish vice mayor title role or resign

Staff has already started looking at class sizes and enrollments to see how they can best approach a reduction in staff. Ryan Barber, Waynesboro's assistant superintendent, said colleges aren't graduating enough teacher candidates to keep pace with the demand and many who are applying aren't as qualified as in the past. He feels a larger class with a more experienced teacher better serves students than smaller classes with some teachers who aren't as qualified.

"Whenever we receive a notification of retirement or a resignation we are looking at all of the data about class sizes and whether we really need to post that position on our website," said Barber.

Since vacancies won't be filled there will likely be a need to move some teachers around to other school buildings, Cassell said.

He also said there is the possibility to give less than a 5% raise instead of reducing positions to help balance the budget, but he'd prefer not to do that since surrounding school divisions will likely give that raise.

"To be competitive we really need to do that 5%, I think," Cassell said.

School board member Debra Freeman-Belle asked about the chances of not making up the deficit through attrition. She didn't want to approve a plan only to find out teachers were being cut. Cassell said he expects reduction through attrition to work.

If not, he said, they would use their reduction in force policy which ranks teachers by licensure, current assignments and seniority. If it reaches that level Cassell said they could always revisit a smaller raise, although that wouldn't come without problems.

"It would be very difficult to come back and say we're only going to give a 4% raise, but we're going to keep these three jobs," Cassell said.

Freeman-Belle said she wasn't leaning toward doing that, but just wanted to ask the question.

"My concern is committing to an attrition plan," she said, "and it turns into something else."

Cassell said staff would be working over the next two weeks to identify what positions would be open and bring that information with the cost savings to the school board for its March 14 meeting.

More:Path to a publishing deal was a long, sometimes painful journey for Wilson Memorial grad

— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Waynesboro Schools: Reduction through attrition may be solution to balanced budget