The 2020-2021 school year is still rife with challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but for the most part that course has already been charted.
“The rest of this year, there aren’t too many changes we can make,” said Dana Smith, superintendent for Flossmoor School District 161.
So the district instead brought its Learning and Instruction Committee and Finance Committee together the afternoon of Dec. 7 to start game-planning for the challenges that may also lie beyond this school year. The discussion was aimed at how to reconcile a number of educational initiatives with possible budget concerns.
With board members Cameron Nelson, David Linnear, Carolyn Griggs, Misha Blackman, Christina Vlietstra and Michelle Hoereth all present, the meeting was open to the public via Zoom.
“We’re aware COVID has caused financial impacts we have not seen yet,” Smith told the committees. “We should anticipate a haircut of some kind. We don’t know exactly what that’s going to mean.”
Of major concern, “across-the-board” cuts are being discussed at the state level, and talks are that those could be anywhere from 5-15%.
“They do have tangible impacts on our bottom line and everything we do going forward,” Smith said. “For us, it’s a major hit.”
Frances LaBella, the district’s associate superintendent for business services, said for every 5% of funding the state potentially cuts, that equates to $180 per student. She said that works out to more than $400,000 district-wide.
“It’s substantial,” she said.
Smith added that with no major new construction on the docket moving forward, 70-75% of the district’s costs are staff, which makes finding places to cut tough.
“The most uncomfortable it could probably get is not having a balanced budget,” he said.
LaBella added, “Our goal is to always have a balanced operating budget, but that may or may not be doable next year.”
In addition to the unknown financial concerns, Smith said there are educational concerns, too. District 161 is in its first year of a Thoughtful Classroom rollout, with the continuation of it slated for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. Smith said they also held off on the rollout of a new science curriculum this year because of COVID-19.
“We do need to talk about what that’s going to mean for next year,” he said.
Smith said he expects that everyone will be back in classrooms when the next school year starts but that it may not be the same as it was in the past. That also leaves questions about a new social studies curriculum implementation, which is planned for the next school year.
Nelson said while he is excited about the prospect of rolling out science and social studies curriculum changes, he could not overlook the idea that curriculum cuts could cover some potential state losses.
“There’s a significant price tag to the social studies curriculum, plus training for teachers,” he said.
District officials will also have to figure out how to balance any curriculum changes with personnel changes likely required — especially in the younger grades — for students who are going to need help catching up on learning loss during the pandemic, Nelson said.
To that end, Smith said the winter administration of aimswebPlus assessments will give officials a better idea of what is going to be needed next year for makeup. He said May exams would offer an even clearer picture of that “but that’s a little bit too late.”
Griggs asked if the summer could possibly be used for some of that makeup. Smith said the district could look at evolving summer boot camps to cater to a wider group of students, with a particular focus on the younger ones.
“I think all ideas are on the table,” Smith said. “We’ll have first-graders, potentially, who have never seen the inside of a classroom.”
Smith said those summer programs are “finite,” but decreasing class sizes to give the students more attention in the fall could be a “real squeeze” as it would require hiring more full-time instructors who are “in for the year.”
But Griggs said she worries that catchup may be more of a long-term commitment than they are thinking.
“For some kids, it will take longer than a year or two to catch up, and that may be our youngest learners,” she said. “It might not be as temporary as we hope or wish it could be.”
LaBella said the costs associated with that potentially pose more concerns for the budget.
“If we think that is going to be the case, even more so we have to think what … can we let go of?” she said. “If we start talking about that large of deficits, we’re going to run into problems sooner rather than later.”
Nelson also floated the idea of doing “something drastic” such as adjusting school boundaries to maximize staff efficiency. Linnear said he was open to the idea but wondered how much it would solve the district’s financial concerns.
“Will that get us from the red to black is going to be a hard point to judge,” he said. “The reality is that we’re going to have these cuts coming. It’s just a matter of where it’s going to happen. We have to choose where we’re going to have to make tough decisions.”
Smith said one of the positives, financially speaking, is that costs saved in 2020 might leave some money to put back into the system for next year.
“We’re going to be in good shape in a lot of places,” he said. “We don’t have to make a decision now. The best thing about these conversations is we’re starting early.”
LaBella said what makes saving costs harder in the 2021-2022 school year is that this year’s savings have not come from teaching and learning but transportation and food service, as well as some building and grounds expenses. But she liked the idea of applying savings from one year to the next and internally viewing it as a two-year cycle.
“2020 is all about thinking differently,” she said. “I have to think it’s going to take us a few years before we get back to ‘normal.’”
She cautioned that questions will remain about the third year in that cycle. If the board, for instance, increases full-time teachers to help students catch up next year, it could be looking at a reduction in force the following year once the learning gap has been bridged, she said.
Nelson also wondered if a surge of teachers in the fall would be effective. He wondered if the district will attract the quality of teachers it wants if those teachers know the positions may be temporary. He asked if it might be better to somehow invest more in quality long-term teachers, which Smith said could be an interesting “half-measure.”
Smith said administrators will bring back a document focused on the learning and instruction side of things, laying out the next three years of initiatives. They will present an option that is “life as usual” with a breakdown on the financial side, as well as funding impacts of short-term and long-term support systems. Finance is to work up purchase prices and staffing costs in a typical year and with the alternate options to see the cost differences in those plans.
“By the time we get that done, we’ll have an idea, hopefully, of additional information from the state,” Smith said.
Smith recommended another joint committee meeting in January to share that draft information.