Schools’ short year burdens districts

This school year has been one of the shortest on record for the Eugene and Bethel school districts because of furlough days agreed to by employees last spring to balance the districts’ 2010-11 budgets.

And if voters do not approve the city income tax for schools Tuesday and/or the Eugene School District doesn’t get the concessions it’s looking for from employees this spring, it could be the same again with continued furlough days for both districts in 2011-12.

And that puts them in some rare company in Oregon, and could even result in the state withholding funding from the severely strapped school districts for the 2012-13 school year. Both school districts are among nine of the state’s 197 school districts out of compliance this school year for falling below the minimum state instructional hour requirements, according to the state Department of Education. The districts say most, if not all, of those lack of hours are in fourth- and fifth-grade classes due to furlough days this school year.

“It’s a Catch-22,” Bethel Superintendent Colt Gill said. The districts are in financial dire straits partly because of escalating employee compensation costs, flat state funding due to the recession, and decreased enrollment.

Gill said it’s unlikely the state would actually withhold money because of falling below minimum hours, citing a line in the state law that reads, “Unless the withholding would create an undue hardship.”

If the school districts cannot come into compliance by showing the minimum-hours requirement will be met in 2011-12 before school starts in September, then state Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo may grant an extension of up to 12 months, state Department of Education spokeswoman Crystal Greene said. If the issue is not resolved by the following school year, Castillo could designate the school districts as “nonstandard” and withhold state school funds, Greene said.

If it passes, the city income tax would annually provide an estimated $12 million per year to the Eugene School District, and an estimated $4.8 million per year to the Bethel School District, for four years. As it’s written, the tax would be dedicated to avoiding teacher layoffs and a shorter school year.

Both districts will come up short this school year in meeting the required hours for fourth- and fifth-grade class requirements at many of their elementary schools. The state requires students in first through third grade to be in school a minimum of 810 hours in a school year, students in fourth through eighth grades to be in class a minimum of 900 hours, and high school students to be in class a minimum of 990 hours.

Since elementary school students in first through fifth grade are typically in school the same amount of hours, when those hours fall below 900 in furlough-shortened years like this school year, then it’s the fourth- and fifth-graders who don’t meet the requirement, Gill explained.

Eugene district falls short

In the Eugene School District, fourth- and fifth-grade classes will fall below the required 900 instructional hours at 10 of the district’s 24 elementary schools, said Carl Hermanns, the district’s chief academic officer. Those schools are the Arts & Technology Academy at Jefferson, Awbrey Park, Bertha Holt, Buena Vista, Charlemagne at Fox Hollow, Coburg, Corridor, Meadowlark, Parker and Spring Creek elementary schools, Hermanns said. The exact shortfall numbers per school were not immediately available.

In the Bethel School District, fourth- and fifth-grade classes in all seven of the district’s elementary schools — Meadow View and Prairie Mountain schools, and Danebo, Fairfield, Irving, Malabon and Clear Lake — will fall below the required 900 instructional hours.

Fourth- and fifth-grade classes at Clear Lake, Irving, Malabon, Meadow View and Prairie Mountain elementary schools will fall short of the 900-hour mark by nine hours this school year, Gill said. And fourth- and fifth-grade classes at Danebo and Fairfield elementary schools will fall short of the state requirement by 24 hours, he said.

“The whole thing is incredibly unfortunate,” Gill said. “What we don’t want is for this to become the new normal.”

It also appears that South Eugene High School in the Eugene School District could fall short of the state high school requirement. School district documents provided to The Register-Guard show South Eugene on target for 967 instructional hours this school year, while Sheldon High School (1,154 hours), North Eugene High School (1,079) and Churchill High School (1,036), would all surpass the requirement.

Hermanns said he could not confirm those numbers for South Eugene without speaking to Randy Bernstein, the school’s principal. Bernstein was out of town and unavailable for comment Friday. The high school numbers were calculated midyear and need to be rechecked, Hermanns said.

Adequate funding is key

What does all of this mean for both districts?

As part of filing their Annual Report on Compliance with Oregon Standards, both districts had to alert the state Department of Education that they were short hours this year and explain what they would do in 2011-12 to rectify the problem. School districts do not have to let the state know which schools or grades are out of compliance though, Greene said.

The Bethel School District notified the state on Jan. 19 that it would be out of compliance this year, according to documents provided to The Register-Guard by the state Department of Education. To correct the problem, Gill wrote in his report that the district “plans to adopt a full school year calendar for the 2011-12 school year pending adequate funding.”

But if Tuesday’s tax vote fails, Bethel is looking at a second straight 182-day work year for teachers, which would once again mean fewer instructional school days for students, which would mean fourth- and fifth-grade classes could very well be in trouble again, Gill said.

All Bethel district employees agreed to concessions last month based on the tax vote outcome. If it passes, teachers have agreed to take five furlough days — of which three would be instructional days — in 2011-12, and 10 furlough days — of which eight would be instructional days — if it fails.

Teachers in the Eugene School District are working a 185-day school year this year, after agreeing last year to take seven furlough days to help the district balance its 2010-11 budget. That has resulted in 168.5 instructional days for elementary school students in the district, and 167 instructional days for high school students, Hermanns said.

Furlough day negotiations

The Eugene district, which is facing a record $21.7 million budget shortfall for 2011-12, is still negotiating with all three of its employee groups over concessions for next school year. The district’s current proposal to teachers calls for a 186-day work year, which would include six furlough days, two of them instructional days. That would put elementary school students in their classroom seats for 172.5 instructional days, and middle and high school students for 171 days, which would take care of the compliance problem for 2011-12, Hermanns said.

However, the Eugene Education Association’s latest proposal to the school district calls for teachers to work 182 days in 2011-12 by taking 10 furlough days, just like Bethel is doing this year, and will do next year if the tax vote fails. The EEA proposal calls for seven of the furlough days to be instructional days, which would all but guarantee a second straight year of noncompliance for the district, Hermanns said.

To help the district balance its budget in 2011-12, the EEA has proposed the furlough days as a way to save money, versus the district’s current proposal that would cut teacher salaries by 1.75 percent and freeze their step advancement funding at 50 percent.

Hermanns filed the Eugene School District’s annual compliance report for 2010-11 on Feb. 10, according to the state Department of Education. To rectify the problem, Hermanns wrote that the district hopes “to add back furlough days in 2011-12 to ensure all schools meet the minimum required hours.”