The details
Pastusek said in light of the multi-million dollar deficit, the district must act quickly with big decisions regarding next year’s budget.
“The reason why I call [these items] big rocks is because this is a big deficit,” Pastusek said. “It’s gonna be hard to [balance the budget] with $50,000 or $100,000 decisions.”
Pastusek said the area of the budget that will be affected most is staffing. Out of the district’s $337 million budget, $271 million—or 81%—is for payroll. Should board members want to keep that same percentage intact, then $13 million would need to be cut from payroll.
In light of the fact that staffing is where most of the cuts will happen, Pastusek’s “big rocks” include the following:
- Staffing ratios
- Staffing efficiencies
- Staffing matrix
Pastusek outlined several options with regard to the three different levels of schools. He said that there are three options when it comes to saving money by increasing staffing ratios at the elementary level, where the current ratio is 22 students to each teacher in K-4th grade and 25:1 in 5th grade. Staffing ratio options include:
- Option 1 - 25:1 K-4th grade would save $4.8 million
- Option 2 - 24:1 K-4th grade would save $2.9 million
- Option 3 - 24:1 2nd-4th grade would save $2.1 million
In terms of middle school, Pastusek said the current student to teacher ratio is 165:1 or 23.5 students per period based upon teachers teaching seven periods a day. As a comparison, Northwest ISD’s ratio is lower than most other districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For example, Keller ISD, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD and Lewisville ISD are all higher at 28:1.
Options Pastusek outlined include:
- Option 1 - 27.1:1 would save $3.8 million
- Option 2 - 26.4:1 would save $3.2 million
- Option 3 - 25.7:1 would save $2.6 million
At the high school level, teachers teach six periods each day, so the student to teacher ratio averages 27.5 students per period. Northwest ISD is more in the middle of area school districts when it comes to student-teacher ratios at the high school level. Denton, Birdville and McKinney ISDs are all at 25:1 where Keller, HEB and Lewisville ISDs are at 28:1.
Options at the high school level include:
- Option 1 - 31.7:1 would save $4.6 million
- Option 2 - 30.8:1 would save $4 million
- Option 3 - 30:1 would save $3.5 million
Pastusek said that at the recommended levels, staffing would be cut by approximately 15%. He added his department also looked at the student-teacher ratios when it came to extracurriculars such as athletics and fine arts. Should the board desire to maintain a 15% cut across extracurricular staffing as well, Pastusek said it would save the district an additional $1.1 million.
“This does not cut any [extracurricular] programs,” Pastusek said. “We’re trying to be more efficient and maximize our [staffing] use there.”
Diving in deeper
Should the board approve Pastusek’s recommendations, it would save the district a total of $9.4 million, which is $6.7 million short of the district’s $16 million deficit. Pastusek said his department is working on trying to find another $3.7 million that they could cut in payroll along with another $3 million in non-payroll cuts to make up for the shortfall.
Quote of note
“I hope staff and our teachers know it’s going to be painful for them,” Place 2 Trustee Mark Schluter said. “We feel your pain and we’re trying to minimize that.”
Next steps
The item was for discussion purposes only and no action was taken. Pastusek said that he will bring some of these additional staffing recommendations to the next budget workshop meeting on Jan. 23. Staff is also following actions in the Texas Legislature, which began its 89th meeting Jan. 14, for any changes in school district funding.
These discussions are in response to the district’s VATRE election failing Nov. 4, which would have generated approximately $16 million in the district’s maintenance and operations budget.
