Citing flat revenue, declining enrollment, and increased expenses, Colorado Springs School District 49 Superintendent Peter Hilts asked the board of education during last night’s meeting to declare a fiscal exigency in the district, which will allow for a reduction in programs and staff, including non-probationary, or tenured, teachers.
“Instead of our revenues keeping up with our expenses, our revenues have flattened – as our enrollment has essentially flattened over the last three years – while our expenses have continued to climb,” said Hilts. “In order to meet our required obligation to balance our budget, we had to take money out of our Fund B fund balance, which is sometimes colloquially called a reserve – our savings account. We had to take money out of that and put it into our main budget in order to balance revenue and expenses.”
In an email Hilts sent to staff the morning of the board meeting, he outlined his plan. “On the expense side, our plan is to reduce costs across every program, school, and function in the district,” Hilts wrote. “This reduction in program (RIP) will impact the size, quality, and production of every program. It would be unfair to reduce the workforce and expect to sustain production levels. We do not assume or expect that a smaller workforce can deliver the same quantity or variety of production. Every department and every school will have to identify any activities that are less mission-critical. Our plan to balance the budget will also include a second phase reduction in force (RIF) across every department and all schools. To enable leaders to be precise about programs and personnel, we will ask the Board to declare a fiscal exigency, which is legally required before we consider any reduction in our non-probationary teacher workforce. Although we project that tactic will be a small part of the overall plan, we are required to declare an exigency as step one of the process. Non-teacher, INR, and probationary positions will make up the majority of any personnel savings, but we want to be scrupulous about honoring our obligations to every workforce colleague.”
Hilts also noted in the email that the district will have to “generate revenue by increasing fees that we control, consolidating operations into fewer facilities so we can sell district properties as they increase in value, and potentially, pursuing additional support from our community through a ballot measure.”…