Hot Springs School District Superintendent Mike Hernandez says planned staff cuts are intended to improve the district's financial situation over the long term.
Hernandez met with employees after school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to inform them why the district intended to reduce its staff after the current school year. He said employee salaries total about $23 million of the district's $31 million annual expenditures.
"We just have some expenditures that are a little bit out of whack with our current revenue," Hernandez said. "We are going to take a good, fiscal approach to that and try to make sure we continue to be good stewards of the money without continuing down this road."
The district hired Hernandez in April to succeed Joyce Craft. Craft stepped down as superintendent in June and will officially retire this month.
Hernandez previously served as deputy commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education. He said he examined the district's financial situation before he was hired.
"Being from where I was, I knew that without some kind of adjustments that needed to be made, we would pattern off some of the other districts who were put on early intervention or fiscal distress and things like that," Hernandez said. "I knew that wasn't what we wanted to do."
A budget committee was formed during the summer with district staff and board member Steve White shortly after Hernandez began work. Representatives from the district's classified and certified employee personnel policy committees will be added to the committee to determine where cuts will be made.
Hernandez said the school board was "brave" to decide to cut the budget now before the state intervened.
"They can see that is something that could happen pretty easily," Hernandez said. "So they were willing to step up and let us try to make these corrections before we go down a road we don't want to."
He told staff on Wednesday only "minor adjustments" would be made. He said the district would not make "wholesale changes" this year.
"It's not the best position to be in, but it's a lot better than having to be in this position with other involvement telling us, 'Be more state-directed,'" Hernandez said. "That's what we are trying to avoid."
The district asked voters this year for a 2-mill increase to fund the construction of a multipurpose building at the high school and technology upgrades throughout the district. Hernandez said the millage would have provided short-term support, but would not have fixed the district's overriding budget issues.
Hot Springs employs 560 employees and budgets for an average of 3,600 students. Lake Hamilton has a staff of 529 employees. Lakeside has 315 total employees. Hernandez said the district overstaffed in both classified and certified employees.
Hernandez told faculty and staff that cuts would be made through attrition if possible. Additional cuts would be made via reduction in force if needed.
A RIF of classified employees is determined by years of experience in the district. A RIF of certified employees is made on a position-by-position basis, with teachers ranked on a point system.
Employees such as literacy coaches have expressed concern because their positions could be cut without a ranking system if the role is deemed nonessential by the district. Hernandez said the district intends to keep such positions, but conversations will determine how many to keep.
"Because we have such a high low socio-economic population that a lot of those literacy interventions and things like that are important," Hernandez said.
"It's not really across-the-board look we are going to take," he added.
Hernandez said no changes would be made to the district's current magnet school system.
"We want to make sure we protect the integrity of the district and offer most everything we are currently offering now, if possible," Hernandez said. "We want to be able to have time to have those conversations and make decisions and make sure we've got our point system correct and those kinds of things before we start letting folks know."
The viewpoint of the administration is that being overstaffed prevents the district from efficiently replenishing its supply of adequate technology and transportation. Hernandez said such expenditures have been delayed this school year to prevent a sharper dip in the budget.
Hernandez said the goal of the cuts is to allow the district to be stable moving forward and explore facility upgrades in the near future. He said he wants to avoid the need to cut expenditures further.
The school board approved the budget during the September meeting. Hernandez said discussions regarding the district's facilities were put on hold until the school board elections last month.
White was re-elected unopposed in Position 6. Lonell Lenox was elected to Position 3. Hernandez said the district will next determine whether to explore another millage campaign.
Members of the Superintendent's Breakfast Council will be invited to provide input as well. Hernandez said no targets have been established in terms of positions to be cut because salaries vary so widely.
The final decisions on which positions to be cut will be made through recommendations from Hernandez and approval by the board.
"I am going to listen to all of it and try to see what works, what has worked in other districts in stuff I have worked with across the state," Hernandez said. "Ultimately, there's going to be some decisions that have to get made."
Local on 10/04/2015