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Times Staff WriterThe board votes 6-1 to follow the recommendations of the superintendent, who warned more cuts could be necessary.
LARGO - The Pinellas County School Board voted early Thursday to cut $24.2-million from its 2003-04 budget, despite pleas that board members consider other ways to balance the books.
During an emotional 31/2-hour hearing, parents, teachers, principals and students poured out their concerns to board members, who blamed the shortfall on legislators. Then they voted 6-1 to follow the recommendations of superintendent Howard Hinesley, who warned more cuts could be necessary.
Board member Mary Brown cast the lone dissenting vote, which came after 1 a.m. She said Hinesley had not fully justified the cuts.
Brown said Hinesley and his staff recommended cuts at 75 schools, but left more than 60 schools untouched.
"We need to look at this fairly, and I want to know what's going on with the schools that are not in the cuts," she said. "We need to make sure we do this right."
Board chairwoman Linda Lerner said she was not ready to decide the fate of 21 middle school specialists who help mentally and physically disabled students navigate the ups and downs of school life. Several people testified Wednesday night that these "varying exceptionalities" specialists are responsible for working with students and documenting how they receive federally mandated services. Without them and the paperwork they generate, the district could face lawsuits, several speakers said.
Lerner tried to remove the specialists from the cuts, at least until she could get more information. But a board majority voted her down.
Board member Mary Russell voiced concern about the cuts at magnet schools in St. Petersburg, particularly at Bay Point Elementary. The school is slated to lose three specialists who staff the math and science magnet program, plus an assistant principal who splits time with neighboring Bay Point Middle School.
Magnets, Russell argued, are a vital part of the school choice plan, drawing white families to schools in predominantly black neighborhoods.
"If we don't provide for them, their specialized programs, the choice plan will fail," Russell said. "They attracted the parents. They're here. Now it's our turn to do what we said we were going to do."
She questioned why the money could not be taken from the district's $22-million contingency fund for implementing choice. "That was put away for a rainy day," Russell said. "It's raining, it's pouring."
That money has been earmarked to pay the increased cost of busing students longer distances under choice. About 200 new routes will be needed.
Russell also pushed for a thorough review of the district's administrative costs. But board member Jane Gallucci said there was no more fat. The district, she argued, needs a range of administrative offices to conduct its daily affairs.
"We have pared and pared and pared," she said.
Hinesley said of his budget: "I really think we've done a good job of planning this."
The cuts were based on the spending plan being proposed by the state Senate, which is more generous than the House's plan. But if the House gets its way in an upcoming special session, or if the Senate compromises, Hinesley would call for more cuts.
None of the budgets being considered in Tallahassee gives school districts enough money to pay for the class size amendment, cover inflation and meet the needs of new students, local school officials say.
Republican lawmakers say school districts still have room to cut.
To that, Gallucci had a rejoinder: "This is not Chicken Little-the-sky-is-falling. The sky is falling."
Among those calling for a vote was board member Lee Benjamin, a longtime Pinellas educator who said this year marked the third major budget cut of his career. The first was in 1968; the second between 1991 and 1993, when the board cut a total of $58-million.
"I don't want to do any of them," he said of the cuts. "But we are faced with balancing a budget."