Tampabay: Tight state budget a lesson to educators

[Times photo: Stefanie Boyar]
From left, Walden Lake Elementary first-graders Brooke Leonard, 6, Dylan Dale, 6, and Brooke Hollowell, 8, identify parts of their faces as they sing a Spanish song during class.

By MELANIE AVE and STEPHEN HEGARTY
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 26, 2001

PLANT CITY -- The Walden Lake Elementary first-graders sat cross-legged in front of traveling teacher Dorothy Gomez, ready for their twice-weekly lesson in Spanish.

They had already sung a song about the vowel sounds -- aa, ee, ii, oo, uu -- and zipped through a tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider, La Arana Pequenita. Now it was time for a lesson on shapes.

"Ninos! Repita!" Gomez instructed, as her students sat up straight, ready for a brief and spirited diversion from English. "El rectangulo."

"El rectangulo," they said in loud unison, perfectly rolling their R's.

"El circulo."

"El triangulo."

"El cuadrado."

"Muy bien," said Gomez, a teacher for 31 years, when the students finished. "Excelente."

At Walden Lake and three other Plant City elementary schools in eastern Hillsborough County, students are immersed in the Spanish language several days a week through a program begun this year.

But popular as the language immersion program is, its budget of $350,000 is slated to be chopped in half. That's the best-case scenario.

If Florida's dismal budget picture continues as expected, the program easily could be eliminated entirely. That would mean four teaching positions will be lost. Teachers like Gomez will most likely be limited to an individual classroom.

All over Florida, the tight state budget is teaching educators how difficult it is to cut spending while trying to spare the classroom, which accounts for most of a district's costs.

The challenge for Hillsborough County and all other school districts is to make careful surgical cuts, rather than simply swinging an ax. Gov. Jeb Bush and key legislators have said all along they wanted to limit the damage to schools as they look toward another special session this week, and most important, to protect the classroom.

So far, the damage has been limited.

Despite a $1.3-billion revenue shortfall statewide, teachers are not being laid off. Class sizes are not ballooning. When teachers leave, they are replaced -- not always by a full-time, certified teacher -- but they are replaced.

That doesn't mean Florida's schools have been untouched.

Innovative new programs suddenly are deemed expendable. Longtime administrators are being sent back to the classroom. Principals and their assistants are coming in earlier and staying later. Substitute teachers, many of them lacking certification and experience, are plugging regular teaching slots week after week.

If you look closely enough, Florida's classrooms are being affected. It happens when less-qualified teachers and subs take over classrooms. It also happens when support staff is eliminated; those people aren't there to fix computers, help with science lessons or train teachers for reading instruction.

"I know we're all trying to protect the classroom, but it's getting harder," said David Miller, superintendent of 4,500-student Wakulla County in the Florida Panhandle. "In a small county like ours, we can't send administrators back into the classroom. They're already wearing about 10 hats.

"We're already feeling the impact. Now, I guess it's going to get worse."

At Moon Lake Elementary School in Pasco County, a custodian's job is vacant and will stay that way for now.

What does that matter?

Teachers and students are being asked to help clean up the classroom at the end of the day.

"It's not like we want them to be the custodians, but we have requested that the children pick up a little bit," said Bob Deletetsky, the school's plant manager. "We just want it so that when we go in there we don't have major debris all over."

Given the size of the state's revenue shortfall, the public schools have gotten off relatively easy so far.

Educators were thrilled after last month's abbreviated special session; districts were required to slice a mere 1 percent of their budgets on average. That adds up to about $137-million statewide, but the percentage of the hit was mercifully low.

But the education cuts have to be viewed in the context of the immediate past and the not-too-distant future. What you'll find in both places is budget trimming.

Months ago, Florida's economy already showed disturbing signs. Revenue was coming up short. More students showed up in schools this year than were expected. And school districts already were making cuts to put more money into the classroom.

Last summer, Pinellas had to shake up its budget to redirect more than $11-million into the classroom. That meant plenty of non-classroom support positions -- such as technology specialists who keep computers running and behavioral specialists who counsel students -- had to be eliminated or changed.

In Hillsborough, the total came to nearly $18-million. In Pasco, it was just under $2-million, and in Citrus, $3.2-million, or 3 percent of its operating budget. Hernando County did not have to redirect any money under the state's "Dollars to the Classroom Act."

Then came the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and suddenly the budget picture went from bad to worse.

As for the future, educators and legislators all warn that these cuts are just a start. Bigger cuts are likely next year because the economy is not expected to rebound any time soon.

In the meantime, educators should expect a significant budget hit when lawmakers complete the second legislative special session that begins this week.

"We were talking about 1 percent before; now we're trying to keep it below 2.5 percent," said Wayne Blanton, director of the Florida School Boards Association. "Next year, who knows?"

That means school districts probably will be forced to take twice as much out of their budgets, and then hope for the best.

"We're trying to insulate the classroom as much as possible," said Martha O'Howell, Pinellas County's assistant superintendent in charge of human resources. "Unfortunately, that's not going to continue to be possible."

In some cases, it's not possible now. In Pinellas, for instance, two people were assigned to train elementary school teachers about writing instruction. Now, one of those educators has been sent back to the classroom, so only one is doing the training. That means half as many people will be trained just as the state ups its writing expectations on annual tests.

There's also the teacher who helped her peers use Read 180, a program for struggling readers that combines small-group instruction with computer tutoring. She's back in the classroom. And then there are the teachers who rely on the district's training sessions to meet the requirements to renew their teaching certificates. The district has cut back on its offerings, so some teachers are scrambling to find training elsewhere.

State Rep. Heather Fiorentino of New Port Richey spent much of last week visiting schools in her district. She wanted to see how teachers are weathering the cuts.

"As I told the teachers, 'Will we do our best? Yes. Is it going to get worse and will we see blood? Yes, I'm afraid so,' " said Fiorentino, a veteran schoolteacher.

Principal Ginny Yanson was thrilled to be able to hire a science specialist at Sand Pine Elementary School in Pasco.

That teacher was in charge of invigorating the school's science curriculum. She helped teachers set up hands-on lessons and mini-projects. She also tutored students who needed one-on-one help.

The timing seemed perfect. That focus on science was coming just as the state was adding a new science test to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

But the timing wasn't perfect after all. The school is about 40 percent over capacity and still growing, and the budget crunch has made this a horrible time to hire new teachers.

Yanson, faced with class sizes ballooning over nearly 35 kids per class, moved her science teacher back into the classroom.

"The resurgence in science that she brought to this school was just incredible," Yanson said. "It was an ideal situation, and we'll keep it in mind. But right now our priority is keeping a low student-teacher ratio."

Despite the best intentions of lawmakers and local school boards, parents and teachers are starting to notice the effects of the still-minimal cuts.

Parents at Walden Lake Elementary, whose children came home from school excitedly speaking to them in Spanish, wonder if the language immersion effort has been wasted.

"I'm sure there are other places to find the money," said Walter Duke, who has a second-grader at Walden Lake. "We know the value of learning other languages. Every European country teaches children in other languages. I think they're looking at the wrong program."

In an odd coincidence, one parent with a child at Walden Lake knows more than most about the reason for the cuts -- and the effects.

The son of Plant City Rep. Johnnie Byrd, a fourth-grader named Bryars, attends Walden Lake.

Byrd loves the immersion program. But ultimately he sees it as optional.

"You have to trust the people elected to make the hard decisions," Byrd said, speaking of the Hillsborough School Board and the local officials who decided which specific programs to cut. "I don't want to second-guess them."

-- Times staff writers Kent Fischer and Kelly Ryan Gilmer contributed to this report.

Back to Tampa Bay area news

Back

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Mary Jo Melone

Howard Troxler

Headlines
From the Times
local news desks