With Mountain View Whisman slated to spend more money than it takes in for the next few years, the school district is now looking for ways to reduce costs, which could involve cuts to programs and services.
At an Oct. 16 meeting, school board members unanimously approved a contract to pay Orenda Education up to $333,563 to evaluate the effectiveness of the district’s current programs and to suggest potential ways to save money while minimizing impacts on student performance.
The program assessment company is expected to come back to the district with its findings by Dec. 31 so that the board can discuss potential changes throughout January.
“It’s important to understand what is working, what is effective and really making a difference on student achievement, and which things are having less of an impact,” Superintendent Jeff Baier told the board.
Mountain View Whisman is expecting to run a $7.2 million deficit this school year, with even larger shortfalls projected for the next two school years. After enjoying significant increases in property tax revenue in recent years, the district is now seeing substantially slower growth.
Most of Mountain View Whisman’s funding comes from local property taxes, which are calculated based on assessed property values. Over the last six years, assessed values in the district have grown an average of 8.79% annually. This school year, they increased just 2.34%, Chief Business Officer Rebecca Westover said.
Mountain View Whisman weighs potential cuts
Against that backdrop, Mountain View Whisman is now considering ways to save money. Any changes impacting staffing would need to be made by March 15, when the district faces a legal deadline to notify employees whose contracts aren’t being renewed, board member Devon Conley said. Baier emphasized, however, that the district would want to provide even more notice, giving the board until the February break to make final decisions.
While Orenda will be assessing which of the district’s programs work best for students, Baier noted that it’s hard to quantify the effectiveness of certain programs. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable, he added.
Mountain View Whisman uses data like state standardized test scores to help gauge student performance. This year, the district saw relatively steady results, with long-standing achievement gaps persisting.
“We are doing a lot and not having the impact that we want to have on students and their learning,” Baier said.
The school board approved the contract with Orenda Education despite it being the most expensive of the three proposals the district received. WestEd and Ibis Public Sector also submitted proposals, offering to conduct a program assessment for $185,000 and $37,500, respectively. However, since only Orenda was “clearly able to meet” the Dec. 31 completion deadline, administrators did not evaluate the other two submissions, according to a staff report to the school board.
“Orenda Education combines proven statewide results, methodological rigor, efficient timeline and a shared commitment to equity and student achievement,” the staff report said.
District faces tight budget outlook
This school year, Mountain View Whisman is expecting to spend $130.8 million, but only bring in $123.6 million, leaving the district’s reserve level at 32.1%, according to Westover’s Oct. 16 presentation to the board.
With low property tax growth forecast to continue, the district is planning for increasing deficit spending over time, with its reserves projected to drop to 14.81% by the end of the 2027-28 school year. That’s below the 17-20% level that the district aims to keep in the third year of any budget, under the terms of a 2018 school board resolution.
“Now that revenue is slowing, we also have to adjust our spending,” said Westover, who described the district’s current level of spending as unsustainable. “We’re looking at all of our programs, which Orenda is going to help us do, and then making decisions based on the feedback and information that we have.”
At the Oct. 16 meeting, the board reviewed some of the district’s current program costs, with Westover highlighting that over 80% of the budget is spent on employees, including salaries and benefits for teachers, special education staff, administrators and custodians.
Additionally, Mountain View Whisman has seen the cost of its special education program increase significantly over the past several years. The district expects to pay about $19 million for special education this school year, up from $10.9 million in 2019-20, Westover said.
The expansion of the district’s transitional kindergarten program, which doesn’t receive state funding, is also affecting the budget, according to June 12 board materials. Mountain View Whisman now offers transitional kindergarten to all four year olds, in line with a 2021 state law. The program is expected to cost over $3 million this school year.
There’s also uncertainty around state funding for the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, which offers free after-school care for students in need. While Mountain View Whisman has been able to keep the program cost neutral thus far, it might need to contribute about $1.35 million annually starting next school year, Westover said.
Do we really need to spend a third of a million dollars on this? Can’t someone at the district spend some time asking teachers and staff what’s working well and what isn’t? That’s roughly the cost of an entire administrative executive.
They really have a lot of revenue even with slowed growth. They can afford to burn bucks on consultants to tell them the obvious. They have lots of places they could cut with small harm, so it’s a tough choice, basically.
What about enrollment? It’s been declining for the last few years. They may have to close Slater school again.
Vargas, rather.
Enrollment has actually been flat the past 3 years. There was a 200 student drop 2020-21 but following that it has been flat. There is one change though, because they are adding TK classes that makes it look like a slight rise. So 2020-21 removed a lot of kids from the school, but 200 is only 4% of the total the year before that drop. Flat since then. New housing being created might have evened out what a decline in population in existing housing, but the net result is flat.
anyone know if Aiyunde Rudolph paid back his sweetheart mortgage loan like he was supposed to? Every penny counts