NORMANDY • The budgetary impact of complying with Missouri’s school transfer law is beginning to play out in the unaccredited Normandy and Riverview Gardens districts, where superintendents are outlining cuts to reduce staff and programs.
In Normandy, 103 of the district’s 650 employees will lose their jobs by the end of December, they learned Wednesday. Layoff notices are expected next month. At two districtwide meetings at Normandy High, staff also learned that class sizes will grow to as many as 29 children, some said.
In addition, Bel-Nor Elementary is expected to close.
Daphne Dorsey, the district’s spokeswoman, declined to comment on the proposed reductions. Superintendent Ty McNichols plans to outline the measures and their effect on the $50 million budget at 6 p.m. tonight at the School Board meeting at Normandy High, 6701 St. Charles Rock Road.
On Tuesday, the Special Administrative Board of Riverview Gardens heard a proposal to trim about $3.5 million from the school system’s $54 million operating budget this year by freezing open positions and cutting back in transportation and professional development. At this point, the district is not considering layoffs.
Even with cuts, superintendents of both districts have expressed pessimism that their systems can survive the long haul. But they hope cutting their budgets will build support in Jefferson City for financial relief.
“One of the things the state is going to ask us, how did you cut your own budget before you came to the Legislature for help?” said Lynn Beckwith, president of Riverview Gardens’ Special Administrative Board. “I want to make sure we do our part.”
As 2,200 of their students have migrated elsewhere, Riverview Gardens and Normandy are hemorrhaging money under a law that requires them to pay tuition and transportation for students who leave for higher performing districts. Each district is losing about $15 million.
The expenses leave both districts in a quandary. More than 80 percent of their children didn’t leave, making across-the-board cuts difficult. Enrollment in many classrooms, for example, has dropped by just a handful of students. To lay off a teacher, school officials must reassign students across multiple classrooms, increasing class sizes. And even then, cuts might not be enough.
The proposed closing of Bel-Nor Elementary means about 330 children would be reassigned to Normandy’s four other elementary schools in December or January.
Outside the school, parent Terrence Jones waited by his minivan Wednesday to pick up his second-grader. He wasn’t shocked to hear Bel-Nor may close.
“You’re hurting the kids in the long run,” he said. Jones worries about the long-term effects on his three children if the district eventually dissolves. “You try to keep your kids where they’ll be comfortable.”
About 3,000 children remain in Normandy schools. The level of anxiety among staff is high.
“We’re at a critical stage, and we need as much resources as we can get,” said Judy Davis-Edwards, president of the district’s chapter of the National Education Association. “Now it’s going to be more stressful.”
Both Riverview and Normandy have suffered declining property values and lagging tax revenue. Both have budgets that projected expenses would exceed revenue this year, even before the transfer situation started. Reserve funds have allowed both to continue operating. Nevertheless, insolvency is on the horizon.
Normandy faces insolvency sooner — as early as March — because of its smaller savings account. Riverview Gardens’ would run out of money in 2014-15.
Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro has called for $6.8 million in supplemental state funds to shore up Normandy schools so its students can finish the school year.
But the request has received a cold reception in Jefferson City, where some lawmakers say sending rescue funds to Normandy only prolongs the life of failing schools.
“As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I believe that sets a terrible precedent moving forward and will actively oppose that appropriation,” Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, wrote to the Missouri Board of Education this week. Kansas City — another unaccredited school district — could face a transfer situation of its own, pending the outcome of litigation.
Some legislators say Normandy must do a better job of educating children before they send money. And the district must make every effort to cut costs.
“This is the first mandatory stop,” Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, said of Normandy’s cost-cutting. “This is something they had to do in order to even show they were acting in good faith.”
Superintendent McNichols, who began his job in July, is tasked with striking a balance between rapidly turning around a school system and gutting its schools to the point they can no longer provide children with even a basic education.
He’s being asked to do more with less, and faster, McNichols has said. And yet, 35 positions are slated for elimination at elementary schools, 14 at the middle school, and 22 at the high school, a district source said. The rest of staff reductions are central office and other support staff.
Attempts to change the law and reduce its impact in the past three years have stalled. Rep. Mike Lair, R-Chillicothe, said there’s now greater interest to do something.
“With Kansas City in the same boat, there’s going to have to be,” he said.
But some Normandy and Riverview Gardens leaders aren’t holding their breath.
“I really do not think we should count on the state Legislature to make any changes to the student transfer program,” Beckwith said. “But we shall see.”
Jessica Bock of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
