Agenda - 11-10-1998 - Attachment #4a

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level and would need to be addressed before these recommendations moved forward, they do not seem to be entirely prohibitive. Financial Implications and Strategies for Generating Savings and Increasing Revenues The number of additional teachers needed is substantial. If these standards were fully implemented in the year 2000, we would need an additional 66 elementary teachers, 28 middle school teachers, and nine high school teachers. It is hard to envision this plan moving forward without identifying some significant cost reductions that could be achieved in our local budget. Strategies for providing funding differ according to the level of schooling. The following strategies were discussed but are not necessarily recommended • Elementary: Possible strategies for reallocating personnel include reducing the number of teacher assistants and using non - classroom teaching positions differently. If schools are willing to trade off these positions for a lower class size, then this proposal becomes much more financially feasible. • Middle: Middle schools also could reallocate teacher assistant positions, but this would be difficult because the number of assistants in middle schools is lower (1 per 100 students). Furthermore, many of these positions already have been re- allocated by schools. Another possibility would be for core teachers to teach an elective, which would mean that fewer elective and more core teachers could be staffed. Neither of these options is very feasible or desirable. It appears that additional funds for classroom teachers would need-to be allocated at the middle school level to implement this plan successfully. • High: The number of teachers needed at the high school level is more modest. Some savings could be achieved by administrative and support personnel teaching a period, providing additional compensation for teachers who teach an extra class, and contracting for services in some classes. A number of suggestions were made for how the district could generate additional funds to support this effort. They included the following: • Reduce the number of school and central office administrators • Pursue grants as part of a start-up or research effort • Convert new vocational education dollars to this use • Contract for services when this would produce savings (teaching, administration, and operations) • Reduce otter district expenses and overhead No conclusions were reached concerning the feasibility of any of these strategies or the amount of savings that might be achieved Clearly, only a small percentage of the costs of reducing class size could be achieved through these steps.