February Newsletter

February Newsletter

My wife sent me an email this week to remind me that I had not updated my school's web page. Instead of all the excuses I could give about how I had so much to do in my work day and how I just could not think of a topic, I'll just correct my oversight. She told me that she and others had been looking at the site, and I thought that if I had an actual audience I had better start producing something to inform them about our school and, possibly, education in general(Honestly, the possibility that only my wife is reading this is reason enough for me to do it).

The topic of the day is the economy and the effect that the coming state budget will have on education.  The news is not good. The last sixteen consecutive months have seen tax collections in Mississippi fall below projected levels. Some sixty of the 152 school districts in Mississippi expect to be financially insolvent at the end of this school year. Tupelo, traditionally one of the strongest districts in the state, borrowed two million dollars to make its January payroll. Almost daily we have news releases about projected cuts.

It's really hard to know exactly how this will all fall out, and it doesn't help our mindsets that the whole picture won't be complete until the budget is unveiled in April. In Desoto County we know that our budget will be cut, but not by how much. That uncertainty fuels speculation, and that speculation often breeds worry and frustration. We as humans fear the unknown, and our imaginations often paint fantastic scenarios of what exactly the unknown might be. Most of these scenarios are wildly negative, and we should remind ourselves of the adage that says, "most of the things I worry about never happen."

Eighty-five percent of Desoto County School's budget is devoted to salaries and benefits. The district's monthly payroll exceeds thirteen million dollars. For any meaningful cuts to be made, this dollar amount must be reduced. What we do know in regard to any salary changes is that our superintendent has cut his own salary by ten percent, assistant superintendents by eight percent, and directors and principals by 4.2 percent. By cutting his own pay, Mr. Kuykendall has shown both the gravity of the situation and his willingness to take the lead in a difficult situation. We have already signed promises that agree to this reduction in our next contract.

We don't know many of the specifics of the budget to come, but we can take what we do know and make some pretty safe assumptions. Teachers are the largest class of employees in the district. It is unlikely that teachers will be asked to take a larger pay reduction than their principals. With those assumptions, let's assume that teachers will take a four percent cut in pay. That is roughly a loss of seven working days on a teacher contract. We can now do some math.

Example: our sample teacher makes $35,000 a year. A four percent cut is a loss of $1,400 a year. That translates to $117 a month. If this teacher nets seventy-five percent of his/her gross pay, the loss is $88 a month. Definitely a decrease, but for most people this loss can be offset by changes in discretionary spending. Satellite or cable television costs $75 or more a month for most people. When have you driven past a Chili's, O'Charley's, Applebee's, Colton's(you get the point) that was not full on a weekend night? These are but two examples of adjustments that do not affect quality of life, just a change in prioities.

Some positions will be eliminated, but in most cases these will be retirements or family transfer cases that will not be filled. Very few jobs will be lost outright; compare this to the economy around us where almost all of us know someone who is completely out of work. We will all be asked to do a little more with a little less, but the number one factor in this difficult time will be the attitude we choose as we face the coming months. We tell our students that their attitude determines their altitude; we tell them that they cannot control what happens to them, but they can control how they respond.

How will we respond? Will we hang on every rumor and whisper in the lounges and coffee shops? When is the last time you heard a positive rumor? Will we withhold our judgement(and our comments) until we see the facts and know the whole story?

The decisions that we as individuals make will determine the direction of this district in the next few years.