Schools restore teachers' furlough days
Employees in two local school districts won't be feeling the 3.2 percent annual salary pinch they thought they would this year.
The Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls districts are using one-time federal funds appropriated to them through the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act to restore furlough days to their teachers' contract calendars.
During contract negotiations last spring, the districts reduced the number of paid employee days in their school calendars as a way to balance their budgets after the Legislature slashed $128 million from the state education budget.
The Coeur d'Alene district will restore six school days.
"I feel good about that because that means we've put back our instructional time, and we can reinstate parent-teacher conferences," said Coeur d'Alene Superintendent Hazel Bauman.
The district's share of the $51 million headed to Idaho since President Barack Obama signed the Education Jobs Act into law last month is $1.8 million.
Removing paid days from Coeur d'Alene's school calendar saved the district $1.2 million, the same amount it will cost to reinstate them
"The other $600,000, we will save for next year, because we know we have challenges for that year," Bauman said.
Idaho schools face the loss in 2011 of $38 million in one-time funds - federal stimulus and stabilization fund dollars - that are already built into the existing budget.
Gov. Butch Otter and Idaho Superintendent of Instruction Tom Luna issued a joint statement Wednesday urging Idaho school
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districts to use their share of the Education Jobs dollars prudently.
The governor encouraged districts to devote any money they get to preserving student-teacher contact time.
"Local school districts tell us they want the money, and how these funds are used ultimately rests in the hands of those same local school officials. So I want to make sure that they have plans in place for putting these taxpayer dollars to the best possible use," Otter said in the prepared statement.
The funds are being paid to districts over a 27-month period.
Post Falls, which had five furlough days planned, will receive $960,000. The unpaid days translated into a 3.2 percent annual salary reduction for that district's employees.
"The restoration of those days will allow for professional development and parent contact that had been canceled," Superintendent Jerry Keane said.
The Lakeland district is still considering its options on how it will spend its $815,600 share of the federal funds.
"We had six furlough days for our teachers and will be meeting next week to hold a negotiation session concerning these funds," said Tom Taggart, Lakeland's business director. "These funds can be spent this year and next year."
The intent of the funding is to restore jobs for the current school year, but districts can reserve the money for use during the 2011-12 fiscal year.
Allowable uses for the funds include compensation for school-level personnel - teachers, principals, assistant principals, para professionals, bus drivers, food service personnel, school nurses, counselors and librarians.
The money cannot be used for district-level administrative costs or personnel, higher education or rainy day funds.