Cd'A School District declares financial emergency

Coeur d’Alene School District trustees voted 3-2 Friday to declare a financial emergency for the district, a move that will allow a reduction in force notification process to begin if the May 16 levy fails.

It also allows trustees to take a different approach during contract negotiations if they choose.

Chair Rebecca Smith, who attended the special meeting via phone, vice chair Casey Morrisroe and trustee Heather Tenbrink voted in favor. Trustee Allie Anderton, who also attended by phone, and trustee Lesli Bjerke voted against the motion.

The declaration was made at the recommendation of Superintendent Shon Hocker in response to the March 14 failure of a $25 million-per-year, perpetual supplemental levy to gain voter approval at the polls, and in anticipation of the potential failure of $25 million-per-year, two-year levy going before voters May 16.

“Today, we don’t have that levy,” Hocker said. “We need to just continue moving forward in preparation for all things next year as though we don’t have those funds.”

By law — Idaho Statute 33-522 — a school district may declare a financial emergency if certain conditions are met, including losing 1% or more of its general fund.

Coeur d’Alene School District will lose 25% of its general fund budget if voters fail to pass the May 16 levy.

The financial emergency provision in the statute allows financially struggling districts to negotiate furloughs and salary cuts with teachers. If an agreement is not reached during negotiations, the statute allows a district to impose its "last best offer" on teachers, provided both parties have "met and conferred in good faith."

Coeur d’Alene is now preparing paperwork for the financial emergency to be certified by the state. If the May levy passes, the emergency declaration can be rescinded without repercussions.

The Coeur d’Alene School District last declared a financial emergency in 2009, during the Great Recession. At that time, school districts throughout Idaho declared such emergencies in the face of budget shortfalls and reduced state and federal appropriations.

According to the district’s June 30, 2010, financial statement, the declaration provided flexibility for adjustments in compensation normally prohibited by state statute.

Hocker said Friday that the formal declaration maintains transparency and keeps communication open with community members so they are aware of where the district is headed.

This declaration will shorten the timeline in the event the May 16 levy does not pass, Hocker said, as well as allow the district to more promptly outline its financials and to more quickly send notifications to employees.

“We want to give our staff as much professional courtesy as possible,” Hocker said. “We owe it to them.”

He said district officials have spent countless hours determining how to narrow the budget. During Friday’s meeting, he announced the names of elementary schools being considered if any must close: Dalton, Ramsey, Borah and Bryan.

Among the deciding factors are school size, transportation, zoning, federal funding, building condition and age. The district will make the final decision if the levy fails.

“At the secondary level, we simply can’t close really any of the middle schools or high schools because they’re too large and there’s no place to move those students somewhere else,” Hocker said.

The emergency declaration motion came with the caveat that no formal or informal RIF notifications may be sent to impacted staff members without the board’s approval of the RIF notification list, or until the levy fails. The board will have to call a special meeting for this to take place. The special meeting could happen before the May 16 election if trustees wish, although several trustees shared discomfort with issuing the notifications before levy election results are known.

About 25% of district positions, or more than 300 of Coeur d’Alene’s 1,300 employees, are at stake if the levy is not approved, along with a number of programs, resources, extracurricular activities and more.

“Our RIF procedures, our policies, they really were never designed for this scale of such a reduction in budget, so that has complicated matters even more so,” Hocker said.

Morrisroe said he was concerned about the psychological impact of RIF notifications on staff, students and the community.

“I think the impact of telling people, essentially, ‘You’re in our bottom 25%, and if we have to reduce, you’re out,’ that’s going to be difficult to recover from, from a culture standpoint, from a workforce standpoint,” Morrisroe said. “That’s a difficult position to be put in.”

He said he supported not sending RIF notifications until after the levy election if necessary.

Bjerke said she has previously received a RIF notice.

“It is not a good place to be,” she said. “My heart also goes out to all of our teachers. So I feel as soon as, whether it's formal or informal, that we can let them know that perhaps this could be coming their way, the better off they’re going to be.”

She said the declaration seems like a very serious step, that it should be used as a last resort and that it reflects badly on the board that it isn’t balancing its budget well.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people that feel like this is a scare tactic,” she said. “I don’t want us to come across that that’s what this is.”

Human resources director Eric Davis said he thinks it’s incredibly important for the district to continue down this path, which may come to fruition. He said he is in favor of being as transparent as possible; being able to inform employees as early as possible is dependent upon the declaration of a financial emergency.

“If we don’t have that in place, we can’t continue giving our teachers that kind of courtesy,” he said. “As an HR director, I feel strongly that we protect our people as best we can. And, it is the hiring season.”

Also, he said, “providing as much reassurance to those that may not be receiving a RIF has an equally beneficial response as well.”

“We will possibly lose fewer people by being able to provide a comfort level to those individuals,” he said. “My support of an emergency declaration really comes down to a timing thing and being able to get that information to staff as soon as possible.”

A regular meeting of the board will be at 5 p.m. May 8 at Midtown Meeting Center, 1505 N. Fifth St., Coeur d’Alene.