LA MARQUE, Texas — About 45 employees, mostly teachers, have been told they probably will not have jobs next year in the La Marque school district. The layoffs were the first round of cuts after the district declared a state of financial exigency.
It isn’t alone. Clear Creek, Hitchcock and Friendswood have or are looking to layoff or reorganize staff because of expected loses in state funding. Other districts in the county, Texas City in particular, offered incentives for retirements and resignations to avoid possible layoffs, while Dickinson is hoping elimination by attrition will be enough to keep the balance in check.
Financial exigency is a formal declaration of financial crisis that allows the school district to void employment contracts to make more cuts. The district had considered such a declaration last summer but decided against the extreme measure.
"We cannot predict what the state will do with (school) funding," La Marque superintendent Ecomet Burley said.
Under legislation already approved by the state house, but not in the state Senate, La Marque stands to lose about $3 million in state funding, according to calculations from state Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, the vice chairman of the House Committee on Public Education and the chairman of the Education Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations.
Burley said notices were sent last week to 44 probationary employees, staffers with four years or less experience, that their contracts likely would be terminated. He called the layoffs "Level 1 of our response to the current uncertainty of funding."
The district already had eliminated about 100 jobs the past two years as declining enrollment resulted in less funding. The next phase of any possible layoffs would come in the non-teaching areas of the district, including the administration staff and the maintenance staff, Burley said.
The funding woes are so dire that even one of the administration’s toughest critics begrudgingly voted to go along with the plan.
"I did not want to hurt our ability to do what we need to do if the state eliminates our funding," said school trustee Annie Burton, who is often vocal in her critique of Burley’s plans for curtailing spending. "I didn’t want to vote for it, but figured we have little choice."
Burton said she still thinks not enough is being done to solve the financial problems on a local level.
"There has not been any major fundraisers, not any effort to generate revenues within the district, I don’t think," Burton said. "I don’t think enough has been done to generate additional revenues to save jobs."
Burton has long advocated the district "think out of the box" to avoid job cuts and find other savings or ways to make up for lost state revenue. She said she’s taken fundraising ideas to the administrative, none of which have been acted on.
Burley said the district is looking at all options but the No. 1 priority now is to get help from the public.
"I really want to encourage (residents) to talk to their legislators," Burley said. "It’s really hard to look across the table and tell your employees that we are in a situation where we just can’t guarantee we can pick up your contract right now."
Burley’s statement came about an hour before Gov. Rick Perry drew the ire of many public educators in the state, when he suggested that state government wasn’t to blame for any job cuts by school districts.
"The lieutenant governor, the speaker, their colleagues aren’t going to hire or fire one teacher, as best I can tell, "Perry said. "That is a local decision that will be made at the local districts."
He said district’s should first look to cuts of non-teaching personnel first because there’s been an "extraordinary amount of non-classroom employees" added to staffs at schools.
Greg Smith, the superintendent for Clear Creek schools, shot back at Perry, using the governor’s own words to criticize his leadership on the issue.
"Gov. Perry has a vision for public education that is well documented in his book, ‘Fed Up,’" Smith said. "According to Gov Perry, ‘I see an education system that is the envy of the world, controlled by parents and the people according to the beliefs of the communities in which they live.’
"In Clear Creek ISD, our board of trustees and community believe that education is a priority and there is an obligation that we all must share in this endeavor if Texas is to become an ‘education system that is the envy of the world.’ This is a great opportunity for courage and collaboration not divide and conquer."
On Wednesday, Smith approved a plan to trim $9.4 million from Creek’s budget by reorganizing and eliminating jobs across the district. The savings won’t result in job cuts, but professionals who had been specializing in training — such as working with teachers to better integrate technology in the classroom — are returning to the classroom.
"That’s just the first $9.4 million, we still have $40 million to $50 million to go," Creek spokeswoman Elaina Polsen said.
On Tuesday, the Hitchcock school board took a harder look at its budget in a preliminary planning session that also could lead to layoffs. Hitchcock is expected to lose about $2 million in state funding and state grants.
Under legislation already approved by the state house, Galveston County school districts stand to lose $85.177 million in school funding.
That’s why many public education supporters, including La Marque’s Burton, are headed to Austin on Saturday to rally for less cuts and for the state to willingly dip into the "rainy day" fund to help make up for the shortfall.
Incidentally, on Thursday, a top Perry aide hinted that the governor was willing to consider using the rain day fund to help make up for the state’s projected $20 billion shortfall.
This story was brought to you thanks to khou.com’s partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.
