TPSD reverses personnel trend

The Terrebonne Parish School District will add 13 teachers to its classrooms in the upcoming school year, marking the first time in five years the amount of certified educators did not decline from one year to the next.

Although a miniscule figure compared to the 1,174 teaching positions included in the preliminary 2014-15 spending plan, the net gain of educators is indicative of the district’s budget reaching an “equilibrium” after Recession-era economics battered its balance sheet, Superintendent Philip Martin said.

“We’re not able to give raises, add programs, tend to some capital needs we’d like to. That’s disappointing,” Martin said. “But the good thing about this budget is it didn’t require another year of fairly dramatic and excessive cuts that we’ve been facing.”

The district eliminated about 500 positions over the past five years as revenues declined and costs rose. This rollback in labor has created its own set of issues, even if they can’t be seen in the budget, Martin said.

Overall, district officials project spending nearly 1 percent less in the fiscal year that begins July 1. The decline is mostly attributable to the special revenue fund – money going into the district’s account for 23 state and federal grants fell by $2.8 million.

However, general fund spending, at $128.1 million, is budgeted to increase by more than 5 percent from last year, outpacing a forecasted 2.2-percent increase in general revenues. The district will make up the difference by pulling $1.2 million from its fund balance, reducing the cushion to about $11.1 million, or roughly 8.7 percent of anticipated 2014-15 revenue.

“Ideally, we would really like to be about 10 percent,” said Becky Breaux, the district’s finance director, also pointing out the existing balance would cover only one and a half payroll periods on its own in case of an emergency. The balance can also be used to front reimbursable costs. “Just like at home, you don’t want to spend every penny that you have, you wouldn’t want to do that here either.”

The state Department of Education labels a fund balance “good” if it is between 6.5 and 7.4 percent of general fund revenues and “acceptable” if it is at least 7.5 percent.

About $9.4 million of that balance is unassigned.

General fund spending is projected to increase in almost every category: only general administration, business services and building maintenance are budgeted to decline.

The school board is scheduled to take up the spending plan at its regularly scheduled meeting July 1.

Nearly half of the district’s revenue comes from the state Minimum Foundation Program, which Louisiana allocates on a per-pupil basis. Terrebonne expects to collect $90.3 million in MFP dollars after the Legislature agreed to a 2.75 percent inflationary bump in the amount of money available to school districts – the first such increase since 2009.

Mandated contributions into the state’s retirement systems for teachers and school employees increased by 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, to 28 percent and 33 percent.

No capital projects are budgeted this year, as sales tax revenue for that purpose is dedicated to paying down the interest-free debt accrued to build Grand Caillou Middle and the freshman center at H.L. Bourgeois High.

Included in the net gain of 13 teachers, six kindergarten-teacher positions will be closed, but 19 elementary positions and four secondary positions are being added, the budget shows. An additional 13 instructional positions were added. Breaux said the reallocation of teachers is necessary to accommodate subtle population shifts and meet class-size requirements.

Terrebonne will pick up the tab for several positions that were formerly paid for by grants, like a curriculum specialist and a specialist in STEM previously paid with Race to the Top funds. One completely new position is a testing and accountability coordinator.

Still, the overall number of teachers, at 1,174, and the overall personnel level, at 2,362, remain less than staffing even two years ago, so it is far from a complete rebound. Slow employment growth is projected through 2017-18, when the personnel count could reach 2,400, but even that level would be 15 percent less than the 2,830 employed in 2009-10.

Enrollment is expected to continue a slow decline. Officials expect 18,687 students to enroll this year. In 2008-09, district enrollment was 19,130.

The district will pay $151.3 million in salaries and benefits in the upcoming year – the district ranked 47 of 69 districts in the state in 2011-12 in terms of average teacher pay. Teachers and employees last received a district-wide raise in 2007.

Martin and school board members have said the district would present voters with a tax proposition in December, though it has not yet been announced whether it would be a sales tax or property tax. Martin has indicated the tax proposition would be dedicated to teacher pay.