Cedar Rapids schools cutting 23 teacher positions

CEDAR RAPIDS - As they work to trim $2.3 million from the upcoming budget, Cedar Rapids schools officials have decided to cut 13 high school and 10 elementary school teaching positions.

The move will save the roughly 16,000-student district about $1.7 million.

Years of declining enrollment and less-than-hoped-for state supplemental aid rate increases have led to budget reductions year after year for the district. Together, those cuts compound into about $20 million in reductions over recent years, Superintendent Brad Buck said at Tuesday's board meeting.

That leaves little left to cut without carving into programs and personnel, he said. District positions have shrunk by about 150 over the past five years.

To balance the new budget, the district is eliminating elementary school Spanish classes, said Val Dolezal, executive director for PK-8. All 10 of the teachers in the Foreign Language in Elementary Schools program, known as FLES, will be affected.

The teachers rotate through elementary schools teaching Spanish to all first-through-fifth grade students. Students in FLES receive 30 minutes of Spanish instruction every three days.

FLES teacher Nicole Wildeboer said in an email that although she had expected some reduction to the program, she hoped it wouldn't be eliminated entirely.

'I think our students have benefited from this program by being exposed to language learning and other cultures,” she wrote. 'To put it simply, going through the process of learning a foreign language makes people better learners. It increases critical and creative thinking, memory, and listening ability.”

The school district looked into reducing other programs, Dolezal said, but ultimately decided cutting the foreign language classes would be the least disruptive decision for students.

'This is one of those (programs) that rose to the top when we thought about, ‘is it going to substantially change a child's life if they don't have a FLES opportunity?' ” Dolezal said. ' ... We know we have to have successful readers, successful mathematicians. Those are the things we have to focus on.”

In a message to elementary teachers Wednesday, Dolezal wrote that program reductions are the 'only way” to create a balanced budget. The district's line-item budget must be finalized in June.

'We know there are going to be kids and families disappointed, obviously,” Dolezal said. 'But I think our parents understand we're at a point now where we have to make reductions.”

The 10 FLES teachers will be put on the surplus list and considered for open positions across the district, with consideration to their certifications and seniority.

Thirteen high school teachers also will find themselves on the surplus list, said Deputy Superintendent Mary Ellen Maske.

A reorganization of the high schools' class schedules - teachers will teach six class periods next year instead of five - will allow schools to maintain class sizes while reducing teaching staff, Maske said.

Washington, Kennedy and Jefferson high schools will each cut four teaching positions. Metro, the alternative high school, will reduce its staff by one.

Administrators at each school will choose the specific positions, Maske said.

High schoolteachers will be notified next week if their positions are part of the reductions.

Other reductions will come by a rearrangement in administration, a possible reduction in hours for some classified staff and shifting the costs of non-instructional software and bus repairs away from the general fund.

Buck said he does not anticipate having to make any additional program or certified personnel cuts this year.