School issues 18 reduction-in-force letters

Eighteen envelopes, sealed and taped closed, identified only with a letter from A through R were accepted by the Fairfield school board during a special meeting Monday evening.

Each of the envelopes containing the name of a teacher, whose contract is being terminated for the 2009-2010 school year, was given to district business manager Kim Sheets to be filed as a confidential document in the teacher?s personnel records.

The reduction in staff is being made to help the district get its finances in order. The Iowa Department of Education predicted Fairfield will have a negative authorized spending authority of more than $600,000 for the current fiscal year.

Superintendent Don Achelpohl and Sheets think the district will actually end the year with a positive authorized spending authority, but Achelpohl pointed out the reserve needs to be larger in case the district has a need for it.

The spending authority is the amount the school district can spend per student. The district can only spend what Iowa Legislature authorizes to be spend per student, plus the carryover, which is the unspent balance of spending authority that carries over from year to year.

A drop in student enrollment for a number of years, like the decreasing enrollment Fairfield has been experiencing, means the spending authority is lower, and if the district continues to spend those funds and the carried-over unspent balance funds, it catches up.

Achelpohl has said the district is spending more money than it is taking in, and even if the district has the cash, it can?t spend it because it doesn?t have the authority to spend it.

A district that ends a fiscal year with a negative authorized spending authority is breaking the law. If a district has a negative authorized spending authority for two consecutive years, action is taken against it.

The declining enrollment also affects the number of students served per teacher.

Compared to 20 similarly sized districts, Fairfield is third lowest at 12.61 students to one teacher, which, according to Achelpohl, ?shows we need to do some adjustment there.?

Earlier this month, the school board directed Achelpohl and Sheets to prepare expenditure reductions of at least $450,000. Achelpohl told the board 80 percent of the district?s expenditures are for personnel, so they could expect reductions in that area.

Achelpohl said the 18 teachers know about the action; the reduction-in-force letters were delivered to them Wednesday and Thursday.

According to Iowa Code, each of the teachers can request a hearing. Following the set timeline, Achelpohl expects those requests must be made by Wednesday.

For the complete article, see the Tuesday, April 28, 2009, Fairfield Ledger.