Glendale-River Hills school board approves $1 million staffing cuts to fix budget deficit

The Glendale-River Hills School Board voted unanimously to cut staffing by $1 million for the 2024-25 school year Wednesday, March 20, as part of the board's course correction after accounting errors set the district on track for financial disaster.

Board President Danielle Bailey said the reductions will primarily occur through "attrition, retirement and resignation" and with "minimal impact on programming and no impact on class size."

The board wouldn’t specify at the meeting how many staff members could be cut, but said it would alert staff Thursday and the community Friday.

The reductions come on the heels of the School Board's discovery of a $3.6 million budget deficit. The district has said the shortfall in funding is because of errors in accounting and budgeting by employees who are no longer in the district.

Officials haven't fully explained the accounting errors, which appear to have set the district on a path to run out of money before the next school year.

During the meeting, the board heard from parents and community members, as well as consultants who are auditing the district's finances and helping the administration chart a new financial course.

Gus Knitt is the district's new interim business manager and Todd Gray is a new financial consultant for the school. Both Knitt and Gray are former public school business managers and superintendents. They are working with professionals at Baird to investigate past revenue and spending.

Knitt said they might be able to finish back-tracking the finance issues within the next few weeks.

As he presented a monthly financial report to the board, members engaged in understanding and assessing the district's finances.

The board later tabled approval of a set of guiding principles for upcoming budget work sessions that it expects the district community to honor.

So far, the draft of that document includes a mission to "be collaborative, transparent, and accountable." The board will discuss the principles at its next meeting in early April.

District will announce more about the staff cuts in the next few days

Bailey said the cuts are a necessary first step the board had to take immediately due to non-renewal deadlines and a desire to notify staff as soon as possible whether they will be part of the cuts.

The board wouldn’t specify at the meeting how many staff members could be cut and said more information on the reductions will be announced Friday in order to give staff notice first on Thursday.

At a March 5 board meeting, district Superintendent Alyson Weiss explained that any reductions would follow a board policy for such situations.

The policy tasks the superintendent with determining which employees would be laid off, based on the following factors, which are not in order of priority: educator licenses, performance evaluations, input from direct supervisors, and how long they've worked for the district.

Residents still have questions about how the budget deficit occurred

During Wednesday's board meeting, some residents expressed a desire for more transparency from the board and administration on their decisions to address the deficit.

"We need clarity on what our board is doing, and we haven't been getting it," resident Bruck Brocker told the board.

Nate Gilman, a parent of two children in the district, said, "You tell us you're accountable, but you have not given us any information on how this happened."

While it's still unclear what exactly went wrong, what is clear is that board members had an inaccurate financial picture when they voted on this school year's budget. The board had thought it was entering this school year with a "fund balance" cushion of over $2.8 million, according to the budget summary workbook for this school year.

Former School Board President Jan Zall said, "We teach our children accountability. Right now, I don't think that's happening. We're bad teachers."

She was dismayed by some in the community and media that have blamed staff raises for the deficit.

The board made it clear pay raises were not the issue.

Board Vice President Carla Pennington-Cross said she's "proud of the raises we've given teachers and the work that we've done to help move us towards living wages."

"We had inaccurate information on our ability to afford a lot of expenditures, but I'm not blaming teacher salaries," Pennington-Cross said.

"My accountability is to stand here and try and fix this. And to take the hits," Pennington-Cross said.

Board and residents are dedicated to fixing the problem, finding answers

Bailey said that once they learned of the deficit in October, board members and administrators immediately came together to push for answers. She said public record of their quick action and ardent discussion on the deficit is evident in previous meetings.

"I'm asking you to have confidence in us. And that it can be verified in the record. Go back through the record, look at what we're doing, our candor, look at how hard we're trying. Look the effort we're putting in," Bailey said.

While many in the crowd showed up to express frustration, others sought answers or to provide support in fixing the problem.

Samantha Malone, a literacy coach at Glen Hills Middle School and Ashley Robertson, a parent of two children in the district, both thanked the board for their efforts and transparency.

Glendale Resident Aaron Norris, who serves as director of finance and operations for the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, conducted his own staffing analysis and offered suggestions to the board.

He said that climbing out of the deficit will take years, but that the district isn't alone. He pointed out that most schools are underfunded and that his own district also faces tough decisions around its finance.

Board member Andrew Franklin asked parents and staff at the meeting to afford the board a chance to turn things around.

"I'm going to say 'Don't trust us.' Give us an opportunity to show you what we are doing."

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Glendale-River Hills school board approved $1 million staffing cuts