Revenue Controls Keep Eau Claire in the Past

The past is alive and well in the Eau Claire Schools, thanks largely to state-imposed revenue controls.

From the Boyd school building, circa 1884, to Lakeshore school’s computers, circa 1984, students find themselves in a time warp that makes it difficult for teachers to prepare them for the 21st century.

The district is in the midst of a budget crisis that is severely affecting the quality of services available to students. After cutting $1.3 million last year, the district may have to cut another $1.6 million this year.

District officials and staff are pleading with legislators to change the revenue control law.

Eau Claire kids, teachers and parents feeling the pain of revenue controls

Karl Gordon has experienced the harsh impact of revenue controls both in the classroom and at home.

As a teacher of learning-disabled children at Meadowview Elementary School in Eau Claire, Gordon is spread thin since a part-time LD teacher in his building was laid off last year. The special education kids are suffering as a result.

As a parent, Gordon laments the fact that the high school Gifted and Talented teacher who would be working with his daughter this year also was laid off. As a result, his daughter may be missing out on opportunities for advanced work and a jump start on her college education.

“I’ve seen it from both sides,” Gordon said. “Revenue controls are the devil that’s hurting both my students and my own children.”

Outdated computer lab

Pat Telisak sees it too. As the media specialist for Lakeshore School and Little Red School, she instructs children using long-outdated Apple IIe computers. These computers are about 14 years old and too slow to run most modern software. “If we had newer computers, we would be able to do a wider variety of things with them,” she said.

“If we want to use the Internet or all the fantastic educational software available on CDs out there, this is way, way outdated.”

Fred Poss also sees it. Poss led an emotional fight last year to preserve a program that provided English instruction to 4-year-old Hmong students. The program was eliminated at that school, and young Hmong children lost an excellent opportunity to get a head start on their education, Poss said. While these children still continue to get services, they no longer have a unified program at a single location.

Officials at the school district offices also are feeling the pain. They agonized over last year’s budget cuts totalling $1.3 million and are re-living the nightmare again this year. As the result of the accelerated impact of revenue controls on this declining-enrollment district, another $1 million to $1.6 million will have to be cut, said Superintendent Bill Klaus.

“This is causing a great deal of anxiety in this community,” he said.

Eau Claire hit especially hard

Revenue controls are causing problems for school districts throughout the state, but Eau Claire officials believe they are being hit especially hard for several reasons.

First, enrollment is declining. Because the amount of revenue a district is allowed to raise is based on the number of students, Eau Claire’s revenue limits are going down every year. State law includes a provision designed to reduce the impact on declining-enrollment districts, but that provision merely delays the impact by one year, according to district Business Director Nicholas Alioto. In addition, there is no guarantee that provision will be extended beyond this year.

Second, district residents last year defeated a $39 million referendum for building repair and replacement and technology additions.

Third, the school district in 1992 developed a maintenance funding plan that allocated $1 million for such work as roofing and plumbing maintenance, with the understanding that it would add $200,000 per year year to that budget item. When revenue controls went into effect two years later, that budget became stuck at $1.4 million, meaning that planned work either has not been done or has been funded with money taken out of other areas of the budget.

New referendum proposal

District officials are developing a new referendum proposal that, if approved, would allow the district to exceed revenue limits. The plan was still being developed in January, but it appeared it would include $8.9 million for technology and possibly an as-yet undetermined amount for operations.

Eau Claire Superintendent Bill Klaus (right) and Deputy Superintendent Craig Vogt pore over budget numbers as they discuss more potential cuts for 1999-2000.

Referendum or not, the district is proceeding with a painful process that involves having staff at each school develop a list of new potential cuts. The lists are then gathered together by a district budget team that will make recommendations to the school board.

“This involves teachers getting together and deciding what educational programs we are willing to sacrifice,” Gordon said. “And we are really struggling. Cutting education programs for children is a terrible thing to have to do.”

Teachers struggle over cuts

At a recent meeting at his school, Gordon said, the teachers talked about how difficult it would be to cut any programs on top of the cuts made last year.

“Do we need an elementary school strings program? Do we need a reading specialist? Do we need a Gifted and Talented program? Can we cut support staff? Can we take away our teachers’ aides? As we went down the list, we realized that every cut we considered would hurt some children and reduce the quality of their education,” Gordon said.

For example, he said, the teachers struggled over the idea of cutting field trips.

“We all realize that these trips add greatly to what is taught in the classroom. “It’s one thing to study about specific types of trees; it’s another to go out and see them. It’s one thing to talk about the history of Eau Claire and life in the 1800s; it’s another to visit a museum and see and experience what that life was really like,” Gordon said.

“It’s one thing to talk about the importance of recycling; it’s another to visit a landfill and see the impact of waste management policies on the environment.

“Every time we take away a learning opportunity, we take away a chance to make a connection with a student. And that erodes the quality of their education.”

Eau Claire teachers already have experienced those lost connections as a result of last year’s budget cuts. Among the cuts were 5.8 teaching positions at the middle school level and 3 teaching positions at the elementary school level.

In addition, Klaus said, students no longer have the financial support to go to national competitions for clubs and extracurricular activities such as the debate team.

And, he added, coaches no longer are funded to attend clinics that help them improve.

Other actions the board took last year to cut the budget include:

• Reduced transportation services for Head Start and special education students.
• Cut a multi-cultural counseling position.
• Eliminated the district’s health and safety manager.
• Cut funds for outside services to the distance learning program and the instructional media center.
• Increased driver’s education fees by $50.
• Eliminated the coordinator of the gifted and talented program at the high schools.
• Increased athletic ticket fees.
• Closed Park school and moved students to Manz school.

The district had planned to close Park and the 115-year-old Boyd school and put the students from those two schools into a new facility. But last year’s referendum defeat forced them to make alternative arrangements, Klaus said.

Alioto has prepared two budget projections which both paint bleak pictures of the district’s financial future. The first projection assumes the state will renew the partial revenue cap exemption for declining-enrollment districts. Under that scenario, the district will have to cut $5.7 million over the next five years.

Without the exemption, cuts will total $6.8 million.

Having already made major cuts in non-educational programs, all that will be left are teachers and other staff positions, Klaus said.

“And that’s where we’re going to have to make these cuts,” he said.

• Background on revenue controls

Posted February 5, 1999