Schools do more with less

Despite the lingering effects of the economic downturn, schools managed to focus on their core mission - education, officals said.

While reports of 2009 have shown improvement from 2008, in some ways it was worse, said Toni Badone, Yuma Union High School District superintendent. District leaders are doing more with less, but budget cuts are straining people and facilities, she said.

Enrollment has increased by 421, yet the number of teachers has dropped by 40 and classified employees (those outside the classroom)  by 80. The result is bigger classes, sometimes over 40 students, when last year the average was 26.

"So how can you teach like that? But I think the staff has really risen to the occasion."

Much effort in the second half of 2009 was devoted to not spending money, she said. This year, the supplies budget at each of the YUHSD campuses was $50,000, reduced from $200,000.

"That means you can't afford copier paper, toner. It also means less chemicals in science labs, less No. 2 pencils for exams, less envelopes for mailing, so we can't keep parents informed as well as we'd like."

But YUHSD takes a proactive approach because they cannot wait for the Arizona Legislature to balance the budget, Badone said. They continue to become more "paperless," issuing payroll checks online and contacting parents through e-mail, but not everybody has a computer.

"I'm disappointed with the budget but we'll make it work. Yet I'm looking forward to 2010 because YUHSD still has the greatest teachers and our students deserve the best we can give them."

Kerry Jones, Yuma Elementary School District 1 chief financial officer, said the academic year began with $6.6 million less than the previous year.

"Part of this was due to a decline of 294 students, resulting in a decrease in state funding, but a majority of the reduction was due to additional cuts by the state."

District 1 then reduced administrative staff and nurses, replaced librarians with a media specialist, cut classified staff and increased class size, Jones said.

"Our employees are doing an amazing job of educating. There is also an outpouring of response from the community in support of education due to the decline in state funding."

At Crane Elementary School District, state aid reductions resulted in a loss of 85 percent of their soft capital budget, funds for texts, computers, furniture and other classroom supplies, said Chris Weigle, communications director.

Crane countered by having all staff take pay cuts, furlough days and eliminating performance pay bonuses. Through those efforts they saved $1 million, he said.

"From our perspective, that's a very encouraging thing. Crane staff was willing to make sacrifices for the common good and that resulted in saving jobs."

At Arizona Western College, the big story for 2009 was the 15 percent increase in enrollment, said President Marc Nigliazzo. Between 30 and 40 percent of the 9,000 students were full-time.

Yet there has been no increase in the faculty of 110, which should be around 150 for a school of AWC's size, Nigliazzo said. The problem is Yuma is isolated and cannot draw a pool of faculty like metro areas such as Phoenix can, he said.

"We're in relatively good shape to finish out the spring. But whenever we're coming out of a recession a lot more people go back to school, try to retool and get back into the work force."

This past year saw AWC losing between $1 million and $1.5 million when state aid was cut. Looking ahead to next year, he was cautioned to prepare for up to a 15 percent cut, he added.

Yet AWC has tentative plans to expand its programs to include a sustainable energy resources program. AWC could enter a partnership with a company that will put an array of solar panels at the school and they would like to see how they can offer an education curriculum in alignment with that, Nigliazzo said.

"When I look at 2010, I see a big question mark. We may get to the point that every community college dreads, turning away students, and that could happen if more drastic cuts occur. How do we adjust for that? We could increase fees. But then you limit access and it almost becomes a catch-22."