Kaine would cut state funds for school support jobs by more than one-third

Betsy Miller is one of the first people you'll meet at Midway Elementary School in Dinwiddie County.

She is the school's only secretary, though her title is deceiving.

Miller pays the school's bills, answers the office phones, greets and registers new students and does all the data-entry for student records. She compiles the required attendance reports for the Department of Education and arranges for substitutes when teachers call in sick.

If there's an emergency and the nurse is gone, guess who's called: Betsy.

Kathleen Burgess, the principal at Midway, a school of 382 students off U.S. 460, said Miller also is "unofficially an ear for parents and kids" in the community. "One of her strengths is knowing the people in the community by name."

Virginia schools would lose state funding for many secretaries and other support personnel -- the jacks of all trades who keep schools humming day to day -- under one of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposals to close a $3.7 billion shortfall in the state's two-year, $77 billion budget.

Kaine proposes cutting state funding for an estimated 13,000 school support positions to save $340.9 million in salaries and benefits, beginning in fiscal year 2010.

Currently, 36,000 support positions are funded statewide. The proposal would drop the positions to 22,800 -- a reduction of roughly 36 percent.

Over the years, the increase in the number of support staff in Virginia's schools has outpaced the increase in instructional personnel.

The Standards of Quality, which outline the basic requirements for a public education in Virginia, define minimum staffing standards for instructional personnel. For example, the state mandates at least one teacher per 24 kindergarten students and the state provides funding accordingly.

There is no such ratio for support staff. Kaine wants to change that by adding a ratio of one state-funded support position per 4.03 state-funded instructional positions.

Positions subject to the proposed cap include assistant superintendents, department directors and other central-administration staff, secretaries, school-attendance clerks, custodians, maintenance workers and curriculum specialists.

School boards and superintendents would be exempt, as would school nurses and bus drivers -- positions that are often hard to fill.

"While it's never easy to make cuts to schools, my proposal focuses state funds to protect the students' experience in the classroom," Kaine said Jan. 14 in his State of the Commonwealth address.

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Burgess said she, like all educators, worries about staff cuts.

"There's times when 10 people wouldn't be enough" in the office, she said, such as the end of the day when "the bell will be ringing and we'll get calls from 10 parents saying, 'Don't put my kid on the bus.'"

Staff cuts hurt smaller schools more deeply, she said, because there are fewer people to pick up the slack.

"I certainly couldn't imagine how we could function with any less than we have now," Burgess said.

How many support positions would lose state money depends on the size of the school system. Systems would have the choice to make up the funding for those positions or to shift money from other areas to cover the support salaries.

Dinwiddie Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. said that based on state funding projections, he anticipates a cut of about 60 positions, some of which would be support personnel.

"I can't cut every support person in my school division because then I can't run my school division," he said. One or two positions at a small elementary school like Midway "are going to have a dramatic effect on the delivery of services."

"How do you run a building without secretaries? How do you run a building without media specialists?" he asked.

While other agencies can put off construction of a building, for example, educators "can't fail to educate children."

Maranzano said the Dinwiddie system audited itself several years ago to identify areas where he could save money.

He's implemented 96 percent of those suggestions, he said, such as streamlining the central office. For instance, he used to have two assistant superintendents, now he has one.

"I'm at optimal efficiency," he said, but there can't be a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to the classroom and support personnel. School superintendents down to individual principals, know what their needs are, he said.

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At Midway, Freddie Hardy unlocks the doors every morning, usually about 7 a.m. He's been a custodian at the school for five years.

As Hardy swept the stage the morning after a school play, Burgess talked about how much people like Hardy mean to the school.

"They know the kids by name, and the kids know them by name," she said. "They do a great job because they care about the school."

Often when administrations come and go, the support staff remains.

"They carry the tradition [of the school] a lot of the times," Burgess said.

As the General Assembly heads into the final week of its session, it remains unclear whether lawmakers will support a temporary cut in support staff amid the budget crisis or whether they will back the permanent ratio that Kaine recommends.

The House version of the budget includes the cap; the Senate's budget does not. Another question is whether funds from the federal stimulus package would help stave off cuts in support staff.

Regardless, Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, a member of the House Appropriations Committee who also is coordinator of professional development for the Newport News school system, recommends asking the state Department of Education to assess whether a permanent change is necessary. He wants it to send a report to a joint subcommittee on elementary and secondary education and to Kaine by Aug. 15.

Other lawmakers and the teachers union bristle at the idea of making the ratio permanent and say the schools are already chronically underfunded.

"To assert that these cuts will not affect the classroom is disingenuous," the Virginia Education Association writes in its budget report.

Kaine often says lawmakers should take advantage of the economic crisis by implementing policy changes -- such as a permanent ratio for support staff -- that would remain in effect once the economy rebounds.

Continuing to let support costs swell could become troublesome, Kaine said in a December speech proposing the cap.

"That trend will jeopardize needed instructional investments such as efforts to move Virginia teacher salaries nearer the national average," he said.

The front office staff at Midway has little time to dwell on the potential changes.

"There's no definition of a normal day," Miller said from behind her desk. "It's different from day to day."

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or hprestidge@timesdispatch.com.