The Duval County School Board began discussing ways last week to make up an anticipated $53 million shortfall for the 2012-13 school year.
The options presented to the board included furloughs, retirement incentives, pay reductions, changes to health insurance and changes to step raises. But the board’s discussion centered on a potential pay-to-play system for sports that would save $500,000 and phase two of the elimination of magnet transportation, which would save $2.2 million.
Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals said he’d like the board to make decisions on sports and magnet transportation in the next few weeks so the district can begin alerting parents in February.
The pay-to-play plan for sports would require all students not on free or reduced lunch to pay a $75 participation fee.
The second phase of eliminating magnet transportation would impact 11 middle and high schools. The schools that would lose transportation under the proposal are Ribault, Mandarin, Andrew Jackson, Wolfson, Douglas Anderson and Lee high schools, and Eugene Butler, Matthew Gilbert and Mayport middle schools.
The schools were chosen because they have the highest per-rider costs. The district estimates it would affect about 2,000 students and eliminate 40-45 buses. Last year’s magnet transportation cuts impacted 5,000 students and eliminated about 140 buses.
The plan would also call for six additional traffic control officers, at $300,000. That cost is already worked into the savings the plan would generate.
“We learned from phase one that we didn’t have enough officers,” said Paul Soares, Duval’s chief officer of operations.
How much did district employees make in the last fiscal year?
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office would assist the district with 20 to 25 officers to help with traffic at the beginning and end of the school day. But the JSO officers are only on loan until the first week in October.
The move would have the biggest impact on Douglas Anderson, with 480 students losing district transportation.
Board members Betty Burney and Tommy Hazouri asked Pratt-Dannals why the district is about to make more changes to the magnet system but has yet to have in-depth discussions about the future of the magnet program.
“I don’t know how you can go forward without studying the magnets,” Hazouri said of the bus plan.
Pratt-Dannals said he was concerned about tying the transportation decision to a full scale review of the district’s magnet system because he didn’t know how long it would take the district to conduct such a review. He surmised it could take multiple of months to complete.
“My biggest concern has to do with parents and students knowing in advance where we’re going next year with this,” he said, talking about the busing transition.
Pratt-Dannals said the board and district likely couldn’t conduct a full review and still make a decision on magnet transportation in a timely enough manner to allow parents to plan for next year.
“That doesn’t fly with me anymore,” Hazouri said in response to Pratt-Dannals. Hazouri said he wouldn’t support the transportation moves without the district giving comprehensive thought to direction of the overall magnet system.
“It’s just not fair to us,” he said, “and it’s not fair to the district.”
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