Okaloosa schools brace for personnel cuts

Principals are making agonizing decisions as the Okaloosa County School District braces for employee cutbacks next year.

      At the same time, School Board members are delaying the renewal of the district’s contract for school nurses until Florida’s proposed budget cuts are finalized.

      Teacher’s union President Sheila Olsen estimates that as many as 300 positions could be eliminated by next week.

      “That’s just what we fear out there. We’re certainly hoping it’s not,” Olsen said.

      Support personnel such as guidance counselors, custodians and teachers’ aides will likely be hit the hardest, officials say.

      But nothing is certain until April 15, the deadline for principals to send out pink slips.

      “As far as I know, I don’t see the number being that high,” Okaloosa County Superintendent of Schools Alexis Tibbetts said of Olsen’s estimate.

      Mike Foxworthy, the school district’s chief officer of human resources, said the number would be higher than in the past. However, he said the final count will probably be closer to 100 positions, with a significant impact for educational support staffers and teachers, he said.

      Schools are continuing to look at other cost-saving measures such as moving some administrators back into the classrooms and not filling vacant positions, Tibbetts said.

      After the Legislature finalizes the state budget, Foxworthy anticipates the district will be able to bring teachers back, perhaps sooner than the educational support positions.

      “I think the number of teachers we will be able to bring back or almost all back,” he said. “I think that it will be more difficult to get all of the ed support back.”

The worst case scenario is that “there may be some junior teachers that may not have a job” by the end of August, Tibbetts said.

      School nurses remain in limbo for now.

      For the past three years, the Okaloosa County Health Department has provided nurses for all the schools. The School Board is waiting to renegotiate the nearly $1 million contract, which expires in June, until legislators finalize the state budget.

      “If the contact is not renewed, we’ll have to proceed with layoffs,” said Health Department Director Dr. Karen Chapman.

      Chapman said she would make sure schools maintained the level of service needed and required by law.

      With the proposed Senate and House budgets, the School District is looking at $5 million to $6 million less in state funds next year than previously anticipated, said Rita Scallan, the school district’s chief financial officer.

      “The overall picture is not good. It’s a significant reduction for Okaloosa County,” she told School Board members at a workshop Thursday.

      Officials say it is difficult to make cutbacks because more than 85 percent of the school district’s budget is related to personnel.

      “It’s hard to sleep at night,” Tibbetts said. “It’s their income. It’s their insurance policies … but it’s a reality.”

      Olsen is hoping for the best, but is preparing for the worst.

      “If they handed me a blank piece of paper next week, I’d be very happy,” she said. “I don’t expect that paper.”