Feeling a $2.2 million budget pinch, east-metro schools weigh pay freeze

Teachers and staff of the West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan school district could be asked to accept a pay freeze next year to help close a $2.2 million budget gap without layoffs or larger class sizes.

The district's board, which is calling the measure a "soft freeze" because it includes annual seniority raises but no cost-of-living hikes, is set to vote on it Tuesday. The district's shortfall amounts to about 5 percent of its annual budget, a much larger slice than most other local districts.

The pay freeze, which would save $1.2 million next year, is the biggest part of a broad plan of budget cuts that wring a total of $2.4 million from next year's expenses.

Other, bigger measures include an accounting change of staff development funds that would save $250,000; lower fuel costs that are already locked in, saving $150,000; and extending to two miles the distance students must live from school before receiving free busing, saving $110,000.

The pay freeze "is for every single employee in the district," said Jay Haugen, district superintendent. The district has 726 employees, including 350 teachers.

Consumer inflation has been very low in recent months, so it's "logical" to select a pay freeze over layoffs in these economic times, Haugen said. The pay freeze and other proposals were revealed at a district board meeting Tuesday night. The proposals were devised by several groups that included teachers, administrators, parents and community members.

The district's revenue projections for next year do not include any potential funding from the federal economic stimulus plan. That's because it's unclear how much, if anything, the district might receive from the measure. If it did get any stimulus money, it's unclear whether it could be used to bridge its budgetary gap, Haugen says.

West St. Paul district leaders say the failure of a referendum in 2007 is one reason behind the budget shortfall. It would have added $1.7 million in revenue to the district's coffers.

Haugen said the district is willing to be flexible to negotiate with employee unions over the details of the salary freeze, so long as the targeted savings remain the same. Officials from the union local representing the district's teachers, as well as Education Minnesota, the larger organization to which it belongs, did not respond to requests for comment.

Gregory A. Patterson • 612-673-7287