COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — The Coeur d'Alene School Board voted Friday to officially declare a financial emergency, but teachers in the district won't be notified that their job may be on the line.
The board voted 3-2 to approve declaring a financial emergency with one caveat: the district cannot notify any educators, informally or otherwise, that their jobs may be cut until the board approves a "reduction in force" list.
After about an hour of discussion, the indecision on how to move forward on the financial emergency vote was apparent.
"I feel like the reason to make this motion and approve this today is to give notices to our staff earlier, but it's not clear we're giving notices to our staff earlier," Trustee Heather Tenbrink laughed. "Thoughts on how to proceed there?"
The issue came in early during the special board meeting, with acting chair Casey Morrisroe expressing concern about the psychological impacts of pre-emptively telling some teachers they may not return next year.
"My heartburn is making those notifications before the levy, before we know they're absolutely 100% necessary," Morrisroe said.
That was a key factor in declaring a financial emergency, superintendent Dr. Shon Hocker told the board. In order to give informal "reduction in force" notifications, that declaration had to be made and reported to the state.
Dr. Hocker said acting early on the declaration would allow the district to move forward on that timeline more quickly and professionally.
"We will be able to get our financials more promptly outlined, we'll be able to notify our employees quicker," he said.
All of this is in preparation in the event voters turn down the $25 million levy on May 16; a similar measure already failed in March. This time around, the levy is only for two years, instead of the permanent levy the district asked for a month ago.
Dr. Hocker also advised the board the district may have to close two elementary schools if the levy fails. Four schools are on the consideration list: Borah, Bryan, Dalton, and Ramsey.
"We have narrowed it down to four but we're unable to specify any one to two at this juncture," he said.
Dr. Hocker said at this point the district is also not ready to notify any staff of possible job loss.
"We're trying to handle this very carefully and today we're just not there to share out the specific staff," Dr. Hocker said, adding those notifications could be ready within a week or two if the financial emergency was declared Friday.
Trustee Allie Anderton wanted the district to look for more ways to cut spending to make up the potential $25 million deficit.
"Many districts have asked their employees to voluntarily take a pay cut to offset the deficits and have been able to retain more teachers that way," Anderton suggested.
Dr. Hocker said while the district hadn't polled educators to see if that was an option, but said it wouldn't be a long-term solution.
"Teachers, to give up a quarter of their budget while other districts are growing their budget by 15%, their staff salaries by 15%, that creates nearly a 50-40% salary difference," he said. "I'd venture to guess that's not palatable by most of our staff."
Morrisroe said he expects some teachers to leave before being given an RIF notice, acknowledging some teachers are already looking for other jobs.
Others wanted to wait to make a decision on the financial emergency until its known if the levy passes or fails.
"I've heard from a lot of people who feel like this is a scare tactic," said trustee Lesli Bjerke. She later made a motion to table a decision until after May 16, which failed for lack of a second.
The board could hold on reduction in force notifications until May 17, a move supported by at least two board members.
The board will hold a special meeting May 17. If the levy passes, they can rescind the financial emergency declaration at that time.
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