SUMMIT COUNTY — Summit School District officials are readying deep cuts in next year's school budgets, and teachers will likely feel the pain.

Salaries and benefits for school district staff make up 81 percent of the organization's $22 million annual operating budget. So Summit, much like all districts in Colorado, will be hard-pressed to make cuts that don't impact teachers in classrooms.

“It's a service business we're in, to provide education for children, so that's where the money is — in those staff dollars,” said Vody Herrmann, assistant commissioner of school finance for the Colorado Department of Education. “It's a sad situation.”

Proposed cuts that affect Summit teachers and other staff include cuts to salaries, health benefits, teacher planning time and the number of instructors in each school. The same items are showing up on the chopping block at districts throughout the state. The state House of Representatives passed a measure Monday that cuts funding to Colorado's public schools by $260 million. The bill, necessitated by waning tax revenues, will move onto the Senate later this week.

In Adams 12 School District, the state's fifth-largest, about 185 people will lose their jobs.

Luckily for Summit teachers, widespread lay-offs don't appear to be in the cards. District leaders say staff reductions are a real possibility, but they hope to achieve them through attrition.

Officials estimate staff reductions of 3.3 percent would cut expenses by about $222,000. That would translate to reductions of about half a staff member at the district's smallest schools and as many as three at its largest.

Since attrition will do the work, the district may have to shuffle staff among positions under such a scenario, ensuring that there are enough math teachers in a given school, for example.

“There will be people who are asked to teach in an area that isn't their preference,” assistant superintendent Karen Strakbein said.

Also under consideration is a reduction in planning time for high school teachers, thus decreasing the number of teachers required to provide current course offerings. The move would require a re-organization of the schedules at both Summit High School and Summit Middle School.

Editor's note: This story is part of a series of articles on Summit School District budget cuts, leading up to the district's community budget meeting at 6 p.m., March 30, at Summit Middle School.

Salaries

Salaries for teachers and other staff are a big part of the budget-cutting equation as well. If teachers were to receive their scheduled annual raises, along with any increased compensation for advanced education, it would cost the district about $312,000.

Today, a new Summit teacher with a bachelor's degree receives a starting salary of $37,000. According to the district's existing salary schedule, he or she receives a 1.28-percent raise each year. Teachers can also receive raises for professional development. For every additional 12 semester-hours of advanced education, a teacher receives an a salary increase of 0.74 percent. All those pay increases are on the table for negotiation as the district waits to hear from the state how deep the cuts will have to be.

“Our most important thing is the people,” said Summit Middle School music teacher Mark Clark, president of the local teacher's union. “We want to try to keep teachers in front of kids and have as little impact on educational programming as possible.”

The state's economic troubles are a big stumbling block in the teachers' efforts to up the starting salary to $40,000. The district hoped to achieve the bump over a period of three years, ending with the 2011-2012 school year.

“Clearly, that's not a goal that's going to be achieved in the time we had originally identified. The money is not there,” Clark said.

If the district were to move forward as planned, the march toward $40,000 would cost about $448,000.

As difficult as the cuts will be in Summit, they don't compare to the bitter pills other Colorado school districts are preparing to swallow.

“Most districts are making reductions of a lot of staff. Some districts are living on the edge, and it may be possible that some may not survive these reductions over time,” Herrmann said.

According to Herrmann, some school districts may close their doors altogether, sending their students to already-strained neighboring school systems.

“Our school district has done a great job of fiscal management. Lots of school districts are in much worse condition than we are,” Clark said.

Julie Sutor can be reached at (970) 668-4630 or jsutor@summitdaily.com.