NATCHEZ — Cuts to regular teaching positions, substitute teaching positions and textbooks were among the largest cuts made to the Natchez-Adams School District’s budget after the school board demanded $300,000 in additional budget cuts in July.

The additional budget cut request came after a public hearing drew a large crowd of taxpayers upset with the school board’s decision to ask the county for approximately $600,000 more in property taxes than last year.

Superintendent Anthony Morris and Business Manager Margaret Parson presented their cuts to the school board at a work session Aug. 3, which the school board officially accepted at the Aug. 5 meeting.

Vacancies

The district now has seven instructional vacancies and one administrative vacancy, which cut $100,000 from the budget, Morris said.

The total savings of the seven salaries was not cut out of the budget to leave room to fill some of the positions during the school year, if it is deemed necessary, Morris said.

“We were conservative with the amount (of salary savings) in the budget in case vacancies needed to be filled,” Morris said.

Unfilled positions include two math positions at McLaurin Elementary, one language arts and one science position at Morgantown Elementary, one English position and one physical education position at Robert Lewis Middle School and an English position at Natchez High School, according to the schools’ principals.

Parson said the resignations and retirements of former teachers created the vacancies.

Morris said the administrative vacancy is a school district grant writing positing, which was formerly occupied by a Morgantown Elementary guidance counselor.

In addition, the district has not yet hired an interim or replacement human resources director since its former director, John Sullivan, resigned July 23.

The district is advertising for the position.

Morgantown Principal Fred Marsalis said the teacher student ratio has been slightly affected by the vacancies.

Morgantown’s average student-teacher ratio for fifth grade this year is 25-1. In sixth grade, the ratio is 20-1.

The state enforces a student-teacher ratio of 27-1 in elementary school and 30-1 in grades five through eight. In departmentalized classroom situations in grades five through 12, when classes focus a single subject, the ratio must be no more than 33-1, Morris said.

Morris said the narrowing student-teacher ratios will further increase the challenge to improve student achievement.

Substitutes

Cutting the use of substitute teachers in some schools saved approximately $130,000, Morris said.

Teachers’ assistants will now serve as substitutes in schools where two teachers occupy a classroom. Schools with teaching assistants include West, Frazier, McLaurin and Central Alternative School. Every class at West and Frazier has teaching assistants because the law requires them in kindergarten through second grades.

Substitutes are normally paid an hourly wage, so the savings comes from using teaching assistants who would have already been working.

Textbooks

Morris said the cuts also include cutting the textbook budget from $200,000 to $100,000.

Parson said the state did not adopt any new textbooks this year, which allowed for the budget cut.

The state recommends textbook updates on a subject-area rotation, Morris said. Although the state required no new textbooks this year, NASD has generally run behind and needs to catch up, he said.

Morris said the textbook cuts were made across the board from various schools.

“Because of the cost and the number (of textbooks) we need, we are generally not able to buy every book we need at the time of adoption,” Morris said.

“This pushes (NASD) further behind.”

Textbooks run from $50 to $85 per book, Morris said.

Marsalis said Morgantown has not caught up with last year’s textbook adoption, which was for science, because the school could not afford to purchase enough of the books.

Robert Lewis Middle School Principal Sekufele M. Lewanika said the middle school is also behind on textbook adoptions. The school was only able to purchase approximately 25 percent of the new science textbooks it needed last year.

He said schools don’t always adopt new textbooks on the year the books are released because schools are constantly playing catch-up with every subject from past adoption years.

McLaurin Principal Alice Morrison said McLaurin purchased a classroom set of workbooks instead of hard textbooks to accommodate the cuts.

Natchez High Principal Cleveland Moore Jr. said the high school was unable to purchase business law textbooks they would have bought before the additional budget cuts were made.

Other cuts

Some less significant cuts included approximately $15,000 in cuts to special programs.

For example, a special education workforce program cut the number of students it can take in half, Parson said.

Another cut was to a co-op vocational program between the district and the Fallin Career Technology Center.

The school board’s position

School board president Harold Barnett said making the additional $300,000 cuts was a compromise with the school district and the taxpayers.

The additional budget cuts equal nearly half of the dollar amount increase the school district initially wanted to request from the county compared to last year’s request.

“We’re hoping to make additional savings, for example, (by adopting) an energy saving plan,” Barnett said.

Representatives from energy companies asked the board to consider employing their company to examine the district’s electricity needs at an Aug. 12 board meeting.

School board member David Troutman said some of the additional cuts were unfortunate, and others might be beneficial.

“Some of the cuts were to certain positions that will not be filled, so students in some ways are going to be affected,” Troutman said.

“Other cuts were pretty good, (such as) cutting substitutes in classrooms where they already have a full time aid,” he said

Troutman said cutting the use of substitutes can be beneficial in the classroom because teacher aids know the students, so students do not have to adjust to a stranger.

Board member Benny Wright said the school board members did the best they could under the circumstances.

He said the state cut funding to the school district, but expected the same level of achievement.

Likewise, the public wants low taxes, but also to see schools improve, Wright said.

“That is our mission of the school board, to certify both of those objectives — a higher performing school district and lower costs,” Wright said.

Parson said the additional cuts were difficult to make, especially since the budgets submitted to her office from every department already included cuts.

“We cut last year during the year because of the state budget cuts. There was not much left to cut out,” Parson said.

“It’s not that we had not tried. We had already done some work.”

Morris said he thinks the additionally ordered cuts will impact schools negatively.

“Some would say ($300,000) is a drop in the bucket, but cutting an additional $300,000 has a really negative impact. We were given the directive to cut after we already cut to the bone,” Morris said.

Parson said she thinks the cuts will be felt within the district this year.

“It’s going to be a hard year, and next year is supposed to be worse as far as state revenue,” she said.

“It’s not a comfortable feeling.”