Speakers came to the Pasco County School Board meeting on Feb. 6, urging the district to keep positions that are paid through federal funding that was provided to districts to address deficits caused by the COVID pandemic.
The speakers spoke during the board’s public comment portion of the meeting, urging the district to retain employees — especially instructional assistants — they said are essential in the district.
Later in the meeting, Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning offered this response: “I would agree with every speaker who came to the podium this morning about the impact that our IAs – our instructional assistants – have had on our students and in our classrooms, on our schools and in our district.”
However, the superintendent explained that the district is in the position it‘s in because the federal government created the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to respond to impacts from the pandemic.
“That ARP ESSER money was set aside — a specific amount, a specific timeframe and a specific purpose.
“They were wanting districts across the country to use the proceeds of those dollars primarily to support academic instruction and make sure that our students did not fall too far behind. And, I think they were a little fortuitous because they knew there was going to be a significant academic impact to our students.
“There has been, there has been — with COVID,” the superintendent said.
When the federal funding was provided, Browning said, it was done so “with the understanding those dollars were going to disappear after three years. We’re coming up on that three-year mark, I believe it’s September of this year.
“And so, as we begin the very, very, very early stages of budget preparation for the ’24-’25 year, we are planning that those COVID dollars, COVID ARP/ESSER dollars are not in play.”
Browning reminded school board members that when the federal dollars initially were provided, there was a concern that local entities receiving the funding would become dependent on them, and that they would face a “fiscal cliff” when the funds ended.
“One of the things that we set off early to do was to avoid any fiscal cliff,” Browning said.
Positions always intended to be temporary
“There was a specific point that I made, a caveat that I made three years ago, when we started receiving these dollars … that these positions are for three years. They will not move forward, beginning the fourth year,” Browning said.
That being said, the district hired student service coordinators, discipline instructional assistants, kindergarten institutional assistants, tutors and other employees with those funds, Browning said.
In total, about 600 district positions are funded with the federal money.
“We cannot absorb almost 600 positions into the district payroll. We can’t do it,” Browning said.
“However, in the early conversations that we are beginning to have with budgets, we are going to look at not only the GR (general revenue) that we have in the district, but also how is that GR being spent?
“We have a meeting set up to look at grants — the grant dollars that we have, and are there expenditures that can be made with grant dollars that are currently being made with GR dollars.
“I will tell you, nothing is off the table.
“We will be asking our staff: Is this required, or is it just a want?
“Are we required by law to do it? If we are not required by law to do it then we really need to look at the impact of what those dollars are meaning to our students,” Browning said.
Tough decisions must be made
“There are a lot of things that we do in this district that are not required by law — but we understand that they impact families and they impact kids significantly.
“So, it comes down to the proverbial age-old question of, ‘Whose ox is going to get gored?’
He added: “We really need to start at the sum zero number and then what are the things that we’re willing to sacrifice? What are the things we are willing to cut in this district, in order to afford the discipline IAs, the student services coordinators, the kindergarten IAs, the behavior IAs. You get my drift on how this process is going to go.
“I want to make it clear that before COVID, or ARP/ESSER funding, this district was funding and had funded for a number of years instructional assistants out of GR for our schools. Those are not going away.
“We plan on budgeting for those through GR dollars (for next year).
“I don’t think there’s anybody on my team that would disagree with any of the speakers this morning about the value of the instructional assistants. But I will tell you, there’s going to have to be some tough decisions that have to be made, and some prioritization about which positions we’re going to attempt to keep and those we cannot keep.
“When folks were hired for those positions under ARP/ESSER, they knew that it was going to be a three-year commitment, or they knew it was going to be a two-year commitment, if they came in Year 2; and, they knew it was going to be a one-year commitment, if they came in in Year 3.
“We are not even filling empty positions. We are not filling empty slots. Because why would I want to hire an instructional assistant now only to let them know that come July 1 or June 30, you’re not without a job,” Browning said.
School board member Colleen Beaudoin said she has been a huge advocate of IAs in the past, but also understands financial restraints.
“We’re going to look at the budget. We have decisions to make,” Beaudoin said.
Beaudoin also emphasized that eliminating specific positions doesn’t correlate to eliminating people.
“We don’t know yet how many we’re going to be able to keep in the current positions, but maybe other positions,” she said.
Assistant Superintendent Kevin Shibley said, “We’ve been planning for this moment for a while. So, any positions that we are not able to move into other funding sources going into ’24-’25, HR (Human Resources) is going to be ready and willing to work with those folks throughout the spring either to find other positions of that same type, or if there are not going to be any positions of that type anymore help them to transition into other vacancies.”
He’s confident the district will be able to help employees who may be displaced.
“Our goal is to not put anyone on the street. We have jobs available,” Shibley said.
Published February 21, 2024
