Declining enrollment can be scary, but that doesn’t mean that school employee associations can’t be proactive.
Even when school employees and administrators work together to address the problem, painful decisions must sometimes be made.
CTA is advising chapters that are dealing with declining enrollment to formulate an organizing plan and look into the following possibilities:
- New sources of district revenue (federal revenues, grants, foundation funds) and local revenue (parcel taxes, rents and leases).
- Areas in which the district can reduce spending without affecting the classroom (administrators, curriculum specialists, program directors or special assignment positions).
- The elimination of unrestricted general fund spending (travel and conferences, consultants, capital outlay and the like).
- Early retirement programs that ensure actual savings.
Chapters should also ask district administrators to be prudent if enrollment is expected to drop.
If your superintendent says he has a great idea and wants to add programs and personnel — and you know your district is likely to experience declining enrollment — call your local chapter. If these decisions are not well thought out, they can cause problems.