Teachers make heartfelt plea

Music teacher Carissa Brown is comforted by first-grade teacher Heidi Merritt as she describes her financial situation to the Vancouver School Board on Tuesday evening. Brown said that with a 1 percent pay cut proposed by the superintendent, she’d be left with $150 a month in discretionary income. (Zachary Kaufman/The Columbian)

More than 300 teachers and staff members filled the Vancouver Public Schools board meeting Tuesday night to share personal stories of financial hardship in light of the superintendent's suggestion that all employees take a 1 percent pay cut.

Later in the meeting, Vancouver officials unveiled potential cuts to aid a budget that has been slammed by the recession. It'll be the eighth year district administrators have had to trim the increasingly bare schools budget.

Carissa Brown, a music teacher with 10 years under her belt, said she takes home $2,400 a month — hardly enough to cover mortgage, health insurance payments and some child support, she said. With the 1 percent pay cut, she said she'd be left with $150 a month for extras.

April Stenger, a 13-year kindergarten teacher at Minnehaha, burst into tears as she described how her husband doesn't have health insurance because she can't afford to put him on her plan and also pay for her student loans and child care.

"I have to avoid phone calls (from student loan lenders) because I'm already paying on my house and day care and food for my kids to eat," Stenger said.

Some teachers spoke through friends because they worried about retaliation, teachers union president Ann Giles said. Younger teachers said their student loans make up 10 percent of their take-home pay, and others said they have part-time jobs to make ends meet.

Marian Larson, a 36-year veteran at Fort Vancouver High School, lamented that her daughter, a Columbia River High School teacher, is struggling to pay for ongoing schooling required of her by the state.

"I totally understand why they might want to leave," Larson said of younger teachers. "They're running teachers out of education — and that's their love."

Webb's pay cut

Superintendent Steven Webb announced in an e-mail last week that he would take a 4.5 percent pay cut to his total compensation of $214,000. He asked that teachers consider a 1 percent reduction as part of an overall sacrifice that could save $1.3 million. Giles said teachers already are losing pay, as they will likely pay more in health premiums, not get a state pay raise of 4.2 percent and also lose one or two days in pay.

After hearing from teachers, the school board told Webb to move forward with balancing the budget.

The school district's list of potential cuts — which includes 140 teachers and 21 central office positions — comes to about $14.9 million.

After the Senate and House released their proposed budgets over spring break, the school district announced that its shortfall is between $5.6 million and $8 million, depending on the final state budget.

Finance director Steve Olsen said his team wanted to provide the school board with all options.

The proposed state budgets scale back their support of teacher pay for between 116 and 140 Vancouver teachers. Olsen said the school board may cut in other areas to keep staff.

Then there's the issue of the federal stimulus money, which remains unclear.

Vancouver is scheduled to receive $9.3 million for programs dedicated to low income and special education programs. While the money appears to come with strict rules (meaning, it can't be spent on other programs), it could free up $1.2 million of levy money that currently pays for special education.

For now, Vancouver school s officials must wait until April 27 to get firm budget numbers from the state — and that's if the state doesn't delay passing a consensus budget. May 15 is the deadline to notify teachers if they've been pink-slipped.

Isolde Raftery: 360-735-4546 or isolde.raftery@columbian.com.