Elmbrook Superintendent Backs Governor's Proposed Reforms

Elmbrook Superintendent Matt Gibson expressed support Friday for Gov. Scott Walker's proposed changes to public employee salaries and benefits, saying they were needed to fix Elmbrook's deficits without cutting programs.

"It's needed, so I'm very supportive of what's going on in Madison," Gibson told more than a dozen parents at an Elmbrook Parent Leadership Council luncheon. 

"But I'm not outwardly celebratory," Gibson added, because school district budgets will be "solved on the back" of teachers and other staff members who would lose income by paying more for health care and getting smaller wage increases.

"I'm empathetic," he said, adding the reforms would also affect administrators.

Gibson, who has been a superintendent for 30 years, said the proposed changes - which would strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from teachers and most public employees, was "unprecedented."

"I've never seen what's going on at the state," he told the council members, who are officers of parent-teacher organizations at Elmbrook's 11 schools.

The parents expressed support for financial reforms, but raised questions about whether the proposed legislation went too far by ending staff's ability to bargain over non-wage issues, such as the school calendar, class sizes and extracurricular activities.

They also said they want to make sure Elmbrook attracts and retains the best teachers and not causes an exodus by creating a subpar health plan or wage schedule.

Teachers largely opted against calling in sick and heading to protest in Madison, Gibson said. Absences did grow Friday, but not to levels that caused any schools to close.

Under the proposed budget repair bill from Republican Gov. Scott Walker, public employees - except for police, fire and public safety workers - would lose the right to collectively bargain for their working conditions and benefits. 

Those workers - for towns, villages, cities, counties and schools - would have to pay 5.8 percent toward their pensions and 12.6 percent of their health insurance premiums.

In Elmbrook, teachers currently pay 3 percent of their health premiums and administrators pay 10 percent, Gibson said in an interview after the meeting. The school district pays 100 percent of both the employee and employer contributions to the pension plan. He said most school districts pay all pension contributions.

Keith Brightman, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said the governor's bill would likely mean a savings to Elmbrook of about $3 million, enough to close its deficit for the 2011-12 school year.

But there is a big caveat, he said. That assumes the state allows districts to increase their tax collections to support a $200 increase in spending per pupil. There has been talk of cutting that, which would hurt Elmbrook, Brightman said.

Marla Kalfayan, chair of a new lobbying group called Alliance for Elmbrook Education, said in an interview that she sent a note to state Sen. Alberta Darling urging the $200 increase remain intact.

Lowering the revenue cap would have a detrimental effect on Elmbrook, which gets very little state aid and relies heavily on local property taxes to fund its curriculum, Kalfayan said.

She was establishing a Facebook page for the Alliance and hopes to spread the word about the group in coming weeks. 

Brightman said the bill could mean sweeping changes to the way administrators and the Elmbrook School Board handle teacher-related issues. For example, he said, the current teacher wage schedule - with step increases and levels - could be eliminated because it calls for wage increases greater than the state bill would allow.

Under Walker's bill, wages would be virtually the only thing teachers could negotiate with administrators. And even that would be limited. The largest wage increase the district could approve would be the amount equal to the consumer price index, currently 1.5 percent, Brightman said. 

The only way the Elmbrook School Board could approve higher wage increases would be if they held a referendum and got voter approval, he added.

Another budget item that worries Gibson and Brightman: the school tax levy credit. This is a state credit that helps wealthier districts like Elmbrook who get very little state equalization aid. 

There has been talk about cutting that credit. If it was eliminated, Elmbrook residents would see the school portion of their property tax bill rise by about 20 percent, Brightman said. Currently residents get the credit as a separate line item on their tax bills. 

Elmbrook officials have projected a five-year, $15 million deficit and have studied solutions that could include closing elementary schools, adding 4-year-old kindergarten and other revenue-boosting and expense-cutting moves.

The Elmbrook School Board had considered taking action on 4K at its Feb. 22 meeting, but the earliest that will occur now is March 8, Gibson said.

Community listening sessions on various budget ideas will be held in the morning, afternoon and evening of March 17.