In this episode, we're having an honest conversation with Superintendent Doug Loomis about talk of an enrollment loss and what that means for jobs. And, he's here to set the record straight.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Happy Thursday, everyone. Welcome back to an a abbreviated version of schoolwork. Uh, it's been a bit, um, but Mr. Loomis and I are here this morning. We, uh, hope everyone is looking forward to a much needed long weekend. Um, we wanted to just take a few minutes, um, share some information, um, and hopefully ease any concerns that are out there with staff members as they leave for the long weekend so they can relax and enjoy, uh, the Easter season. Doug, let's, let's talk about our challenges with the loss of student enrollment and, um, you know, we've been studying this for a bit and, uh, talking about this with principals over the last few weeks. So let's share some information and talk about our challenges, um, moving into the rest of this school year and as we head into next school
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Year. Yeah, uh, no doubt, uh, we've all started to, to focus in on this loss of enrollment and how it's really going to affect staffing patterns, uh, for next year. Uh, I wish this morning I, I could just say, uh, just bad rumors out there. Uh, but, but the truth is, uh, we've lost some significant enrollment. Um, what I'm really proud of is that, uh, as we recognized where this, that the student enrollment is going to be significant, um, we've really tried to figure out a way to be open, transparent, honest, um, and, and maybe is equally important. And, and it may not fill this away from, from campuses or, or out in the trenches, but really, how do you have this conversation from where it counts the most? Not in the superintendent's office, but, uh, in, in the classrooms. And, and so I, I think the first message that needs to go out there, um, and we've been really clear, and I'm going to be really clear again today.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
There are no layoffs pending. There are no layoffs coming and nobody's getting fired. Um, we, we are living in a, in a, in a world, uh, post pandemic, um, that just no one, um, could have predicted or, or saw coming. Um, I, I so much appreciate, uh, our educators, our staff members, um, that are out in the trenches and do such a great job every day. Um, and, and I just believe there's only one way to head off, um, you know, some, some tough times. And that's being honest, that's being open, um, that's being, uh, as transparent as we can and look for solutions together. So let's, let's talk about how we got here. You know, for, for about the last 10 years. Um, A I S D has had a slow decrease in enrollment. We won't get deep into the the whys of that, but it, it, it really is about boundaries.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's really about refugees. Uh, there, there's a lot of things that have changed. And so we have gotten really good at building safeguards to monitor that and to deal with that loss of enrollment or on the other side, if we happen to have a spike, those safeguards would allow us to deal with that. And all of us have felt that over the years. Uh, and we always have felt it this time of year or a lot of times in, in, um, in the fall. In the fall, yeah. In September. Uh, because, you know, you, you, you start looking at where the needs are and, and, and classes didn't make here or there was extra needs here. And so you start seeing some movement of staff, you know, where the need is most. And I, I think where you feel that really heavy is, you know, in, in September when, when you're at elementary and, and, and enrollment has decreased a little bit, your projections were off a little bit and it decreases.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And so all of a sudden you thought you had three sections, you only need two, but you need that third section across town or in, you know, at a neighboring school. And so there's that kind of movement. So, so what we're talking about right here is not any different than what we do every year this time. The difference is we've just had a much larger decar in enrollment than any of us would ever of fathom coming out of, of Covid. Um, covid was, was a, was a strange phenomena. You know, we shut school down this time in, in 2020 and, and, and we held, you know, we, we, we were just trying to hold it together. And then last year as we came back, um, we were just, we were dealing in a very, very difficult situation where we had large number of kids out, large number of staff members out trying to carry two platforms, really changed the focus of education.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And in that last 24 months, you know, we've not done what we've traditionally, traditionally would've done with those safeguards. Um, and, and by and large, we just left everybody where, where they were because quite frankly, we didn't know what attendance was going to look like coming out of this. And, and just coming out of this, we're, you know, we're down 1500 kids approximately, but when you look at staff, we're still up about 200 positions over that same time. And so, so that helps you get a sense of, of how we try to stretch that dollar. Uh, but when you have literally overnight in that decade of 2000 loss, we lost 1500 of those.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Hey, the other thing that I, I, I've thought about and we talked about a couple of days ago is, is during 2021, we, we did not make some of the normal adjustments that we make because we had to stand up both virtual and in-person instruction. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Without a pandemic. We would've just continued that slow decrease of an enrollment we would, those safeguards we have in play, we would've never felt this kind of punch in the gut that, that we're feeling coming out of this. And so, you know, we, you know, one of the, when you think about a loss of 1500 students, what that equates to is just a, a loss of revenue. And, you know, we believe in being good stewards and, and we believe in, in, in being good fiduciaries and, and living within our means. We don't, we don't live outside of our means. It's much like, you know, all of us have budgets in our home, and we live within those means. And, and once in a while, you know, something, something out of the ordinary attacks our home, our, our household budgets, you know, you're, you're moving along, everything's happening, and all of a sudden you've got a 16 year old that needs a new car.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah. And or, you know, even where, you know, something tragic, you, you wake up and, and somebody's got a medical event, and all of a sudden, you know, you've got huge deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses and, and which really cramp, um, cramp your, your home budget. And, and that's, that's, that's sort of what this equates to. No one should interpret that I'm gonna lose my job. Right. I'm gonna, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna get laid off. You know, it, it, it is one of those opportunities that, you know, you and I have had it. You know, I, I don't never forget how many times Mr. Williams has walked into my domain when, when I was still on campuses and say, Hey, Mr. Lum, I got a new opportunity for you, then that might be what this is. And I think that's what everybody ought to look at.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
This is, you know, how, how do we first take care of that classroom instruction and support those what goes on in classrooms? And, and that might mean some of us have an opportunity to do something a little differently. Uh, it might not. Um, and there's, it, it is just one of, one of the facts of of, of, I guess not facts. I guess it's our reality. We've, we've lost some enrollment. Uh, and so we're gonna deal with that and we're gonna deal with it in a positive way. Um, we're gonna continue to support our, our staff. Um, and we're not one of those districts who waking up saying, Hey, let's have a reduction in force. Let's lay people off and let's fire people. I believe the conversation starts at the campus and talks about, you know, how can we restructure and how can we do better? Because quite frankly, we typically do our very best when the pressure's been applied, um, and we got a little pressure being applied. And so, uh, we, we will do our very best as, as we come out of this.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
So, Doug, I, I really think one of the things also, as we, as we spread the message that we're gonna make these adjustments, things are gonna be okay, this is really a normal part of what we do every year. It, it's just the, the impact of it probably will be a little bit bigger because of the number of kids. Um, but as we make these adjustments, uh, you know, the other thing I think it's important to remember is all the things that, that as a district we've worked hard to do, to take care, care of our, our staff. And
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So, you know, as you go off to have a great Easter weekend, I want you to go with a smile on your face, and I want you to know everything's gonna be okay. Um, we're not laying staff off. Uh, yeah, we're gonna make some adjustments and, and it may be some new opportunities for some of us or different kinds of op opportunities, but, but bot the bottom line, A I S D is really a physically healthy organization. And what I truly believe in my heart, you know, we're gonna come out of this better, stronger, um, we just can't allow fear to be the driving force behind us. And instead, I, you know, I don't, I would encourage everybody to trust that process. Kevin. Um, we, you know, my, my fellow trustees, this board of eight, this team of eight that I'm on with, with the trustees, um, I, I have never seen a group of trustees as focused on how do you take care of staff?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Because our goal is to educate kids, but, but what they all know is, is how you impact those kids is great quality staff and supporting them. And so I just, you know, if, if you're one of those guys that says, yeah, well, I just can't trust, I, I I I I need a little bit of evidence, or I need a little bit of a reminder. I was thinking last night, you know, well, what is this? What has this team of eight done that says we believe in staff? And I just, I was reminded, um, you know, out of the last three years, professional staff has gotten a four, a three and a three and a half percent raise because we really believe in our hourly workers that those that, that, that cook for us, that clean for us, that support us, that build for us, you know, they've had a six four and a three point a half percent increase.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Um, because our board doesn't want teachers spending money out of their pocket. They've, they've implemented a, a teacher supply stipend. Um, and I think, you know, what got us here is this C O V I dilemma that we're in not a, not a not being insightful, not being able to predict and not being prepared for the future because we are prepared for it. But we walked into C O V I and I'm, and I was so proud of this district because everyone received a paycheck during Covid. Even our, some of our, our part-time employees, like our substitutes Yep. Were able to continue to, to get that, you know, our, our insurance, uh, you know, as so many people walked away from self-insured or, uh, plans, um, they walked into t r s and, and I'm telling you, our, our insurance plan, you know, when you don't have premiums, you can choose not to have premiums as an employee.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You, your maximum out of pocket is 3000. And when you look at some of those other plans out there, they're just, they're huge. And, and there's, you know, there's thou tens of thousands of potential dollars out of pocket with that. You know, I, I think about teacher reading academies, there's been a pretty good discussion in the state, at the state board about how difficult these are. And, and I'm so proud of what our board did, you know, and it was one of those things that instead of just saying, go do it on your own, let us pay you. And, and all of those things are, are, are wrapped up in what I, me being able to say, Hey, just trust the process. I promise it's going to be okay, and we're going to find our way through it. There may be some bumps, um, and there may be a few, few bruises along the way, but that doesn't mean somebody's gonna lose their job. Somebody's gonna be laid off. And somehow A I S D isn't in physically in really good health, we are in really, really good health. The problem is we've just lost 1500 students due to a pandemic.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
So, Mr. Loomis, um, we, right now, we, we've had this conversation, we've studied the data, we've sent this back to our principals to talk with their teams about how to make these adjustments. And so let, let's talk about if we were to ever get to the point where we had a, a catastrophic situation where people were gonna be laid off versus how we've approached this so far. How, how would people know about that? How would that be different than what we're doing right now?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah. Thanks, Kevin. That's, that's a great question. If we ever find ourselves in a catastrophic, catastrophic event, whether it's financial or something else, you'll hear that immediately from the top down. Uh, we will communicate that, communicate that clearly and loudly so everybody understands from day one exactly where we
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Are. So really the bottom line as we kinda wrap up, um, this is gonna be okay. We will figure out how to make these adjustments. Um, we want staff to rest easy. Um, when it comes to this challenge, trust the process. We, we definitely are, are gonna need to tighten our belts, so to speak. But if you're a staff member who's with us here in A I S D, what we really want you to know as you, as you make your way into the Easter weekend, um, is that if, if you plan on being with us next year, if you're not relocating, retiring, leaving a I S D, um, what we want you to know is that we need you now and we're gonna need you next school year. That's the bottom line. Um, here's the best news of today. We won't need you tomorrow. So, um, again, uh, long weekend, we hope everybody gets some rest. We appreciate what each of you do each day at school. Um, we appreciate you taking the time to listen. Um, and we'll see you back Monday morning, rested and rejuvenated and ready to go. So thank you for all you do and, uh, we appreciate you.