ELYRIA – In an attempt to keep a deficit at bay, the Elyria school district has cut 163 employees from its payroll since 2004. But the payroll has actually increased slightly – reaching more than $45 million.

District Treasurer Fred Stephens said he understands that many residents can’t understand why the district has fewer employees but is spending more money. However, he said that had the district not cut those employees through retirements and layoffs, expenses for 2009 would have easily topped $52 million.

“Really, we avoided a giant catastrophe by doing these reductions,” he said.

Stephens said what happens when a school district makes cuts is the same thing that happens in most union shops: The lowest-paid people are cut. And, at least for school districts, those who remain continue to receive guaranteed raises known as annual step increases, which are akin to longevity pay, the annual pay boosts city workers receive.

“What ties our hands in bringing the number down lower is the fact that the average salary of employees is higher because when we do layoffs, we lose those lower-paid employees, the ones that are at the bottom of the pay schedule,” he said.

This year, the district’s finances are under the microscope as it prepares to ask voters in May to approve a new 4.99-mill levy to raise $4.4 million annually while at the same time making $3 million in cuts – including eliminating 57 more full-time positions – to head off a projected $29 million deficit in 2014.

The district is one of seven in Lorain County seeking money in May.

In Lorain, school officials hope to convince voters to approve a far larger levy – 8.97 mills – to balance the budget. School officials there are looking to drop nearly 150 employees this year and close Southview High School to help with the looming possibility of a takeover by the state. See a list of Lorain teacher salaries here.

Higher, but not highest

Although the average salary of Elyria teachers is going up, its teachers aren’t near the top of the pay scale compared with other districts in Lorain County.

In an apples-to-apples comparison of salary schedules for the county’s 14 school districts in 2009, provided to The Chronicle by Oberlin Schools Superintendent Geoff Andrews after a public records request, Elyria teachers ranked near the bottom of the pack with a starting salary of just $31,934.

Subtract the cost of health care – assuming enrollment in the district’s family health benefits – and that drops to $30,345 for a fresh-out-of-college teacher.

In 11 other districts in Lorain County, that same teacher could make more: $35,974 in Avon, $35,228 in Oberlin, $35,074 in Amherst and $35,004 in Avon Lake.

Elyria teachers also make less money than their counterparts in Lorain, a similar urban district. There, a first-year teacher’s salary is $33,796.

In Elyria, as with most school districts, young teachers will see their pay climb anywhere from 1 to 4 percent each year. A complex pay chart in nearly every teachers union contract spells out increases.

“You have to look at all the steps and columns to understand why we are paying teachers more and more every year,” said Gary Taylor, Elyria’s director of human resources. “That is what contributes to this almost exclusively.”

Taylor said the pay schedule rewards teachers for longevity and professional development, and allows teachers who work similar jobs to make different wages.

For example, a teacher who is in the eighth column, 35th step of the salary chart may make $71,820, while a teacher in the next classroom could make only $35,055 because he or she is in the first column, second step.

The maximum salary teachers in Elyria can receive is $72,902, which requires them to have earned a doctorate degree in education, Taylor said.

Elyria Education Association President Sarida Volante did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

More qualified, more expensive

Roughly 10 years ago, the state mandated additional education requirements for new graduates.

For school districts, that means that each time teachers complete a mandated milestone, they get more money.

“Teachers are required to get a master’s degree after 12 years and have to commit to ongoing professional development, and those are mandates that come down from the state,” Taylor said. “With that professional development, the district has an obligation to pay teachers for that work.”

Elyria Schools Superintendent Paul Rigda said that 427 of the district’s 555 teachers have or are working toward a master’s degree.

“There was a time, right or wrong, when teachers got a bachelor’s degree and that’s it,” Rigda said. “They could do their entire career with that one degree and a certain number of continuing education courses. But with the change of the law, that kind of thinking was blown out of the water.

“Now every increment of additional schooling costs the district. It’s like a never-ending cycle of teachers getting more schooling and the district having to pay them more.”

Such salaries weren’t always the norm.

Retired Elyria music teacher Joan VanWormer remembers a starting salary of just $3,200 when she began her career in 1955 after graduating from Oberlin College.

Pay improved in the early 1970s, she said, right around the time local teachers unions began mobilizing for fair pay by going on strike.

“The bottom line is teachers need to be fairly paid,” VanWormer said. “I know Ohio has to do something about funding the education system, but teachers still must make a better wage.”

Never-ending levy cycle

Since 2004 – the last time taxpayers voted to give the district additional money – school officials have closed four elementary buildings and shed 163 employees.

Early retirement incentives also brought down the bottom line.

All of the reductions since the 2003-04 school year have amounted to more than $21.4 million in savings and left the district with 923 employees.

However, none of the cuts has completely eliminated the district’s need for additional funding. Instead, school officials said they have merely beaten back the beast of financial deficit for two years.

“You can’t cut your way out of these funding cycles because your local revenue is not allowed to grow unless you pass a new levy,” Rigda said. “When you wait five years before asking for new money, which is what we did because we wanted to show voters that we are financially responsible, you get to the point where you start affecting programming. When there is no growth and enrollment starts to decline, you find yourself losing ground.”

The district’s loss in financial ground is no longer just resulting in students shifting schools or classrooms as buildings close.

Proposed changes set to take effect at the beginning of next school year mean major changes for some students.

Kindergarten through third-grade teachers will incorporate music and art into their days as specialty teachers are eliminated.

Fourth- and fifth-grade students will lose the option to play an instrument. Middle school teachers will teach a fifth class, instead of only four with time for a team planning period.

Parents and teachers are not happy with the proposed cuts, and they shouldn’t be, Rigda said.

“I don’t think they should like this plan,” he said. “What is there to like? If we can do

$3 million in cuts and no one feels it, then shame on us because we were not operating lean to begin with. But if this levy goes down, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come. This $3 million will be akin to the trailer to a really bad movie.”

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

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