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Liberty board approves 2% raise, orders review of $3.5M+ in stipends as budget gap looms
Summary
The Liberty Elementary District governing board on March 30 approved a 2% pay increase for all staff and directed administration to return with detailed reductions and a review of district stipends after administrators said the M budget must be reduced roughly $157,000 and identified millions in stipend spending.
The Liberty Elementary District governing board on Monday approved a 2% across-the-board pay increase for staff and asked district leaders to return with specific budget reductions and a prioritized plan to replace one-time funds.
Board members said they wanted to preserve classroom funding while also finding recurring savings. "When all of that is said and done, the M budget reduction will be approximately $157,000," Becky Williams, the district's executive director of business services, told the board as she reviewed updated March projections and carryforward numbers.
Administrators flagged a large stipend pool and a set of one-time grants as places to look for savings. "The stipend list equates to about almost $3.5 million," one board member said during the meeting, and administration later cited a stipend universe in the low millions when presenting potential reduction scenarios. Officials also noted that a short-term "project momentum" grant that funded several lead stipends — about $162,000 over the last 18 months — will end Sept. 30.
The board voted 4–0 to approve a 2% increase, with the teacher portion proposed to be paid from the classroom site fund and classified/administrative increases budgeted from M. Board members and staff agreed that using the classroom site fund for raises is a commonly used option but cautioned about sustainability if the district must later incorporate the raises into its general fund.
Directives to administration included: a line-by-line analysis of reductions to reach the stated target and beyond, a rebid or review of large contracted services (administration highlighted a Sierra Schools special-education contract of more than $1.5 million), and a deep review of the stipend schedules with recommendations for grandfathering, elimination, or conversion into salary where appropriate.
Board members said they wanted options that avoided cutting classroom teachers where possible and asked staff to return at the April meeting with a modeled set of reductions and an updated staffing/cost spreadsheet that recalculates the impact of potential actions. "We need to find a way to give our staff a raise," a board member said, while also urging the board to identify sustainable offsets rather than one-time fixes.
The board's action was part of a larger work-study that examined staffing, enrollment projections and program costs. Administration said it would present proposed reductions and stipend recommendations at the next regular meeting so the board could make budget direction before the June 15 proposed-budget deadline.
What happens next: Administration will return with a prioritized list of concrete reductions, options for stipend changes (including a potential grandfathering approach), and contract-rebidding analysis for major service agreements.
