RAYVILLE, La. (AP) - Richland Parish School Board members have cut $1.8 million from the district's $20 million 2012-13 general fund budget.
The News-Star reports the board approved recommendations from the finance committee with a vote of 5-3 Wednesday night.
Board members approved 16 cuts that include consolidating bus routes, cutting teacher supply money, eliminating vacant positions and suspending sabbatical and extended sick leave along with suspending textbook purchases.
Business manager Regina Mekus told board members that the last cuts to be considered by the finance committee were the teaching positions that will be eliminated.
Under the plan, the district will lose about 13 teaching positions; one at each of 11 schools plus two teacher positions which were added to last year's budget to decrease class size at two of the district's lower performing schools.
Fewer teachers will mean larger classes in some schools, increasing the pupil teacher ratio closer to the state's requirement, rather than the smaller numbers the district has had over the past few years.
"It was nice when we could do that because the money from the state was more plentiful," personnel director Harold Gallman said. "This year that luxury has gone away."
Mekus laid the blame for the cuts firmly at the door of the state and its new Minimum Foundation Program allocation for the state's charter schools, the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches, and expenses for educating students in the state's legal system.
"I don't really feel like they can take the local tax dollars, which they have not, but they have taken a portion of the MFP equal to our local effort portion," she explained.
The district will now begin to prepare a balanced budget, which will be presented to the board for approval in September.
"Over the past 10 years we've been cut and we've recovered," Mekus said. "While this is a large blow, I feel like we will recover and be stronger."