As we navigate the budget waters, one thing that is NOT being discussed is pending changes to the state's SAGE (Student Achievement Guarantee in Education) program. As budgets have become tight, the SAGE program has come under fire in districts across the state and even here in Sunny Prairie.The SAGE programs requires that districts maintain a student:teacher ratio of 15:1 in grades K through 3, in each school designated as "SAGE". In Sun Prairie, both Bird and Westside elementary are SAGE schools. You might also recall the hubbub surrounding the last boundary change, as both Bird and Westside were caught in the crossfire.
The good thing about SAGE is that we get additional state aid for every child eligible for free/reduced lunch at SAGE schools.
The not-so-good things is that lower student:teacher ratio can tend to cost us more money than we receive in return from the state.
What would SAGE Changes Mean in Sun Prairie?
As one would guess...if you increase the class size, eventually it comes to a point where, at most grade levels, less teachers would be needed. Think about it...if class sizes are limited to 15 kids (as with SAGE) and a sudden budget decision calls for class size maximums to now be 30 kids, you could potentially cut 50% of teaching positions.
Reducing teaching positions is not a happy thought...especially for those whose jobs would be on the chopping block. The grim reality, however, is that these are still tough times, and tough times call for tough measures.
How many positions would be at risk? Our guess is that about 4 positions would/could be cut as a result of SAGE changes. If one "does the math", we have 135 1st graders at Bird and Westside this year, resulting in 135 kids and 9 positions. At 18 kids per classroom (instead of 15), we would only need 7.5 teachers. Of course, we round up because we only hire whole teachers. So in 1st grade alone, we'd create one position reduction.
If you do that for all 4 SAGE grades, it would seem that we could "cut" 4 teaching positions at a net budget savings of about $200,000. While it is difficult to make these tough decisions, we don't feel the change from 15 to 18 kids per SAGE classroom would result in a decline in the quality of education being delivered. And realistically, there has been talk, on a number of occasions, of eliminating SAGE because the SAGE program DOES cost us more than it yields in aid.
So, it all boils down to a $200,000 reduction in the budget, which translates to lower property taxes. And--since these cuts would go towards the 800 lb. gorilla, i.e., personnel costs, we would be making a permanent cut to the budget instead of the one year fixes adopted last year.
Worth playing for?
Now we just need to trim administration.
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