A look at the staffing numbers and budget comparison at LTUSD
Submitted by paula on Sat, 03/23/2024 - 2:59pm
Enrollment: 3906
Certificated employees' salaries: $19,314,954
Classified employees' salaries: $6,510,516
Benefits: $9,062,280
Total expenditures: $40,434,332
District Management Staff, Full Time Equivalent (Ed Center, Maintenance & Facilities/Transportation, Special Education, IT): 41 FTE
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - With potential layoffs pending for eight teachers and two high school administrators in Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD), speculation has been circulating that the District is too "top heavy."
For a comparison, we have looked at the budgets for the 2017-18, 2020-21, and 2023-24 school years. For the same years, we also looked at the number of staff at the District level and school enrollment.
LTUSD budget
Enrollment: 3906
Certificated employees' salaries: $19,314,954
Classified employees' salaries: $6,510,516
Benefits: $9,062,280
Total expenditures: $40,434,332
District Management Staff, Full Time Equivalent (Ed Center, Maintenance & Facilities/Transportation, Special Education, IT): 41 FTE
School year: 2020-21
Enrollment: 3,725
Certificated employees' salaries: $20,555,110
Classified employees' salaries: $6,751,810
Benefits: $9,935,832
Total expenditures: $43,137,546
District Management Staff, Full Time Equivalent (Ed Center, Maintenance & Facilities/Transportation, Student Services/Special Education, IT): 39.5 FTE
School year: 2023-24
Enrollment: 3,604
Certificated employees' salaries: $26,369,827
Classified employees' salaries: $9,537,618
Benefits: $16,302,556
Total expenditures: $64,177,325
District Management Staff, Full Time Equivalent (Ed Center, Maintenance & Facilities/Transportation, Student Services/Special Education, IT): 39.5 FTE
For the current school year, there are titles of district office staff that are new when compared to the two other school years listed above. There is now an Assoc. Superintendent - Education Services instead of Director of Secondary Education; a Director, Human Resources; and half-time Director, Multilingual Learner Equity instead of EL Coordinator (their other half-time of their day is leading the Family Resource Center).
LTSUD Superintendent Dr. Todd Cutler, who started with the District in 2020, said there have been some consolidated positions this school year and they are not currently filling the Director of Finance position, and the Curriculum/Ed Tech Coordinator position has been eliminated.
The District is working on not letting go any teachers, said Cutler, but they had to give notice by law of any potential layoffs in the next school year.
Some funding for the District comes from average daily attendance. LTUSD is seeing attendance numbers drop, and will be concentrating on increased attendance, the consolidation of programs, increased grant writing, and other solutions to prevent layoffs. Even though LTUSD has historically seen lower attendance than the average district, it has been lower than normal in recent years. Last year they had a 90 percent attendance rate but this year it is up to 93 percent. Many districts aim for 97 percent as LTUSD hovers around 94-96 percent.
South Tahoe Now will continue to follow the situation at LTUSD as many parents and faculty have conveyed their concerns and dismay at the possible layoffs.