Nampa’s school board met in a special session Wednesday night to continue work on fixing the district’s $4.5 million budget shortfall. The board decided to continue efforts to borrow money. It also agreed to move toward a spring levy but stopped short of committing to the idea.
That’s in part because they want to see how successful the loan effort is. The district has a month to meet the deadline to put a levy on the March ballot.
Nampa Education Association President Mandy Simpson says the board should have made the decision to ask voters for more money. She says the community is ready to help the district in its crisis.
Simpson also says teachers want to be part of the solution but many feel they are being cut out of the process. She says at Wednesday's meeting the board set aside too little time for public testimony which made teachers feel they’re opinions were not important.
Also at the meeting district lawyers defended their plan to ask teachers to take voluntary furloughs. Teachers who volunteer were asked to sign a document to make the furloughs part of their contract. The Idaho Education Association says that is illegal because all contracts must be negotiated. The district says those laws do not apply to amending contracts.
A district spokesperson says more than half of Nampa's teachers have volunteered to take furlough days to help the district save money. More than half who volunteered agreed to take four unpaid days, the maximum available. However, the teacher’s union claims many teachers were pressured to volunteer.
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