A huge financial break for the Davenport School District - it will not have to cut 12 million dollars more from its budget, thanks to a decision Tuesday by the Iowa School Budget Review Committee.
Superintendent Robert Kobylski says the possible budget reduction stemmed from several years when the district spent more than allowed by the state. And the district had already had to cut 137 teachers this year because of that overspending.
"Imagine taking the 137 teachers we reduced last year and having an additional 150 less teachers going into the next school year, what effect that would have. The comment that I used at the SBRC is that we would have a school building but it would be a hollow building."
And the impact of this year's staff reduction, plus 150 more next year, would have resulted in more students in every class.
"If you're a teacher and you have 24 or 25 students in your class, and now you have 34 or 35 students in your class, that doesn't allow you the opportunity to have that individualized instruction that you would normally have, or have the opportunity to have in your classroom."
The overspending, under the direction of the previous superintendent and school board, was an attempt by them to make up for the fact that Iowa's decades old school aid formula requires Davenport and many other districts to spend much less per student than other districts in the state.
