School district cuts consultant budget

Funding is drying up for hiring consultants in the school district, and it's occurring just as school board members are calling for a review to determine whether they're a necessary expense.

This upcoming school year's budget for consultants has decreased 60.2 percent from last year - from $739,542 in 2009-10 to $294,109 this school year.

The amount is the lowest since 2005-06, when the district budgeted $878,338.

Superintendent Bryan Blavatt said consultants are hired to train teachers on changing education practices along with technology and textbook updates and are primarily funded through federal and state grants.

During budget discussions this summer, school board members called for a review of consultants to determine if they were necessary and whether they could be better utilized by becoming classroom teachers.

However, Blavatt said the decrease in consultant funding is based on a reduction in government funding - resulting in many local consultants absorbing open teaching jobs.

"Those employees know their employment is subject to the funding we receive for those positions - but we do try to find them compatible positions as jobs open up," Blavatt said. "So far we've been very fortunate that we haven't had to let anyone go. That's also why nowadays it's very smart for everyone to have more than one qualification so that, as there are cuts in one area, there are still options for that person to be hired in another."

For the most part, Blavatt said consultants are very useful in the district, particularly to assist teachers to navigate changing curriculums while helping them change their tactics to better teach students so they in turn can perform better in class and on state assessments.

However, Joe Vitalo, president of the Hernando County Teachers Association, said determining how many consultants are in the district is difficult - as some are paid for through different funding sources.

He said others also take days off from teaching in nearby counties - for additional pay - to come to Hernando County and perform coaching duties.

"This is a great money-making market for consultants and those who sell textbooks and technology," Vitalo said. "I'm not going to say all of it is unnecessary, but there's a mixed bag of that."

While the consultants pass on valuable data on instruction, Vitalo said in some cases the coaches don't pass on that knowledge so that current employees can also pass it down.

In those cases, he said that leads to the district spending additional money for consultants when they aren't necessary.

He said consultants are supposed to train teachers, who in turn train others, which is how schools save money.

And when those instructional coaches are absorbed as teachers, Vitalo said it's difficult to utilize them as coaches because their time is then taken up in the classroom.

When asked if they could perform training duties after school, he said only if the district was willing to pay them for working beyond the school day.

Vitalo said another problem is that too often curriculums are recycled and district officials hire consultants without realizing it is material that has already been used.

"There's a saying in education that if you stick around long enough, you see the same program recycled in different ways," Vitalo said. "We need to do a better job of filtering those out."

Meanwhile, Blavatt said district officials plan to do just that even in the wake of more cuts in the near future.

"We'll be working with staff to do better with that training," Blavatt said. "Obviously, as with a lot of things, we have to make sacrifices, but there is also a value with having these consultants there, so we'll have to look at that too."