Facing $3.5 million in budget cuts, Davenport's superintendent says he is ready to break the law to keep teachers on the payroll.
Dr. Art Tate made the announcement at the school board meeting on March 9, 2015.
The state funding formula in Iowa authorizes how much each district can spend. State law prohibits districts from spending more than they are authorized, even if they have reserve money in the bank. In Davenport's case, they have $29 million in reserves the State of Iowa has not authorized them to spend, but Tate says he is going to spend some of it anyway.
"The State is a state that uses a funding formula where they tell you the maximum that you can spend and it's usually a per pupil expenditure and you can't spend anymore than that even though you have a lot of money in the bank," said Tate.
Tate says because of how the funding formula is set up, Davenport receives $175 less per student than other districts like Pleasant Valley and Bettendorf, adding up to $3.2 million each year.
"I'm hoping that either by legislation, they'll realize they can't continue to so and we should get our right amount per student ," said Tate.
There will be $1,405,000 in cuts including early retirement, utility savings through an energy conservation program, moving maintenance contracts from general fund to management fund, and curtailment of professional development during the day.
"I will be making no other reductions to programs and personnel, and most notably, I will not be increasing class size in order to reduce teacher positions," said Tate.
Tate also plans to use $1 million for new programs to help with the drop out rate and out-of-school suspension numbers.
By spending money not authorized by the State, Tate could potentially lose his job or be charged with a misdemeanor.
"It's a misdemeanor if you spend more than they authorize you in the State. I want to emphasize, I'm not spending more money than we have in the bank, I'm spending more money than the State has authorized using a discriminatory formula," said Dr. Tate.
Tate says he plans to spend $5 million over the next two years.