Budget updates

I went to the School Board/Budget Committee study session yesterday afternoon and things don’t look quite as grim. Take that with a grain of salt because it’s still going to be a tough year, relatively speaking. Some additional cuts were presented along with shifting funds and a commitment to use at least 10% of the reserve fund. But a lot depends on negotiations with staff over possible furlough days (a prospect which parents are sure to weigh in on) and/or other layoffs and/or pay cuts.

One of the bigger things to come out of it was the prospect for at least some Class Size Reduction to return but the School Board still needs to prioritize a list of “Add Backs” using parent fundraising money at the June 30th meeting (full list down at the bottom.)

The numbers – notably the deficit - in my post below on the overall budget have changed slightly and some recommendations have been made to bridge the gap. The “barebones” budget fact sheet presented by Dr. Newlin to the group at yesterday’s meeting listed the deficit as $670,000.00. That would include a budget assuming class size at 30 to 1, would include Technology support, library programs (2 librarians at ¾ time in both schools) and Step and Column Increases.

With several proposed cuts and some changing/ shifting of funding sources, the deficit falls to around $303k.

The proposed additional cuts would be an Operational Worker (janitors), District Office Clerical Reduction, Accounting/ Food Service, Conferences, and Board Salaries. Those functions won’t go away, someone will still have to do them, but what they’re looking at is combining them. It should be noted that salaries for the five school board members would be eliminated entirely, which will be a savings in the amount of $8,000.00 over the year.

There was also a cut (50% reduction) to expenses related to staff and Board members attending conferences.

Of course $300k is still a sizable chunk of money to find, but things aren’t over. Notably the District is set to negotiate with the staff. In those talks, furlough days as well as additional salary cuts (which could mean positions or pay reduction) will be brought up. Also, the recommendation was made by the Board to use 10% of the $1.3 million dollar reserve fund to help bridge the gap.

Other items discussed included attempts to find savings in Special Education expenses, (UPDATE: which was brought up by a parent, not the school board) (Special Ed is a complex enough issue that it might require its own post later on), the public perception of exactly where there is money available to be cut and the efforts teachers are making to cut costs by bringing in their own supplies and making their own copies. Board members were concerned that some parents believe there is a significant amount of fat that can be trimmed when it is not the case. Energy costs was an example. Although the District is working on ways to reduce these, the total costs for energy are not in and of themselves significant enough to make a very large impact on this budget. Lottery Revenue was another issue where parents seem to believe large amounts of money exist, but last year the District only received about $144K in Lottery money.

All parties do seem hopeful and everyone seems to understand that what we’re all dealing with a problem that’s being passed along from Sacramento.

I’ll keep you posted.

List of Add Backs
(these are programs that could be added back into the budget using parent fundraising money along with the cost of adding them back.)

Kindergarten Class Size Reduction $72K
1st Grade CSR $72K
2nd Grade CSR $72K
3rd Grade CSR $72K
Elementary PE $84K
3-5 Science Lab $98K
Middle School Electives $150k
Art, Tech, Spanish, other
Counselor/ Admin Support $90K
Elementary Music $90K

Total add backs $800K
Amount Available for add backs $558,529.00
Unfunded Amount $241,471.00

(some of the EEC money is already spoken for in the budget for Library Technicians and Technology Support and the total amount is still in flux as my understanding is there are still donations coming in)