Area school districts exploring options in budget battles

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN CYNTHIA MARTENS
As school districts in the area battle a budget shortfall for the 2003-04 school year, they are faced with decisions that will ultimately affect the lives of individual students, administrators, teachers and staff.

The situation for many was perhaps summed up best by Superintendent Demitry Evancho of Centre Unified School District 397.

“We’re capped on the general fund, we’re capped on the local option budget, and our costs are going up,” Evancho said.

“With many of the faculty, I feel a strong united effort to do whatever it takes to make this work and meet the needs of these students.”

Goessel USD 411

In preparation for future budget constraints, Goessel USD 411 Superintendent Chet Roberts said the school has cut one position for the next school year-the principal at the junior/senior high school.

The grade-school principal, John Fast, will be assigned to handle kindergarten through eighth grade. And in addition to superintendent duties, Roberts will take on principal duties for grades nine through 12.

Roberts said his main concern was student enrollment, which will be down again next year by about 10 full-time equivalent students.

This cuts into a strained budget because, similar to other area schools, USD 411 receives $3,863 per student from the state and some of those FTEs are weighted.

“But we’re in a little bit of a unique situation,” Roberts said when asked if he is faced with cutting the 2003-04 budget and staff.

“We have a charter school going for another year, and we’re getting money from that. So I probably won’t need to cut any more personnel for next year.”

And future positions could be lost through the attrition of teachers or staff members retiring or leaving the district.

“We may already have the cuts in hand,” Roberts said.

“It could work itself out. And then we’ll be looking at everything next year. I thought Hillsboro had an excellent template for revenue enhancers and budget cuts, and we’re going to be using somewhat of their template.”

Marion/Florence USD 408

USD 408 Superintendent Gerald Henderson said the situation in the Marion/Florence area is “exactly the same” as that faced by Hillsboro.

“We are all doing with $27-base state aid per pupil. And we’re looking to cut in the neighborhood of $200,000 for next year’s budget, based on declining enrollment and the projected shortfall in the BSAPP.”

Henderson said the district has 50 students less in the elementary school compared to five years ago. And looking ahead, he said next year’s senior class will have about 60 students, and kindergarten enrollment is projected at 40.

“We have fewer students, so we need fewer teachers,” Henderson said. “We started two years ago and reduced staff then, and we just need to do it again.

“With roughly 80 percent of our budget in people-to make those substantial cuts-our only choice is to reduce the number of staff we have. Our first hope is that we can make those reductions by attrition.”

Henderson said for the past two years, his board has been involved in nearly monthly discussions looking at revenue enhancers.

“But most of those have to do with charging children or families for the services they receive in schools, and we’re just not in favor of that,” he said.

Another way to raise money is through the local option budget.

“Our board is very hesitant to do that under today’s economic conditions,” he said. “It takes people to pay those property taxes, and that’s tough now.”

Henderson said one means of reducing spending would be to delay scheduled replacements of school busses and put off purchasing technology equipment.

And that’s simply because the money isn’t there to cover those expenses, he said.

“Will the children have the best opportunities using the most up-to-date equipment and under the best conditions?” Henderson said.

“No. But I don’t think people will notice that much difference because our teachers, principals, support staff and I will make sure that children are the last to suffer in their educational opportunities.”

Canton/Galva USD 419

Canton/Galva USD 419 Superintendent Bill Seidl said: “We haven’t put any figures together as such, because the legislature hasn’t actually come out and said this is what we’re going to do.

“If they’re going to leave education harmless-where it currently stands-then I think there are going to be some items we’ll have to look at.”

Completing his first year as superintendent in the district, Seidl said his predecessor used “very good” fiscal management.

A combination of good fiscal management and higher enrollment figures in previous years has benefitted the district.

“And even this year, with our enrollment down just a little bit, our weighted enrollment was actually a little higher,” Seidl said.

“It appears that our enrollment will be steady, if not up just a little next year. For example, our kindergarten this year was 20, but next year we’re looking for over 40.”

The district LOB is “quite a bit below the state average,” Seidl said.

“So we have some room to grow within our budget. By raising our LOB, we could offset some of the expenses, if we choose to do that.”

Seidl did express caution about future district expenditures.

“Where this would affect us even more would be down the line a little bit with repairs and replacing equipment,” he said.

But in spite of the future possibilities, he remained optimistic.

“If we work hard, if we can build a quality education-something people want-then we’re going to find a way to get the kids here.”

Peabody/Burns USD 398

In Peabody/Burns USD 398, the board of education and the administrative team are working to determine the cuts needed for next year.

“I would say we’re probably going to have to cut a minimum of $150,000 to $160,000,” said Superintendent Tom Ahlstrom.

“Currently, we projected our enrollment to go down again this year. We’ll be bringing in a smaller elementary class than the seniors we’re graduating, so the trend is continuing downward.”

Ahlstrom said they are primarily trying to make up the deficit through reduction in spending.

“There will be a tax increase simply to maintain our LOB level,” Ahlstrom said.

“And that’s because we chose to lower our taxes significantly last year with the closing of the school and some other things.

“Now, we’ll have to recoup some of that just to maintain. But most of the finances we’re trying to recoup are reduction in spending.”

Possible ways to trim spending might include cuts in such areas as staff, technology and building maintenance, Ahlstrom said.

“In going through this process, I think we are getting to a point now of looking at where to cut and where to nickel and dime and make some savings,” Ahlstrom said.

But, there will be a time when these cuts will directly affect the quality of education.

“I can see some serious considerations in the near future with extra-curricular activities” he said.

“And those are a privilege. We know they directly affect how kids behave and participate in school.”

Centre USD 397

The situation in Centre USD 397 has been a work in progress, Evancho said.

“We started in previous years, because we have been in a declining-enrollment phase for at least the past four years.

“The best scenario would be we would have to find $110,000 of new money to support a similar program that we have this year. And the worst-case scenario would be $170,000.”

Next year’s FTE projection is down by about 8.5 at Centre.

Of the $110,000 budget cut, $70,000 is attributed to declining enrollment.

“We had a 50-percent increase in health-care insurance proposed to us,” Evancho said.

“But, to get to that (final total of) $110,000, we looked at health insurance, casualty-liability insurance, fuel, utilities, a loss of a federal grant and some natural costs that will be incurred.”

Evancho said the district does have about $84,000 in a contingency reserve that might be used toward the increased casualty-liability insurance.

Deciding which strategies to deal with these budget cuts, Evancho said he expects to get input from the board, site council and staff.

“So we’ll probably do some kind of information gathering on priorities and importance from all of the above,” he said.

When asked if the solution to the budget shortfall is to raise money or reduce spending, Evancho said he anticipates a combination of both strategies.

“We’re capped at 20 mils for general fund,” he said. “We have a full 25-percent LOB authority, but we have used 15.2 percent of our LOB. So that means we have 9.8 percent of our LOB authority left.”

That remaining figure is calculated at about $220,000.

“Now, when you start putting these figures together -$110,000 at the best scenario and $170,000 at the worst scenario-you could see that we are starting to converge and maximize out our available resources. So I’m going to have to ask the board to look at that and guide me.”

Possible revenue enhancers could also include textbook and participation fees, Evancho said.

To reduce spending, he said the district might look at the following options:

Assessing or eliminating late-route transportation.

Reducing the number of inter-scholastic junior-high activities from two nights a week to one night.

Increasing building-use fees.

Taking advantage of a calculated 1.25 natural attrition in staff.

Reducing the heating and cooling temperatures in the buildings.

Cutting back on the number of copies made at the copy machines.

Reducing cafeteria-food portions while maintaining quality and staying within state recommended guidelines.

“We’re trying to maintain a viable program with declining enrollment and declining resources,” Evancho said.

“But we’re trying to remain optimistic.”

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