Budgets may be tight for schools

Officials plan for possible issues

By AMBER DILLEY

With the 2009-2010 school year looming, local school districts are looking ahead to next year’s budget and trying to think of ways they can cut and save.

One of those districts’ board of education, Barren County, met for the second time Monday night to discuss their budget and ways it could be tightened.

During the last meeting on the budget, the board discussed possible areas they could cut, places that they couldn’t mess with and decided to come back with more figures and a list of items on the budget that they spend money on.

“This is the second in a series of meetings we’re using to adjust the budget and discuss things that we need to consider to provide us more leeway in terms of the contingency and for other items,” said Barren County Superintendent Jerry Ralston. “Every time we meet it seems the economy gets a little worse, providing an even better reason to meet. At some point, we need to make initial recommendations.”

During the meeting, director of finance, Sarah Vincent, went through the list of expenditures for the board, which includes student accident insurance, stipends, textbooks, funds for smaller clubs, personnel, the kindergarten and preschool classes and transportation.

“We were advised a few weeks ago that we need to be prepared for an 18 month to three year downturn and that we should be prioritizing cuts that might be possible for us,” Vincent said. “We have to be careful to not cut things that effect our state funding, like the per-pupil (ratio) or things that effect special education.”

Vincent also said the state has recommended that schools find ways to become more energy efficient.

“Some things we’re already doing like turning off the lights when that area’s not in use, also recommended was having the hall lights off when we have enough natural light coming through,” she said. “During these long holiday breaks coming up, we can turn off the entire buildings and save that way.”

At the end of the meeting, the board decided they would prioritize this new list of items and take off some items that they think they can’t cut from at all.

“We have a lot of homework to do and a lot of scenarios to consider,” Ralston said.

Other districts may not be meeting specifically to discuss next year’s budget, but it’s in the back of every board member’s mind.

Glasgow Independent Schools Superintendent Kathy Goff said that she’s proud the district had received a clean audit, but the board will continue to be on its guard regarding its budget.

“We are sound financially, but that’s not to say that the state won’t cut some funding and we won’t have to go back and look at other things,” Goff said. “Back a few months ago, we were very concerned about fuel costs but that’s gone down for now. It’s just something that all school districts have to keep a close watch on.”

State funding and transportation are not just issues for larger school districts.

“We began this year with a fairly healthy balance, which is in our favor, but you will see not only our board, but others being much more conservative,” said Caverna Independent Schools Superintendent Sam Dick. “The SEEK (Support Education Excellence in Kentucky) forecast is what’s going to really impact us. As that goes down, that’s less the schools have to operate with and it’s going to play a very big role in our ability to reach proficiency by 2014.”

The SEEK money is a formula-driven allocation of state-provided funds to local school districts. Any cuts to the money from the state would have a significant impact on area school districts.

Recently, Gov. Steve Beshear has asked for a possible four percent cut to the state’s public universities and community and technical colleges. The cut would total about $41 million. There was no suggestion of cuts in SEEK money, which escaped a round of cuts during the 2008 General Assembly.

Dick said the state’s decisions, the economy and its effect on school districts isn’t something anyone can predict.

“I don’t know how it’s going to play out,” he said. “It’s a scary time, not just in education, but for everyone. The economy is in bad shape and it’s not going to rebound overnight. We have to be really careful about how we spend our money now.”