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Hernando Today

School Officials Grapple With Funding Cuts

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By LINNEA BROWN

Published: June 26, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - A day after receiving official notification from the state warning of an anticipated $3.3 million revenue cut for local schools, the district's leaders aren't happy.

"We continue to work on this, but we are all in the state of Florida wondering where the bottom is," Hernando schools Superintendent Wayne Alexander said. "At some point, it has to bottom out."

On Monday, Hernando County School District officials received a letter from Florida's education commissioner warning districts that they should have contingencies in place to deal with an expected additional 2 percent reduction in revenue from the state.

Locally, that translates to an estimated $3.3 million that the district will likely have to slice from its 2008-09 budget or the district's "rainy day fund," officials said.

"I'm not surprised that the economy is in the tank, and (state leaders) definitely did not hold education harmless, as they should have," school board member John Sweeney said. "We're going to do the best we can, but it's time the state gets its act together."

This is in addition to a $2 million revenue shortfall that has caused major revamping of the budget's expenses.

However, while news of the additional cuts is now a reality, it came as no surprise, Alexander said.

"We've known this has been coming," he said. "But we'll continue to examine and review the budget as an ever-changing and fluid document, and continue to look at what we hold sacred, which is what occurs in the classroom."

Alexander said the board's ongoing budget discussions are part of the brainstorming process of making additional reductions.

"We may not be able to make improvements at the pace I wanted to, but we'll continue to move forward," he said, speaking of the dozens of vacant positions and programs that are already expected to be eliminated

Jim Malcolm, school board vice chairman, said he planned to spend Thursday poring over figures from the board's previous two budget workshops in the hopes of sorting out how much is already set to be cut, and how much more needs to go.

"I'm still trying to put the dollars and cents together," he said. "I don't want to say that everything has been taken care of by (previously discussed) cuts and it's wonderful. It isn't, and there are some serious problems going on here."

The 2008-09 Florida Education Finance Program projection of state and local revenue for the district is $155.2 million.

However, with the 2 percent reduction in funding -- plus new predictions that the district may not have 364 additional students as previously projected -- the district's FEFP revenue would be $151.9 million. With the state's fourth calculation added in, officials are looking at a $3.6 million reduction.

Because the district will start the 2008-09 school year with an unreserved fund balance of $3.9 million in its rainy-day fund, the reduction will likely draw from both the rainy day fund and the budget.

"We're going to have to think outside the box a lot," school board member Pat Fagan said. "And nothing is a sacred cow."

Sweeney said he wouldn't mind examining the idea of transferring money from the district's capital fund to its operating fund, and said he'd like to see the state open its "rainy-day fund" to local school districts.

However, he reiterated the importance of preserving technology funding and keeping local teachers' salaries competitive.

"I truly believe that the more you afford in (teachers' salaries), the better it makes our program," he said.

Fagan pointed toward his suggestion of delaying the construction of the new middle and high schools slated to be built north of Hexam Road off U.S. 19 and open in 2010.

"There's money there to build them, but is there going to be money there to run them?" he said. "We need to look at all of the issues out there that are going to impact us, that being one of them."

At last week's workshop, board members focused on three safety issues that they would like to see protected, or pulled from a list of potential cost savings measures: school resource officers, crossing guards and the district's YMCA swim program for local kindergarteners.

"Safety issues have to be paramount, as far as I'm concerned," board member Dianne Bonfield said.

She said she will be interested to see the recommendations that Alexander will bring to the next workshop, though Alexander declined to reveal any new ideas prematurely.

"We've just got to look a little deeper and see what else we can (cut)," he said.

As part of a belt-tightening plan already in place, the district aims to save $2.14 million by cutting 54 teaching positions and 28 instructional aids, though no one will lose their jobs.

The positions include teachers allocated for the district's new gifted education center being moved to general education teaching positions, and numerous vacant positions remaining unfilled. Thirteen teachers with tenure are being switched to open positions at other schools.

"In these tough financial times, people will have to wear many hats and take on additional responsibilities," Alexander said.

Additional areas for the board to begin evaluating would be additional staffing adjustments and reducing schools' discretionary dollars, utilities and all other budgeted expenses.

Eliminating the district's middle school sports program would save the district about $267,000, although board members have not discussed the issue yet.

"I don't have any solutions. I wish I did," school board Chairwoman Sandra Nicholson said. "The superintendent's just going to have to keep looking for more cuts, and I'm not sure where they're going to come from."

The next school board discussion about the budget will occur July 29, which is also the first public hearing.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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