Hernando Schools May Lose Additional $3.1 Million

BROOKSVILLE - As the Hernando County School Board prepares to discuss an already lean budget at Tuesday's 1 p.m. workshop, an ominous state tax shortage may prompt discussion of further cuts.
State budget cut projections may cause the district to lose an additional $3.1 million, with figures slated to become clear after July 19, finance director Deborah Bruggink said.
Last week, Gov. Charlie Crist told all state agencies to slash an additional 4 percent from their budgets. Traditionally, state requests to cut budgets have been followed by requests to school districts to cut approximately half of that, meaning that Hernando schools may be asked to cut an additional 2 percent from their budget.
This is in addition to a $2 million revenue shortfall that has caused major revamping of the budget's expenses.
"We didn't know the state was going to predict another revenue shortfall this early on," Bruggink said Monday. "The movement is going to be downward, and how we plan on spending money is going to be the tone of (Tuesday's) meeting."
If the district loses more money, it would be forced to cut 54 teaching positions and 28 instructional aids - but no one would be losing their jobs, officials said.
"We've had to do some reshuffling and shifting of positions, but we already (completed) all of that before school got out," Hernando Classroom Teachers Association president Joe Vitalo said.
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. Approximately 13 teachers with tenure are being switched to open positions at other schools.
The latest staffing changes are expected to save the district approximately $2.14 million.
Other tentative cost-saving measures include eliminating a vacant planner position - at a saving of more than $74,000 - as well as the district's middle school sports programs, which would save the district approximately $267,127.
"Right now they're in (the budget), but those are some things we could look at for additional discussion," Bruggink said. "We'll see how it plays out with what the governor says he's going to do for education."
The projected cost of giving every teacher their traditional "step" raise in the district's salary scale would come out to slightly over $1.1 million, including benefits, Vitalo said.
But this year's raises might be difficult to afford, Bruggink said.
"They may not happen, or they may not be retroactive or be paid (in the form of) one-time cash bonuses," she said. "I think a lot of districts are in the same boat, with trying to preserve staff, and it may be a tradeoff."