More Teacher Cuts, School Transfers On Horizon

BROOKSVILLE - Faced with a $2 million shortfall in the Hernando County School District's operating fund, officials are looking to cut teaching positions next year - but they're not saying how many.

The cuts would not rely on layoffs, but instead would funnel teachers and staff between schools into open positions, and leave other positions unfilled.

Heather Martin, executive director of business services for the district, would not estimate a specific number of positions to be cut, and would say only that Superintendent Wayne Alexander is looking at saving "millions of dollars."

"There is no magic number of positions," she said. "We're looking at how we can do business and how we can do it with millions of dollars less."

Finance director Deborah Bruggink estimated that with salaries and benefits, eliminating one teaching position per school could save the district $1.1 million. Eliminating two per school would double that number.

While she stressed that discussions are still very preliminary, she confirmed that the cuts will probably affect at least one position per school.

"We're in the same boat with other districts," she said. "We're getting less money for the same students we served last year, and the biggest component is staffing."

Last week, officials estimated that the district would have about 100 open teaching positions for the 2008-09 school year.

Martin also said there is no "magic date" that teachers and district staff can rest assured their jobs are safe.

"We will continue to evaluate our services as the state continues to give budget cuts," she said. "But we have open vacancies that they would be moved into. This is not teachers not having jobs."

"The superintendent has quite a few different cost-saving measures he's proposing," Martin added. "We're looking at any and everything in the district that we possibly can."

And the operating fund isn't the only portion of the budget being hit.

In the capital project's fund, the district is slated to lose $23.5 million from last year's revenue, including a loss of $17.7 in state funding, $3.6 million in interest earnings and $2.2 million in property tax revenue, due to the state's reduction in millage rate.

"In once sense, the state Legislature sure didn't hold to their promise of holding school districts harmless, that's for sure," Bruggink said.

At press time, Superintendent Wayne Alexander had not returned a call for comment.

The first school board budget workshop is set for June 3.