County schools feel funding pinch

Feb 27, 2010 — Mt. Vernon Register-News

Tesa Culli

Feb. 27, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- MT. VERNON -- Jefferson County Grade School superintendents are expressing frustration with the uncertainty and lack of timely payments from the state.

"This issue is huge," Woodlawn Grade School Superintendent Jerry Travelstead said, adding the state owes the grade school about $77,000, down from the $100,000 owed the district a few months ago. "The amount is one thing, but when you look at the percentage of the budget for each school, big schools will be affected as much as (smaller) schools are. With the county schools, we are pretty bare bones as it is. Bigger schools may have a place here or there they can cut, but when you have a smaller school, there are no positions we don't need."

The problem stems from the $13 billion budget deficit facing the state, and its inability to stay current on payments to school districts. Locally, some districts are relying on funds which have been held in reserve from previous years but others are hurting and looking at reductions in force or cutting programs.

"This year and next year may not have a dramatic impact on us, but the following year will be a problem if the state doesn't come up with the money," Grand Prairie Grade School Superintendent Sally Cherry said. "We have money to spend on the categoricals -- like transportation. But people don't understand we have to spend that money on transportation, not on text books. ... Those funds are earmarked, or allocated. If you have funds for technology, we can't use it to pay for a teacher. I use the example that if we get a grant for paper clips, we have to buy paper clips and only paper clips. We can't buy paper. People don't realize that. They say, 'You just spent a bunch of money on this, so why couldn't you have spent that money to hire a teacher or a teacher's aide?' It's because we had to spend it on a specific thing."

Cherry said Grand Prairie Grade School is one of those which will be relying on reserve funds.

"We have a larger budget than most people think we do, which has allowed me to maintain a surplus, which has helped us," Cherry said.

Craig Clark, superintendent at Dodds Grade School, said he is also depending on reserves to plan for this year and next year. The school is owed about $40,000 by the state.

"Basically, for us, the school has done a great job in keeping reserves," Clark explained. "We're going to have to start using those reserves. That's never good, but we are fortunate to have them to fall back on right now. ... We can stretch for quite a while if we have to, but if the (cuts next year) are a real substantial thing, like other schools, we will be looking at any means to save a dollar."

And saving those dollars could mean reductions in force.

"So far RIFing hasn't been discussed at our school," Clark said. "A lot of people in the building are wearing a lot of hats now just to keep things going."

McClellan Grade School is also using savings to meet the day-to-day demands of running the school.

"The state is always behind in its payments, with a large part transportation and what we call categoricals," McClellan Superintendent Angie Mills said. "It's the same story all over the state. Right now, we are using our savings. That won't last forever. We are not making any cuts for next year, but we don't know what the plan will be after that."

And not knowing if the state will make all its payments this year, and not knowing what cuts are expected next year bring on frustration for administrators.

"It's impossible," Mills said. "And, to add to the dilemma, the state has a rating for schools financially, and rate us lower because of our finances, which are affected because of what we are not getting from the state. It's a Catch 22. It's extremely frustrating. We're sound up to this point, but unless we receive all the funds we are supposed to receive by June 30, it will certainly affect our financial ranking."

Summersville Grade School is in the position to not be owed transportation funding from the state -- because they don't have a transportation program at the district, according to Superintendent Anita Hays. However, the state is still behind in payments to the school by about $25,000.

"The biggest thing is dealing with all the unknowns," Hays said. "It's not knowing if we will get all the money we are supposed to get this year, it's not knowing what will be cut in the (state) budget next year. ... It's hard to prepare a budget before the state will tell us what funding we will get next year. With what they are telling us now and the financial situation of the state, we are expecting some big cuts."

Summersville Grade School will also be relying on reserves to for next year, but class reductions are also planned.

"I don't see how we are going to avoid using some of the reserves," Hays said. "...We are looking at basically some of the class sizes, so we are possibly reducing a couple of teachers because of class size. Those classes are extremely small, so it won't impact the students to have one class. We're looking at going to a class size of 20 or 22 instead of two classes of 10 students."

Although transportation funding isn't an issue at Summersville, Hays said a major concern is unfunded or partially funded mandates for special education and other categoricals.

Travelstead said Woodlawn Grade School will be using reserves next year as well.

"We will have to spend what little extra we have to keep our education services where it is at," Travelstead said. "After this year, it will probably be gone. We want to do what we can to keep our students' education exactly where it is right now for as long as possible."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0392-42420525