Public Schools: 'Crossing our Fingers' on Budget

There seemed to be a sense of relief at a Board of Education budget work session Wednesday afternoon. School Superintendent Steve Guthrie met with board members to present his suggestions for the FY13 budget.

Even though there are teacher cuts included in Guthrie's proposed FY13 budget, school board members seemed to be content that the cuts would be manageable.

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Guthrie's preliminary budget includes cutting 46 positions (see bullets below). But he said those cuts will be made by attrition, so no jobs will be lost. In addition, the proposed budget funds a salary increase for teachers. Guthrie said the increase does not make up for the four years teachers have gone without a salary increase in Carroll County, but it's something.

Earlier in the week Commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of a budget that funds at $3 million above Maintenance of Effort (MOE). MOE is the state's minimum funding requirement.

Dissenting commissioners Richard Rothschild and Robin Frazier criticized the proposed budget for its educational spending, saying it's irresponsible to fund education beyond MOE.

"Based on numbers resulting from three commissioners who are supporting funding of our school system, this is the best case scenario," Board of Education Vice-President Barbara Shreeve said. "If it went another way, we could be talking about what programs to cut right now."

The budget assumes the school system will receive $1.64 million in ongoing revenue and $900,000 in one-time funds from the county as laid out in the county's proposed FY13 budget. This is an increase of about $1.4 million, or a little less than 1 percent, above FY12 funding for the school system.

"Even though the $1.4 million is less than a 1 percent increase, it does mean the difference between being able to hit our priorities and not," Guthrie said.

Guthrie said that the typical budgeting process has been thrown off by the state's budget challenges. He said that the state funding estimates used in his calculations for the preliminary school budget are based on special session passage of the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA).

Guthrie's proposed FY13 budget recommends "system efficiencies and staff reductions," including:

• Bell schedule changes, reduction of $1.2 million
• Classroom teachers, 15 full time, reduction of $900,000
• Additional salary savings from hiring decisions, reduction of $780,000
• Clerical staffing, 16.5 full time, reduction of $654,487
• Central office reorganization, 4.5 full time, reduction of $380,000
• Communications, reduction of $315,000
• Eliminate vacant instructional assistants, 5.5 full time, reduction of $192,500
• Eliminate vacant pupil personnel worker position, 1 full time, reduction of $118,554
• Eliminate vacant bus assistant positions, 3 full time, reduction of $83,054
• Eliminate 2 half time elementary school counselors, reduction of $60,000
• Work year reductions, reduction of $55,000
• Paperless payroll, reduction of $42,599

"I can't tell you that I'm excited and thrilled about this budget but this is a very good scenario for us given where we are, given county revenue, and we should applaud the commissioners because $1.64 million will get us where we need to go," Guthrie said.

The board members decided that they would meet again to discuss the budget further after the county and state finalized their budgets.