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| What comes after ‘no-frills’ budget? Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Gail Gilmore Springtown ISD ponders next new reality
Springtown school trustees and administration have cut back, then tightened all belts, and finally pared down to the bone.
“There is no fat to cut,” Superintendent Mike Kelley said during a financial update to the board on June 25. The trustees did approve a small pay raise for employees of the district which will go into effect in September. Teachers and administrators will get 1.5 percent; auxiliary personnel and aides will receive 2.14 percent; maintenance department employees will get 2.02 percent and bus drivers will see a 3.43 percent increase in pay, Kelley said. These percentages are averages of the raises that were approved, he said. “Normally at this time, we have budget workshops,” chief financial officer Gary Shaw told trustees Monday night. “But we don’t have information from the state, and we just don’t know enough.” The school budget is based on revenue streams from state funding and local property taxes. The state funding is based on the district’s weighted average daily attendance (WADA), which Shaw can project but cannot precisely predict. One thing is probably safe to say: There isn’t enough money.
Shaw developed two draft budgets based on two possible WADAs. They were presented to the board as “information only” and do not represent a final budget request, Superintendent Mike Kelley stressed June 26. If the district WADA is 3,125 students, the budget deficit will be nearly $500,000. If the number is 3,088, there is an even larger deficit, of $792,770. “Not enough money” is the hard place, and there are plenty of rocks right next door. To read the rest of the article, subscribe or purchase a copy of The Springtown Epigraph. |