Carroll County Public Schools discussed possible Fiscal Year 2015 spending reductions due to preliminary funding numbers released by the county and the state.
School Superintendent Steve Guthrie told the Carroll County Board of Education Wednesday that the school system could see a more than $5.8 million budget shortfall from the county and state in the next fiscal year.
Because of that, possible spending reductions to consider in the FY15 budget include 15 teacher positions, a reduction of elementary media specialists, reorganization of high school student services programs to eliminate seven positions, reducing Outdoor School to a 3-day a week program and restructuring the Carroll County Judy Center.
Other reductions include expenditures for computer replacement, instructional materials and interpreter services, the utility budget, clerical staff positions, and holding off on rehiring for the vacant director of high schools and construction project manager positions.
The 16 areas named for reduction in the budget only amount to almost $4.3 million, Guthrie said.
"I can not get to $5.8 million without taking other staff," he said. "I think that would materially hurt our school system."
Guthrie said if preliminary revenue numbers from the county and state stays the same, the school system would also have to use more than $1.5 million of its fund balance for the FY15 budget. That could negatively effect other plans already made for the fund balance, including employee bonuses in the out years.
The Carroll County government has put out a preliminary $162 million in funding for FY15, almost $4.8 million less than was requested. The state funding could be $1.1 million less than what was budgeted for, or $3.1 million less than what was given by the state for the current fiscal year.
Guthrie said a senate amendment could result in the school system receiving $2 million less than last year from the state, instead of $3.1 million less.
Since 2010, almost 200 positions have been eliminated from the school system and nearly $24 million in spending has been reduced because of inflationary increases and funding reductions from the county and state, Guthrie said.
"We have re-assigned staff and increased their work load," he said.
The spending reductions over the years have resulted in the loss of programs and services for students, school board member Barbara Shreeve said.
"This is impacting our students," she said. "It's just sad."
While Guthrie said he tried to keep spending reductions away from the classroom, school board Vice President Jim Doolan said these areas, such as getting rid of some crisis counselors and not giving teachers raises, guts the system and hurts children.
"This is now really affecting our kids in a negative way, and our families," he said.
Another spending reduction is the $1 million in improvements Guthrie had budgeted for, which included elementary math resource teachers, gifted and talented teachers, special education resource teachers, and technology infrastructure support.
Students are currently being underserved so it's not OK that those positions aren't being added, Shreeve said.
"That doesn't mean that we're doing near what we should be doing for students right now," she said.
Since so much has been cut by the budget, Shreeve anticipates more will have to be taken from the fund balance to cover unexpected costs throughout FY15.
Some board members argued certain areas should not be considered as possible reductions, but Guthrie said whatever reductions are removed will result in cuts to other areas.
School board member Jennifer Seidel said the possible reductions to the proposed FY15 budget are teetering on being irresponsible with the students' education. She invites the Carroll County Board of Commissioners to sit down with the Board of Education to create a long-term budgeting plan.
The student representative to the school board, Steven Priester, said he has noticed his teachers are becoming disheartened and he worries they may not all be back next year.
"I am not making any plans for next year," he said. "I don't know who's still going to be there for me."
If some money is restored from the county and state, Guthrie will meet with his staff and create another budget plan for the Board of Education to consider.
Doolan said this is the time for Carroll County residents to get involved in the budget cycle and tell the Board of Education, and county commissioners, what they think.
"Now is the time to get active," he said. "This is a community issue."
Pending legislation
Assistant Superintendent of Administration Jonathan O'Neal told the board Wednesday that two legislative measures could amount to funds for the school system for up to three fiscal years.
The first is a budget amendment that passed the Senate more than a week ago, and is in the Senate budget, that would reduce the declining state revenue to the school system for FY15 by $1.1 million.
There is also Senate Bill 354, cross-filed with House Bill 814, which addresses state funding in FY16 and FY17 by making it so that any Board of Education that would lose state revenue those years would only lose half of that scheduled amount, O'Neal said.
In non-codified language, it also says that if the governor refuses to reallocate the funds from the Early College Innovation Fund for FY15, then the governor is required to add the FY15 amount to the FY16 budget in addition to any hold-harmless funds that the county might also receive in FY16.
"Both things are held right now pending the budget outcome in the House," he said.
The budget is expected to be voted on by the House Friday and there is no reason to believe the Senate amendment will be in the budget when the House passes it Friday.
The Senate and House never pass the same budget, and then end up sitting down and working out the differences in conference committee, O'Neal said.
"Conference committee will be our last chance to have those two outcomes," he said. "If the [Senate] amendment fails in the budget then there would be no reason for Senate Bill 534 or House Bill 1814 to pass."
Senator David Brinkley, R-District 4, said unless some members of the Carroll County House Delegation votes to support the budget, there's no reason for House leadership to support the senate amendment that would restore half of the state education funding.
He also said SB 354 and HB 1814 will likely pass, but could do so without including Carroll County.
A glimmer of hope on the horizon, O'Neal said, is that the state is taking a comprehensive look at the Thornton Plan Funding Formula, which is in place to ensure that poorer counties receive a larger per-pupil share of state funding than wealthier counties.
"We hope that a new study of Thornton would look at things like declining enrollments in a prolonged recession and makes adjustments accordingly," O'Neal said.
There is a three-year fiscal year window from the start of the study of Thornton until completion, which is why SB 534 is important to the school system, he said. The bill would help solve the state funding issue until the next state funding formula is released.
"It clears the path for that to happen, at least at a 50 percent hold-harmless," O'Neal said.
