Schools making do with less
Budget cuts totaling 20 percent likely
By Donna C. Gregory NEWS EDITOR

Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer Laurie Hogan, a guidance counselor at Monacan High School, makes copies. Economizing paper is one way principals are trying to cut operating costs at schools.

School teachers and principals are used to doing more with less. Unfortunately, their bottom lines could become even slimmer this year.

Superintendent Marcus Newsome has informed all principals to prepare for a 20 percent reduction in their school operating budgets due to possible cuts in state and local funding. That amounts to about $870,000 in paper, toner, postage, library books, travel reimbursements and other expenses schools may have to do without the remainder of the school year.

Typically, principals receive 80 percent of their operating budgets at the beginning of the school year with the remaining 20 percent kept in reserve until February in case there are funding issues. In a memo to principals, Newsome warned they may not receive that last 20 percent.

Providence Elementary could lose $7,400 of its $37,000 annual operating budget.

Sovine

"We're doing all we can to minimize the impact on direct instruction," said Steve Degaetani, Providence's principal. "We're just trying to be even more cautious in our spending."

Providence's librarian has already been told to buy fewer new books this year unless she can generate more money through the school's book fair.

The school's PTA will also have to work extra hard this year to try to make up the anticipated shortfall.

"Our PTA members for the most part are always real troopers in backing up whatever we get in county money," said Degaetani.

At Monacan High School, there are similar challenges. Principal David Sovine could lose $20,000 from his annual budget. (School budgets are based on student enrollment and other factors.)

"We've taken that 20 percent and cut it across the board, so no one area is impacted," said Sovine.

Teachers are expected to be thriftier with paper and copier toner this year and learn the proper way to use projectors so bulbs don't blow out too quickly. Bulbs can cost several hundred dollars. They may also have to pay their own travel expenses for conferences and pick up the cost of dues for organizations they want to join.

Student activity fees provide an additional revenue stream for the school. School departments will likely rely more heavily on those fees.

"The students should really not see an impact in terms of the budget cuts," predicted Sovine.

Unfortunately, reductions at the school level will only partially make up the school system's expected budget shortfall. There will certainly be additional cuts coming later this school year.

The school system has already enacted a hiring freeze for all positions, excluding teachers and essential personnel such as bus drivers. Every central office department has also been asked to slice their budget by 20 percent.

Slower than projected student enrollment and the waning economy are the main culprits behind the budget woes.

According to current projections, the school system could come up at least $7 million in the red this year, and that doesn't factor in the possibility of a cut in county funding.

Student enrollments are down for the second year in a row. About 800 fewer students are attending county schools than projected, translating into the loss of about $4.1 million in state funding.

Sales tax revenues are also down by about $2.7 million, according to the most recent numbers. Chesterfield schools receive one penny of every 5 cents in sales tax revenue.

The school system did receive good news last week when Gov. Tim Kaine announced K-12 education would be spared any further reductions in state funding for the current school year. That probably won't be the case for FY10 (starting July 1), however, since projections already show the state budget is $2.5 billion in the hole for the biennium.

"There will be less state revenue next year than we originally counted on," said Kathy Kitchen, assistant superintendent for business and finance. "I would expect that FY10 is going to be significantly worse than FY09."

County funding is still a big question mark.

"We're probably looking more in the December time frame to know exactly what county revenue might look like," said Kitchen.

The county is impacted also as it waits to hear precisely how Virginia will reduce its funding to local governments. The supervisors have asked County Administrator Jay Stegmaier to update them, so they can help assess where cuts are made.

"We're looking at [losing] significant dollars," said Kitchen. "We're taking the steps we need to take now, so we can protect essential services. Certainly we'll take whatever steps we need to take to make sure the budget remains balanced."

Once school administrators have a clearer financial picture, they will take recommendations for additional cuts to the school board for consideration.