We learned today that the Senate and House have reached agreement on budget cuts that makes it more likely that the session will end on the 26th. Though we don’t yet have the final budget numbers, this is good news. We are being told that the information may be available as early as tomorrow morning. It means that the Board will know if our $3,350,000 target is accurate and, if yes, they can then begin to make decisions about potentially bringing back any of the recommended certified adjustments. Our May 5th date for final decisions may actually be final including any changes to the current recommendations if we get the budget detail tomorrow or early next week.
This evening was the last of our three feedback meetings. The turnout was larger than expected, about 200 over the three days, with a mix of staff and community coming forward to share their feelings about the recommended adjustments and to ask clarifying questions. Some of the themes that emerged include the following:
· Teachers must be saved.
· Find other revenue producers.
· Charge for zero hour.
· Have the community pay for Camp Casey.
· Advocacy on both sides of the Discovery program.
· Concern for the impact of adjustments to the Special Services program.
The board will be meeting on the 28th to review this feedback to determine if they need to make any changes to their proposed list of adjustments. If necessary, they will continue this conversation on the 30th. I know that some of my thinking has been influenced by the feedback and I look forward to the discussion with the board.
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2 comments:
Thank you for being open to influence, Mike. I know this has been quite a learning process for me, too. I am always an optimistic person, and the recent budget news has made me even more so.
Much better than expected news from the state! As you stated in your presentations, the Governor had initially proposed a $6 billion budget reduction that then swelled to $8 or 9 billion before the budget debate even got started. The great news is the final cuts look to be in the range of $4 billion. Whew! That's less than half the Senate's proposed cuts!
Instead of a $2 billion cut from K-12 funding, it looks like the worst case scenario would be an $800 million reduction and the impact to local schools would be a reduction of 2.6% on average. Our schools receive less levy equalization dollars so could we even be below the 2.6% reduction number?
Let me think out loud here...if our overall budget ($60 million) was reduced 2.6%, then we would have to face a very severe $1,560,000 reduction, but that would be less than half of the proposed $3.35 million reduction!
Even if we saw it best to cut 3.5% of the budget, we could still reinstate every single teaching position AND have $150,000 for additional programs, all without even having to reexamine the use of the small reserve fund (around 3%). Could it be possible that we could come up with a few more revenue producers and add some of the reserve fund and save all our valuable personnel?
I'll be busy trying to generate new thinking for revenue production (I'll be out at Belmont Woods park again this weekend) so we can continue reinstating programs up the list, hopefully even including getting our admin team their $$$ back!
Jonathan Hartke
I have to admit, I am more than anxious to hear your comments on the budget from the state. I got early this morning and searched the internet for budget news and this is is the third time today that I've checked your blog!
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