Published: September 15, 2009 12:23 am      

NA-FC Schools preparing to make budget cuts

$2 million may have to be pared from 2010 general fund

Another year of flat-lined revenue while costs increase may cause the New Albany-Floyd Consolidated School Corp. to cut about $2 million from the 2010 general fund, which mostly is used to pay salaries.

Deputy Superintendent Brad Snyder made that announcement at Monday night’s school board meeting, where he presented the board with 2010 budget details. The board is slated to hold a public hearing on that budget in October, with a vote on whether to pass it at its Oct. 19 meeting.

Snyder said he is expecting a 0.2 percent increase in revenue for 2010 and no boost for 2011. All the while, the corporation must pay for increased health care costs, salary increments, increasing energy charges and other inflationary pressures.

“The school corporation will be forced to heavily dip into cash reserves until significant budget cuts can be implemented. Without action, all cash reserves are expected to be depleted toward the end of 2011,” wrote Snyder and Fred McWhorter, director of business, in an executive summary to the board.

Snyder said he hopes to talk to the board about where to make those cuts at the board’s retreat, scheduled for Sept. 29 and 30. Meanwhile, he said he’s trying to do what he can.

“We’re trying to do more with less,” he said.

Another factor is the board paying interest on bonds taken out because of the school system not getting its tax draw from the county on time. McWhorter said the district has paid out about $1 million in interest. The budget for 2010 includes another $500,000 he expects to have to pay in additional interest.

Snyder said that hurts the district, but it doesn’t affect the general fund directly. He said if the school system had that money, it could be used for the rainy day fund, which could be tapped into for general fund deficiencies. He said it also could be used to keep the local tax rates down in the future.

The 2010 proposed budget is $113,177,813, which is about $2.9 million more than the expected revenues. The school’s budget must be approved by the state.

The 2010 capital projects fund is set at about $10.9 million, which is $890,572 more than the expected revenue for that fund. Capital projects pays for improvements to the school buildings.

Some of those include: $250,000 to Floyd Central High School for its renovation project; $200,000 to Mount Tabor Elementary School to finish repairing the atrium window wall; $125,000 to Silver Street Elementary School for a renovation project to move the principal’s office; and a $500,000 allocation to Slate Run Elementary School to help offset the renovation project to remodel the school’s kitchen and replace the heating and air conditioning system scheduled for 2011 that is expected to cost an additional $1.125 million.



CURRICULUM MAPPING PARTIALLY ON HOLD

Lee Ann Wiseheart, board vice president, asked the superintendent on the status of curriculum mapping, since she has had a few teachers recently ask her if it has stopped.

The mapping is meant to help avoid redundancies in the curriculum while making sure all students are learning the same things no matter which building they are in. Work is under way to implement this in all English/language arts classes, as well as some math courses, according to Teresa Perkins, assistant to the superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

However, Superintendent Bruce Hibbard said he’s keeping the mapping there — and not adding other subjects for now — since he feels the focus of the district needs to be on improving student achievement. He said he was told that it will be spring 2011 once he can see measured achievement changes caused by the mapping.

He said since the program is expensive, he is going to wait to see what those results show. He said training for the teachers also pulls them out of the classroom, which takes away from the students.

He said the district will focus on setting up short-cycle assessments to make sure students are keeping up with the lessons.

“I’m a little disappointed, because I think a lot of the teachers are excited ... but I understand [Hibbard’s] concerns over the cost and putting assessments in place,” Perkins said.

She said she is hopeful that once the short-cycle assessments are done, curriculum mapping will continue for other subjects.