|
Superintendent cuts budget proposal by $179,796
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - It's the season for budget negotiations. Numbers change as quickly as the temperature, it seems. The governor makes one spending proposal, the house of delegates another and the senate still another. The federal government threatens cuts to public school programs, too, adding to the confusion. Local school boards react in kneejerk fashion as they scramble to make sense of the opposing bills and shifting revenue streams and fashion a budget in time to meet an April 1 deadline to get their budgets to the board of supervisors, who will have one more opportunity to shape the budget before final approval sometime in June.
The latest twist in this year's Highland school budget negotiations is the announcement that the position Highland County Public Schools superintendent Gary Blair fought for so hard last year - the athletic director/ recreation director - is on the chopping block. Blair excised the $31,000 position (that's the contribution his initial budget request made to the combined recreation commission/public schools position), along with cuts to facilities and the elimination of a school bus purchase this year. Also dropped was a proposal to hire a school psychologist and school nurse.
"I will maintain instructional programs over anything," Blair declared at Monday's school board meeting.
"It is difficult to discuss a budget when things are not finalized," Blair said. "We have gone through every position and determined whether it was critical to the operation and did it enhance instruction."
Blair maintained his dedication to instruction as the primary purpose and focus of his school division. "Maintain what works, while enhancing our school division," he said. He lamented the fact that the budget contained a 2 percent pay raise for teachers, rather than 4 percent he would prefer. While maintaining a reduction in force would not occur this year, he admitted it was a probability in the next few years as enrollments at the state's smallest public school system continues to decline. When and if it comes, Blair said a reduction in staff would most likely be driven by class enrollment.
He said he was considering adding athletic director duties to the next high school principal as a way of consolidating duties in anticipation of future staff reductions. One of the options Blair considered, but did not propose, was to have one principal for K-12.
All of this is preamble to the upcoming school board work session set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13 when board members get their say on how the budget should look. Then it's on to a public hearing where the public can finally weigh in on the more than $4.5 million budget proposal, a 5 percent increase over last year's final budget.
Resident Larry Held said, "I hope the time will come when we can give teachers a decent raise. Two percent is small. When you go to the board of supervisors, emphasize this is really bare bones. We are probably digging a hole for ourselves in the future."
Board chair Kirk Billingsley noted Augusta County was offering its teachers a 4 percent raise this year. "Two percent is not a healthy raise," he said.
Blair said the inability to offer teachers competitive salaries, benefits and raises jeopardized the school's ability to attract and keep the most qualified teachers. Earlier school board estimates said one percentage of salary increase equates to around $28,000.
Blair's initial proposal in February for the 2007-08 school year was for $4,724,974, an increase of $385,707 over the previous year. But state plans to cut $100,000 in education grants torpedoed that plan. Blair's latest budget proposal is $4,545,178, an increase of $206,180 over last year.
A lot can change in a few weeks. The school board has time to consider the numbers and its options and add to or delete from the proposal. Public input is needed to make sure priorities set by the school administration is aligned with the will of the people, Blair said.
The school board set a public hearing on the budget for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, both at the Highland High School library at which they might finalize and approve the budget for forwarding to the board of supervisors for final approval.
| 
