Schools brace for big cuts

Madison County Public Schools face a more than $1.5 million cut in funding, the prospects of more cuts next year and the loss of 12 employee positions.

An updated version of the schools’ proposed fiscal year 2011 budget, created after the recent close of the Virginia General Assembly’s session, was presented to the Madison County School board at a special budget workshop last week. (The 2011 fiscal year runs from July 2011 through June 2012.)

The new budget version documents the funding cuts, which come from a number of areas including $744,982 from “basic aid,” $104,198 from a kindergarten through third grade program, $78,553 from special education and $550,805 of federal stimulus money, and offered suggestions for how to offset the lost funds without asking Madison County to cover all the costs.

“What I really want people to keep in mind while all things are said and done, the state is reducing the funds for Madison County by $1.5-plus million, that’s the bottom line,” Madison County Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Tanner said. “It’s important to think about it this way because (retirement spending) is going to go back up and I don’t know that the (state cuts in basic aid) are going to change.”

However, school officials hope the Madison County Board of Supervisors will help the schools by buying a new school bus and paying for maintenance of school buildings, Tanner said.

“The board is now saying, that if we’re going to be able to manage those additional cuts, which are significant, and not have to ask the locality for support to offset all those cuts … we need to have a discussion with the board of supervisors to maintain a bus replacement cycle for next year of at least one bus (and) we need to maintain a minimum of $150,000 in the maintenance fund,” Tanner said.

The current school proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2010-2011 asks for $273,255 from the county and includes axing employees, extracurricular trips, technology, materials, supplies and maintenance of the school buildings according to Tanner. This amount rose $4,000 from an earlier draft of the budget that anticipated a smaller ($1 million) funding cut.

The other reason that the schools did not ask for more coverage from the county is because many of the budget cuts will be covered by a one year cut in the schools payment requirements for the Virginia Retirement System (VRS), Tanner said at the March 24 workshop.

“A big, big, big factor is how the state is balancing the budget by using the retirement system,” Tanner said. “Currently this year we’re paying 13.81 percent in this year’s budget, in (former Governor) Kaine’s budget we had an increase in expenditures in that line because the proposal was going up, now the General Assembly is dropping it all the way down to 8.93 percent, so you can imagine where some of the money is coming from if this also applies to all the state workers.”

The school system payments to the retirement fund will go from the more than $1.2 million they paid this year to near $800,000 with the reduction. However, this reduction only applies to next year’s budget as the schools will be required to pay more, approximately $900,000, into the system the following year.
In addition to the cuts in stimulus money and basic aid, which were in part anticipated by school officials, the schools will lose $104,198 in funding from a long-term incentive program designed to create lower class sizes in kindergarten through third grade classrooms, Tanner said.

“The state has had an incentive program for many, many years to have school divisions maintain a lower class size in grades (kindergarten through third grade) than the standards of quality (require),” Tanner said. “We (no longer) qualify (so) we lose all that incentive money … this funds a position and part of another, but if we don’t absorb this in some way this means that we would go back now (to) increase class size in grades (kindergarten through third grade) and eliminate two more positions which I am not recommending.”

The program was designed to promote smaller classes in grades where students learn basic reading and mathematic skills.

“I’m recommending … that we adjust the budget to keep those positions in,” Tanner said. “The long-term benefit is, and the idea behind having such an incentive program is, to say that those are the years that you’re beginning to read and developing the reading and mathematic skills that you’ll need for the rest of your educational career.”

Board members agreed with the new budget version that proposed absorbing the loss. However board members were interested in finding money to purchase a new bus and additional maintenance money. The current budget proposal includes $83,779 for facilities that the board was interested in expanding by around $66,000. Maintenance projects at the top of the list include:

• Replacing a leaky section of Madison County High School’s flat roof.

• “Scoping” the schools sewer system.

“I think (the supervisors) need to hear how old our buses are,” board member Doreen Jenkins said. “I think they need to realize that we’re being very conservative asking for one bus.”

School officials will take the revised budget back to the supervisors, however there remains a possibility that the budget will need to change yet again because current Governor Bob McDonnell has yet to sign the General Assembly’s budget. He is scheduled to do so April 21 and he may veto, amend or pass sections or the entirety at his discretion.

Also at the workshop, members:

• Discussed offering a bonus for retiring employees. There is a possibility the school will offer a bonus for teachers retiring who are 50 years old, or older, and have 25 years in the Virginia public school system, not necessarily only with Madison County. The bonus would be a one-time sum of 10 percent of their salaries. The retirement incentive would not apply to departing Superintendent Tanner, who announced her retirement in December 2009, she said at the meeting. The reasons behind the proposal include that younger teachers are paid less, which would help the system save money, and there is funding for the incentive available from the Virginia Retirement System.

• Heard from MCHS parent Doug Wells regarding keeping the high school golf team, had more cuts been necessary there was a possibility that other sports teams would be cut. However, there are no plans to cut the team at this time.

• Discussed offering increased health care compensation to employees. The insurance premiums for school employees rose by 4.75 percent, which means a minimum raise of $209 in insurance costs, however the schools only cover a portion of the health insurance cost for employees and would not cover the raise. The proposal was to raise coverage from $3,600 to $3,900 per enrolled employee because there will likely be no employee raises in salary this year, Tanner said. The basic plan with the schools’ insurance costs $4,619 with the premium increase.