School Board Plans for "Devastating" State Education Cuts

It was a long day for Superintendent Lori White and the Sarasota County School Board on Tuesday. The board listened to a presentation about potential millions the district will lose if the budget Florida Governor Rick Scott presented last week passes. 

On Feb. 7, Scott announced his plan to cut nearly 10 percent of the education dollars to public schools. Al Weidner, deputy chief financial officer for the district, told the board that if approved education cuts are anywhere near that number, it could be "devastating" for the district. 

According to Weidner, if Scott's plan passes, the district will have to cut $37 million from the 2011-12 budget and almost $24 million from the 2012-13 budget to maintain a fund balance of 7.5% per school board policy. 

"The proposed decrease in revenues by the governor devastates the operating fund," Weidner said.

Since the 2007-2008 school year when property values (and taxes brought in) were at an all-time high, to now, the school district has slashed more than $104 million dollars from its budget. The cuts have been both cost avoidance and expenditure reductions. 

As the school board tries to plan for the budget, they said it would be difficult because of not knowing when they will get an answer from the state on the exact budget. Normally, White said, the state hands out its budget allocations to school districts in April, but this year's process could run into the summer.

"It is going to be a difficult few months," White said. "We’ll look at any other further reductions that are possible. [But] it’s hard to for that process to be competed before the total picture is apparent. The timeline is going to be difficult for all parties."

Until the official budgets are submitted, Weidner and the finance staff are planning conservatively for all of Scott's proposed cuts to stay the same.  The board agreed with that decision.

"Looking at this budget, do we sort of anticipate that this budget is going to come," board member Carol Todd said. "It doesn’t seem like life in Tallahassee is as happy as they hoped it to be."

Board chair Frank Kovach said the cuts should not come as a surprise because no one expected property values to increase by this point and that everyone knew the stimulus money was going away. 

The district has had a hiring freeze for the past three years and plans on continuing it. More than 500 aides and staff members have been cut along with scheduled maintenance projects at some schools coming to a halt. 

Besides school closings and massive layoffs, the biggest chunk the district could cut would be teacher step-increase bonuses and health benefits. Those decisions, however, cannot be made with a simple board majority vote. 

The collective bargaining agreement negotiations will begin this year and . 

The budget discussion came after a long health care presentation where the district got an idea about increasing health care costs and six plans that would help reduce those expenditures. Health care costs for the district are expected to increase $10 million each year.

As the downer meeting came to an end, White made an impassioned plea that left Todd saying "and that's why we are glad you are the superintendent."

White said; "My caution to staff, as we work through these type of decisions that impact staff personally, as well as a contentious legislation that also impacts staff, my message continues to be to help them focus on the students in the classroom.

"I understand how difficult that is with all this swirling around in the paper. Help them understand the importance of the need to have the dialogue, but we must stay focused on our students as we prepare them for the FCAT testing.  We can work through such challenging times. How we work through such horrendous decisions in a way that does not cause a huge distraction in the classroom, that is going to take all of us doing our very best."

By the Numbers

• In 2011-12, if Scott's cuts are passed, $37 million will have to be cut from the school board budget. In 2012-13 an additional $24 million would need to be cut
• Base student allocation from 2007-08 ($4,134) to the proposed budget next year is expected to drop 13.7% to $3,570. 
• In 2007 Revenue per student was $7,590. In 2011-12 that number will be $6,745
• The tax roll value for the 2007-08 school year was $62.6 million. The governor's estimate for 2011-12 is $43 million