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Community Created Content -
Community Created General
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Written by Ken Caldwell
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As
promised in last week's article I am following up with an assessment of
the county School budget. As a reminder, we are looking only at the
general fund as suggested by Mr. Alvin Peters in his July 13 letter to
the editor at the News Herald. Before I roll out my findings and
suggestions, let me say some general things about budgets.
I
have worked in several corporations and one public sector institution.
Most of these organizations asked for a bottom up budget process which
involved a lot of work researching costs and usages, establishing rates
and applying those rates to the anticipated volumes in the upcoming
budget year. After we had done all that work, what it usually came down
to was simple. The boss would ask how much we needed to operate for the
next year. We would tell him. Then the boss would say "here is how much
you get. Make it work and hit the numbers each month." There really
isn't much difference in how the school budget works. Adjusting or
cutting budgets from one year to the next, especially big cuts can be
very painful. Many times those cuts can only be made by
taking draconian actions. Sometimes it takes an external view to be
able to see things that being on the inside are difficult to see.
Personal relationships often blur the vision of the executive
challenged with making big cuts. So with these things said, here is
what I see and suggest.
Let's
start with the leadership of the system. School Board members could
take a 50% cut in pay for one year. This doesn't save a lot of money
but it is a symbol of how willing each board member is to make things
work and "put the children first". It's called putting your money where
your mouth is. The "Other Expenses" of the Board should be brought to
zero. Hundreds of thousands are saved in that category. The General
Administration, School Administration, Facility and Fiscal Services
executives should accept a ten percent salary reduction for the year. I
realize there are contractual issues here, but at this point things
ought to be negotiable.
The
fund balance could be cut drastically. The year end fund balance of
over two million dollars is ten percent of what is needed in cuts. In
crisis times, a large fund balance is a luxury.
All
Capital Outlay expenditures should be zeroed out of the general fund.
The general fund represents only 54% of the annual spending plan for
the system. The Capital Improvement fund which is not part of the
general fund represents 38% of the total funds expended. If capital
items are needed to support the functions in the general fund, spend
capital money from the capital money account.
Purchased
services represent a large expenditure. Call upon suppliers to make at
least a ten percent reduction in prices, or simply reduce most purchase
quantities by ten percent.
Cut
headcount in departments that do not directly affect students. Reduce
the head count in administrative technology services by 20%. Cut
curriculum development by 20%.
I
believe Bay County provides transportation above and beyond state
minimums. Reduce the services to students within the "walking distance"
standards of the state.
Cut Community Services by 50%. This cannot be sustained with the current funding.
Reduce
personnel costs for general fund Plant Maintenance by 20%. Do this by
utilizing the mechanism in DOE to declare maintenance "projects" and
pay the workers out of the Capital Improvement fund for Day Labor. This
keeps the employees but transfers the cost to where you have money.
Make selective cuts in Materials and Supplies accounts.
In
all of these recommendations, personnel for instruction are not
affected. Students in the classrooms will not recognize any of the cuts
mentioned when it comes to their education. A copy of the final General
Fund document is shown below. It is $9,000 under the 20.4 million
reduction target. Blue numbers indicate reduced amounts compared to the
prior year.
Mr. Peters, you can send my $50 check in the mail. I'm in the phone book.
image by Steven Fernandez used via the creative commonse license.
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