Monthly Archives: April 2016
School District Questions and Answers –
with current vice chair- Twinkle Ann Morton
Budget Future
First of all, let me begin again by reminding my readers that this column is my opinion and my opinion only. By that I mean that I am not speaking for the board merely making observations about educational topics. Today, I am thinking about state funding and state mandates. If you read my article last week, you know that schools are being asked to do more with less all the time. They talk about supporting our state and nation AND worldwide most precious asset – our children. But sadly that is all it is appears to be- Talk. Now it is too early, much too early really, to scream the sky is falling. But these are things we need to be thinking about… and worrying about. Frankly, this is not the reason I wanted to be on the school board AT ALL.
But here we are. If you read my article in last week’s review, you saw the list of unfunded mandates that are all great ideas and all very necessary… well mostly all. The problem is that those are unfunded and with the rise in costs in different areas – all or most of which are not only a good idea but necessary- the budget is getting stretched and stressed to the max. Our Budget manager is working intelligently to find ways to improve our situation, and I am confident that she, the budget committee and the staff will find ways to deal again. But the point is there is only so much our reserves will take.
We are mandated [there’s that word again] to keep as a minimum 5% of our general budget for emergency survival for a limited period of time. My hope was to always keep our reserves at a double digit number 10 or 11%… to provide a cushion that protects our district. I have watched my hopes dwindle as we have had to transfer money from the ‘savings’ account to ‘checking’ to keep our programs and our staff solid while being the first school to return to a complete school year in the area. But you can only borrow from savings for so long before you are down to your bottom line. Sadly, I have to admit, we are getting closer to that point. Notice I didn’t say there… but definitely so close I can feel it breathing down our necks. So what to do?
First of all, we need to look at a number of costs that are increasing costs: PERS and insurance; cost of living and step pay increases; implementing full-day kindergarten and going back to a full school year, These are the things that will cause us to continue to spend more each year. All I can say is thank goodness for the forward thinking of your board members, the hard work by the members of the District Office, and most of all, the professionals who accepted our situation and gave far more than they got. Without this dwindling cushion in place, we would have had bigger issues than we currently have.
Your first official State School Fund Estimate for 2016-17 was over a million dollars lower than expected. Now this is the first hat tossed in the ring. It is much too low and my hope is that it will be tweaked and added to bring it up to a manageable level. If you have a moment, please consider contacting or writing to your state representatives and ask them to support education as they said they wanted to… get the school districts across the state some help. We are NOT ALONE… sadly, most school districts face the POSSIBILITY of being as much as $700,000 in the hole. Large districts, like Bethel and 4J, have drawn down their ‘cushion’ as well… hoping for the promises of the legislature to come true…
Help us help you, your children and your community. Contact your legislators. Let them know how you feel. I want our staff to know that the school board and others will do everything we can to keep the programs, the days and staff that we value so much. The board chair wrote to the staff and said it best. “…we are still very early in the budget planning process, so there are still ideas to be explored. This deficit is much larger than was initially expected.”
Once again, thank you for your comments and questions. If you have missed any of my columns or would like to read one again to refer to something I said [or didn’t say], they are all available on the District webpage…[ http://www.fernridge.k12.or.us/ ]. Go to School Board under the District heading. Find the unflatteringly, accurate photo of me and above my picture is “Twinkle’s page”. All of my articles appear there a couple of days after they appear in our fine paper. Write to me at tmorton@fernridge.k12.or.us . I leave you with this quote from Claus Moser – a statistician of the mid 21 st Century “Education costs money. But then so does Ignorance.” Also on my page are some pictures of the Elmira Elementary Production as a result of the Country Fair Grant to teach the kids dance. In the next few days, I hope to get the Veneta Elementary Talent Show up as well. Enjoy.