Preparing for the upcoming budget year while facing the uncertainty of state funding amounts, the Holbrook School District Governing Board adopted seven key principles Tuesday evening by which to guide the budget planning process.
The budget principles are similar to those put in place last year, and include:
“* Stepping up efforts and adding programs to attract and retain students as applicable.
“* Identifying services to be reduced which will have the least impact on classroom instruction.
“* Evaluating classroom programs that are expensive, serve few students and/or do not serve as part of the core curriculum.
“* Cutting costs through natural staff attrition when applicable.
“* Requiring current staff to assume additional duties and/or accept reassignments if necessary.
“* Utilizing federal funds and grants to the fullest extent legally allowed.
“* Preparing worst case scenarios that would trigger across the board pay reductions rather than lay-offs or forced furloughs.”
Board members approved the guiding principles with no discussion.
Superintendent Robbie Koerperich noted that the district hopes to avoid any cuts to programs, services or salaries, but needs to be prepared if there are major funding cuts.
“The state’s economic outlook for funding of K-12 public education continues to be very unstable,” he told the board. “In an effort to maintain fiscal responsibility and to position our district to meet the core values of our system of education, we are asking governing board approval to continue to utilize the following seven key budget principles in our budgetary decision making process through this fiscal year.”
The district’s fiscal year begins in July, but budget preparations for the 2011-12 year are beginning now. Finance Director Garry McDowell previously explained that although the state legislature may take months to make final budget decisions, the district must begin its budget process early in order to offer contracts to teachers.
In Governor Jan Brewer’s budget proposal, state cuts are focused mainly on health care and higher education, although the plan does include a provision to delay payments to schools even further.
McDowell and Koerperich have both previously noted that the district could handle the payment delay. Large cuts to state funding, however, could mean an end to some extracurricular programs.
Koerperich noted that the Holbrook School District is in a better position than many other districts to withstand state cuts since it has a diverse funding base. While other Arizona schools have laid off teachers and cut programs, Holbrook has been able to use federal funding to fill some of the gaps left by state cuts. He pointed out, however, that there have been no cost of living increases for teachers in several years, and the district needs to find ways to keep salaries competitive in order to retain the best teachers if state reductions don’t force major budget cuts.
