Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

Budget cuts: Schools look for ways to save

Midlands school districts are cutting back on supplies, turning off lights and leaving vacancies unfilled, trying to meet demands to tighten budgets while minimizing the impact in classrooms.

And with another round of state agency cuts expected in a worsening economic climate, local school officials are worried.

“We don’t want to have to reduce any employees or any jobs,” said Mary Anne Byrd, spokeswoman for Kershaw County schools, “so we’re asking everybody to pitch in.”

In the roughly 10,000-student Kershaw County district, officials over the past week have been running down a list of things they can do to save. One is cutting electricity costs, and the district is asking staff to help by unplugging microwaves and doing without extra refrigerators and space heaters, Byrd said. Use of substitute teachers, maintenance and field trips also are getting a critical look.

When the state requested a 3 percent cut over the summer from the Education Department and other state agencies, Byrd said Kershaw County came up with a plan to reduce costs another 15 percent, anticipating more cuts this year. The district’s budget is nearly $72 million.

Fast-growing Lexington 1 hired fewer teachers this year, said spokeswoman Mary Beth Hill, and the district has curtailed travel, frozen hiring and reduced supply allocations, among other things.

“We looked for ways to limit the impact in the classroom yet cut budgets,” Hill added.

But the next round of cuts to the state’s nearly $7 billion budget puts more “on the table,” said Debbie Elmore, spokeswoman for the South Carolina School Boards Association — everything from trimming nonacademic programs to eliminating positions.

“Everybody is hurting,” Elmore said. “The other agencies are taking big hits as well.”

In Lexington 3 district, Superintendent William Gummerson recently asked department leaders to come up with a plan to reduce some of their budget expenses by 23 percent.

The small rural district, with a 2008-09 operating budget of nearly $20 million, already made cuts over the summer of nearly $140,000, said Judy Turner Fox, district spokeswoman. At that time, she added, supplies, postage, printing and travel to conferences took the hit.

With most funding needs at the beginning of the school year, Fox said Gummerson and other officials knew they had to look for ways to cut the budget now, before it became more difficult.

Lexington 3, like other districts, is trying to keep from cutting programs and people.

“It’s a very difficult position for everybody to be in,” Fox said.

Reach Woodson at (803) 771-8692.