Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008

Budget cuts: Schools look for ways to save

Midlands districts trying to cut costs without losing personnel

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 — possibly another $150 million from the state education department’s $2.4 billion spending plan for the year, on top of more than $73 million from the summer — 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 district, officials over the past week have been running down a list of things they can do to save.

One is cutting electricity costs, Byrd said, and the district is asking staff to help by unplugging microwaves and doing without extra refrigerators and space heaters. Use of substitute teachers, maintenance and field trips also are getting a critical look.

But Kershaw schools, expecting more tightening after the state’s 3 percent cut from state agencies this summer, crafted a plan at that time for more reductions — roughly $2 million more from the nearly $72 million annual budget.

That was on top of roughly $715,000 in Education Finance Act funds cut this summer, Byrd said.

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

The district’s annual budget is more than $172 million. Its portion of the previous Education Finance Act cut over the summer was more than $1.4 million, the third-highest cut in the Midlands. Richland 1 and Richland 2 both had to trim more — about $1.6 million.

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

While local school officials were unsure Friday how the latest rounds of cuts to the state’s nearly $7 billion budget would impact districts, a lot more is “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 about $17 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.