Four days a week

In the weeks ahead, district public school officials will be asking a tough question: should the school week shrink to four days.

In town hall meetings and a survey that should go out to every taxpayer in the county the question will be asked.

The question comes amidst the form of budget crisis the district faced after the closing of the paper mill when emergency funds from Tallahassee were needed to keep doors open and the county property appraiser was forced into court to fight the mill property assessment and the taxes owed.

Further, the district’s fiscal straits are an early reminder as the budget season approaches to what extent those federal stimulus dollars of the past couple of years came in handy for local taxing authorities. Call the district the canary in the county’s coal mine as the county approaches a fiscal and sustainability crossroads.

All that federal spending simply delayed what is proving to be the inevitable for state and local governments.

For public schools the hole is deepened by state lawmakers openly hostile to spending on education.

Lawmakers have played Three-Card Monty with lottery dollars for decades – remember, those billions were allegedly going to education only to rerouted to fill budget holes – and now ponder spending on public schools as if examining a dirty diaper.

Consider that Gulf County will alone lose $1.2 million under the governor’s proposed budget. The cut represents over 10 percent of property tax revenue for county schools.

Additionally, the district faces the near certainty that the additional mill levy approved by voters three years ago would not be approved by voters again when it expires in another year.

Given this year’s estimates on property values, that’s another $280,000-plus the district will lose for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The loss of stimulus dollars and budget projections from the state already has the district looking at a $2 million loss in revenue for the coming fiscal year.

The key line in the presentation proposing the four-day week during a recent School Board workshop was that this will take a community commitment.

Not only will the change mean a disruption of daily and weekly routines as Monday will be a no-school day and many parents will be forced to scramble on the issue of child care as older students enjoy a three-day weekend.

And how younger students will handle longer days is an open question.

The district will also have to convince parents that their kids will receive the same level of education as under a five-day week, a counter-intuitive argument in light of research showing U.S. students falling behind the advanced world in core subject areas.

The move to four days will also mean a community filling in the gaps.

The current difficulties in keeping the doors open on the Washington Gym in Port St. Joe are emblematic of the need for community-developed and implemented programs that provide recreational and educational opportunities for youngsters beyond school time.

The Langston Foundation could, with its ability to bring tutoring and after-school programs that have demonstrably worked, play a significant role.

So, too, could the Gulf Coast Workforce Board, which is keeping the Washington Gym open the next three months and Gulf Coast Community College, where officials have voiced a desire for greater impact in Gulf County.

There will be a need for the kind of programs that once operated from the Washington Improvement Group center, the STAC House and other venues around the county that provided youngsters with opportunities that adults still speak of today.

Another question that must be answered is to what extent this is a band-aid to an intractable problem?

At the root of the district’s fiscal woes is declining enrollment. Enrollment has eroded in spurts since the 1998 closing of the paper mill but in the last few years the erosion has become a steady stream.

The district’s fiscal ability to maintain two sets of schools more than 20 miles apart is eroding with enrollment.

And as fuel prices rise, with no end in sight, that reality becomes starker.

Given the current state of economic development there are not many curatives on the horizon.

The Chamber of Commerce’s new task of leading economic development has added urgency. The discussions about four-day school weeks underscore the pressing need for jobs creation in the county.

The state seems in no position to offer much relief in the form of building a new school and the market is such that the district would be hard-pressed to sell land it owns at Highland View and escape with enough equity to secure suitable land for a new site.

Until enrollment trends change – until migration for jobs means entering not exiting the county – the long-term solution, emphasis on long-term, for the district is the same elephant that sat in the room three years ago when school board members considered the additional mill operating levy.

And that elephant is consolidation of the county schools. Four-day weeks may bide time, but are they the long-term answer?

That may be the toughest question the district and the community ponder in the coming weeks.