State Slams Schools at Bottom Line

Basic reading skills will illuminate the reality that the arithmetic isn't adding up in favor of Gulf District Schools.

Those who filled the School Board meeting room last week for a budget workshop received an inkling of just how ugly the bottom line looks for the county's public schools.

With the county ranking at the top of Florida's districts in declining student enrollment, state legislators cut funding for Gulf schools by the second-largest amount, percentage-wise, among all districts in the state.

And, of course, with the state considering Gulf County a property rich county, local taxpayers will have to foot nearly nine of every 10 cents the state has budgeted for local public schools.

Worth noting is that school budgets are much different than those for counties and municipalities.

The budget is almost entirely established in Tallahassee during the regular legislative session that ended last Friday.

And state lawmakers were none too kind to Gulf County.

"The number one thing is declining enrollment," said Superintendent of Gulf District Schools Tim Wilder. "When you see that, it really hits home."

According to state projections, Gulf District Schools will lose more than 102 full-time equivalent students, meaning the district took a hit of more than $763,000 from state lawmakers.

Toss in the designation as a "property rich" county and what's left is a toxic waste of a budget.

"The state is giving us about $3 million and we have to raise the other $11 million (for the required local effort portion of the budget) and none of that goes to teacher salaries," Wilder said. "I wish we could raise our millage and use our ‘property rich' county. Our teachers would be the highest paid in the state.

"But we can't do that. We have to live with what the state says."

The situation becomes more dire as Wilder explained during last week's workshop, during which he provided a preliminary overview of the numbers and his recommendations, when other numerals are factored in.

One, the School Board expended all of an $877,000 reserve fund balance for the current fiscal year just so the district did not have to make any job or other cuts during the school year, preventing disruption of classes.

Additionally, Wilder is recommending that the district maintain a $300,000 reserve balance to start the year, roughly the 3 percent recommended for local governments.

Taken together, the sum of those parts is just over $1.94 million, the amount Wilder believes must come out of the budget.

"As small a district as we are, we are seventh smallest in the state, to cut $2 million from our budget is a scary thought," Wilder said. "It's enough to send a chill up your spine and it has not been easy."

And that, Wilder noted, does not account for the $114,000 the Bay County School System is examining on eliminating as payment for transportation and food service costs for Mexico Beach students to attend Gulf County Schools.

Or any increase in state retirement rates, further cuts by the state, even steeper declines in enrollment and ever-increasing gas prices which have impacted costs for food and utilities.

Not to mention any major hurricane or tornado landfall impacting schools, any possible federal cuts, unfunded mandates from the state and legal fees.

In broad strokes not a pretty picture and one that depends on a favorable light over the next year.

And one made even less attractive to what it means in terms of programs and people.

Wilder's tentative recommendation - and the School Board will take up the tentative budget at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 29 - will mean the loss of some 48 positions, including 18 teaching spots, with each school losing at least one teacher and at least one paraprofessional.

"We tried to be as far reaching and as fair as possible," Wilder said. "There is no easy way to do it. The reductions will be affecting everybody. Nobody is immune."

"You will notice I said positions, there are no names. A lot of these people have not been identified by the principals and the principals are still wrestling with this. There is a lot of weight on their shoulders right now. There is a lot of pressure on them."

Schools aren't alone in the pain.

The district office will lose an administrator as well as a secretary and assistant computer techs. At least two bus drivers will lose their jobs and extra-curricular travel will be curtailed and many athletic coaches will have to earn a bus driving certification to ensure transportation of teams.

While only one program is in jeopardy (see sidebar), Wilder's proposal will whittle money from Odyssey of the Mind (one team per school as currently envisioned), athletic supplements (including the loss of one assistant football coach at each high school) and supplies, repairs and equipment for band at each high school.

Budgets for district office travel, in-service training, supplies for teachers and guidance counselors and cleaning supplies will all take monetary hits.

Wilder stressed several points during his presentation, providing a bit of glass-half-full analysis.

An influx of new students over the summer could negate the loss of some positions.

The district also must adhere to class-size dictates from the state, a particular focus at the elementary school level, so that could also mean some instructional positions eliminated will be reinstated.

Wilder also noted that many of the positions that will have to be jettisoned will be done as much as possible through attrition; retirement, folks leaving the district, etc.

And he expressed the hope that these dark days will pass into more sunny fiscal times for the district in the not too distant future.

"There will be relief, one day, one year, there will be relief to this economic downtown," said School Board chairwoman Linda Wood. "We're trying to hold everything down as much as we can, keep everything in place that we can until that relief comes. This has been a work in progress since February.

"The bottom line is we have to have a balanced budget."

The state, however, is making that a particular challenge.

Wood and Wilder emphasized that this was a preliminary look at the budget and they asked for, and received from several speakers, any suggestions or input as to how to address the budgetary woes.

One of the main reasons Wilder chose to hold the workshop last week, he said, was to make the numbers public, quell the rumor mill and solicit ideas and recommendations from the public before the first public hearing on the budget May 29.

Sidebar

NJROTC Facing Budget Extinction

The one program which drew the most interest during last week's budget workshop was the NJROTC program at Port St. Joe High School, which Superintendent of Schools Tim Wilder is recommending be dropped as a cost-saving measure.

Lt. Commander Marty Jarosz, one of two NJROTC instructors, said if the program is cut this year, it will likely not be coming back due to the Navy's requirements for establishing what would, at whatever point in the future application was made, be a new program.

"If it's ended, that's it," Jarosz said. "This vital program will be going away."

But Jarosz said there were possible alternatives, though short-term, to cutting the program altogether.

The district would have to receive approval from the U.S. Navy, but the possibilities include:

* The Navy absorbing the salaries of the two instructors for one school year;

* Reducing the number of instructors to one;

* Do without any instructors for one year.

"The Navy has options, but they are temporary," Jarosz said. "The Navy wants to see the program continue."

With 26 returning cadets and no freshmen as of yet signed up for the program, which is an elective, NJROTC would need at least 14 additional cadets in order to maintain the 10 percent of student population required by the Navy.

Jarosz suggested that the school work through the guidance office to make the program more attractive for incoming students on any number of educational tracks.

"We feel this program is essential to the fiber of Port St. Joe High School and the community," Jarosz said.

Many parents agree, some of whom spoke last week.

Vickie Scheffer and her daughter Julia have been distributing flyers around Port St. Joe in an effort to save the program. Julia Scheffer, a freshman this year, had chosen band and NJROTC for her electives next year.

"NJROTC is not to teach you to join the (military) but to teach you life skills, courage and self-esteem," Julia said. Her brother and many friends are in NJROTC.

As of last Thursday, she and her mother had collected some 500 signatures on a petition to save band and NJROTC which was presented to the School Board.

School Board member George Cox asked Wilder and Jarosz to approach the Navy and examine whether there wasn't some way to save the program, especially under one of the Navy's short-term options outlined by Jarosz.

"That would give us a year to see if thing are going to get any better," Cox said.

Board chairwoman Linda Wood added, "We are facing difficult times and difficult choices."