Schools Keep Watchful Eye On State Budget
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Local school districts are weighing their options while adopting a wait-and-see attitude on Gov. Frank O'Bannon's budget cuts for the 2002 school year.
O'Bannon announced education budget cuts of $115 million statewide, and how that translates to individual school districts depends on whether or not the governor vetoes House Bill 1196. The bill, which passed the Legislature last week, would allow school districts to use money from some funds to make up for shortfalls in other funds.
Financing for each school district in Indiana goes into five basic funds: the General Fund, which is mainly salaries and benefits; the Capital Projects Fund, which pays for construction, rental, land acquisition and equipment maintenance; the Transportation Fund, which includes school buses and driver payroll; the Debt Service Fund, which handles payments on loans and bonds; and the Preschool Fund.
Under current laws, school districts cannot transfer money from one fund to another. However, under HB 1196, school corporations, to avoid teacher layoffs, could, for example, take money from the Capital Projects Fund to shore up the General Fund, which pays for teacher salaries.
But the governor has not yet signed HB 1196, and until the bill passes or is vetoed, school corporations are in a state of uncertainty as to their financial future.
"We don't know. That's the bottom line," said Mark Stock, superintendent of Wawasee schools, which is facing a cut of approximately $400,000.
Wawasee had planned to transfer CPF funds that were earmarked for computer lab updates to the General Fund and avoid teacher layoffs, Stock said.
"But if the governor is threatening to veto that bill, then we run into a situation where we have to cut from the General Fund and we have no choice but to cut personnel," he said.
A $400,000 cut, Stock said, is the equivalent of "14 teachers at the bottom of the scale."
Whitko schools expects to lose about $200,000 this year, and they, too, hope HB 1196 passes.
"If it's not passed," said superintendent Dr. William Worl, "then we have the impact on staffing. We will look at all positions in terms of their relative importance, everything from administration to teachers to non-certified support staff."
He said the corporation would probably also defer building maintenance work, such as parking lots, paving, mechanical work and roof repairs.
"We don't want to impact kids, if we can, any more than necessary," Worl said.
But kids will be affected, said Warsaw superintendent Dr. Lee Harman, because if teachers are cut, classes will be larger.
Over the 2002-03 school year, Warsaw is expecting a total cut of $946,000, and Harman, like the others, hopes O'Bannon signs HB 1196.
"If not, we're looking at program and staffing reductions," he said. "We're going through contingency planning now."
The cut of $946,000 translates roughly to the equivalent of 25 teaching positions, Harman said.
"But we're looking at all kinds of cuts," he said. "Our intention will be to protect our instructional programs wherever possible."
He also said the cuts could have an effect on the corporation's proposed building program.
"The question is how long this might go on, if it's one year or more, but there's definitely some linkage there," he said.
Stock said part of the problem is that by law, school corporations must notify teachers to be laid off of their contract cancellation by May 1 or wait until the next year.
However, most administrators believe they won't find out about the final disposition of the issue until the middle of April, which leaves them very little time to make a decision.
"For virtually everyone right now, everything's virtually on hold until about the second week in April, then we'll all have about three weeks to decide," Stock said.
Worl expressed more annoyance about the situation.
"The government has transferred a tremendously large liability from the state back to the local taxpayer," he said. "It's just a clever guise to let the local taxpayer pay things, like teacher pensions ... and Social Security, that the state was obligated to pay."
Harman spoke for all the school administrators when he said, "We haven't seen anything like this in quite some time. Everybody's pretty anxious." [[In-content Ad]]
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Local school districts are weighing their options while adopting a wait-and-see attitude on Gov. Frank O'Bannon's budget cuts for the 2002 school year.
O'Bannon announced education budget cuts of $115 million statewide, and how that translates to individual school districts depends on whether or not the governor vetoes House Bill 1196. The bill, which passed the Legislature last week, would allow school districts to use money from some funds to make up for shortfalls in other funds.
Financing for each school district in Indiana goes into five basic funds: the General Fund, which is mainly salaries and benefits; the Capital Projects Fund, which pays for construction, rental, land acquisition and equipment maintenance; the Transportation Fund, which includes school buses and driver payroll; the Debt Service Fund, which handles payments on loans and bonds; and the Preschool Fund.
Under current laws, school districts cannot transfer money from one fund to another. However, under HB 1196, school corporations, to avoid teacher layoffs, could, for example, take money from the Capital Projects Fund to shore up the General Fund, which pays for teacher salaries.
But the governor has not yet signed HB 1196, and until the bill passes or is vetoed, school corporations are in a state of uncertainty as to their financial future.
"We don't know. That's the bottom line," said Mark Stock, superintendent of Wawasee schools, which is facing a cut of approximately $400,000.
Wawasee had planned to transfer CPF funds that were earmarked for computer lab updates to the General Fund and avoid teacher layoffs, Stock said.
"But if the governor is threatening to veto that bill, then we run into a situation where we have to cut from the General Fund and we have no choice but to cut personnel," he said.
A $400,000 cut, Stock said, is the equivalent of "14 teachers at the bottom of the scale."
Whitko schools expects to lose about $200,000 this year, and they, too, hope HB 1196 passes.
"If it's not passed," said superintendent Dr. William Worl, "then we have the impact on staffing. We will look at all positions in terms of their relative importance, everything from administration to teachers to non-certified support staff."
He said the corporation would probably also defer building maintenance work, such as parking lots, paving, mechanical work and roof repairs.
"We don't want to impact kids, if we can, any more than necessary," Worl said.
But kids will be affected, said Warsaw superintendent Dr. Lee Harman, because if teachers are cut, classes will be larger.
Over the 2002-03 school year, Warsaw is expecting a total cut of $946,000, and Harman, like the others, hopes O'Bannon signs HB 1196.
"If not, we're looking at program and staffing reductions," he said. "We're going through contingency planning now."
The cut of $946,000 translates roughly to the equivalent of 25 teaching positions, Harman said.
"But we're looking at all kinds of cuts," he said. "Our intention will be to protect our instructional programs wherever possible."
He also said the cuts could have an effect on the corporation's proposed building program.
"The question is how long this might go on, if it's one year or more, but there's definitely some linkage there," he said.
Stock said part of the problem is that by law, school corporations must notify teachers to be laid off of their contract cancellation by May 1 or wait until the next year.
However, most administrators believe they won't find out about the final disposition of the issue until the middle of April, which leaves them very little time to make a decision.
"For virtually everyone right now, everything's virtually on hold until about the second week in April, then we'll all have about three weeks to decide," Stock said.
Worl expressed more annoyance about the situation.
"The government has transferred a tremendously large liability from the state back to the local taxpayer," he said. "It's just a clever guise to let the local taxpayer pay things, like teacher pensions ... and Social Security, that the state was obligated to pay."
Harman spoke for all the school administrators when he said, "We haven't seen anything like this in quite some time. Everybody's pretty anxious." [[In-content Ad]]