Walking into the Warsaw Schools budget forum Tuesday night, Dr. Kent Adams was not happy with what he saw.
Adams, a school board member, counted only 45 people in attendance. And when he asked how many of those present were not affiliated with Warsaw Community Schools, only four raised their hands.
Tuesday's budget forum was the first of two such meetings. The second is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 14 at Edgewood Middle School."It's disheartening when you walk in and count 45 people," Adams said. "We're talking about a $41 million budget. People need to get involved."
The budget reduction being made by the state is permanent. Warsaw Schools won't get the money back, he said.
"2011 will be tougher," Adams said, and tough decisions will have to be made. "We need to hear from you. The state revenue is going down. It's a fact of life. Can you imagine if one of our orthopedic companies would move out? The community would be devastated. ... Encourage your neighbors to come in and get involved."
The public forum started with Warsaw Schools Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz giving about the same presentation on the school corporation's budget as he gave during the March 22 school board meeting.
In 2008, WCS's revenue was $44,874,000, with expenses of $47,276,000. The corporation had a fund cash balance of $3,619,000 and a Rainy Day Fund balance of $2.4 million, leaving total cash available of $6.019 million.
With revenue of $44,212,000 in 2009 and expenses of $43,297,000, there was a net balance of $915,000. The fund cash balance was more than $4.5 million and the Rainy Day Fund balance was $2.4 million, leaving total cash available of $6,935,000.
For 2010, the school board approved budget expenses of $45,105,000 which was about $2.4 million over the revenue of $42,655,000. The fund cash balance was expected to be $2,085,000 with a Rainy Day Fund of $2.4 million. The total cash available was estimated at $4,4485,000.
Now with the state funding cuts for 2010, Warsaw Schools is expecting revenue of $40.774 million and expenses of $42.714 million, resulting in a deficit of $1.94 million. With the fund cash balance of about $2.6 million and Rainy Day Fund of $2.4 million, WCS still expects to have total cash available of almost $5 million.
Forecasting into 2011, expenses will be more than $43 million, or about $2.5 million more than the revenue WCS takes in. The fund cash balance is expected to be at a low $121,000, with the Rainy Day Fund remaining at $2.4 million. That would leave WCS with total cash available of about $2.5 million.
"The speculation is 2011 could be worse than 2010," Hintz said Tuesday. "Keep that in mind as we move forward."
On Dec. 1, Gov. Mitch Daniels was surprised by a $584 million state revenue shortfall in the first five months of fiscal year 2009-10. A month later, Daniels announced school budgets would be reduced by 3 percent from 2009 funding. It actually worked out to about a 5 percent reduction.
On March 4, Hintz said a non-scientific staff study was taken to gain feedback on budget adjustment ideas. One of the ideas was to sell unused buildings or equipment. Hintz said Tuesday the old Leesburg school has been assessed at $178,000, and the old Madison school assessed at $255,000.
"It's kind of sad, but that's what it's assessed for," Hintz said.
New Madison and Leesburg schools are being built, Claypool is being reopened and renovated, and Jefferson is being expanded.
The regular board of school trustees meeting will be April 26 and may vote on actions at that time for budget adjustments. At the May 24 regular school board meeting, the board may vote on cancellation of teacher contracts.
Hintz said schools represent 50 percent of the state budget. "The governor has indicated, from his point of view, he'd like to see that percentage even lower. Maybe 48 percent," said Hintz.
Indiana is facing a $1.8 billion deficit, and the state has missed revenue forecasts for 17 consecutive months.
When the meeting was opened up to public comments, teacher Deborah Locke said the timeline indicated the board may vote May 24 on teacher contracts being cancelled. "They won't know until then?" she asked. Teachers union representative Terry Sims said the deadline was April 15 for teachers to be notified.
Michael Byron asked about the reshaping of teachers' health care and medical plan, but Sims said that currently is in negotiations and no one was prepared to answer that question.
One idea being considered to help with budget reduction is to charge participation fees for students for extracurricular activities. Byron asked if the fee would be for athletics or all clubs. Hintz said he was personally of the opinion that the fees would apply to all activities. Byron said he had mixed feelings on the fees.
Gary Parker asked if there was any discussion on when buildings are open. He asked why people need to be in the schools on weekends and holidays.
Sherry Murphy said one of the talking points was taking a look at cutting jobs. Instead of cutting jobs, she asked if the school corporation could look at cutting people to part-time positions instead.
As for participation fees, Murphy said parents already pay textbook rental fees and it would be sad if the school corporation would charge fees across the board. It would eliminate some children from participating in extracurricular activities.
Physical education teacher Chris Boyd was concerned about Warsaw's commitment to physical education. Hintz said he personally was an advocate of continuing with physical education and health classes in the schools.
"We're talking about budget adjustments, but we have some other needs out there," Hintz said.
Every school has a physical education teacher, but there's less than that teaching music and art. He said a trade-off may be to have larger class sizes in order to have stronger arts programs. However, WCS have to be good stewards of their money.
Ninety percent of the general fund is in people, but there is no way they can guarantee class sizes, he said. In the future, Warsaw may have to increase class sizes, but Hintz said he was hoping that would not be dramatically.
"As resignations and retirements come in,, the first question we'll ask is if that position will be filled," Hintz said.
Sariah Morgan was involved in the corporation's redistricting process in hopes of class sizes going down. She said she was discouraged to hear what Hintz said about class sizes.
She did suggest that instead of always sending papers home with students, the school corporation could use technology to communicate with parents whenever possible.
Teacher Joanna Allison spoke against participation fees, while music teacher thanked Hintz for his stance on art education.
To make suggestions or ask questions about WCS's budget, or for more information, e-mail welisten@warsaw.k12.in.us
