As the nation slowly recovers from a recession that has affected millions, Missouri school districts face the difficult task of reducing their budgets and implementing cost cutting measures.
“Like most other districts in the state and across the country, we are facing challenges from the economy,” Shirley Broz, chief financial manager, said. “Currently, economic indicators do not point to an end to the down turn in the near future.”
Broz is a member of the Design Team, a group of individuals from the district in the superintendant’s cabinet who put together the list of proposed budget-saving options.
“Our list of proposed cuts at the present will ultimately take away $15 million from the budget, and we are trying to do that as fairly and equitably as possible,” Broz said.
Currently, the reduction of the building technology allocation budgets is placed as the number one priority on the proposed cost reduction options for the 2012-2013 school year. It is estimated to save $100,000 and will impact elementary, middle and high schools.
“This option involves a more limited spending budget for the maintenance of machines and renewal of machine contracts,” Keith Kinder, director of the school board, said. “However, there are other budget-saving options too and we are using stakeholder input to come to a final decision on what will be cut.”
On Tuesday, April 19, the Design Team met with stakeholders at Crestview Middle School to receive feedback about proposed cost reduction options and to speak with members of the community.
At the meeting, attendees completed cards detailing their opinion on the budget saving issue.
“The Design Team listened, read and discussed nearly 10,000 comments about many subjects,” Broz said. “The design team did reorder, clarify, remove and add items in response to suggestions received.”
Broz said the team received the most feedback about the elimination of the elementary strings program, which is currently at priority seven. In response, the design team reviewed the program for strings and reordered the strings option placement to a lower priority.
Taylor Smith, junior, attended the stakeholders meeting with his mother, Karen Smith, in response to the elimination of elementary strings orchestra. At one point during the meeting, Karen asked all parents who attended in support of orchestra to stand up.
“When she asked that, almost all the parents stood up and many applauded,” Smith said. “There was obviously a lot of support for the continuation of the elementary strings program.”
However, the proposed cost reduction options span far beyond technology and elementary strings. Rockwood has estimated that taxes will increase next year from $4.2752 to $4.3216, a 1 percent increase.
“We are not raising taxes too much; we are estimating that we will be raising them 5 cents in response to the decrease in assessed valuation,” Broz said. “We rolled back pennies of the levy in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.”
High schools could see the elimination of block scheduling, which also would extend the school day by seven minutes. If eliminated, the district is estimated to save $2,760,000.
“I think there is a potential for decreased learning in AP science classes because of decreased time,” Smith said, “But if that will save money I guess it’s not too big of a deal.”
But Suzy Jaworowski, guidance counselor, said the elimination of block scheduling would help ensure that more students are able to take the classes they want to take.
Superintendent Dr. Borchers said the district recognizes that regardless of which proposed cuts are approved for the FY13 school year, the district cannot please everybody.
“We are just trying to go about this as best as we can,” Dr. Borchers said.