By Barbara Brown

Financial strains for the North Branch School District were made real last Thursday when the school board received recommendations to cut nearly $3 million from the 2004-2005 school budget.

Because of changes in the stateís formulas for school funding, an overall state budget crunch and the failure of several referenda, the board is being forced to chop into the everyday operation of the district.

Projected deficits from the general fund for the coming year will be $2.84 million and budget problems are only expected to continue, said financial director Randi Johnson.

Johnson has forecasted an additional $3 million deficit for the 2005-2006 school year.

To help decrease the impact of the $2.8 million deficit for the immediate future, Johnson recommended that the council draw $1.8 million from the fund balance and adjust the budget for the coming year by $1.022 million.

The districtís overall budget is about $30 million per year. ìOne million in cuts is significant,î Johnson said to the school board during the March 11 meeting. ìThis is not something anyone in the administration wants and so we are not trying to present this to you as a good thing in anyway.î

Class size increases, program reduction and eliminations will occur, fees will go up and services to the students and community are some of the effects of budget adjustments.

Cuts by attrition will be taken in order to save the district from having to cut too many jobs, Johnson said. There are several staff who have retired and resigned or plan to do so this year and some staff are on leaves of absence.

Johnson said teaching and assistance jobs needed to avoid increases in class sizes for next year will not be advertised.

ìWe tried to stay away from classrooms as best we could,î Johnson said. ìBut the instructional budget is the biggest part of our budget.î

Cut distributions were shared equally between the districtwide budget and each of the school sites. About $521,000 was cut from the districtís budget and about $506,000 was reduced from site budgets.

Proposed Cuts

ï Classroom teachers
Save about $222,000; eliminate kindergarten, first, second, seventh and high school classroom teachers. Some are to be hired, some are on leave and may not return, some vacancies will be left by resignations and retirements.

ï Support teachers
Save about $154,000; impact on Primary School and high school. Eliminate gifted and talented position, eliminate technology specialist class and one one high school special education instructor.

ï Staff development:
Save about $173,000; usually districts are not allowed to cut training services without teacher approval but the state Legislature changed the rules for two years so that it was up to the district. This school year, nothing was budgeted for development. Next year staff will be given back some development to prepare for new standards released by state.

ï Curriculum and textbooks
Save about $200,000; district tries to replace entire math and reading series about every five years, but no textbooks will be replaced for the second time. New standards will force the district to buy new textbooks for some subjects next year.

ïBuildings and maintenance
Save about $101,000; change cleaning and maintenance crew to third shift and have them work overnight. District will not hire to fill two open full time slots.

ï Food service
Save $9,300; increase meal prices by 5 cents. Does not effect free and reduced lunches.

ï Activities
Increase revenues for a difference of about $37,000. Increase activity fees by 15 percent, reduce 8th grade football coaches by one, eliminate one International Club advisor, eliminate fall performance dance, winter cheerleading, 5th and 6th grade Knowledge Bowl and Students Against Destructive Decisions. Combine 7th through 12th speech, boys soccer and girls golf.

ï Chemical health coordinator
Save $48,500; duties including crisis intervention, placement, curriculum, smoking cessation and the Touch Play will be reassigned to other staff.

ï Administration
Save about $82,000; reduce Alternative Learning Center principal to half-time which coincides with leave request, combine three ALC and distance learning positions into two, do not fill position of special education paraprofessional who left district.

The Community Education fund also took a huge hit for the coming year. It will lose more than 10 percent of its budget ñ $82,000 for the 2004-2005 year.

The administration had to adjust the budget for Community Education by $45,000 and reduce an expectation of grants by $25,500.

Johnson suggested the fund balance for Community Education be drawn down by $37,000.

Budget adjustments will include $11,000 from the general community education fund and $34,000 from the early childhood program. Reductions due to lost funding sources, like grants, would be divided by the Stacy Family Center at $22,000, which will be closed, and adolescent parenting resources at $3,500.

Participation fees for community education programs are expected to go up and budgets for supplies and materials will take a hit with the budget adjustment.

Requests for additional staff are still on the table for the board. The administration requested that additional positions be added to several areas in response to increased enrollment.

They include: two classroom teachers, which were in the budget; one high school counselor who is needed to take the load off the other counselors.

The position was divided between the other two counselors when Lora OíHern was transferred to the middle school as assistant principal. Also, federal money will pay for an additional early childhood special education teacher.

The technology support person budgeted for the 2005-2006 year will be moved up one year and part time reading teachers will be hired to keep enrichment reading classes at manageable numbers.

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