Clinton School District Budget Picture for 2008-09 May 8, 2008 The Clinton School District is in the process of final balancing for the 2008-09 budget cycle. The cuts have been made, with the saving grace being an increase in open enrollment students. In November of 2007, the administration and Board began discussing what cuts would have to be made, as determining those figures has become an annual event. This budget cycle was to be more difficult because the 2007-08 school year saw a drop for the Clinton School District in 49 FTE (full-time equivalency) students – a 4% decrease. “The difficult item for staff and community to understand with that number however, is that total enrollment did not decrease by 4%, rather only .56%. As far as the number of children in the schools, in 06-07 we had approximately 1247 on the count day and in 0708 we have 1240. The difference is that the revenue limit is based on a formula which includes subtracting non-residents from the count, and the revenue limit is the state imposed maximum amount of revenue a school may raise through state general aid and property tax” stated business manager Kathy Zwirgzdas. So, while the population of students is relatively stable, both a greater number of students are moving outside of the District and choosing to stay enrolled in Clinton, and the District is drawing new students in from neighboring districts. Since 2001-02, here are the numbers for open enrolled in students: Clinton Schools Open Enrollment IN School Year No. of Students 01-02 9 02-03 18 03-04 30 04-05 30 05-06 47 06-07 70 07-08 89 “While I am happy that students are choosing open enrollment into the Clinton School District, it is a tentative number to rely on for budget. With gas prices increasing, parents may stop transporting to the District and can withdraw their children at any moment. Also, the revenue limit formula benefits the District in budget dollars at an amount greater (approx $9,000) than the open enrollment amount (approx. $6,000). Still the District would be in worse fiscal stress without the open enrollment. The target amount of cuts this year was $387,000. This number calculated in November came from several factors. First, in a stable enrollment year, the Clinton District’s history is approx $200,000 of cuts each year. This is based on a revenue limit increase of approximately 3%, and salaries and utilities increasing approx 4 – 4.5% each year. Because of the drop of 49 FTE students in the revenue limit formula, another $112,949 declining enrollment exemption from the 07-08 budget year needed to be added to the
deficit. This brought the cut amount to $312,949. In addition, the administration and Board wanted to bring back a full-time Agriculture position if enrollment in classes warranted the increase, and a long-term sub position was going to need to be a full-time position in the 08-09 school year, so the proposed adds increased the target amount by $75,000. Therefore, the District looked to reduce its budget by a grand total of $387,949 in the upcoming 2008-09 school year. The long, difficult discussions began in administrator meetings and Board meetings. In the end, recommendations came and went to meet that target number. Three FTE positions of staff were reduced: a 4th grade class position, a middle school position due to a reduction in spec ed needs and a change to eliminate 5th grade health, and an elementary Title I position which is being realigned to service Title I needs in other ways. None of the staff in those positions are losing their jobs – rather are switching to open positions within the District due to attrition or vacancies. A consultant for LVEC programming is also being reduced with those tasks being incorporated into current administrator duties. All of these cuts saved approx $182,000. The District also had some budgeted items from the 07-08 school year that are one-time expenses and therefore were not needed in 08-09. “We were able to incorporate some extra projects into the 07-08 budget because open enrollment in September of 07 was higher than expected, and the state budget once it finally settled late was higher than expected. We were able to increase the textbook budget, purchase property, hire an architect for the upcoming referendum and conduct a geothermal feasibility study. Those items are cut out of the 08-09 budget – a savings of $136,860. Again, the savings grace for 08-09 can also be found in open enrollment. With a mildly conservative estimate for 08-09, open enrollment is approximated at this time to increase by $36,000. “We won’t know until September the definite amount, and at approx $6,000 a student this number changes wildly with students choosing to attend or not, but we are building a tentative increase of $36,000 into the budget now.” Last, the principals of each building at the District agreed to decrease their budgets, for a total of $24,000 and 1.5 FTE of aides will be reduced for a savings of approx $30,000. All of these figures bring the amount of reduction to $408,860, enough to meet the decrease of $312,949 and the proposed increases in staff of $75,000.