Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
REBECCA CATALANELLOOfficials say the new state budget provides some help, but they will still be at least $10.3-million short.
Two days after state legislators passed a $53.5-billion annual budget, Pasco County's school finance chief estimated the district would be facing a $10.3-million to $13.8-million shortfall for the coming school year.
It's smaller than a $16.8-million ballpark figure thrown out weeks ago during the heat of lawmakers' budgetary bickering, but Chief Finance Officer Chuck Rushe said it's still a serious shortfall. "I think they're still pretty substantial numbers," Rushe said. "It's going to be hard to find cuts deep enough to make that. We think we run pretty lean."
Rushe and Superintendent John Long said they hope in the next few weeks to involve district administrators, principals and teachers union officials in developing a plan to scale back costs in response to the new budget figures.
They hope to have a concrete plan for cuts in time for the school board's June 17 meeting.
With 54,595 students, the Pasco County School District has been operating in 2002-03 with a $327-million general fund, the bulk of which comes from the state.
Though the district is expecting a $22-million boost in state funding over last year, about $10-million of that must go toward reducing class size in local schools.
Pasco County is due to receive $306-million from the state in 2003-04, a 7.7 percent increase over the previous year.
Long and Rushe have maintained that the remaining increase will not be enough to compensate for a projected 2,000-student influx without sacrificing other educational services.
"I don't believe that when parents across this state voted for the class size amendment, they thought that we would end up in a situation where other programs for their kids would have to be cut in order to fund it," Long said Wednesday.
While past discussions have revolved around eliminating non-teaching positions to compensate for the shortfall, Long and Rushe both said this week that they hope to absorb the cuts through attrition before turning to staffing layoffs.
"Getting $10-million more out of the budget is not going to be an easy task, but we're going to try hard," Rushe said.
School finance officials determined the projected shortfall late in the day Thursday, after poring over legislation to determine its full impact on the budget.
Sometimes, after the laws are finalized, there are unexpected surprises, Rushe said.
Rushe said he believed the final figure would be close to $10.3-million, but was uncertain late Thursday whether figures provided by the state included an additional $3.5-million increase in insurance costs. Rushe said he hoped to have that clarified in time for the school board's Tuesday meeting.
When the district was projecting the shortfall would be closer to $16.8-million, it warned 291 non-classroom teachers or 598 support employees positions could be on the line. Rushe was unwilling to make a revised staffing estimate Thursday.
"If I look back at the way we have done this in the past, we will protect the kids as best we can," he said.
Long said he expected to continue a hiring freeze at the district administration level before turning to make cuts at local schools.
Administrators expect to begin hammering out the 2003-04 Pasco County budget in the next few months, with a final budget expected to be approved by the first week in September.
- Rebecca Catalanello covers education in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6241 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6241. Her e-mail address is rcatalanello@sptimes.com