With mandated smaller classes taking most of the state money, other items, such as Energy and Marine Center, fall to the budget ax.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published June 18, 2003
LAND O'LAKES - Faced with the smallest per-pupil funding increase in the state, Pasco County School Board members voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve $10.3-million in cuts for next school year.
Board member Marge Whaley exhorted the public to contact legislators to ensure that such cuts aren't necessary again.
"If people are quiet and complacent, then we can expect the same thing," Whaley said.
Among other results, Tuesday's action effectively closes the 29-year-old Energy and Marine Center in Port Richey, eliminates 94 staff positions, raises athletic fees for parents of middle and high school students and discontinues one of three district programs targeted at preventing teen pregnancy.
"There's no question that all these cuts will have an impact," said Bob Dorn, district administrator over secondary schools, addressing the concerns of a library specialist who told the board she worried that the cuts would leave Land O'Lakes High School students underserved.
Though legislators alloted the Pasco County School District $22-million more in 2003-04 compared with the year before, Superintendent John Long and his staff had to trim $10.3-million due to state mandated expenses that are exceeding the new revenues.
Under a state law passed this summer, the district must spend $10-million on additional classroom teachers to help reduce teacher-pupil ratios in individual classrooms.
"The general public is going to have a hard time understanding that we're out there hiring teachers with all our might and at the same time, we're . . . laying people off," Chuck Rushe, chief financial officer for the school district, told board members.
In the end, the legislature's allocation for Pasco County came to a 3.16 percent more per student over last year - the smallest per-pupil increase in all 67 school districts. But after the state-required programs are paid for out of the additional funds, Rushe said, the total allocation left over was $1.18-million less than it was in 2002-03. And that doesn't take into account increased expenses because of growing student enrollment.
Pasco County, one of the fastest-growing districts in the state, is expecting to enroll an additional 2,400 students this fall.
The district currently operates under a $586-million budget. The budget for 2003-04 isn't expected to be finalized until August.
"I'm really depressed about the whole thing," said Gary Perkins, manager of the Energy and Marine Center for about two decades. Perkins walked out of the meeting with his straw hat in his hands and his wife by his side.
One of eight administrators who were included in the cuts, Perkins said he was unsure where in the system he would go.
"I may be going to Pizza Hut," he said with a chuckle.
In other business Tuesday night, the School Board approved plans to purchase a $1.39-million, 45-acre tract of land in southwest Pasco County for a future middle school. The money comes from the capital outlay budget.
The school, which would be located at the north end of Sweetbriar Drive, approximately one-fourth of mile north of Anclote, would relieve overcrowding at Gulf and Seven Springs middle schools.
- 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
