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Good news, bad news on funding for schools

Despite more district money, Hernando's per-student funding may still be near the bottom in the state.

By TOM MARSHALL
Published June 7, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - There will be about $28-million in additional funding for Hernando County public schools during the coming year.

But there will also be more students - 1,627 more of them, if district projections prove accurate.

And when those two figures are merged, officials believe the county's per-student funding will likely remain near the bottom of all counties in Florida.

Finance director Deborah Bruggink spent an hour Tuesday walking School Board members through the state's intricate funding mechanism in an effort to explain why Hernando is projected to rank second-to-last among the state's 67 school districts with $6,439 per student.

Only Suwannee County ranks lower on that list, while neighboring Citrus and Pasco counties place 40th and 30th with $6,670 and $6,767 respectively in per-student funding.

One significant reason for the disparity lies in Hernando's lower rates of state reimbursement for special education students, Bruggink said.

Just half a percent of Hernando students are in the higher-paying Level 4 or 5 categories for students with the most severe disabilities, while 1.1 percent of Pasco students and 1.3 percent of Citrus students fall into those categories. The state average is 1 percent.

"You hope you're appropriately identifying students, but it does make you say, 'Would our kids be that different from everybody else's kids?' " Bruggink said later. "It appears, in essence, that we have fewer of those children."

Whether there really are fewer severely disabled students in Hernando than in neighboring counties is a mystery that both district and state officials are pondering, she said. But for the moment, it means about 2.4 percent less funding for the county's schools.

Officials said Pasco also receives more state funding due to a higher cost of living under the state formula.

Despite the increased 2006-07 funding for Hernando, Bruggink cautioned that a good portion of the additional revenue may need to be used to pay for fixed-cost increases. Fuel costs are expected to grow by 10 percent, and property and casualty insurance is expected to increase by a full 50 percent, she said.

Officials are also determined to set aside a larger percentage of the budget for emergencies, after a state audit last fall described the district's "decline in its financial condition" due to low reserves.

The district's unreserved fund balance slipped from 3 percent in 2003 to 2 percent in 2005. The state average is about 8 percent.

By comparison, Citrus has maintained a 4 to 5 percent reserve in recent years, said Citrus finance director Sam Hurst.

Bruggink said if Hernando manages to set aside a 2.5 percent reserve, it could meet perhaps two weeks of expenses in the event of a hurricane or other emergency.

Superintendent Wendy Tellone has said she supports such a goal.

"I don't believe in a huge balance, because you need to be spending money for the students," she said last month. "But I do believe in a basic fund balance that, in emergencies, might get us past four days."

But Brian Phillips, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, said his union would not support such an allocation if it came at the expense of salary increases for its members.

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1431.

[Last modified June 7, 2006, 07:19:59]