Budget shortfall may mean staff cuts
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Though it will be a while before SAD 1 sees preliminary revenue figures from Augusta, district officials are bracing for another challenging financial year.
“Hopefully we’ll get some numbers that we can share at our February meeting, and in the meantime we’ll go to work on the expenditure side,” said Superintendent Gehrig Johnson, “but what we do know is that the size of the problem is large. The last three years were challenging, and we don’t anticipate the 2012-13 fiscal year being any better.
“We also know that we need about $800,000 more to keep the status quo. We need that to give for cost of living increases and to pay what we anticipate will be higher fuel bills,” he said. “Very, very preliminary figures show a potential loss of $300,000-$500,000 from the state which means we’re going to need to address a shortfall of $1.2 million-$1.3 million. That’s not going to be fun.”
Johnson reminded directors at the Jan. 18 meeting that the district has weathered similar storms before, but noted “it doesn’t get easier because as the problem gets bigger, the options become fewer.”
“We know we’re talking about personnel cuts; almost 80 percent of our budget is personnel costs and we know we’re looking at a reduction in staff across the board,” he said. “We can’t delay on the personnel reduction side past February because we need to give legal notice to those affected, so we’ll look at the whole situation internally in anticipation of bringing you something at our Feb. 15 meeting.
“The board has told me that they want a budget that does not cause a tax increase if at all possible,” he said. “Next month I will bring you a proposal that gets us to where we need to be and do it with the least possible impact on kids; however, I cannot promise that it won’t be without a tax increase included. At some level, when you have to cut staff, it starts compromising our ability to offer the quality education that we do.”
Johnson stressed to the board that the district’s number-one goal is to “make cuts that are the farthest away from having a direct impact on children.”
“We’re not going to get discouraged,” he said. “We’ve been in this situation before and we’ll do what’s best for the students.”
Also at last week’s meeting, directors accepted the resignation of Aaron Buzza, who had been the manager of the SAD 1 Educational Farm.
The Feb. 15 board meeting will be held at 5 p.m. at Presque Isle Middle School.
