Budget giving Danville school officials headaches

The $5.2 million budget shortfall facing the Danville Public Schools has been giving school officials headaches as they try to come up with where to cut spending.

Many are worried that a lot of the programs and activities for students are going to have to go.

“Everything is on the table,” said assistant superintendent Kathy Osborne.

On Thursday, school board officials told the Danville City Council they have considered closing some school buildings for an estimated $2.4 million savings. An official budget has not been proposed and officials cannot verify which schools may be shutting down. The most likely candidates would be one or more of the nine elementary schools.

Woodrow Wilson Elementary had the lowest number of students last year at 206 and Park Avenue Elementary had the most students at 432. If a school was closed, students would have to be divided up and positions would inevitably be cut.

However, administrators said a large number of layoffs would not be possible since there have already been 81 positions cut in the past three years.

There are mandates about how many students must be in a class. At high poverty elementary schools, the maximum number of students in a class is 15. In most middle and high schools classes, the maximum is 35. Many classrooms are already at their maximum capacity and teachers are needed.

The state has a mandate for classroom size, but it does not provide funding specifically for teachers for this.

Where was funding lost?

The governor’s proposed budget actually increased money given to education for next year. However, the increase was offset by a hike in school’s contributions to the Virginia Retirement System. This will cost the division more than $2 million.

The VRS rates are set for next year and the school system is expected to make the contributions all at once. However, this is a statute and can be changed.

There is also $1.8 million in federal stimulus money that is no longer available. Osborne said because they knew the stimulus money would not be around, it was put into specific projects and not personnel.

The local ability to pay also went up, after an increase in property values. This added an expected $427,000 to local funding and decreased what the state provides.

Another factor is the state projects a decrease of 112 students next year in the school system, reducing state revenue by $586,000. However, this is a projection and school officials say the actual number of student loss will be fewer.

One of the funding cuts that make no sense to many school officials and board members is the $871,000 reduction in state revenue from federal stimulus money the division received in 2010.

Osborne said she did not understand how this reduction was determined even after inquiring about it several times.

Funding from the Virginia Lottery is also given to education, but it does not pay for everything. In 2011, the lottery provided $444 million in proceeds for education. But this is a small percentage of the state’s overall education budget. And whatever the amount of lottery money is given to the school system, the same amount it taken out in state funding. So lottery money does not provide a bonus.

And much of this funding is ear-marked for certain types of expenditures.

The governor’s budget proposal is not final. However, the loss in stimulus money and the VRS rates are not expected to change.

School officials are currently looking at many different alternatives to how to balance the budget, but as it stands, whatever changes they make will be “drastic,” according to school board vice chairman Ed Polhamus.