District beats budget woes

EAST COUNTY — For the last year, Deputy Superintendent Don Hall hasn’t had much on his mind other than how to dig the Manatee County School District out of an $8.6 million hole.

Hall worked countless hours with a budget committee determined to find cost savings to bring the district out of debt, he said.

“I eat, sleep and breathe this budget. This has been my life for the last year,” Hall said to the Manatee County School Board at its meeting July 22.

Hall and the committee’s efforts haven’t been without reward.

School Board Chairwoman Julie Aranibar wore a smile at last week’s meeting as Hall presented the news that the school district not only broke through a wall of debt, but also ended the 2013-2014 school year with an estimated $4 million surplus.

The event marks the first budget surplus since the 2010-2011 school year.

“This is an amazing accomplishment,” Aranibar said. “We as a district are continuing to move in a positive direction.”

Hall said cuts used to achieve the savings will in no way hinder the group he is most concerned about — students.

However, East County teachers have had to modify annual programs to accommodate budget constraints. For example, Lakewood Ranch High School’s annual theater camp had to adjust to a four-day week schedule, compared with a five-day program. The district bumped the temperature in lesser-used areas of schools, especially throughout the summer when most of the buildings are not being used, up one degree to 77 degrees, Hall said.

The district also prohibited schools from running the air conditioning overnight, which prompted Gene Elementary to cancel its annual Music All-Nighter program and replace it with an alternative event.
According to the fiscal recovery report, the air-conditioning changes alone saved the district $369,065.
Hall and the school board are unsure how long the changes will stay in effect.

The path to balancing a budget, which district officials said was plagued by overspending and poor management dating back to 2005, was the culmination of across-the-board cost slicing and rearranging.

Hall credits the feat to the execution of the district’s fiscal recovery plan — a proposed four-phase breakdown of cost-saving initiatives by department.

The first phase of the plan rolled out June 2013.

Over the last year, Hall has scribbled and erased, eliminated and added teacher positions and salaries and other potential savings as new state mandates went into effect and demanded dollars from the budget.

The district initially planned to eliminate more than 180 teacher positions, but after the state released reports on the 100 lowest-performing schools statewide in reading, the Florida Department of Education said the district needed to add an hour of instruction time to five area schools.

The requirement cost the district an unforeseen $1.6 million.

With the final phase of the plan complete, Hall noted no single department took a greater hit than another.
But, the sale of district-owned parcels, closing schools and trimming the fat in transportation and other areas where the district thought money was “unnecessarily spent” helped.

For example, the balanced budget eliminated 15 school bus driver positions. The district operates 253 buses and staffs 280 drivers — a cushion thicker than the district needs, Hall said.

The cut, although small compared with the budget as whole, is one of many penny-pinching efforts Hall said proved key to budget balancing.

Other budget highlights include: the district closing Central High School, which freed up $1.5 million; the sale of the human resources department’s building, located at the corner of Manatee Avenue and First Street West; and the sale of property at Braden River and Bayshore high schools, which totaled $1.12 million.

Positive forecast
Ending one school year with a balanced budget helps kick off a healthy budget for the 2014-2015 school year.

At this point, the school district proposes a $12.5 million fund balance, which meets the state’s requirement of $10.3 million.

The school board unanimously agrees the school resource officer position requires more funding.

School Board member Dave Miner has felt strongly about the need to have a student resource officer on elementary school campuses; only middle and high schools have the official on campus throughout the school day currently.

“We need to find a way to protect our youngest and most vulnerable students,” Miner said.

Miner suggested apportioning $40,000 for bringing the position into elementary schools.

The district is still discussing the issue and how much money will go toward funding the initiative.

The district will meet from 5:45 to 8 p.m. July 31 for a public hearing to discuss the new budget.

Hall will dive deeper into the distribution of funds while addressing suggested changes from the school board.

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].