Lynchburg schools weigh cuts, confront $6 million budget shortfall

Lynchburg City School Board mulled possible cuts to programs and staff Tuesday as it confronted a possible $6 million budget shortfall.

School administration officials presented pages of possibilities during Tuesday’s school board meeting. It was the board’s first in-depth planning session for its anticipated $84 million 2009-2010 budget.

“Nothing is considered safe,” Superintendent Paul McKendrick said, before presenting a lengthy report on possible cuts.

McKendrick said school administration has spent months examining possible cuts. He stressed officials have kept in mind several considerations: long-term savings, contributions to student achievement and cause and effect of any eliminated programs or staffers.

Possibilities to reduce costs included: cutting positions from administrative to clerical, elimination of future pay raises, field trip reductions or eliminations, mandated furloughs per employee, reduction in contract days for employees, reviewing rental rates, cutting capital allocations per school and cutting GED programs and evening classes from the two high schools.

McKendrick strongly emphasized the possibilities presented were informational — no action on cuts was taken at the meeting.

“All of this is based on a number of assumptions and one of those is that we won’t have any further cuts,” he said. “We hope this is going to get better, but there’s a possibility this is going to get worse.”

The figures used by city schools officials Tuesday were compiled based on federal and local funding remaining the same and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed budget, the hallmark of which is a new funding formula for support staff.

The formula would cap state spending on non-instructional personnel, such as school nurses or administrators or even maintenance workers. Under Kaine’s formula the state would fund one support position for every 4.03 instructional positions.

The measure is expected to save the state more than $340 million in the 2009-10 school year, when it would take effect. Virginia has not used a formula to fund support staff in the past but does use one, based on student-teacher ratios, to fund instructional staff.

The formula has generated the most controversy among education officials, because it’s been characterized as a permanent cut that will affect schools long after the economy recovers.

McKendrick said in FY09, city schools had about 250 state-funded support positions and under the governor’s formula, that number would shrink to about 158 positions. While it is not likely that 92 positions will be cut, the shortfall will mean some staff reductions.

“There are going to be recommendations in which people are in positions, jobs or programs where these recommendations are coming where the person could lose their job or be moved into another job,” McKendrick said, adding he is hopeful some positions can be reduced through attrition.

He urged board members to review the information. McKendrick said throughout the week he will meet with various departments and administrators, who have also been asked to comb through their budgets and make reductions.

The school board will meet Monday for a budget work session. It must have a basic, structural idea of its budget by Jan. 15 to send to City Council.

Tom Webb, school board vice chairman, said this year almost everyone will take a hit.

“We all have to be realistic,” he said. “We know we’ve got cuts to make, very difficult decisions, not taken lightly. I know the administration has worked days and days and days on this list of possibilities.”

In other news, the board:

- Announced an outside financial consultant has been hired to review the division’s finances during the last fiscal year and the first six months of the current fiscal year.

An annual audit of city finances showed a $400,000 deficit in the last fiscal year that school division officials were unaware of until the audit report was released. Education officials are expected to pinpoint the cause of the deficit and present financial findings to City Council Jan. 27.