Dec. 22, 2008

Education cuts deeper than even Johnson expected

By Scott Wright

CENTRE — In the wake of last week's announcement by Gov. Bob Riley of deep cuts in the state's $6.3 billion education budget for fiscal year 2009, administrators across Alabama are scrambling to find ways to make ends meet. Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Brian Johnson is no exception.

Johnson said he was prepared for the budget cuts. But even with Riley's plan to dig into reserve funds to supplement the losses, there is still a much bigger funding gap than even Johnson was expecting.

“Superintendents across the state were probably shocked because we had been hearing about the possibility of proration for 6-8 months,” Johnson said. “But the high number anyone heard was, maybe, 6 or 7 percent, and the low number was 4 or 5 percent.”

Johnson said those early projections, combined with promises of a supplement from the state's $437 million “rainy day” fund, had he and other school officials in Alabama hoping the funding shortfall could be dealt with relatively easily.

Unfortunately, because of the condition of the overall economy, the cuts wound up being much steeper than anticipated.

“When the number came out to be 12.5 percent, I think everyone was really shocked,” Johnson said. “Even bringing it down to 9 percent with the money from the rainy day fund… That's still a substantial amount, obviously.”

Johnson said the fault doesn't lie with Gov. Riley, who is only following state law that prohibits deficit spending.

“I think he's doing the cuts on the high side, to make sure we will be OK,” Johnson said. “I've been told that the governor may use the rest of the rainy day fund later this fiscal year to try and get proration down to about 5 percent if the economy doesn't improve.”

Johnson said the cuts mean around $1.5 million less for the county school system during the 2009-10 school year. Luckily, Johnson and the Board of Education members can access a $2 million reserve fund that he said can and probably will be used to prevent major spending cuts in Cherokee County, at least in the near term.

But first, they're going to trim the budget as much as possible.

“The board members and I have a work session planned, and we are going to look at every single expenditure,” he said. “We will try to make sure we take care of the things we need the most, then we'll look at our wants.”

Johnson said he has already had people ask if several million dollars worth of construction projects the county has undertaken in recent months will be affected by proration.

“Our construction projects will go ahead as scheduled and they will be completed as scheduled,” Johnson said. “That is local money that has been secured because the voters of this county approved an extension of our millage taxes. These state budget cuts will have no affect on the construction projects, at all.”

Johnson said the fewer dollars from Montgomery may mean that personnel the school system would like to add will have to wait. But because of the reserve fund, he said there are no concerns about meeting salaries for current faculty and staff.

“We may have to tighten up some in the spring when the school year is over but we will not have a problem meeting payroll,” he said. “We're fortunate in that respect.”

Still, Johnson warned that the economic woes aren't limited to Alabama or even the U.S.

“We're in the middle of a global economic crisis,” he said. “But this school system is going to tighten its belt and we're going to make it through. Our number one goal is to educate children and increase academic achievement, and we're going to stay positive and continue to do that.”