St. Mary schools borrow $2.1M

The St. Mary Parish School Board intends to borrow $2.149 million from its reserves to balance the 2010-11 operating budget.

But that’s after making millions of dollars worth of cuts – due in large part to recent tax decreases, low-yielding investments and more than $26 million in state cuts.

The board has $16.324 million in its coffers. After balancing this year’s school budget, it will be left with $14.174 million.

According to Alton Ray Perry, the board’s chief executive officer, the school system is facing a myriad of issues. He told school board members at last week’s regular meeting that the school district was left with a 533,215 in deficit spending from the 2009-10 school year. In addition, the district stands to receive $150,000 less in sales taxes, $225,000 less in property taxes and a $125,000 drop in interest earned on board investments.

Teamed with a $603,262 drop in state Minimum Foundation Program funding and a $94,585 reduction in state funds to provide bus transportation to non-public school students, Perry said the school district’s reserves could continue to dwindle.

“We have another big hit we have to overcome, a $2.175 million increase in teacher retirement and, frankly, I don’t see any relief in sight. It’s going to be worse next year,” Perry said. “But keep in mind, we messed with this budget a long time, trying to cut the least from the classrooms, and I think we did the best we could.”

At Thursday’s budget workshop meeting, the board made additional cuts. Most notably, 22 teachers and seven paraprofessional staffers – all of whom are non-certified – will be nixed before the start of the school year.

According to the district’s human resources director, Ricky Armelin, the cuts will save the school district $1.4 million.

Last week’s budget woes are in far contrast to the initial report presented by Perry in April. At that time, St. Mary Parish looked to be the Tri-parishes only school district not forced to consider teacher or staff layoffs. With $9.1 million in its contingency fund, Perry told board members the district was well positioned to handle emergencies.

“We will not have any layoffs before we start the 2010-11 school year,” Perry announced in April. However, he later clarified the statement, saying the district had implemented its Reduction In Force policy. The district had intended to lower its employee numbers through attrition, meaning if a teacher or supervisor had retired or elected to leave the school district, the position would likely go unfilled.

Armelin said Thursday’s cuts were made in the wake of the RIF policy.

The board also elected to cut $500,000 in textbooks; $240,000 for smart boards in the high schools; $54,000 in staff development; and $50,000 in special education salaries. School principals will also be expected to monitor the use of utilities, which could save the school district about $300,000 collectively, according to Perry.

“We have to start disclosing these cuts to our principals so that they can start planning,” board member Edward Payton said.

Although the future of the district’s spending is still unknown, Perry said some cuts cannot be permanent.

“Keep in mind that next year, we’re going to have to find $500,000 for textbooks, because we’re going to need it,” Perry said.

During the recent legislative session, state lawmakers opted to cut salary supplements to St. Mary’s 20 nationally board-certified teachers. The parish must still fund its portion of the pay – $5,000 per teacher.

“It’s just a shame the state puts in a program like this that encourages teachers to go back to school and get nationally certified to become better teachers for all of our children and then pulls the funding,” said board member Mike Taylor. “It’s not fair to our teachers and it’s not fair to our local districts that have to fund it.”