School district adjusting to shortfall

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 4, 2003

The Austin School District is making up $247,000 for the 2003-04 school year to account for changes in state aid.

Superintendent Corrine Johnson said those cuts have either been made or will be made soon. The district has been keeping up on progress in the legislature, and they had planned on dealing with those figures.

"I stand by the old philosophy that 90 percent of what the governor has in his budget comes to fruition, and that's pretty much what happened here," she said.

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To make up for the deficit, the district has eliminated a total of 2.7 positions in the schools. Those cuts were approved at the May 8 school board meeting.

Additional cuts have yet to be approved, but they are basically set, Johnson said, and mainly entail a variety of line-item reductions.

Despite the difficulties, schools were cut less than most organizations in the state.

"True, schools have come out very well," Johnson said. "When other agencies are being cut 20 percent and we're being cut 2 percent, that's pretty good."

However, Johnson said the schools have difficulty dealing with cuts because they can not generate revenue like other organizations can. She said increasing students is the only way to bring in money, and the district has seen a decline in enrollment recently. They lost 37 students this year.

Inflation hits particularly hard, so even staying with the same budget from one year to the next translates into a cut.

"The bottom line always is you look at inflationary costs," Johnson said. "That's huge. That's what you have to plan for down the road."

One thing that has helped the school deal with the cuts is the tax levy that kicked in this year, supplying $1.1 million a year for 10 years. Without that, Johnson said, the district would have been in serious trouble. When it passed, Johnson said everyone thought that would take care of any financial problems. But when the situation in the state became evident, that levy proved to be the key to keeping the schools afloat.

"That is so important in the financial stability of the district," she said. "The board truly though that was going to be additional revenue needed to stop all the cuts that have been going on."

Early adjustments helped as well. When the problem became clear, the schools trimmed all of their budgets down this year.

"We didn't increase anybody's budget," Johnson said. "Nobody got any more."

Matt Merritt can be reached at 434-2214 or by email at :mailto:matt.merritt@austindailyherald.com