The Board of Education sent a memo to all employees on March 17 indicating it would build next year’s budget without raising class size or taxes, and without making changes to the high school block schedule. The Board reiterated in its communication the need to reduce programs as well as administrative and non-classroom personnel costs by $17.5 million. Without these reductions, we can’t balance the budget in a sustainable way. The Board has directed the administration to proceed to identify areas of reduction.
Reducing personnel costs to help balance our budget is a very difficult, unpleasant task. Budgetary cuts will affect individuals who have given many outstanding years of service and dedication to Jordan School District. Reducing programs means laying off employees. Laying off employees means there will be fewer people remaining who will be required to do more work. Simply put, some work just won’t be done in as timely a manner as in the past. Some work may not be done at all.
A review of our current non-teaching personnel shows that we haven’t proportionately reduced support staff to coincide with our current student population. Being over-staffed doesn’t mean we aren’t appreciative of the work being accomplished by many employees. To the contrary, the quality of work has been exceptional. It’s a matter of bringing costs in line with dramatically reduced revenues. Every agency, both governmental and private across the State and nation, is going through a similar process and making needed adjustments.
The end goal of the Board of Education is to begin the 2010-11 fiscal year with a balanced, stable, sustainable budget – one that doesn’t require repeated attention to fill an ongoing deficit. This will be in the best interest of the District and its patrons over the long term. I am very optimistic we will be able to build a sound budget that will enable us to “build” versus “downsize” District programs and services in the future.
The beginning of May will be the time when the Board and administration will finalize the needed budget reductions. We also anticipate a court ruling on the implementation of the District Reduction in Force policy around the same time. I’m asked every day if we are going to make it through. The answer is, “Yes!” and we will be back on a solid financial footing. At the same time, our hope and optimism are tempered by the reality of the loss of jobs by valued employees.
Because of the State Legislature and decisions made early last year by the Board of Education, our options to mitigate our financial situation are much improved over projections that were forecast in the fall. For these things we are very appreciative. ★