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• Superintendent's 2010-11 Operating Budget Message <br />As we prepare the 2010-11 operating budget request to the Board of County Commissioners, <br />we find ourselves in a position similar to where we were last year at this time. The County <br />Commissioners, once again, are speaking about holding the line on tax rate increases. With <br />burgeoning capital debt payments, staffmg of new county facilities, and lagging revenue <br />collections, this translates into the likelihood of the two school systems' per-pupil <br />appropriation remaining the same or, perhaps, even decreasing as it did last year. <br />Consequently, for the most part, the budget process this year becomes one characterized by <br />finding ways to reduce spending more so than proposing how to enhance the quality of <br />education for our community's children. In the past four years, the school district has made <br />reductions in expenditures totaling more than $4.3 million in its operating budget. This has <br />been done to adjust to declining appropriations and to free up funds for other purposes; <br />whether they be program enhancements or mandated expenditures. After making deep <br />reductions last year, we find it increasingly difficult to identify further reductions that won't <br />impact the delivery of instructional services. <br />Unlike last year, I am proposing that we not take steps to prepare for the worst-case budget <br />scenario. Although this process worked fairly well last year, it is unsettling to teachers and <br />other staff to have the threat of losing their positions hanging over their heads. I recommend <br />that we make decisions regarding the reductions that we now know we'll need to make, <br />• notify any affected staff, and then monitor budget developments in Raleigh and locally from <br />that point on. This may mean that a limited number of our staff could be subjected to our <br />Reduction in Force policy over the summer. It also could mean more severe spending <br />freezes next year to achieve savings necessitated by last minute decisions in Raleigh. <br />The basis for our budget is the identification of a continuation budget that would provide <br />funding to continue the current level of services. As a result of direction that we received <br />from the Board of Education at its February planning conference, we also are including some <br />expansion items in our budget that will be offset by reductions in the central office budget. <br />The result is a total budget request that is less than what our continuation budget would be, <br />but does require an increase of $62 (2%) per student in the County's per-pupil appropriation. <br />Local Revenues <br />This recommended budget is based on the need for local revenues totaling $60,165,493. It <br />would require a $62 increase in the county per-pupil appropriation next year and funding for <br />94 additional students, which will increase our state projected enrollment to 11,834 students. <br />This would provide us with an increase in the county appropriation of $1,023,864. The <br />County has indicated that the district tax base is projected to be flat next year; no inflationary <br />increase at all. The total increase from all local revenue sources would be $1,087,077. In <br />addition, our auditors have advised us to budget reimbursements that we receive from UNC- <br />Chapel Hill for the Hospital School and reimbursements from the County for nurses as <br />revenues; however, matching expense increases in our operating budget offsets them. If we <br />include these revenues, then our projected revenue increase for 2010-11 is $1,761,012. <br />r ~ <br />L_J <br />3 <br />