Agenda - 04-27-2010 - Attachment 3

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~~~~~~- ~ Superintendent's 2010-2011 Budget Message The Board of Education's budget planning activity for the 2010-2011 fiscal year is occurring in a climate of decreasing revenues and increasing costs. Recessionary economic conditions continue to limit both state and local governments' revenues and their ability to increase appropriations for K-12 education. Like school systems across the state, we are facing a period of diminished appropriations, while incurring increased costs associated with health insurance, enrollment growth, retirement contributions, and essential student services. To maintain the strength of our educational program, I am recommending that Orange County Schools request a current local expense budget of $22,795,848 for district operational support. This represents aper-pupil allocation of $3,096 per student, equal to the amount funded for the 2009-2010 school year. The state has projected that the district's enrollment will be 7,192 students, which is an increase of 185 students over the previous year. With the same per pupil spending, the county's appropriation would increase by $591,336 over last year's funding level. Maintaining the current per pupil allocation will allow the district to offset some state cuts and maintain academic intervention and curriculum support designed to raise achievement and simultaneously close achievement gaps. This level of per-pupil funding will allow the district to focus on student needs and counteract the detrimental cuts to state funding that will impact some of our most at-risk students. The district will distribute $120,000 among our schools to provide tutoring, re-teaching, Saturday School and other interventions to struggling students. Additionally, the per pupil allocation will allow Orange County Schools to maintain class sizes in grades K-3, absorb increased employee benefit costs and provide additional dollars for student learning needs. To further mitigate the negative impact of projected state reductions in funding, I have proposed a series of steps designed to cut costs while protecting classroom expenditures. These include freezing currently vacant district-level positions, utilizing state funding flexibility (SB202) to save local dollars, consolidating administrative positions and initiating cost-containment measures. I propose that an additional $275,794 be targeted for five essential curricular service initiatives, all of which are focused on student needs. • 1. The district will expand fiuiding for exceptional children's academic support efforts such as extended learning time, reading/math interventions and assistive software packages. 2. We will also allocate funding to build on our successful efforts to improve graduation rates, while increasing funding to maximize our summer dropout recovery efforts. 3. The district will expand the academically gifted program which will be a very important part of our efforts to strengthen gifted education in the district. 4. We will initiate a program which will provide academic support for students who are suspended for the short- term. 5. The funding will also allow the district to expand the AVID program to further support our high school students. Orange County Schools' state appropriation is projected to be $36 million, a decrease of $806,471 from last year's funding level. These state cuts include the elimination of textbook funding ($280,457), driver education funding ($170,910) and additional discretionary reductions ($409,104). It should be noted that these projected decreases are based upon Department of Public Instruction planning allotments and the state's revenues are well below projections. As a result, the governor's proposed budget includes a 4% ($1,400,000) reduction in funding for education. During the current budget cycle, the state's appropriations to Orange County Schools were reduced by 4.7 million dollars. Although federal stabilization funding (scheduled to end in 2011) did provide some relief, Orange County Schools was still forced to lower costs through position cuts, program reductions and hiring freezes. In response to state and local funding cuts last year, the district trimmed program funding, phased .out under- enrolled programs and lowered payroll costs by freezing salaries and reducing positions. The majority of these reductions were made to district supervisory/ administrative positions, non-instructional support, textbooks, professional development and transportation. By structuring our cuts in these areas, the district was able to protect vital classroom teaching positions. District-wide, only two teaching positions were lost, allowing us to keep class sizes low and, ultimately, reducing the negative impact on our students. The Orange County Board of Education has taken major steps to reduce costs while protecting the most important nit -our classrooms. The district remains committed to minimizing the effect of the budget cuts on classroom instruction and efficiently utilizing all available resources in order to provide our students with an outstanding educational experience.