BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

CHERRYVALE — Grim faces were prevalent around the USD 447 Board of Education meeting table Monday after board members discussed budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.

Reductions in state support for public schools is prompting the school board to wield a budget axe, and it’s a position that doesn’t please board members and Superintendent Randy Wagoner.

“Once you get to this point, there are options for us to consider, but none of them are happy options,” said Wagoner.

The board adopted a budget reduction plan — it’s really more of a guide instead of a detailed plan — that does everything from reduce staffing, delay purchases of uniforms and technology, reduce field trips, and even impose a hike in the school district’s Local Option Budget — all depending on how much money the Kansas Legislature will appropriate for schools in the 2010-11 school year.

In what was considered the “best-case” scenario, USD 447 will have to reduce its expenses by $200,000 if the Kansas Legislature maintains its current funding level for public schools. Should the legislature reduce its funding for public schools beyond the reductions that were imposed in the 2009-10 school year, then the school board will have to cut between $600,000 and $1 million for next school year.

One budget-reduction suggestion that was gaining heavy traction is the idea of a compressed calendar for the 2010-11 school year. The compressed calendar would allow each school day to be extended by 30 minutes, thereby shortening the entire school year by as much as three weeks. Therefore, the first day of school would begin after Labor Day and end in early May.

Utility and transportation expenses as well as salaries for support staff would be reduced with a compressed schedule, Wagoner said.

However, the board has to go through the process of negotiating contracts with the Cherryvale Teachers’ Association before a compressed calendar can be imposed, board members said.

Board members suggested that discussions about a compressed calendar be aired with Cherryvale Teachers’ Association representatives soon so that the board can begin making more definitive cuts in the budget for 2010-11.

Besides being frustrated with the task of cutting a minimum of $200,000 from local schools, Wagoner said the timing of the anticipated budget reductions gave the board too little time to adequately debate and consider their impact on local schools.  Kansas legislators are currently meeting for the 2010 legislative session but have indicated no decision on school finance will be made until mid- to late-April, perhaps even May, depending on the length of the legislative session. That would be give the school board perhaps May and all of June to make those budget cuts before they have to prepare the 2010-11 budget in July.

“That’s basically only one month for us to decide how to implement these cuts,” said Wagoner. “The legislature will wait until the 11th hour of the legislative session to make any decision on school finance and the state budget.”

Wagoner did say that if the legislature were to maintain its existing support level for 2010-11, then USD 447 might not have to suffer all of the $200,000 in anticipated reductions. That’s because the school board will rely on unspent money — or cash balances — in various funds to stave off some cuts.

However, if the legislature reduces its school support beyond its current level, then the school board will have no choice but to make deep, hard cuts that affects all students and schools, Wagoner said.

“The further the cuts that the Kansas Legislature makes to school finance, then the more we’ll have to cut at the local level,” he said.