News
The RE-2 school district is busy crunching numbers.
Faced with making up the difference from a failed $3 million levy override this fall, increased education cuts handed down from the Colorado State Legislature and increased growth in student population, the RE-2 school district is joining the ranks of national public schools having to trim faculty and staff, programs and possibly even schools in an attempt to make ends meet.
For the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, the RE-2 school district is short an estimated $1.6 million. Earlier this month, RE-2 school board members elected to deficit spends $1 million for the next four years, out of the district's $12.3 million fund balance in an effort to meet the deficit.
However, at the Jan. 24 school board meeting, board members got a bit of good news, despite hearing $48 million in education cuts is recommended at the state level for the upcoming school year.
Christy Hamrick, district finance director, alerted school board members that Garfield County has been conducting audits on various energy companies. Due to underpaid taxes from several natural gas companies, the RE-2 school district is a beneficiary of $1.15 million in underpaid taxes from various oil and gas companies.
“This is one-time money and it's great, although it's just a point of conversation at this point,” Hamrick said. “This is something the board will take into consideration with a lot of other factors as we move forward.”
Hamrick said of the $1.15 million, the district will use $608,412 to pay off previous bond payments, leaving $545,780 to potentially be deposited in the school's general fund. This one-time funding from the county helped to booster the school's general fund by $85,000.
Given the projected $1.6 million shortfall, use of the $1 million in deficit spending and the underpaid tax revenue – this leaves about $600,000 in cuts that will be necessary in order to meet the 2012-2013 budget shortfall.
School board members told staff and administration not to concentrate on finding figures detailing the potential closure of Kathryn Senor Elementary school in New Castle and Wamsley Elementary in Rifle that would each potentially save the district more than $350,000 each.
Instead, the board encouraged staff to spend their time working with various committees researching the ramifications of reducing programs such as middle and high school sports, bus transportation routes, turning off cooling systems in gyms and the elimination of a planning period for high school teachers.
Director of District-wide Services Theresa Hamilton said the board also spoke about potentially moving the fifth grades back to the elementary school buildings, from their current position at the middle school.
“There hasn't been any formal consensus from the board as to taking action other than researching what some of the cuts would save and weighing the cost of these cuts on the students' behalf,” Hamilton said.
While several community members expressed concern regarding administrative salaries going up while teacher's salaries remained stagnant, Hamilton said that no district staff person has seen a raise for several years.
“There have been no raises given to administrative staff in the last three years,” Hamilton said in an e-mail. “Salaries across the board have been frozen.”
Re-2 payroll staff said every district employee was required to take four furlough days without pay last year, however employees were reimbursed for those furlough days this current school year. The reimbursement will result in an ‘uptick' in pay this year. However, no salary raises are expected.
The school board is hosting budget meetings over the next several months regarding the fiscal position before having to adopt a final budget in June. To follow Re-2's budget process, or to view detailed numbers regarding the budget, visit www.garfieldre2.co.us. The next school board budget meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at Wamsley Elementary from 5 – 7 p.m.
Faced with making up the difference from a failed $3 million levy override this fall, increased education cuts handed down from the Colorado State Legislature and increased growth in student population, the RE-2 school district is joining the ranks of national public schools having to trim faculty and staff, programs and possibly even schools in an attempt to make ends meet.
For the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, the RE-2 school district is short an estimated $1.6 million. Earlier this month, RE-2 school board members elected to deficit spends $1 million for the next four years, out of the district's $12.3 million fund balance in an effort to meet the deficit.
However, at the Jan. 24 school board meeting, board members got a bit of good news, despite hearing $48 million in education cuts is recommended at the state level for the upcoming school year.
Christy Hamrick, district finance director, alerted school board members that Garfield County has been conducting audits on various energy companies. Due to underpaid taxes from several natural gas companies, the RE-2 school district is a beneficiary of $1.15 million in underpaid taxes from various oil and gas companies.
“This is one-time money and it's great, although it's just a point of conversation at this point,” Hamrick said. “This is something the board will take into consideration with a lot of other factors as we move forward.”
Hamrick said of the $1.15 million, the district will use $608,412 to pay off previous bond payments, leaving $545,780 to potentially be deposited in the school's general fund. This one-time funding from the county helped to booster the school's general fund by $85,000.
Given the projected $1.6 million shortfall, use of the $1 million in deficit spending and the underpaid tax revenue – this leaves about $600,000 in cuts that will be necessary in order to meet the 2012-2013 budget shortfall.
School board members told staff and administration not to concentrate on finding figures detailing the potential closure of Kathryn Senor Elementary school in New Castle and Wamsley Elementary in Rifle that would each potentially save the district more than $350,000 each.
Instead, the board encouraged staff to spend their time working with various committees researching the ramifications of reducing programs such as middle and high school sports, bus transportation routes, turning off cooling systems in gyms and the elimination of a planning period for high school teachers.
Director of District-wide Services Theresa Hamilton said the board also spoke about potentially moving the fifth grades back to the elementary school buildings, from their current position at the middle school.
“There hasn't been any formal consensus from the board as to taking action other than researching what some of the cuts would save and weighing the cost of these cuts on the students' behalf,” Hamilton said.
While several community members expressed concern regarding administrative salaries going up while teacher's salaries remained stagnant, Hamilton said that no district staff person has seen a raise for several years.
“There have been no raises given to administrative staff in the last three years,” Hamilton said in an e-mail. “Salaries across the board have been frozen.”
Re-2 payroll staff said every district employee was required to take four furlough days without pay last year, however employees were reimbursed for those furlough days this current school year. The reimbursement will result in an ‘uptick' in pay this year. However, no salary raises are expected.
The school board is hosting budget meetings over the next several months regarding the fiscal position before having to adopt a final budget in June. To follow Re-2's budget process, or to view detailed numbers regarding the budget, visit www.garfieldre2.co.us. The next school board budget meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at Wamsley Elementary from 5 – 7 p.m.
