Local school districts expect deeper budget cuts

This time last year, Hanover County school officials knew they'd be in for a tough budget season; ultimately, they cut $15 million from their bottom line.

Some of that was later restored with federal stimulus money, but Superintendent Stewart D. Roberson warned recently that $15 million could be just the starting point for another round of cuts for the 2010-11 budget.

While budget planning always includes talk about balancing desires with needs, Roberson said, this year could be unlike any other he has seen in 22 years of budget development. A pre-budget public hearing with the School Board comes tomorrow in Ashland, and school boards in Richmond, Henrico County and Chesterfield County also are preparing for deeper budget cuts.

"It's not rhetoric," Roberson said last week about the tough conversations his staff will be having over the next few months.

"We've had recessions" in the past, he said. "But they tended to be months long, not two or three years."

He said that even if the economy makes a significant upturn in the current year, "the reality of public sector budgeting is that we lag at least one year behind."

Of the $15 million that Hanover initially cut for the current year, the stimulus package put back about $6.3 million. Still, 117 positions are being reduced throughout this and next school year, including 52 teaching positions; funding has been reduced for training and facilities repair; and a popular fifth-grade music program was eliminated.

But there's no stimulus money this year. State and county contributions -- the bulk of public school budgets -- are expected to be significantly lower.

The School Board last year looked at nine areas as a guide for cuts, starting with such things as delaying bus and computer replacement schedules, and ending with reductions in staff.

The board will once again look to those areas to decide how to save money.

School officials in other systems echo Roberson's thoughts.

Chesterfield schools spokesman Shawn Smith said the system is planning for another difficult year.

School officials cut $32 million from the current budget, though the reductions would have been $52 million without federal stimulus funding. Trimmed from the budget were 33 reading-teacher positions and an elementary International Baccalaureate program, and plans to expand foreign-language classes in 13 elementary schools were delayed.

Smith said the stimulus money was "a short-term fix" but that "we are strategically planning for more difficult times ahead."

Henrico school officials didn't see large-scale budget cuts last year like their neighbors, though Kevin Smith, assistant superintendent for finance, said the 2010-11 school year is "going to be a pretty challenging year for us."

Henrico's budget grew nearly 2 percent from last year, and 45 positions were added. However, Smith said, school officials have begun spreading the word to staff members that next year's budget will be lean.

Richmond cut $9.7 million for this school year, and with that money went 78 positions and a 50 percent reduction in funding for field trips. Summer school, tuition assistance and after-school programs were cut by 25 percent. The cuts would have been deeper -- $16.2 million -- had it not been for stimulus help.

But the cuts may not end there, even for the current year.

Lynn Bragga, director of finance for Richmond's schools, said an additional $2 million may be taken before the end of school next summer thanks to the city's diminishing sales and personal-property taxes, from which the schools get a big chunk of their budget.

A positive upward swing in the economy "is not going to happen quickly enough for us not to go through the same painful process again," Bragga said. She said schools have been advised to develop budgets based on the current funding level, and then alternative plans based on reductions between 5 percent and 15 percent.

Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or .