Chesterfield schools face $25 million shortfall
Published: October 15, 2009
Chesterfield County schools face a potential gap in next year's budget of about $25 million, including almost $4 million in federal stimulus money that Virginia plans to use for its own budget shortfall.
For the current school year, school officials used about $20 million in stimulus money to save 275 jobs.
Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome addressed the budget outlook yesterday in a message to school division employees. Citing declining state and local revenues, he projected a shortfall of $20 million to $30 million for the fiscal 2011 budget that will take effect July 1.
Estimates for fiscal year 2012 already include an additional $10 million to $15 million in potential cuts, he said in the memo sent to employees.
The school district already is operating under financial stress. School officials made $32 million in cuts and laid off 69 employees for the current school year.
"Our most important resources are our human resources," he said in the memo. "Therefore, we will maintain our efforts to preserve as many jobs as possible."
Newsome added that he will keep the staff and the community informed about budget-related discussions, and county and school division leadership will hold joint community meetings in the coming weeks.
School officials caution that they won't have a firm grasp on next year's budget until the General Assembly and new governor adopt a two-year state budget next spring.
"That's a very early guestimate from our finance people," School Board Chairman Marshall W. Trammell Jr. said this week.
David Myers, assistant superintendent for business and finance, called the approaching state budget deliberations "a huge variable" in what Chesterfield can anticipate for next year's budget.
However, Myers said this week that the $25 million estimate includes:
- A loss of $3.9 million in federal stimulus money that Chesterfield won't receive from the state for the fiscal 2011 budget because of cuts that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has ordered to fill a $1.5 billion gap in this year's state budget.
- Declines in local real estate and state sales tax revenues, which are part of an estimated $20 million shortfall in revenue forecast by county finance officials for next year's budget.
- Increases in costs on necessities such as debt service, health insurance for school employees; and contributions for employee retirement. Some of those costs, such as the new contribution rate for employees to the Virginia Retirement System, aren't known yet.
"It's just early," Myers said.
Henrico County is expecting to receive $2.85 million less in stimulus money next year, based on the most recent projections from the state. This year's $14 million in stimulus money was allocated entirely to capital-improvement projects.
Finance Director Kevin Smith said next year's stimulus money, estimated at about $11 million, may be handled differently.
"It's up to the board how they want to proceed," he said.
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or
.
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or
Staff writer Katherine Calos contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
It’s all a part of the Warner-Kaine Tradition that Creigh Deeds will continue if elected. This kind of stuff is going on all over Virginia in every locality. You’ve got a bunch of overpaid underworked bureaucrats,consultants and elected officials who do nothing except toss money down the drain on pure garbage instead of actually taking care of the essential functions of a school system such as learning, routine maintenance of facilities and keeping children safe while in class. It’s time to remove all the fat and force these local politicians to go on a strict diet as well or vote em’ out !
The Chesterfield County School Board has been wasting taxpayer money for over a decade, and it’s now comming home to roost. Chairman Trammell has been one of the biggest wasters of our tax dollars and demonstrated that he is incompetent and derelict in his duties during last years budget crunch, HE NEEDS TO GO….RESIGN NOW MR. TRAMMELL, and take the other money waster Diane Pettit with you!!!. It is OUTRAGEOUS to expect the already overtaxed Chesterfield citizens to make up this shortfall with new taxes, especially considering 65% of the taxpayers don’t have children in the school system. Special interest groups, overpaid administrators, unneeded and overpriced new schools that are full of wasted space and cost way to much to heat and cool are the legacies of Trammmell, Pettit, Schoeder and the previous school board. As one 123456 reccommended,it’s time to reinstate school fees to make up the difference for all the extras SOME students recieve.
A Correspondent of the Day letter by Susan Nagel seems to fit into this debate.
It is more of a gnat than an elephant in the room. But I do think that it is emblematic of the wasteful ways of the CSB.
“Chesterfield County pulled EVERY fifth-grade teacher out of the classroom over a three-day period to attend all day sensitivity training on the Islamic religion.“
She gors on to say-
“The county used Title 11 funds to do this, which is money given to it by the federal government. The county bought every fifth-grade teacher a $21.95 book on Islam and a journal notebook. In many schools there was no grade level person in the school to help the substitutes.“
The reasoning for the sensitivity training is good reason to visit this
issue, and I hope to get some backup to do that very soon.
And the attitude that engenders this kind of controversial expense shines a light on why the school system is always behind the red ball.
Perhaps Chesterfield needs to go back to the old days and bring back the school fees. When I was young in Elementary school (20yrs ago or so) parents had to pay a school fee at the beginning of year. While I was still young I remember they got rid of the fee. Perhaps bringing that back would help bring in a little more money. being a parent of a child in this school system, I would not be against this in order to help save our children’s education.
Something is seriously amiss here, and not just in Chesterfield. As I recall, a fairly recent article in the Times Dispatch stated that for a number of years increases in funding for public education have outpaced the growth in student population.
If that be true, clearly money is being wasted and the waste needs to be identified, publicized, and eliminated.
My suspicion is that most of the unnecessary expenditures are in the areas of professional staff salaries and benefits for those not directly involved in teaching and in exorbitant, unnecessary technology having little positive effect on learning.
Elimination of this waste will not occur unless taxpayers and parents insist by their votes at the polls.
Here we go again! Please don’t forget that the Superintendent took his hefty pay raise AND an increase in his car allowance! He is NOT in a position to tell an employee that they must be laid off when he (and others in the central office) is not leading by example.
( mikeyt ),
Who is the “WE” who told the school board how to run the schools. Cuts are not needed. The county needs more money for the school system. One way is to raise taxes and another is to raise cash proffers which is why Chesterfield is under funded now.
We told the School Board last year to make the cuts needed then because they’d have to make them this year if they didn’t. Now they’re $25 million in the hole and no Obama bailout coming like last year.
I heard on a TV news report last night that 80 percent of the total schools budget is staff costs. Does anyone know if that’s correct and if it is, how the bleep did they allow that to happen? If that’s true, there is your problem.
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