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Schools react to proration
Published Wednesday, September 30, 2009
School systems will enter the next budget year already hit with cuts in state funding.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley declared a 7.5 percent proration to the 2010 fiscal budget, which starts Thursday.
For the Pike County School System, the impacts aren’t entirely known. Troy City Schools, however, know the cuts will have to be eased by dipping into the systems’ reserves.
Pike County Schools Superintendent Mark Bazzell said that since the school system has already passed its budget, system officials will have to discuss where to make the cuts.
“Pike County, like all other schools has already submitted the budget. While, I have not done the math on 7.5 percent, I estimate it to be somewhere around $800,000,” Bazzell said. “But, that’s just a ballpark figure.”
Bazzell said the county’s main focus is to hopefully make it where students and teachers don’t feel the cuts.
“We hope the cuts would be the kind of things that students and teachers don’t notice,” Bazzell said.
Troy City Schools Superintendent Linda Felton-Smith said proration will cost more than $900,000 for the system.
But since the school system will dip into its savings account, Felton-Smith said classroom instruction will be protected.
“We will protect classroom instruction, and we will not be cutting teacher units at this point. Teacher’s sign contracts so they are (protected) for this year,” Felton-Smith said.
Riley announced Tuesday that the Education Trust Fund will enter the new fiscal year on Thursday with a shortfall that requires proration of 7.5 percent.
“Given the state of the economy, we’ve anticipated for several months now that the education budget would enter fiscal year 2010 in proration, but it’s still very unfortunate and I wish it wasn’t necessary,” Riley said. “Unlike the federal government, we cannot run deficits. Revenues are not at the level necessary to avoid spending cuts. With less revenue coming in and the escalating costs of employee health insurance, there’s no way to avoid it.”
The 2010 education budget will be $5.3 billion with the 7.5 percent proration.
Bazzell said school officials have already planned to sit down and decide where to make cuts, since they anticipated proration would be called.
“We certainly have the reserves, but we feel we have to make certain cuts,” Bazzell said.”
But what they didn’t know was how much the cuts would be.
“We were anticipating anywhere from 8 to 10 percent, so this is actually .5 percent less than we anticipated,” Felton-Smith said. “I didn’t know it would be called before Oct. 1, but I anticipated it would start soon after we started.”
Bazzell said this is the first time in his 28-year education career the state has started off the year with a prorated budget, but he and Felton-Smith agreed it would be easier for cuts to come early.
“It gives you more time to prepare,” Bazzell said.
“The fact it is being called early means that we can spread it out over the 12 months,” Felton-Smith said.
School systems statewide are coming off one of the highest prorations in Alabama history, which could make it more difficult in the long run.
“Of course it makes it more difficult,” Bazzell said. “We made a lot of cuts last year.”
Felton-Smith agreed the hits taken last year would make proration more difficult in this coming year’s budget. But, the real concern is not this year.
“Not only are we going to be faced with two years of proration back to back, there is a possibility of the 2011 budget being less than the 2010 budget,” Felton-Smith said. “If it is less than the 2010 budget, that could create major problems going from one year to the next.”
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Posted by EMONIQUE989 (anonymous) on September 30, 2009 at 11:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think canceling athletic games will help.
Posted by raadar (anonymous) on September 30, 2009 at 3:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I disagree with cancelling athletic events because this is how a lot of schools earn money. I have a family of four and I pay admission and then make several trips to the concession stand, so I know they get lots of money from their fans.
Posted by turtle (anonymous) on September 30, 2009 at 7:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You are right raadar, they bring in a great deal of money for the schools. Also, as parents we pay out of pocket for the majority of things our children have as athletes so the school isn't paying that money.
Posted by Observer22 (anonymous) on September 30, 2009 at 8:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Canceling athletic games would have virtually no impact on the budget. The games themselves cost little money and generate little revenue. In the revenue sports, the money generated by gate receipts is quickly spent by the sport itself.
The real expense of athletics is not the games or equipment, it is the salaries and salary supplements of the coaches. The salaries and supplements are paid by the general fund entirely and not supported in any way by gate receipts, concessions or fund raising. Most coaches are classroom teachers whose primary job is teaching and their salaries come from funding for teaching units.
Coaches who do not have real classes, those who teach fewer than six of the seven periods, and those who are not certified teachers are the real expense of athletics.
Posted by thor (anonymous) on October 1, 2009 at 9:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Neither of the above posters is correct. Athletic contests for all of these sports do indeed cost a good deal of money. Gasoline to run the busses, pay for drivers, coaches, officials are just some of the costs. Admission paid to these events does not come close to ofsetting these expenses. I will say that I think atletics is worth the expense, but please do not thing that the schools do not lose money on athletics, because they do.
Posted by OldSchoolPike3Worker (anonymous) on October 2, 2009 at 9:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Talk to any adult that participated in athletics and they will tell you the extent to which it shaped them in a positive way. I'm not saying that everyone that played sports grew up to be an outstanding citizen. In fact, some the guys I played with ended up in prison. I'm just saying that we as a society seem to diminish the importance virile activities, those things that prepare boys for manhood and even the presence of the father in the home, We have become a country that tells those who get knocked down that they can't get back up again without someone(like the government) being there to hold their hand. Sports really benefits males because it teaches them how to be men. Its like anything else though, you get out of it what you put into it. We need more men that act like men in this country today. Some of these kids out there playing these games have absolutely no positive male influence in their lives. They just have an underpaid coach trying to get through to them. As for me, I salute those coaches who work long hours and spend time away from their own families teaching the young men in our community good work ethic and revealing their own character to them by pushing them to the limit and showing them that they can go a little further. Its worth it to pay a little extra to a coach now if it keeps just a few more young men on the right path and out of a career behind bars(which we also pay for) For me, its a bigger issue, sports are not some holy thing that we can't do without. I'm sure that we can do without sports. I just think they are just one more positive teaching tool that our society can benefit from. If a young male does not have a father figure at home, can't or won't go to church, and does not have sports, they may not even see the need to graduate from high school. If a kid believes that his ability to carry a football will get him into college and maybe even the pros, he is more likely to stay in school and graduate in order to get a scholarship. He may not make it to the pros, but he will have a degree and have a better chance of making it in life. We need more men who know what it feels like to have a mouth full of dirt after getting knocked on their behind and also are aware that when they stood back up and worked through the pain that victory would soon be in their grasp. We need more men who are taught that failure is only a temporary obstacle in the path to success, etc. Sure there are ways to learn these things. But playing sports sure is a great way to teach them.
Posted by OldSchoolPike3Worker (anonymous) on October 2, 2009 at 9:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
There have been a lot of highly educated men that would not be that way if it weren't for sports. If I had to guess, those who are quick to deem athletics an unnecessary expense during these hard economic times probably never played them themselves. I'm sure that those people are fine folks and are even friends of mine. I'm just saying, If a boy doesn't have a father, or a pastor, or a coach, who else will be around to teach him? Kanye West? Snoop Dogg?
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