The school board unanimously—yet at times apologetically—approved a two-day teacher furlough plus four furlough days for administrators at a special meeting Monday night. The move will shave $256,806 off the district’s budget and help balance the effect of state budget reductions.

The first furlough effects will be felt Friday, but only affects district employees who work 190 day or more. What would have been a teacher planning and preparation days, to include parent-teacher conferences, has been cancelled.

The day-long layoffs help the district “in the long run to be able to survive the budget cuts for this year,” said Chief Financial Officer Susan Dowd.

“While I even hate the idea that we’re sitting here contemplating it, I don’t see much of a choice other than going on and biting the bullet,” said board member Lee Attaway in front of teachers who half-filled the meeting room capacity.

“Let’s do it and let’s prepare next year for it to be ultimately even worse,” he said.

BACK TO 90S ERA PER-STUDENT SPENDING

Newberry began the school year with a base student cost of $2,034, which is a per student cost decided on by the state and used in a formula to decided the amount of a district’s share of funding from the Education Finance Act appropriation.

But that base student cost fell to its current total of $1,910 with a fall budget cut of $627,904.

Now a 5 percent across-the-board cut from the Budget and Control Board announced just before Christmas break looks to drop the per-student price to $1,764.

And Dowd projects a third budget snag this school year may drop per-pupil spending to $1,700, which is less than its per-student spending in the mid-1990s, she says.

“And obviously next year does not look good as well,” said Dowd.

With a base student cost at or just above $1,700, Bennett said many across the state would see very large classrooms and layoffs “just to balance the budget.”

TO DIP OR NOT

The first two budget cuts for this school year will likely take $1.7 million from Newberry’s planned budget, but numbers are not final for the second cut, estimated at around $1.1 million.

But last year, the state gave more spending flexibility to districts, which has helped, says Dowd.

Plus, Newberry has cut “way” back on expenditures and cut 20 percent of supply, travel and other expense items, she says.

“But that’s not going to take care of a $667,000 shortfall,” she said.

Because the rainy day “contingency fund” the district stashed away for cuts can only absorb so much, there would still be a deficit of around $667,000 even with contingency money, says Dowd.

“Fortunately...we were in a better position than we thought we were going to be. I can’t say it’s a good position, but it’s a better position than we thought it was going to be,” she said.

Newberry will also receive nearly $1.5 million in stimulus money next year.

And there is still $8 million in the district’s fund balance, which Newberry was praised for in its December audit report.

But dipping into the fund balance isn’t ideal, Dowd said.

“You need that cash on hand to cover times of low cash flow for tax collections and that kind of thing,” she said.

“How are we going to balance our budget? Do we go into the fund balance to fix this?” Dowd asked board members. “Do we do other cost-saving measures such as cutting supply budgets?”

A ‘GOOD CUSHION’

And even with a dip into its fund balance, the school district would still be “well above” its warning mark board members set to ensure that it keeps is at least 10 percent of its general operating budget on hand.

“Our general operating budget right now is $41.6 million,” said Superintendent Bennie Bennett. “So we would be well above that.”

And though several board members discussed first dipping into fund balance money before using furloughs at an earlier board meeting, talks of the future cuts and concerns of tapping too deep in fund balance dominated the conversation Monday night.

“The biggest concern I have is I don’t want to cut our general fund budget to the bone today and go into next year with very little room to wiggle,” said Board Chairman Don Saylor. “I don’t want to spend it all now and not have anything left to start with next year.”

Both Saylor and Bennett mentioned one school district that can’t use a recently-built middle school because it doesn’t have money to fully staff it.

And to prevent teacher layoffs next year in Newberry, Saylor wants to be proactive.

He also said he heard other school districts might cut junior varsity athletics, but that sports cut doesn’t yield much money, he said, mentioning that personnel make up 85 percent of the budget.

“I think we need to save something now that we go into next year with a fairly good cushion,” Saylor said.

“If we keep diving into the savings account, it’s going to go away and we need that money on a routine basis for whenever—let’s just say the taxes [that the district receives] would be delinquent,” said Attaway.

Furlough savings

Dowd calculated savings from two furlough options:

• A 4/2 option, where teachers are furloughed two days and administration four, saves the district roughly $256,806.

•A 2/1 option, using half the 4/2 furlough days, would save about $128,403.

All board members approved the 4/2 option, though some didn’t seem happy doing it.

“Teachers, I hate that it’s gotten to this point. I really wish it wasn’t,” said Attaway.

The Furlough

Teachers take their first furlough Friday which is a “non-instructional day” when students aren’t in the classroom.

Friday morning and Thursday afternoon were previously set aside for parent-teacher conferences. Now, with a Friday furlough, Bennett suggested Friday conferences be moved to e-mail or phone call conferences on another date.

The district will spread out the pay deduction of the two- and four-day furloughs over five or six months of paychecks to prevent a hard one-check blow.

The response

“At least we have a job,” said one teacher before leaving the meeting.

Susan Senn, a curriculum coordinator for Whitmire Community School, said she understands the furlough and appreciates the consideration the district used in the process.

“For me as a teacher, to have all of this come out of one or two paychecks, would be really a hardship, but spreading it over six is much easier,” said Senn.

Senn was also glad the board didn’t use June 4 as a furlough day, but chose only the first two of the three remaining non-instructional days for furloughs.

Because that end-of-school day is important for grading and doing reports, she said.

“For them to not take that day is a real support for teachers,” she says.

As far as her sudden free time, Senn plans to spend Friday with family and “do something fun,” she said.

“We’ll probably go to a movie,” she said with a smile.