Wicomico County Board Of Education Approves 2012 Proposed Consolidated Current Expense Budget

The Wicomico County Board of Education on March 8 approved the fiscal year 2012 Proposed Consolidated Current Expense Budget in the amount of $180,014,143, with $168,255,537 in the unrestricted portion of the budget and $11,758,606 in the Restricted Current Expense Budgets.

The Board of Education and Superintendent said that by state law, the proposed budget is a maintenance effort budget that reflects the county providing a total of $50,126,691 for FY 2012, an increase of $6.9 million over FY 2011. While state law requires the Board to approve a budget at maintenance of effort level, the school system does not anticipate receiving that level of funding from the county. In fact, the Board is anticipating another year of reduced revenue from the County and as a result has been developing budget plans to accommodate such a reduction.

The fiscal year 2012 approved Proposed Consolidated Current Expense Budget is posted at www.wcboe.org. Click on “budget” on the home page, or go directly to http://www.wcboe.org/departments/BusinessSupportServices/reports.php?section=budget to see documents associated with the budget process. The March 8 budget presentation by Dr. John Fredericksen, Superintendent of Schools, is also posted.

The Board delivered the approved proposed budget to the County by the County’s March 15 deadline. It will be incorporated into the County Executive’s budget proposal in April, and a public hearing on the County Executive’s budget proposal will be held. The Board of Education, which held a public budget hearing in January, will hold a second public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 24. Once it has received the final budget numbers from the County, the Board will adopt its final budget by June 30 for the fiscal year that will begin July 1.

In many ways, the Board and school system have been preparing for two years for the challenge of developing a balanced budget for fiscal year 2012 that protects education in the classroom in a time of declining revenue.

• For fiscal year 2010, the Board returned to the County $2 million from the School Construction Savings Fund to enable the County to meet maintenance of effort. Throughout fiscal year 2010, the school system saved money anywhere it could and, with the County’s approval, set aside $4 million in savings to be applied to the fiscal year 2012 budget, when federal funding from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act would no longer be available.

• For fiscal year 2011 (this year), the Board made $11 million in budget reductions by eliminating 32 positions, eliminating programs including Adult Education and the Delmar Year Round program, moving grade 5 to the Delmar School District, eliminating the Beyond the Limits Rope Course, and reducing two bus contracts and expenditures on textbooks, materials of instruction, equipment and technology, capital outlay and professional development.

That preparation was critical, because this year the school system faces an anticipated $6.6 million reduction in funding, on top of $11 million in cuts last year. Without the $4 million carried forward from fiscal year 2010, Dr. Fredericksen said, the school system would have to make more than $10 million in cuts. The Superintendent told the Board that he was leaving no stone unturned in looking for places to cut costs. The Board has spent the past several months discussing cost-cutting options.

To respond to the necessity of reducing the budget by $6.6 million, the Board will combine the utilization of one-time revenue sources with additional expenditure reductions as follows:

• $2.6 million in one-time funding from the Healthcare Rate Stabilization Fund to cover the approximately 7 percent increase in healthcare premium costs
• $825,000 in one-time grant funding from the Federal Education Jobs Fund will be used to cover nine special education assistant positions and eight teacher positions formerly paid for by federal Elementary and Secondary Education Aid Title IIA funds
• transfer $1 million from the School Construction Savings Fund
• the remaining $2.2 million will come in the form of cuts in expenditures. Among the many items on the table for cuts:
o Nearly 13 full-time equivalent positions
o Conversion of some 12-month employees to 11-month positions
o No employer contribution to the employees’ 401(a) Retirement Plan for FY 2012
o 4 bus contracts that will be turned in at the end of this year will not be replaced
o $150,000 in textbook funding
o Some of the tutoring and support for High School Assessment (HSA)
o $163,000 for capital outlay
o $100,000 (5%) for School Climate initiatives (though the School Resource Officers and crossing guards would not be affected)
o Student agendas and the school system calendar/handbook
o Contractual hourly wages across all programs
o Contracted services for Student Linkages and other programs
o Field trip support for schools
o HSA transportation
o $52,000 for math supplies and equipment

The Board is also looking to reinstate Athletic and High School Band participation fees for students, and new or increased fees for staff professional development courses, fingerprinting, and facility rentals.