Schools' plan for budget reduction presented to board

FRISCO - Keeping teachers in front of low numbers of students was a priority principals focused on while working out how they could cut their budgets, school officials said.

Schools will be reducing their budgets by about 6.5 percent, Karen Strakbein, assistant superintendent of business services for the district, said during a meeting last month when each school's principal began to look at their options. Next month, a proposed budget will be presented to the board. Following that, the public will have a chance to comment before the budget is adopted in June.

Recently, Summit School District Board of Education reviewed the plans that look different for each school. And principals attended the meeting, available to answer questions.

At the high school, scheduling will drive the changes, Strakbein said. "It's a real moving target for them (at this point)," she said.

However, administration at the other schools feel they have a plan in place that may only face minor changes. And changes have been discussed with affected staff, according to a memo to the board.

Principals described the changes as those that were least disliked.

At Summit Middle School, programing will be tweaked, but there are "not significant changes at all," school officials said.

Silverthorne Elementary School will be going from 3.75 paraprofessionals to none. "It will be a real change for Silverthorne," said Principal Dianna Hulbert. However, the staff committed to keeping the same level of specials and the work of teachers was valued more heavily.

Also, if there is a need to fill, parents have already stepped up wanting to help, she added. "The parents at Silverthorne are fabulous. ... (They've been) an under-utilized resource."

At Frisco Elementary, teachers and paraprofessionals will increase slightly, while positions including the counselor, literary resource teacher and media specialist will be scaled back slightly.

When asked about the media specialist cut, Principal Steve Riggins said that being the smallest school, he found a half-time employee covers the need.

Staffing at Dillon Valley Elementary School will increase next year because the school is growing, school officials said.

"I think they (the principals) understand the values of the community," commented school board president Christine Scanlan after seeing the plans.

Budget conversations arose when the school board began talking more than a year ago about this past November's mill levy question.

The 2004 Special Building Maintenance and Technology mill levy, which sunsets every three years, supported 44 positions for a total of $3.6 million in operational costs. The school board decided in order to achieve financial stability and not rely on voters, those ongoing costs needed to be from an ongoing revenue stream.

Then, the November election question passed and included some ongoing revenue which helped. And throughout the past year, budget efficiencies, central office reductions, attrition at the schools and a policy change so interest earned lands in the general fund, left the district with about $1.26 million to reduce.



Contract renewed

Also at the April 23 meeting, school board members renewed the contract of Superintendent Millie Hamner, Ph.D., through the 2009/2010 school year.

In response to the budget situation in the district, Hamner requested that the board give her no raise in pay. And while board members felt she deserved one, they were impressed with her decision.

"I think it shows incredible leadership," said board vice-president Jon Kreamelmeyer.



Lory Pounder can be reached at (970) 668-4628, or at lpounder@summitdaily.com.