Hard choices: possible job cuts, slimmer pay raises, higher tuition fees on the School Board’s budget table
By James P. Gannon
Wrestling with a worsening budget situation, the Rappahannock School Board is facing difficult choices for the coming school year.
At a budget work session this week, some of those choices became clearer: likely staff reductions, a trimming of proposed pay raises, a steep hike in tuition costs for out-of-county students, and changes in the school’s food services for students.
The Tuesday evening session in the Rappahannock County High School library began with Superintendent Robert Chappell delivering more bad news: The Virginia legislature is expected to cut state aid to local school systems even more than Chappell had estimated when he unveiled his proposed 2008-2009 school budget on Feb. 19.
In his budget, Chappell projected that state funding of the county’s schools would drop 12% next year, a loss of $381,993. That was based on Gov. Tim Kaine’s budget, Chappell explained, as he handed out a sheet showing that the budget bills passed by the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates would cut the funding even more.
“I think we can anticipate less money than the governor proposed,” Chappell told the five board members around the table. The House’s budget bill would cut Rappahannock’s funding by $438,228, while the Senate’s bill would slash $494,988, according to Chappell’s data.
The two houses will have to reconcile their bills in conference committee, which often results in a split-the-difference approach. Whatever the final number, it makes the School Board’s job tougher: either cut more deeply into the superintendent’s proposed budget, or ask the county taxpayers to dig more deeply to pay for county schools.
“We need to be looking at the worst-case scenario” for cuts in state aid, said board member Wes Mills of Jackson District. The loss of state revenue may be even larger than the $415,000 in still-undisclosed “savings” that Chappell promised to bring to the board in March, Mills observed.
One handicap to the board’s deliberations is that members do not know exactly what Chappell’s undisclosed cuts will be. The superintendent reiterated Tuesday that he will detail his additional savings in mid-March. He has indicated that his cuts will involve staff reductions, but it’s unclear what jobs he may propose to be eliminated.
“It does involve some specific individuals that we need to speak with” before disclosing the job cuts, Chappell told the board. He hopes to achieve the reductions in staff “mainly through attrition,” he has said, and without having adverse affect on the quality of school services or programs.
As the work session continued, the board considered more options for finding savings in the proposed budget–prodded mainly by Mills, who has consistently argued that with the continuing decline in school enrollment, the board has to make some tough choices.
Mills raised questions about the 3.5% pay raise for all school employees proposed by Chappell. Initially, he asked for financial projections showing how the budget would be affected by having no pay raise, a 1.5% raise, or a 2.5% raise. Told by Chappell that it might be difficult or impossible to run all those projections before the next budget work session, Mills agreed to ask to see numbers resulting from a 2.5% raise, which Chappell said would be done.
This year, school employees received a 3.5% pay rise, plus the increase they get by advancing up one step on the experience-based salary scale. The board did not settle the pay-raise issue at their meeting.
One sure bet emerged from the session: Out-of-county students attending Rappahannock schools will pay higher tuition next year.
In the current year, about 10 out-of-county students pay $8,330 in tuition. (The number is based on the county’s cost of schools–$8.3 million–divided by the projected enrollment–995 students projected for 2007-08.) But with enrollment now projected to drop to 902 students and county costs rising, the tuition figure must go up.
Chappell proposed two options for next year’s out-of-county tuition: $9,684, or $8,820–increases of 16%, or 6%, respectively. The number of out–of-county students is expected to decline in the coming year, Chappell said, and some board members said the higher figure might drive away more students, so that the higher figure might actually produce less revenue than the more modest increase. But the issue was left on the table undecided.
The cost of providing meals for students and staff in the two school cafeterias was another focus of Mills’ attention. He and the other board members had just come from a briefing on the “Efficiency Review” of Rappahannock schools by an outside consultant, which documented the food program’s high per-pupil costs, continuing deficits, and declining student participation.
“It’s going to be a target area” predicted Mills. The food service operation loses money. “Each year we are paying $25,000 to $40,000 to make up the deficit,” Chappell told the board.
Mills suggested exploring the possibility of contracting with an outside food-service firm to take over the cafeteria operations. Currently, school employees staff the cafeterias and buy the food provided. “We could get a quote” from a vendor, Chappell responded, adding “they may or not be able” to provide the food service at a lower cost.
“We are talking about staff, food supplies and (employee) benefits,” Mills said. “It is hard-times time. There are hard decisions that directly affect our students, and there are decisions on providing them lunch. And I put those in two different buckets.”
Madison County schools switched from providing their own food service to contracting with a large national food-service company called Sodexho. The superintendent agreed to contact possible vendors to explore Mills’ idea.
No final decisions on the budget were made at the Tuesday work session. The board plans to meet several more times before finalizing a budget to propose to the Board of Supervisors. A public hearing to allow citizens to express their views on the budget is planned for Tuesday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the RCHS Auditorium.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article reported that RCPS employees received a 4.5% pay raise this year. That was the pay raise proposed a year ago by the Superintendent, but the final budget provided a 3.5% increase. We regret the error.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from amyrapp
Time: February 28, 2008, 4:44 pm
I think the School Board has some tough decisions to make, but an easy one is to really consider the Sodexho Food Service Company. I went to the website and Warren, Orange and Madison Counties all participate and you can look at the menu’s on line. The site directed me to www.sodexhoeducation.com; there were some very good looking lunch menus on the site. You can pay for the meals on line also. I also think the Board needs to look at the volunteer coordinator/attendance positions. We could really combine the attendance position for both schools into one position. The volunteer position really could go back to being a volunteer doing that position like it was in the past. Most parents that want to volunteer to do so with out being asked or called and the teachers know who they are already. There are other items in the budget that could be cut, carpets and what not…
–Amy Hitt
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