Drastic Cuts Will Affect Schools Now

January 14, 2010

Budget cuts of flow-through funding from the Louisiana Department of Education will amount to cuts for St. Tammany Parish of $358,328 in five programs.

“We understand the economic difficulty the state is having that caused these mid-year cuts. It is difficult for local districts to disrupt programs mid-year that affect students or employees so we are currently reviewing the cuts and our program requirements as well as local revenue that may be used to fill in for lost funding,” said St. Tammany School Board Superintendent Gayle Sloan.

According to school board spokesperson Meredith Mendez, the decision of which programs would be cut and how much was dictated by the state. It is up to the local district to decide where to make cuts within each program area.
 
The programs affected and their amounts are as follows: LA 4 pre-kindergarten intervention program, $41,242; career and technical dual enrollment program, $118,000; adult education, $96,284; non-public school transportation, $65,830; and national board certified teachers’ stipends, $36,972.

Sloan said the school district would not cut the national certified teachers’ stipend because “it affects their pay and state law promises them the full stipend.” She said local funding would be searched to provide the difference.

The total revenue from the state for this school year according to the budget was estimated to be $188,184,405, including the Minimum Foundation Program of $183,575,000, leaving state contributions of other programs in the parish at $4,609,605. The cut would represent a decrease in funding to the school district of 7.77 percent of the non-MFP funding received from the state.

According to information received from the LDOE, Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order calling on all state agencies to make across-the-board mid-year cuts in light of the state’s $247.9 million budget deficit.

The news release stated, “While department leaders say the cuts will regrettably affect services and programs, every attempt has been made to minimize the impact of these necessary reductions on districts, schools and students.

State Superintendent Paul Pastorek said in the release, “The silver lining is that the MFP was increased mid-year by $52 milli on.”

Cuts statewide will amount to $16,077,548 in general with $9,355,572 in flow-through funding provided to local school districts. St. Tammany Parish school district’s cuts in these programs amounts to $292,498 or about 3.1 percent of the state’s total reduction. The reduction in non-public transportation statewide is $982,397, of which St. Tammany’s $65,830 will be about 6.7 percent.

A reduction in the LDOE operating budget of $4,147,301 includes the elimination of vacancies and a reduction to contracts, supplies and travel budgets.

Reduction to other agencies include $260,544 to the Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired; $659,546 for the Louisiana School for the Deaf; $94,116 for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; $278,072 for LPB, Louisiana Educational TV Authority; and $300,000 of unobligated funding for special school district, all totaling $1,592,278.

Sub-grantee assistance reduction is the category most effecting St. Tammany school district.

A total of $9,355,572 was cut in this category including $825,561 for Louisiana 4; $2,254,824 for literacy and numeracy program; $2,100,000 for career and technical education; $3,168,500 for adult education; $27,481 national certified teacher stipends; $18,493 for the Boys and Girls Club Project Learn, $230,000 for professional improvement programs; and $330,613 in non-certified support personnel.

Currently, it is not known what cuts will continue into the next school year or exactly what impact the cuts will have locally. What is known is that the LDOE has announced the cuts to occur mid-year. Whether this is immediately or effective on a particular date is also unclear.

The LDOE release did state that the cuts announced would reduce continuation of some services to districts and Pastorek said the LDOE would work to minimize the impact.

“Clearly, this is going to create challenges for the education community as we are working aggressively to raise student achievement across our state,” said Pastorek. “But we and the education community have and will continue to find ways to streamline our resources without compromising our effectiveness.”