Making Ends Meet: School Districts Look for Ways to Save, Make Money (IN)

July 16, 2010

As school districts prepare their budgets for the upcoming year, which may be plagued with more cuts from the state, some administrators are looking at alternatives to making more cuts — finding ways to make money.

This year, school districts around the state were cut about 4.5 percent in their general funds, which pays mostly for teacher salaries. Districts have been told to be prepared, in case another round of cuts comes again this year.

Some have been investigating possible revenue sources, such as charging families for riding the school bus — an idea Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller shot down this week.

“The legislature has not provided the governing body of a school corporation with the specific authority to assess, charge, or collect a school bus rider fee from the students of the school corporation,” Zoeller said in a statement.

However, local school districts said that hasn’t been an idea tossed around, yet.

“We certainly among ourselves in the office are bouncing different ideas around,” said West Clark Community Schools Superintendent Monty Schneider, who added that bus fees have not been discussed. “We’ve talked about other things. We keep lists of what other schools are doing. We’re fortunate this year that with growth [of the student body] and getting more funding for growth that we weren’t as affected as some of the rest.”

At New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp., this year’s cuts meant reducing the general fund budget by $5.6 million. The district achiev ed that by closing four elementary schools, eliminating most field trips and much more. However, one thing that didn’t happen was teacher layoffs.

“We are very happy we have been able to maintain as many services that we have with all the cuts that have been thrown our way,” said Bill Briscoe, assistant to the superintendent for administration and operations. “We’re very proud we have been able to keep our teachers in place.”

Briscoe said the district has not been exploring charging students for using buses. However, he said the district is investigating ways to help with funding, including through the district’s foundation and, even more recently, the board has been looking into possibly taking part of a wind farm, where NA-FC would own some wind turbines in Northern Indiana and sell the energy to utility companies in the area.

“We’re going to continue to explore ways to make money to continue to have the best services for the children in Floyd County,” Briscoe said.

He said asking the voters to approve a referendum could also be a possibility. However, Clarksville voters turned down one this May. Following that vote, Clarksville Community School Corp. closed one of its two elementary schools, moved fifth-graders to the middle school as well as laid off some teachers.

Schneider said another idea that’s being tried in other states is to go to a four-day school week, where the student day is extended to make up for the lost day. However, he said Indiana law at this point doesn’t allow for such a change.

Schneider said whether schools will suffer another round of cuts is still unknown. However, he said if it comes, schools may be notified in December/January, like before.

So fa r, local school districts have not released their proposed 2011 budgets. Typically that occurs in the fall. NA-FC is scheduled to have a budget hearing on Aug. 23 with the budget adoption on Sept. 13.