By Lauren Brown
Burns Times-Herald
The Harney County Budget Board for District No. 3 voted unanimously to cut $33,342 across the board from next year’s sports program, rather than target individual sports.
This means District Athletic Director Paula Toney will have to make the decision on whether to cut certain sports or cut money from several different sports programs.
However, the budget board still has some tough decisions to make as it figures out how to handle the $800,000 shortfall for the 2008-2009 school year.
The budget board must make a budget recommendation to the school board by mid-June. There will be another budget meeting today, June 4, at 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Administration Building.
Programs on the cut list that have generated some controversy include the Slater Elementary School music program and the fifth-grade band program.
Budget board member and school board chairman Gordon Mallon originally proposed cutting the sports program across the board. In separate motions, he also moved to keep the Slater music program (which costs $43,500 to run) and the fifth-grade band program (which costs $22,000 to run), but both failed to carry. The fifth-grade band motion deadlocked the board in a four to four vote.
There was some discussion about whether or not classroom teachers are trained to teach music. Slater Elementary Principal Gayle Mackey said that in their schooling, teachers do receive musical training, although it has been a while since most of them took those classes. Heather Sell, a first-grade teacher at Slater, said she only took one music class in college.
Slater music teacher Tonya Ridenour said that classroom teachers simply don’t have the specialized knowledge that it takes to teach music classes.
The discussion leading up to the vote on whether or not to keep the fifth-grade band program got somewhat heated. Ridenour said that band teacher Ken Peckham receives $22,000 for teaching fifth-graders two hours per week at Slater. She indicated that perhaps that was a lot of money for just two hours.
Slater reading specialist Angie Halvorson said that all Slater students benefit from Ridenour’s music classes, while only half of the fifth-graders get to take band. She said that keeping the music program benefits more students than the fifth-grade band program.
Budget board member Sharon Davis said she had to agree with that line of thinking.
Mallon then reminded the board about a prior budget meeting, which was heavily attended by band supporters. “That’s certainly not what we heard a few weeks ago when we heard from every band student, quite eloquently I might add,” he said.
Budget board member Mary Jo Evers, who also happens to be an accountant with Oster Professional Group, said that she had gone over the budget numbers and thought that there could be some reductions to the repairs and maintenance categories. She said she had gone over previous year’s budgets to see how much was spent in those areas. She said that perhaps enough money could be found there to pay for both the Slater music and the fifth-grade band programs. “I want to make sure we’re not cutting something based on an inflated budget,” she said.
However, because the latest budget numbers weren’t available before the budget meeting, the board agreed to let Evers work with the most recent numbers before making any more decisions. The board voted to meet again at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, at the Lincoln building.
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Other topics discussed during the budget meeting included closing the Lincoln building and borrowing money from a Tax Anticipation Notes (TAN) pool to cover this year’s budget deficit.
Davis said that she contacted an inspector regarding the Lincoln building and found out that because it operates as part of the school district it is grandfathered in to a clause that exempts it from having to conform with current building codes. However, if the district were to close the building for a year, it would lose that status and would have to undergo extensive maintenance to conform with current standards.
Mallon noted that in addition to housing the district offices, the building houses the Alternative School.
Superintendent David Courtney said that the Alternative School costs about $120,000 to run and brings in $170,000 for the district.
“It doesn’t make economic sense at this time,” Mallon said on closing the Lincoln building.
On this year’s budget shortfall, Courtney handed out a sheet to audience members that summarized budget reductions administrators made to reduce the shortfall. Among other things, the vice principal job at the high school was cut as was $26,000 from the high school food service program. Courtney said the district could possibly compensate for the food service reduction by allowing commercial food businesses to offer lunch at the high school. He noted that Figaro’s already has a ready-made lunch menu that complies with the district’s nutritional requirements.
With the additional cuts, the budget shortfall for this year was reduced to $169,000, which Courtney said the district will obtain through the TAN pool, a program through which the district can borrow funds on a short-term basis to cover cash flow deficits during the fiscal year.
The district qualified for a $500,000 loan, and Courtney said that while the district only needs $169,000, it was recommended they borrow the full amount and leave it in the bank because arbitrage on the money allows the district to borrow for free with an estimated $400 left over at the end of the year.
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