County school districts respond differently to budget cuts

Brookings-Harbor School District is far from alone when it comes to the budget crisis.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski  pledged to support public schools, but there isn’t much the governor can do to protect education in the face of a sizable budget deficit, said Brookings-Harbor School District Superintendent John Garner.

Current projections by Oregon State Economist Tom Potiowsky indicate the state is looking at a $2.3 billion shortfall for the 2009-20 fiscal year, of which $1 billion is expected to be made up by cutting education funding.

So far no one knows exactly how much the schools will lose in the 2009-10 budget. An announcement from the state is expected by the end of February so that the schools can proceed with a clearer picture of their budget expectations.

Although all Curry County school districts have enacted spending freezes for the remainder of the current school year, the districts are responding to the longer term projections in different ways.

Port Orford/Langlois School District

POLSD, the smallest district in Curry County with an enrollment of 293 students, expects to lose between $125,000 and $250,000 this school year, Superintendent Ruby Price told the Port Orford/Langlois School Board at a budget meeting Feb. 5.

The district is making up the difference in the current year’s budget by cancelling all non-essential travel and other spending, similar to the BHSD spending freeze.

“The good news is that we will make it through this year,” said Mick Lane,  district federal programs director and representative of the budget committee.

The bad news, he said, was that the district was facing a deficit of $800,000 in the next two years.

The northernmost Curry County district already has a plan in place. The district began looking into budget-cutting measures due to declining enrollment, similar to a BHSD budget subcommittee formed by Garner.

POLSD’s enrollment declined by 13 students last year and expects another loss of 29 next school year.

The district’s elementary schools, which have as few as three students in some grades,  have only nine second-grade students.

In some grades, there are so few students some combination classes include up to three grades in one classroom, said Lane.

The combination of budget cuts and declining enrollment will force the school board to consider closing Blanco K-8 School a year ahead of schedule.

District projections indicate that the closure of Blanco would save $375,713 next year and $438,710 in the 2010-11 school year, erasing the district’s expected losses.

The cuts come at what should be a happy time for the school district.

Pacific High School was named one of 25 “exceptional high schools” in Oregon and will be recognized in an upcoming issue of U.S. News and World Report, Lane said.

Central Curry

School District

Caution is the word from the Central Curry School District in Gold Beach.

CCSD froze non-essential spending in December and is playing the waiting game to see what will happen next, said Superintendent Jeff Davis.

With the state’s situation changing almost every day, Davis says he, along with the school board, is waiting to hear what kind of budget the state announces on March 1.

Like BHSD and POLSD, Central Curry faces declining enrollment and is expecting to lose 20 students next year, but will also be penalized for the retirement of two teachers who had 50 years of teaching experience between them.

Experience is one of the factors that goes into determining how much money a district receives. School districts are rewarded with additional money for having a more experienced staff, Davis said.

When the school district hired two young teachers to replace the retirees, the district lost 50 years of experience pay, he said.

As with the other districts in the county, CCSD is seeing declining enrollment.

Central Curry School District completed a consolidation of districts in 1997, combining four school districts – Agness Elementary School District, Gold Beach Union High School District, Ophir Elementary School District, Pistol River Elementary School District and Riley Creek Elementary School District into the current district organization.

Ophir and Pistol River schools were closed and students were reassigned to Riley Creek in Gold Beach.

Brookings-Harbor School District

BHSD recently reduced spending to make up the current school year’s $75,000 budget shortfall without cutting personnel or student programs, said John Garner, BHSD superintendent.

The school district froze unnecessary travel and reduced discretionary spending in 13 areas; cancelling previously but currently unspent budgeted items, such as contracting for an outside nurse and by taking money from funds that were over-budgeted.

With a looming $790,000 budget deficit for the 2009-10 school year, a Brookings-Harbor School District subcommittee identified 16 areas to cut spending.

For more information on the BHSD budget situation, see related story on Page 1A.