From school consolidations to centralizing pre-K school buildings, officials spent time at last week’s school system retreat talking over the different options they have going into a potentially bleak future.
“Right now, you’ve got to look at the national economic picture, the state economic picture and the local economic picture,” Superintendent Ed Smith said. “Right now, our responsibility is just to know what does it cost.
“It doesn’t mean something’s going to change, but then you’re informed to make that decision deliberately.”
The proposed 2013 fiscal year system budget provided by Chief Financial Officer Don Miller shows a budget of $98 million, nothing left of the about $12.6 million general fund reserve due to deficit paybacks and a total general fund deficit of about $3.7 million.
State cutbacks have taken their toll, yet the school system has stayed above water.
“This school system, from everything I can see, is probably in the best shape of any system in the state,” Miller said. “… We think the recession is ending. The recovery has not begun. State revenues are still declining every month - at least they’re not declining double digits.”
At the meeting, system officials discussed these possible options:
n Revamping, reorganizing and maximizing the school system’s bus transportation system.
Budgeted for 2009-10, 197 busses will run 145 routes driving 2.5 million miles transporting more than 10,000 children.
While students in the Franklin Forest Elementary zone cost $152 per year to transport, based on the number of school buses being used plus total mileage for drivers and the time spent, students in the Rosemont Elementary district cost $624 per year to deliver.
“We can maximize the routing, and that’s what we’re looking at,” said John Radcliffe, assistant superintendent of maintenance and operations. “If we were to reduce simply 30 minutes of a route for every driver, that’s a saving of about $132,000 a year, just by doing that.”
Radcliffe said choosing drivers near their school would also save money.
Part of the systems’ white fleet - smaller vehicles for taking groups of students on trips or service trucks used for building maintenance - was being taken home following a day of work. Radcliffe tested the mileage of four vehicles leaving the lot and put a stop to the practice.
“The savings on those four vehicles alone was almost $3,000 in fuel. That was just going to and from home. … When you look at that, over time, it makes a big difference.”
n Consolidating pre-K classes at Berta Weathersbee, Cannon Street, Franklin Forest, Hillcrest, Hollis Hand, Unity and Whitesville Road elementary schools and Ethel Kight Magnet School because of their close proximity.
This would save an estimated $3.25 million, at $250,000 per building, as well as provide extra space for older students at the schools.
The school system would keep pre-K classes at Callaway, Hogansville, Long Cane, Mountville, Rosemont and West Point elementary schools because of their distance from other elementary schools.
A public hearing would be required before any changes would take place.
n Implementing a four-day work week, which would reduce the school calendar by 36 days.
The action would save about $1 million through reduced salaries of 145 bus drivers, benefits and fuel, a saving of about 20 percent, as well as utilities at the school buildings, a saving of about 10 percent due to an increased length in school days.
n Shortening the school calendar by 20 days.
The action would provide an estimated 11 percent saving on transportation costs and a 5 percent saving on utilities, for a total of about $570,000.
n Turning West Side Magnet School into a regular kindergarten through fifth-grade school rather than a third-grade through eighth-grade school that serves the entire county.
“Typically, your elementary school, this is a total cost of utilities and everything, is about $2.5 million to 3 million,” Miller said.
Savings in the action are about $564,000 annually less than the $2.5 to $3 million associated with a typical elementary school.
n And consolidating two underenrolled elementary schools - Mountville and Cannon Street.
Savings associated with consolidating the two, Cannon Street which has about 225 students, and Mountville which has about 307, both including pre-K, are about $1.04 million.
Smith said the decision would take parental involvement heavily into consideration.
The discussions at the retreat were not actions or recommendations, but officials felt the school board should know their choices if the time came.
“Times are tight, but the bar is still moving up,” Smith said. “We’re being asked to do more with less, and so we’ve really got to be thinking innovatively and keep a real powerful think tank for how we can organize the work to meet those standards.
“We’ve got to keep children our focus, achievement our focus, learning our focus.”
Trey Wood can be reached at twood@lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.
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