CCSD committee recommends cuts

The Churchill County School District Budget Committee met Wednesday afternoon to discuss ways to fix the recent budget mishap.

The district’s rif notices missed the deadline to serve three teachers on April 30. The notices, however, did not reach the teachers until May 1, leaving CCSD with a budget shortfall of more than $100,000.

Phyllys Dowd, director of Business Services, presented the committee with her recommendations on what positions and programs could be cut to find extra money. The following are the recommendations: reduce instructional materials, $50,000; reduction of site budgets — $7 per student, $24,871; account technology, $67,068; extra prep period covered by specials, $33,440; and eliminate trash program (reduce custodian), $30,332.

If the current budget problem wasn’t stressful enough, Dowd said she received bad news from taxation.

“They redid their assessed value for the net mine proceeds and that hit us in both the operating fund and the general fund,” Dowd said. “Not significantly in comparison to other counties, about 26 percent of our net mine proceeds and in the general fund, that’s about $47,000 and in the debt service fund it’s about $35,000.”

Dowd said CCSD’s assessed value was reduced by more than $6 million. She said counties and local governments will be affected and feeling the strain for some time.

Dowd said she did an analysis this past week and was shocked at what she found.

“For fiscal year 2010, we received almost $1 million for impact aid,” Dowd said. “We’ve nose dived ever since then, 2011 was $850,000; 2012 was $725,000; 2013 was $517,000; and this year it’s $377,000 … so it’s declined quite a bit and it isn’t very good news. Congress is sitting on impact aid payments.”

Dowd said the coordinator of theNational Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS) coordinator for the district, gave her a new estimate and Dowd reduced the revenue projections down by another $188,000.

“That’s another big hit to our budget,” Dowd said. “One thing that I’m recommending to recommend to the board of trustees … I have put in for fiscal year 2015 early retirement buyouts for our licensed staff and I suggest that we push it back to ’14 and show that loss in this year, instead of pushing it on to next year.”

Dowd said at the April 21 meeting the board approved using $200,000 of fund money to balance the budget. She said between all of the changes the district is short roughly $450,000.

After Dowd finished presenting her new findings, the committee discussed the recommended cuts.

Dowd said although she would hate to lose someone in her department, the effect wouldn’t be too harmful to her department. She said the quality of service might be affected a little, but the employees in her department would be able to absorb the role of the riffed position.

Churchill County Middle School Principal Scott Meihack said if the worst comes, cutting middle school athletics could be a possible choice. He said if athletics were cut it could save the district $53,000.

“Mr. Malkovich and Mr. Boone run a local basketball league for the boys and girls,” Meihack said. “And there is a girls volleyball league for up to fifth or sixth grade students. If it’s a one year gig, that’s a possibility. I mean it’s about $53,000 give or take.”

After further discussion, the committee agreed with the recommendations offered by Dowd to present to the trustees at Wednesday’s meeting.