Friday, May 17, 2024
Responding to a budget shortfall, Gatesville Independent School District leaders have enacted significant budget cuts that will reduce the district's expenses by $1.7 million.
"It's a sad picture, and we've made some pretty major cuts," said Darrell Frazier, chief financial officer for the district. He noted that $674,000 of the cuts were made in the district's human resources department.
On a positive note, he said, "there have been no layoffs" and GISD employees will still be receiving salary increases for the 2022-23 fiscal year. However, "we have cut just about any open positions. There have been no (current) personnel cuts, but there have been some cuts by attrition" (people retiring or leaving the district and not being replaced).
Frazier had warned the school board in June that the district faced a shortfall of up to $2 million, but that amount was reduced. Even so, comprehensive budget cuts were required.
Frazier said he met with each campus principal to formulate the expense reductions, and that funding has effectively returned to the 2018-19 pre-pandemic budget.
"To give you an idea of what was cut principally – pretty much all travel," he said. "There will be no staff going to conferences." Instead, staff will be expected to have meetings/training via teleconferences and internet programs such as Zoom.
The library fund for new books has also been cut, Frazier said, although librarians may have some leftover activity funds to purchase books.
He said as of July 25, he was waiting for a response from the fine arts and athletic departments regarding the proposed budget cuts.
"Pretty much anything superfluous (non-essential) is getting cut," Frazier said. "There may be some cuts in food expenses for teams which travel. They do have some pretty handsome activity accounts that will come into play.
"It's going to be an austere budget, but everybody I've talked to has responded really well – maturely. Everybody recognizes the position we're in. There's been a pretty substantial drop in enrollment and attendance is not that good."
In Texas, funding for school districts is primarily based on enrollment and attendance figures.
Dr. Barrett Pollard said he has spoken with the state education commissioner about enrollment and financial concerns.
"The number of kids in Texas is shrinking," Pollard said. "Birth rates are down and there are fewer young people. At one point, Texas was an outlier. We had more kids than adults, but that's no longer the case. I shudder to think what our enrollment will be like when we reach pandemic birth rates" (which began in 2020 and have not yet been manifested in the student population).
Board Vice President Charles Alderson asked how the student population statewide is down with all the people who have crossed the border in recent years.
"Some of that has been siphoned off to homeschool and private schools," Pollard said. "The (state education) commissioner is attributing the drop to low birth rates."
Asked if there might be any financial relief for districts with lower enrollments and decreased attendance, Pollard said the commissioner told him that there is no support in the state legislature for funding schools for students who are not there.
"He said the only thing the legislature might consider is more per pupil funding" (increasing the amount of money received for each student).
Sometimes the use of funds is highly restricted, and Pollard said it would be beneficial for the district to have "some latitude on how we spend – more flexibility on how you spend for security."
As a result of budget cuts, some of the regular technology updates that the district routinely makes will have to be delayed, Frazier said, and the use of buses for travel (outside of bringing students to school and taking them home) will also be more restricted.
"We will have to limit expenses to things that are absolutely essential and not be able to do everything we've done in the past," he said.
Asked about the impact to special education, Frazier said travel will be reduced and only essential supplies may be purchased. "Wish lists will be cut," he said.
When hosting an event, the athletic department "will only be able to bring in what they (earn) from hosting an event."
Despite the budget cuts, Frazier said employees have responded well.
"There weren't too many tears," he said. "I'm proud of the way they handled it."
Some of the budget cuts enacted include reductions of:
* 29.9% from the primary campus
* 31.8% from the elementary campus.
* 25% from the intermediate campus.
* 23.4% from the junior high campus.
* 23.2% from the high school campus.
* 70.9% from Career and Technical Education
* 14.3% from fine arts
* 39.5% from junior high athletics
* 9.4% from high school athletics
* 6.3% for playoff expenses
* 18.7% from food services
* 18.9% from technology
* 2.7% from transportation
* 20.5% from maintenance
* 8.2% from capital outlays expenses
* 2.8% from the interest and sinking fund (debt services)
* 23.3% from administration
* 19.6% from special education
* 51.9% from hosted athletic events
One area which will see an increase is curriculum and instruction, with an increase of 7.2%.
