Hollister School District’s deadline for a balanced budget is
quickly approaching, and with a deficit of more than $2 million,
its budget committee sat down this month and made a list of any
possible cuts to close the gap.
Hollister School District’s deadline for a balanced budget is quickly approaching, and with a deficit of more than $2 million, its budget committee sat down this month and made a list of any possible cuts to close the gap.
“In my 14 (or) 15 years of being with this district I have never seen it faced with cuts like this.” Assistant Superintendent Peter Gutierrez said. “Any cuts in some way, shape or form are going to affect the students.”
Eighty-seven percent of the district’s $43 million budget is already tied up in salary and benefits for employees. This leaves approximately $5.6 million, the portion of the budget left for textbooks, busing, cafeteria services and supplies, vulnerable for cuts.
“This is not going to be fun,” Board President Dee Brown said. “Whatever cuts we make, it’s going to hurt somewhere.”
For the past five months, members of the budget committee, consisting of community members and district staff, has compiled a list of possible cuts. Officials made a list of 56 suggestions where the budget could be trimmed, including closing a school, cutting teaching positions, eliminating middle school sports, canceling cell phones for maintenance workers and cutting Internet connections and long distance service for the district.
“Some of the small things like cutting out cell phones sounds like an easy way to save a couple thousand dollars, but if you only have one person working for the district who does plumbing, they’re at a job at Maze and a water pipe breaks at R.O. Hardin, you have a problem,” Brown said.
Board Members Margie Barrios, Carol Cochran and Alice Flores did not return phone calls Thursday.
The list was given to school administrators, parent clubs and the teachers union this week. The committee has asked that they look over the suggestions, choose which they feel will work best and get their decisions back to the district in the next few weeks.
“After we receive the suggestions back from the constituents, the committee will look at them and try to prioritize what will work best,” Assistant Superintendent Peter Gutierrez said. Gutierrez said they’ll hopefully have a smaller and more serious list of suggestions for the district at the May 25 board meeting.
One of the main goals of the committee is to make cuts with as small an impact on the students as possible. Dean Bubar, director of business and operations, said with the amount of money they have to cut, the chance of it not affecting the students is impossible.
“Enrollment is down and with the state’s financial crisis, we most likely won’t be seeing any money from them,” he said. “When we’re not bringing in enough revenue to offset our deficit, we cannot continue spending. We need to adopt a budget that’s going to reflect our ability to meet our fiscal obligations for the next two years.”
Another concern is after cuts are made, years from now, there may come a time when the district begins to see money coming in again and can rebuild its programs. The district would then be faced with the challenge of deciding which programs are the most important to bring back, Gutierrez said.
“That’s something we’re going to have to look into as well,” he said.
Sunnyslope Principal Karen Twaddell, who has worked in education for 30 years, takes a long view of the cuts. Budget crunches happen, but things will eventually get better, she said.
“It happens like every 10 years,” she said. “Everyone is going to have to tighten their belts in some way at every level, but the main focus should stay on trying to make sure the students don’t see the set backs from this.”
The district’s deadline for a balanced budget is June 30, 2004. Community members who wish to be part of the budget committee can contact the district office. The next meeting will be held May 3, at 3:30 p.m.
Christine Tognetti can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 330 or at [email protected].
