Budget Update

Two weeks ago we provided you with  a status report on our budget situation.  We now would like to update you and provide information about upcoming meetings on the budget.

The Board of Education and I presented our budget request to the County Commissioners on April 27 at a joint meeting of the two school boards in Orange County and the County Commissioners.  We shared three potential scenarios for further state and local budget reductions that we might face.  The best case was for an additional reduction of $666,000 and the worst was for a $4,924,000 reduction.  We also shared a prioritized list of potential reductions (see end of this message). At the meeting, the County Commissioners' and Manager's comments suggested that it would be a very difficult year for the County budget and that all county-funded agencies could expect to feel the pain.  I left the meeting concluding that we needed to plan for the worst case scenario.

At the May 6th Board meeting we presented the Board with some strategies that would make use of capital funds and fund balance to reduce the amount of actual reductions we would have to make.  The Board authorized the administration to approach the County about the proposals related to the capital budget. Our recommendations would require the cooperation of the Commissioners and the waiver of the Orange County Board's limit on debt service.  Our proposal could reduce the amount of necessary reductions to approximately $2 million.

At the state level, the General Assembly will convene this week.  The Senate is expected to produce a budget before the end of May.  We will report back to the Board regarding the budget at the Board's regularly scheduled meeting on May 20th.

At this time, we have not renewed the contracts of most of our part-time teachers, which is standard practice.  We also have not renewed the contracts of some teachers on "probationary" contracts (less than 4 years of experience with the district), particularly those who teach in areas that are on our highest priority list for reductions.  I will recommend to the Board that contracts be issued to classroom teachers unless their performance is unacceptable or they were filling in for teachers who are expected to return next year.  There is still a distinct possibility that if cuts are severe, over the summer we will need to RIF (Reduction in Force) staff who already have contracts.  This includes career status (commonly referred to as tenured) teachers.  Our preference, of course, is that any position reductions can be addressed through attrition.

The Orange County Manager is expected to release his recommended budget next week.  There will be two public hearings where the public and staff can address the County Commissioners:

Thursday, May 20th, 7 pm at the DSS Building, Hillsborough Commons, 103 Mayo St.

Tuesday, May 25th, 7 pm at Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Rd.

Click here to view the complete list of proposed reductions