The shift in numbers, according to Glenn Stiegman, is because of a change in the state budget.
Stiegman, financial adviser to the district, explained the change to the Fairfield County School Board Tuesday night during their budget work session. However, in spite of the newly projected surplus, Stiegman said his recommendations to the board for the budget will not change.
Some of those recommendations include fewer teachers and larger class sizes, an idea that struck a sour note with the board chairwoman.
“I don’t think we can complain about overcrowding at our elementary school and sit here and do nothing,” board chairwoman Annie McDaniel said.
Stiegman’s budget plans for one less kindergarten teacher and one less first-grade teacher at Fairfield Elementary School. The move would necessitate the increase in average class size from 17 students to 21 students, a size that Stiegman said was about on par with the rest of the district.
Similar reductions in teaching staff, coupled with increased class sizes, are on the table for other schools in the district as well.
“I don’t think the board is going to go along with an increase in class size,” McDaniel said later. “Especially if the school is not improving.”
Fairfield Elementary, McDaniel noted, was one of the district’s schools that did not meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) standards for the 2008-2009 school year.
“I’m going to fight any decrease in classroom expenditures,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel also said that a projected surplus may or may not be something the district could count on, since the state had not yet finalized their budget.
“You may think you’re going to get additional money from one angle, and then you might face a cut from another angle,” she said.
Either way, McDaniel said, the bottom line is set. Any changes in expenditures will have to come from within those constraints.
That includes any potential future payment to the Chester County School District for the education of Fairfield County students living in the Mitford area. Stiegman told the board he had budgeted nothing to cover a potential payment to Chester.
Thus far, Chester has billed the Fairfield County School District 324,032.62 for the first half of the 2009-2010 school year. Legislation mandating such a payment, which passed the General Assembly and was ratified last week, awaits Governor Mark Sanford’s signature in Columbia.
“I don’t believe it’s going to happen,” McDaniel said, referring to the bill becoming law and the subsequent payments. “But if it does, it will be a one-time expenditure and it will give us time to pan for next year.”
Post a Comment
