Budget cuts continue to plague the Washington County School District. District officials unveiled the 2010-11 budget, which is $2.8 million less than this year's.
From fiscal year 2008-09 to 2009-10, the district was hit with $6.4 million in cuts. Next school year the district will be faced with a number of new cuts including reductions in secondary staff developers; a 15 percent cut in district-level supply and travel budgets; a 10 percent cut in the instructional supply budget; reductions in field trip and activity trip budgets; a decrease in all employee pay by two days; and elimination of district 401k contributions for current and retired employees.
Some of the short-term solutions include reduction of the equipment and technology budget, elimination of bus purchases, elimination of the school board's trip to the national convention, alternative funding for nurses and more.
Board President Kelly Blake said the board has tried to minimize the impact in the classroom. Superintendent Max Rose said what bothers him the most about the cuts is how they have affected teacher pay."The economy butchered us, but our goal was not to lay off teachers and not increase classes and we've been able to do that," he said. The Spectrum
