[Vision2020] Election puts schools in budget lim

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (December 13, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Election puts schools in budget limbo
More than a month after the repeal of the Students Come First laws, local school districts are asking more questions than they are getting answers.
Idaho school districts spent more than a year working to implement new policy required by the Students Come First laws passed in the 2011 legislative session. Then the laws were repealed last month, leaving much uncertainty on the local level.
"So much of our funding was tied to those propositions," Whitepine Superintendent Tera Reeves said. "With the repeal there's a lot of questions for us about what will happen with that funding."
Genesee's school board revisited policies Wednesday night that allow the district to declare financial emergencies again, something that was taken out before Students Come First was repealed. Genesee Superintendent Wendy Moore said it's unlikely the Genesee district will end up in a financial emergency, but it's a necessary precaution due to the instability of state funding for education.
"We would have to be really hard-pressed to get into that position," Moore said. "We're not really sure about this year's budget and what we will see from the state. A large amount of money was earmarked, that should have been going to technology, and it's just hanging out there with a big question mark on it."
Educators are largely in favor of reverting to previous school policy, but Moore is still hoping for some negotiation.
"The referendums got voted down because people were unhappy with how it was put forth and forced on them," she said. "I still think communities want technology in their schools, they still believe teachers deserve to be paid fairly and adequately."
Superintendents are working to get answers from the state board and the office of the state attorney general, but they expect things will not be definitive until the legislative session starts.
"We really hate to see everything left in limbo until some decisions are made," Moore said.
Superintendents are also making plans to get in touch with local legislators in the coming weeks to express their funding concerns.
"We want to look at how we can make it easier to pass our supplemental levy this year," Potlatch Superintendent Jeff Cirka said. "Getting funding for all the districts is going to be very tricky."
Whitepine School District may also take a funding cut as a result of the Students Come First repeal.
Superintendent Reeves said Whitepine schools will lose about $100,000 due to the reinstatement of "use it or lose it," which is funding the state gives schools to hire teachers. Now, if districts hire fewer teachers they receive less money, but under Students Come First they were allowed to hire fewer teachers and deposit the extra money into their general fund.
"That's a pretty significant piece of our funding for the current year we're working in. With the repeal, that piece of funding has been removed and I'm hopeful our Legislature will not give us a mid-year cut, which is what this amounts to," Reeves said.
Idaho's Department of Education estimated the repeal of Students Come First resulted in a $23 million cut for the state's schools.
Reeves said the district has a healthy fund balance to dip into, but "we can only dip into it for so many years before something has to change."

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Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
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