Full Disclosure | February E-mail To Commissioner Regarding Schools

Originally Posted: 11 May 2011 09:37 PM PDT From: Reggie Paulk Date: Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 5:53 PM Subject: Re: East Grand Schools To: Gary Bumgarner Gary, If you'll be at the town hall meeting, I can talk to you there if you have a couple of minutes. I don't know if you've had a chance to sit down with the district budget, but I contend they don't have a money problem--they have a management problem. The schools receive their funding on a per-student basis, but the money is spent on a departmental basis. This introduces large distortions into the model that then become difficult to isolate. I have a degree in finance, and I had to call the state just to verify I wasn't going nuts after looking at the district budget. My wife is an MBA whose expertise is slashing excess spending, so together we know a bit about what we're looking at. The bottom line is this: The district expects to receive $6441(projected) for each of its 1278 students for the upcoming school year before taking any external funding into account. That's a total of $8,231,598... but they expect to receive 10 million dollars from local sources next year, and my conversation with the state revealed they only receive 2.7 ($270,000) percent of their funding from the state, before any rescissions. That's chump change, and no reason for the excuses we heard last week. As I said above, the district receives its funding on a per-student basis, so it's necessary to break expenditures down to the same per-student level. I'm just going to give you the numbers and let you be the judge. My assumptions are a district budget of $10,003,475 only using local sources of revenue--no federal, state or county funds. ($10,003,475 - $1,500,000 district cost /1278 students = $6653 allocated per student. Fraser Elementary has a planned budget of $1,654,888 divided by 268 students giving a $6174 per student cost ($6553 Baseline) Granby Elementary's planned budget is $1,853,772 divided by 339 students giving a $5468 per student cost ($6553 Baseline) Grand Lake Elementary plans $587,395 divided by 61 students at a $9629 per student cost ($6553 Baseline) The Middle School budget is $2,006,942 for 262 students netting a $7660 cost per student ($6553 Baseline) Finally, the High School plans $2,543,926 for 354 students for $7186 per student ($6553 Baseline) We have 677 (53%) students consuming anywhere from eight to 45 percent more than allotted. Out of five schools, only Fraser and Granby Elementary are operating within the constraints of this per-student funding model. Breaking this down further, Grand lake would need to cut ($9629-$6653)*61 students, or $181,536 from its budget to meet the $6653 per student allocation. The office of the principal alone costs $120,000, or nearly $2000 per student. The Middle School needs to cut ($7660-$6553)*262 students, or $290,000 from its budget. The High School would need to axe ($7186-$6553)*354 students--$224,082 total. The office of the principal and the school counselor alone cost $500,000 dollars annually. That's a total of $695,618 in cuts needed to meet the projected budget, without any outside funds. These numbers came straight from the district budget. From what I can see, there's nothing here that shows a need for 1.1 million in cuts--so why are we in discussions to raise taxes and/or close schools? I know where we could cut these funds pretty quickly, but it would require a change of thinking at the district level. There is going to be some pain in the coming months, but it shouldn't come from cutting activities, closing schools and reducing programs as a first resort. If you at the county give money to the school district without an accounting of what's really going on, I feel it would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer funds. Take care, Reggie