News - Local/State

Tuesday, May. 13, 2008

Rock Hill schools budgeting on shoestring for 2008-2009

Leaders challenged by growing district, shrinking state allocation

Keeping class size the same, getting rid of high school study halls and giving teachers and administrators the same raises are top priorities for the Rock Hill school district, but officials will have to overcome a $4 million budget shortfall to do it all.

The school board had its first round of budget discussions during a meeting Monday night.

The budget for the 2008-2009 school year is expected to be about $130 million. With that money, the school district is trying to continue new projects such as Saturday school and the Renaissance Academy that were started this year and open two new schools: Mount Holly Elementary and Dutchman Creek Middle.

Superintendent Lynn Moody said she wanted to get some direction from the board about where to cut spending and where to find more money before she brings them a proposed budget.

Moody suggested raising the extra money through a variety of means including:

• Decreasing field trips, workbooks and snacks at all schools by 5 percent;

• Decreasing the amount of money every department gets by 5 percent; and

• Rearranging which bank accounts are used for certain items.

Moody said she expects to have to dip into the fund balance, which is basically the school district's savings account, to pay for the shortfall.

"I think the idea with the fund balance is you put that money away in a good year in case you have a bad year," she said. "This is a bad year."

Much of Monday night's discussion centered on frustration with the way schools are funded by the state.

A 1-cent sales tax now goes toward school operating costs instead of using homeowner property taxes, as was done in the past. The money from the sales tax is given out by the state based in large part on state population growth. People in fast-growing school districts, including those in York County, are upset, saying they are growing faster than other districts across the state so they should be getting more money than just the state average.

"Local property taxes are not what they used to be, to say the least," said Bill Mabry, a district associate superintendent. "It's to the benefit of homeowners, but unfortunately school districts are suffering."

Board member Jason Silverman said people should have seen this problem coming.

"This is like watching a train wreck that you know is going to happen," he said.

Chairman Bob Norwood added that part of the problem is that the economy took a turn for the worse the same year the funding changes started to impact school districts, creating a sort of perfect storm.

Norwood said he would like the school board to look for ways to compromise to solve this year's budget woes.

District administrators expect to present a budget proposal to the board at its May 26 meeting.