CLEVELAND - The preliminary education budget for next year was the topic of discussion at a meeting held Thursday by the White County Board of Education.
Dr. Jeff Wilson, Superintendent of Schools for White County, presented the budget plan to the board, calling the budget one of the most painful he has had to assemble in his career.
Wilson said that although no positions would be cut this year, furlough days would be necessary in the face of a $2.5 million budget deficit.
"We're hoping that we'll be able to use attrition, whereas last year we had to do a reduction in work force for several individuals. We're hoping this year we can do it with retirements and folks leaving the system," he said. "The thing I was hoping we would not have to do is increase the number of furlough days for our faculty and staff; unfortunately there's only really two choices, and it's raising millage, which this board does not want to do."
Wilson also noted that a sizeable amount of the budget deficit stemmed from an issue over which the school system had no control, saying: "$400,000 of that deficit is based on the new health insurance that's coming down from the federal government. We've looked at options, 'Could we be cheaper going outside the state health system,' and we were told, 'You sure can do that, but you have to leave the state retirement system,' which we've got a lot of folks getting close to retirement and they're not interested in that at all. I think it's going to really impact school systems."
According to Wilson, the school system is hoping to sell a few pieces of property that it currently owns in order to help chip away at the deficit.
Two more review meetings will be held before a final budget plan is approved.
Wednesday
November 27th, 2024
4:52AM
