School board wrangles with budget shortfall response

Posted 10/29/20

Almost every family has had to deal with a more month than money situation. But few have received a letter asking how to cut $500 million from the budget.

Park County School District No. 1 got …

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School board wrangles with budget shortfall response

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Almost every family has had to deal with a more month than money situation. But few have received a letter asking how to cut $500 million from the budget.

Park County School District No. 1 got such a letter from the Wyoming Legislature recently. The situation painted by the state is ugly, although the deficit for education has already been reduced to roughly $300 million as the oil and gas situation improves.

Meeting in regular session Tuesday, the district board of trustees were tasked with coming up with a response to the legislative request: If the entire education funding shortfall was passed on to the schools, what would that look like?

Superintendent Jay Curtis told the board that the full cut would mean taking $10 million from Park 1.

“We couldn’t open our doors,” Curtis said. “It would be nearly impossible.”

If the cuts were just the 10% that Gov. Mark Gordon has suggested all entities funded by the state be prepared to make, it would tally $2.7 million for Park 1.

“That would be 28 teachers’ and administrators’ salaries,” Curtis explained. “If it were classified employees, it could be up to 40 people let go.”

Trustee Kim Dillivan wondered how the state had come up with the $500 million figure and if it applied to schools only. Curtis said that was the shortfall expected over two years, but nothing was done to bridge the gap last year, so the entire amount was on the table this year. The same or similar cuts are expected in the next two years, he said. (Meanwhile, the state’s general fund is facing an additional $451.1 million shortfall, Gordon said Monday, calling the financial picture “deeply concerning.”)

Curtis said the problem is complex and will require a complex solution. That solution, he said, should include cuts, tighter budgeting, diversification of income streams and perhaps a change in the rules on spending that would fund current needs instead of continuing to earmark income for reserve funds.

The trustees were in agreement, though, that it was not their job to tell the Legislature what to cut. Instead, the board said they would rather the state implement a percentage of the district’s budget to cut, then allow the district to decide where to make those cuts.

The trustees determined to have Curtis write the response with input from board chairman Greg Borcher. The response will be circulated to the other trustees for recommendations, then forwarded to the Legislature by the end of the week.

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