After several months of long budget discussions, Carbon County School District No. 2 decided three was the magic number for a sound budget.
The CCSD 2 School Board voted Thursday to cut three full-time teaching positions, a decision in line with Superintendent Bob Gates’ recommendation.
“I still believe that we need to reduce by three to meet the board’s desire to have a $2.5 million cash carryover,” Superintendent Bob Gates said in a CCSD 2 workshop meeting Thursday.
Prior to recent budgetary discussions, the school district decided to maintain a cash carryover of $2.6 million each year. CCSD 2 officials determined that, in order to maintain that cash carryover during the next three years, the school district would have to cut about $400,000 from the budget.
Business manager Sally Wells presented numbers reflecting the district’s FTE and ADM and showed and demonstrated using spreadsheets, without cutting three reaching positions, the cash carryover would drop below $1 million.
Cutting three teaching positions only gets the school district $300,000. The school board also looked at an additional $170,000 in cuts.
The $170,000 reflects a $70,000 cut in food services by cutting benefits for three food staff positions and an increase in meal prices. It also reflects a $20,000 savings in activities by initiating a “pay to play” model, where students would have to pay a fee to participate in some extracurricular activities and reduction in overnight trips. The board will vote on the “pay to play” model in May, Gates said.
The $170,000 did not reflect a reduction in health insurance, but Gates said the board will have that discussion as well.
Some residents present in Thursday’s meeting were curious as to why the school board was considering cutting educational staffing, as well as cuts previously presented as alternatives to cutting staff.
“The very first budget meeting on a Thursday night, it was one-and-a-half positions. Monday night’s school board meeting it was two full-time positions. A week later it was three. Now, we’re at three, we’re at activities, we’re at lunch, we’re at benefits …,” said Cade Powell, a member of a citizen advisory designed to find alternatives to cutting staff.
Gates said in a later interview the amount of money the district had to cut kept increasing with its developing understanding of the budget.
“This group (the citizen advisory committee) is saying ‘Don’t cut teachers until you look at everything else.’ At the same point in time, I’m looking at this amount of money saying ‘We need to cut more,’” Gates said.
In March, Gates proposed the school cut two full-time teaching positions. However, Gates and other CCSD 2 officials realized they would have to cut even more as better information about the budget trickled in, Gates said. By Thursday’s meeting, Gates determined the school district would have to cut $400,000 to maintain a cash carryover of $2.6 million over a three-year period.
Before the school board voted to cut three teaching positions, Jeb Steward, Encampment resident and member of the citizen advisory committee, urged board members not to take further action on cutting just short of voting on it.
“We have heard from Mr. Gates that three is the number for staff reductions to bring
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