CCE looking to trim 2009-10 budget

Clay Central-Everly school board members officially heard from Superintendent Monte Montgomery this week that they'll need to trim approximately $100,000 from next year's budget.

"We are going to have a smaller budget than we had this year, and this year's was smaller than last year," Montgomery told them in regard to CCE's projected 2009-10 budget figures.

"We are looking at taking actions to cover that. Unfortunately, we're a people business -- and the reductions will affect people," he also foretold.

CCE is suffering the same predicament many other rural school districts in Iowa are: Declining enrollment numbers. Since Iowa funds its school districts on a per-pupil basis, declining enrollment translates into less revenue, or state aid, for schools to operate with.

"I realize we aren't the only district doing this across Iowa," Montgomery said of CCE's pending reductions. "We aren't the only district having these conversations and these decisions to make.

"It's never easy and it's never a position you want to be in. However, it's not an insurmountable problem."

Montgomery joined CCE's staff rolls in 1995-96 as a middle school principal. He was named the Clay County school district's superintendent two years later. Montgomery reports CCE is operating with a lower budget today than it did then. And, during his tenure in the district's superintendency role, he's had to make budget cuts of some sort every year.

"I haven't had a year yet where I've looked to increase staff," Montgomery said. "There were some years we didn't reduce, but if we had retirements we looked to fill from within."

Reductions in staff were incurred last year at CCE -- just as they are anticipated at the end of this school year for next year's budget.

The school district's budget was also trimmed last year by moving the fifth grade to the middle school and reducing the position formerly held by a fifth grade teacher through attrition. In addition, CCE has shared a few of its positions -- namely family consumer science and Spanish -- with neighboring Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn. District staff also reduced classroom supplies to keep the 2008-09 budget in the black.

"We still were able to be OK because we'd done reductions the year before. We saw this coming, so we did some reductions then," Montgomery said. "And, prior to this school year, we did some reductions in the spring of '08. So, we were OK. ... But, we'll still have to do some reductions this year. Eighty-three percent of our budget is tied to staffing. You can't reduce fuel costs because you have to drive the buses. You can't reduce utilities because you have to heat and light your buildings. And, we really don't have the option of closing any of our buildings because we don't have the room needed in either one. So, that's not an option either."

The anticipated reductions in staff, he assured, will have the least possible effect on student programming.

"It's never easy when you're looking at reducing staff. In particular with our district," Montgomery said, "because, quite frankly, most of our staff has been here for a very long time. The last time I did active cuts, which was in the spring of 2007, I was cutting teachers who had been here 9 - 11 years."

CCE's superintendent is also projecting that student enrollment numbers will continue to decline by roughly 10 students over each of the next two years.

"My projection would be then, at that point, we would stop declining," he said. "Our larger classes are in our high school. We're looking at kindergarten classes of 25 - 30 kids and graduating classes of 35 - 38 students the next two years."

Montgomery then assured that Iowa school districts can operate efficiently with 25 students per grade.

"Even at that number, we're still the largest in our conference," he said. "I've said for four or five years now: We can survive as a district at 25 per grade, and the problem isn't being a district of 325 students. We can be a district of 325. The problem is becoming a district of 325. That's where the hardship is. But, once we settle in, I think we can survive fine."

When asked to preview CCE's budget over the next few years, Montgomery added, "I would project that we will notice our (enrollment) decline has become less. I'm projecting that next year we'll be about the same as this year. So, next year when we're looking at the budget for the 2010-11 year, it will probably be about the same as 2009-10. And then, I would look for it to start moving up after that."

Current negotiations with district staff are another item CCE board members are considering as they work to pencil in next year's budget numbers. The CCE Education Association, which represents 41 of the district's teachers, requested a 6.92 percent contract increase for 2009-10 in December. This compared to the district's proposal of 2 percent.

"They're good to work with and I appreciate their interest," Montgomery said of the CCE-EA. "Their interest is truly in the well-being of the district."

The 46-year-old also noted that when he took over as CCE's superintendent from Dave Holmquist in 1997-98, he inherited a negative unspent balance.

"Philosophically, I believe you receive money this year to educate students this year. So, I've tried to keep our unspent balance right at zero. That's always been my intent because I believe it would be wrong for me to make huge cuts this year in order to save a lot of money to build up our cash reserve," Montgomery said. "Because you're cheating the students this year for the benefit of students five years down the road. So, that's not fair to the students in our buildings now to make huge cuts to save cash reserve. That's why I try to keep that number right around zero -- and grow it if we can."

Today, CCE's cash reserve levy is $150,000. While some school districts attempt to grow their cash reserve by taxing area property owners, the CCE superintendent indicated if the district's total tax levy rate of $12.53 per $1,000 valuation has to increase this year, it will only do so minimally.

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CCE School Budget Numbers