Yuma schools primed for cuts

Proposed cuts to public education this year will not catch Yuma schools off guard since school administrators anticipated reductions and planned ahead, according to school officials.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and legislative leaders negotiated a deal to cut kindergarten through 12th grade education by $144 million at the beginning of November and plan on finalizing the agreement later this month, according to published reports. The reductions are an attempt to bridge a projected $2 billion gap between state revenues and expenses.

If the reductions to public schools go through as expected, it would mean $1 million less for the Yuma Union High School District, said Dianne Cordery, director of financial services for YUHSD. But, for now, they have dodged a bullet.

"We anticipated this last year," Cordery said. "So we set aside a contingency fund. When we developed a budget last spring, we didn't allocate everything to specific funds."

YUHSD has a contingency fund of $2.3 million that will more than cover the anticipated $1 million shortage that would result from the state's latest proposal.

Typically, the district allocates about $200,000 to each of the high schools but instead budgeted only $50,000, Cordery noted. When setting a budget, its priority was to pay all the district employees' salaries and then raise the amount disbursed to each of the campuses. But first, the state needs to come up with a final budget, she said.

The state cuts look as though they will come out of school's capital budget, which covers texts, computers, furniture and buses, Cordery noted.

"We're still growing every year and our enrollment has been going up, so we still need a larger capital budget."

Kerry Jones, Yuma Elementary School District 1 chief financial officer, said it too anticipated state aid cuts since June. He said that last summer when Brewer used her line item veto to object to parts of the Legislature's budget, she restored $220 million to public education.

But rather than bank on those restored funds, District 1 prepared for still further reductions, which now appear likely to happen, Jones said. District 1's current budget of $48 million is $4 million less than last year.

Mike Wicks, executive director of management services at Crane Elementary School District, said he too expects the cuts will come from the capital budget and Crane could lose about $900,000.

But Crane, when setting up its fiscal 2009-10 budget, never factored in Brewer's restored funds. The district instead abided by its original budget drafted in June. So despite the proposed $144 million in cuts likely to be approved at the end of the month, Crane will not feel an impact.