The Prince George School District will have to cut nearly $5.6 million in spending to balance its budget.
In a special meeting Tuesday, district trustees voted to use $4.3 million in previous years’ surpluses to spread the cuts over three years. The district will look to cut $2.2 million in the 2009-10 school year, $2.4 million in 2010-11 and $1.2 million in 2011-12.
Despite increases in per-student funding, declining enrolment and investment revenue have meant the district’s income is down $680,000, district superintendent Brian Pepper said.
“Our enrolment has been declining for the last several years. We believe it will be declining until 2013, when it should level out,” Pepper said. “The problem arises once we flat line. Once we level off, we won’t receive the enrolment decline grant.”
Seven public consultation meetings have been held, numerous impassioned speeches have been given and plans presented to keep local schools open. But what chance do they have of reversing the board’s decision to close 11 district schools by the fall?
The outlook isn’t good. The school board needs to overcome a $9.2 million deficit for the 2002/2003 school year budget. They’re hoping $2.3 million of that comes from closing schools. The recent decision to take Springwood Elementary off the closure list because the school its students were slated to move to Wildwood has severe structural problems, puts them behind on those savings. And so far at least one trustee isn’t convinced the solutions they’ve seen from parents can produce the same savings as closing schools.
AHN Receives $350,000 from CDC to Study Use of Reusable P100 Respirators to Protect Frontline Healthcare Workers Amid Global Pandemics
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Project Aims to Design Industry-Accepted Guidelines for Rapid Adoption of Elastomeric Half Mask Respirators by Health Systems
AHN was one of the first health systems in the country to pilot the use of EHMRs by frontline caregivers.
“Since we’re one of the first early-adopters of reusable EHMRs, we have a unique opportunity to serve as a model for the industry, by engaging with our clinicians and leveraging their feedback and experiences to further develop effective PPE strategies.” PITTSBURGH (PRWEB)
School District 57 trustee Sharel Warrington summed up the budget process perfectly Tuesday evening.
“This is not necessarily the budget we would like to table,” the management and finance committee chair told fellow trustees,”if we had the funding we would like.”
In commenting on the budget, which is set at $126,946,399 for the 2011-12 school, year, most of the trustees found areas where more would have been welcome.
“Rural school needs are still not recognized,” Valentine Crawford noted. “We need to push Victoria for separate funding formula for those schools.”
For Roxanne Ricard, it was getting the students to and from school that needed work.