School board tries to weather financial storm

By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer

OTTUMWA — Coming up with $2 million after the budget was already set isn’t easy. Doing it with restrictions — both legal and self-imposed — makes it that much harder.

On Monday, the Ottumwa school board found that their administrators may actually have found ways to weather the financial storm with a minimum of pain.

“Nothing is off the table,” said board president Carol Mitchell.

But there are things she’s pleased to see the administrators have been keeping in check.

“We want to keep this as far from the classroom as possible. And we want to avoid raising property taxes,” she said after the meeting.

Not only that, but school officials say the district doesn’t want to lay people off.

But Superintendent Jon Sheldahl pointed out recently that in an organization where 80 percent of expenses are on payroll, it’s difficult to come up with $2.2 million by reducing supplies.

“There may be some shuffling around,” Sheldahl said about retaining employees, “but I don’t think we’re going to put anybody out of work.”

Mitchell said from what she’s been hearing, that may be something not every Iowa school district will be able to say. But there will be sacrifices, she said.

“We’re just not going to hire new people,” Sheldahl explained.

Business Manager John Donner listed places where the district can save on payroll. A nurse retiring at the high school without being replaced will save $17,000. A central office secretary leaving the district in January — and not hiring a new one — will save $23,000. A departing custodian will not be replaced either, saving about $24,000. And about six teacher associate positions, the district believes, will be opening up and by leaving those vacant, they’ll realize a savings of $60,000.

Some stimulus money is actually considered “unrestricted,” said Donner, and that is $350,000 that can go toward the $2.2 million loss.

“We’ve had a considerable turnover in staff this last year that we talked to you about.” Donner said. “We did not spend those [leftover] dollars [knowing] that this cut may come; that’s about $300,000.”

Donner has suggested moving the district’s technology account from the general fund to their infrastructure account.

And that, they say, is another $150,000 to put against the $2.2 million they need to come up with.

Plant Operation Maintenance is having their budget reduced by $60,000, but “the good news is we’re in better shape than we were a couple years ago,” said Donner.

So with no urgent repairs to be made, other projects, like remodeling a bathroom, can be postponed.

“Nothing has been gutted,” Sheldahl told the board.

“There’s just going to be less purchases made. There is still an art budget, a music budget, a supply budget.”

“I do feel better,” said Mitchell after the meeting, “but there’s still a lot of unknowns.”

For example, will the state, after cutting the special education budget, allow schools to reduce their special education reserves?

“The legal people are saying we may not be able to do that,” said Sheldahl.

There’s a total of $400,000 that is left in question.

If that question comes up in the district’s favor, then, when they dip into savings, they’ll need to take out less than $700,000. That “unrestricted fund balance,” which was once below zero, now amounts to about $2.4 million, Donner said.

If the district can’t cut the $400,000, they’ll have to come up with more ideas. Thoughts include furloughs for employees.

“It has not formally been discussed with our employee groups,” Sheldahl said. “[But] one unpaid day for every employee would save the district about $115,000.”

There were no places on the “spread sheet” where $1 million could be saved on a single item. At least 10 line item suggestions were under $100,000.

“It’s hard to get to two million bucks $10,000 at a time,” said Sheldahl. “But it does add up.”

Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.

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