Wield budget ax carefully
As Kalispell Public Schools officials peer into the budgeting abyss, it might be advisable for them not to try to find a single “sacrificial lamb” as one trustee put it.
The schools face a projected $1.5 million shortfall in next year’s budget, and trustees, administrators and school staffers have a mere few weeks to figure out what should be on the chopping block.
It’s tempting to oversimplify and look for a home run — one single budget stroke that takes care of the whole deficit.
Wipe out all extracurricular activities? That would take care of more than two-thirds of the deficit, but at what cost to students and the community?
How about closing the vo-ag center or alternative schools? Those would bring big savings, too.
A more measured approach would be to take a list of 10 things in the school district and make hard choices to reduce funding for everything on that list.
No programs and no staffing levels should be overlooked.
The budget gap is too large, as school leaders have said, to be using a scissors approach to funding cutbacks. But injudiciously wielding an ax to balance the budget with one stroke may not be realistic.
The timetable is tight: The superintendent will present proposed budget cuts on April 12 and a vote is scheduled April 26.
And of course the precise school budget situation still is in a state of flux depending on what funding is provided by the state Legislature.
Kalispell schools, however, shouldn’t count on some miracle money infusion from Helena. School officials still have to prepare as if little help is coming from the state.
The current budget imbroglio was partly brought on by the defeat at the polls of the schools’ proposed $6 million building reserve and technology levy.
A lot of people — 4,693 — voted against that levy. But that number still is lower than the 5,659 people who are unemployed in Flathead County.
That second number is an important one for school officials to keep in mind as they try to craft a budget that people can afford.