News Headlines
Source: State Journal, Frankfort, Nov. 3, 2009
“Hands off!” educators tell legislators
By Katheran Wasson
The Franklin County Board of Education has told state officials to keep their hands off the school system’s rainy day fund.
Superintendent Harrie Buecker, five school board members and two student representatives publicly signed a resolution Monday expressing their “strong opposition” to a possible legislative grab of school districts’ budget contingencies to reduce the state deficit.
“The idea that our contingency funds could be captured by legislators for their purposes would be very devastating for our district,” Buecker said.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo said in October that lawmakers could consider dipping into the funds to offset a predicted $161 million shortfall for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The outlook worsens in the 2010-12 budget, when there’s no more stimulus money.
Various estimates say Kentucky school districts hold hundreds of millions in their rainy day funds. FCPS has a $2.59 million contingency fund in the latest budget draft.
Two years ago, Buecker said the budget barely included the 2 percent contingency required by the state.
“We worked very hard, and through difficult cuts and budget decisions, we’ve been able to build our contingency up to nearly 5 percent,” she said.
“For us that’s crucial, because at any point in time a boiler can go, a roof can cave in, a lot of things can happen, and you must have that rainy day fund.”
Board members urged local residents to call their legislators “in support of community control of this district’s vital financial resources for the teaching and learning of our children.”
Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association, said calls and e-mails from board members and superintendents started coming in as soon as word got out that contingency funds could be in jeopardy.
“We recommended the resolution option because it is both an action the elected board of education can take as a body and a tangible communication to their members of the General Assembly,” he said Tuesday.
“We encouraged boards that adopted the resolution to explain their plans for contingency funds and the negative impact if those funds were reduced by means other than the needs of the district.”
Other Kentucky school boards have adopted resolutions, Hughes said, but he didn’t know how many.