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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Lawrence County School System Budget Statement

The statement that follows is a formal press release addressing the Lawrence County School System Budget

Lawrence County School System Budget Statement
Lawrence County School System, like other governing entities has been faced with making tough financial decisions that are in the best interest of taxpayers. 

It is the difficult job of the elected school board members to vote on recommendations that are presented by the Director of Schools which result from months of discussion sessions and money crunching efforts to make Lawrence County Schools as fiscally sound as possible. 

Director of Schools, Dr. Bill Heath shares, “It is the board’s job to take the recommended budget, debate and discuss and eventually approve a budget.  Neither I nor the board has a desire to cut any positions, however based on budget forecasts these cuts had to be recommended and voted on.”

Since the school board cannot raise revenue, the ever increasing expenditures have outpaced income greatly.  Over the past two years in particular the board has expended a great deal of funds from the fund balance for much needed expenditures such as capital projects. 

In fact, Lawrence County Schools’ capital outlay expenses have increased 158% while income has only increased 17% in the last 7 years. 

Fund balance as of 2011-12 was $7,344,164.00 decreasing to $6,619,716.00 in 2012-13, and decreasing even further to an estimated $4,518,018 for the 2013-14 school year. 

At the rate of the decline Lawrence County Schools is looking at an approximate fund balance by 2015-16 of $1,400,000.00.  The state mandates school systems maintain a fund balance of 3% of total operating expenditures. 

Dr. Heath Commented, “During my first five years in office we built our fund balance from $2.8 million to $7.4 million.  In the last two years the Board has approved many necessary expenditures, thus depleting that fund balance to $4.5 million today.”

Action was taken at the Board Meeting on Monday, June 9th to make the following staffing and operational budget as explained:
Central Office

Two of the certified employees impacted by the Central Office cuts are retirees that have been currently employed under special contract to work in CTE and Testing.  Employment will be maintained by the Plant Facility Manager within the Maintenance Department.  The Attendance Director will be going from a full time position to part time via a special contract upon retirement.
Transportation

All changes in Transportation allows LCSS to remove 3 buses from the budget whereas all are projected through attrition. 
School Based

Other

In other action the board voted to give the Director discretion in adding positions back into the budget if dollars became available without using any fund balance and if the positions have a direct impact on student learning.

Dr. Heath shares, “Lawrence County Schools have maintained the top academic ranking amongst the South Central Region of 16 counties while being funded third from the bottom in comparison.  I have been stating for over two years that this achievement status cannot be maintained with current funding levels.  It’s imperative that we address operation expenses today so future plans can happen tomorrow.” 

The above statement is a formal press release addressing the Lawrence County School System Budget.

 

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