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Granite School District > Superintendent's Office > Sup’s Blog

Sup’s Blog

Preliminary Budget Established

May 2009Superintendent Bates

Dear Patrons and Employees:

As of the May 5, 2009 board meeting, the district has agreed to a preliminary balanced budget. Teachers should be reassured that the board of education worked through the difficult budget cuts and decisions with the following guiding principles in mind:

  • Minimize the impact on the classroom
  • Provide essential support to all students
  • Bear the impact across the system
  • Minimize the loss of positions
  • Root decisions in long-term perspective
  • Balance the budget

The administration and board scheduled additional meetings to work toward a balanced budget. That goal was achieved at the May 5, 2009 board meeting. While you will hear in the news regarding other school districts working to resolve their budget issues, Granite School District has been proactive in getting these issues resolved early on in the budget cycle.

Some of the key budget cuts include:

District Office–$4.4 million by cutting 95 total personnel/positions. To the utmost extent possible, these personnel were shifted to openings in schools. This included such positions as reading, math and music specialists. These cuts will impact services to schools. It is important to note that Granite School District already had the lowest administrative costs in the state and nation.

Elimination of pay increases for all personnel other than teachers (including district administration). The increase in the teachers salary package will help offset the impact of the 5.5 days of professional development cut by legislature.

An increase in staffing ratios by .25 students K-12.

Elimination of two school days from 2009-10 calendar. These days will now be utilized for professional development time for teachers. This will compensate for 5.5 days of professional development time cut by the legislature. The board and administration feel that providing preparation and professional development time is essential in order to provide quality classroom instruction.

The Granite District board of education and administration has worked hard to minimize the impact of these budget cuts on the classroom. Additionally, we especially appreciate the input that our employees have provided to help shape these important decisions.

Filed Under: Budget

Budget Update

April 2009Superintendent Bates

Dear Colleagues:

As the budget cycle has progressed, I have appreciated the time that so many of you have taken to send your comments to the board and myself. We have literally received several hundred emails and calls. This type of direct input from our personnel is essential to ensure that the board has all the information it needs to make these difficult decisions regarding our budget.

As we received your input, we catalogued this information for each of our board members. Additionally, the superintendency, along with our budget director Mitch Robison, reviewed each suggestion to determine potential cost savings. All of this information was then relayed to the board in their study sessions and board meetings. We have posted the most recent information from these presentations on the district homepage or click here.

Per the administration’s recommendation, the school board made several key decisions at the April 21 board meeting including district level cuts and shifts in funding sources involving 95.5 positions, and totaling over $4 million. The board also reduced the number of student attendance days for 2009-10 by two to allow teachers additional paid professional development time. This is to compensate for the 5.5 days that were cut by the legislature. Additional information is available in the Board Report.

I appreciate your continued comments and suggestions as we work to finalize the budget for next year. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to the students we serve.

Sincerely,

Superintendent Ronnenkamp

Filed Under: Budget

Budget Impacts

April 2009Superintendent Bates

Dear Colleagues:

Now that the 2009 legislative session has concluded, we have been able to begin evaluating the impact on both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 budgets. This memorandum describes what the financial impact of those decisions appears to be for the Granite School District.

Before I begin, I first want to express my gratitude for our legislators’ hard work in crafting budgets that are aimed at lessening the financial impact on the children of our state. Public education could have faced a 14-17 percent cut in revenue if one-time money had not been used to compensate for the economic downturn of state revenues. I also want to give credit to Governor Huntsman for his leadership in working with the state legislature. The governor allocated one-time federal funds of $298 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to soften the impact of the state revenue declines for FY 2009 and FY 2010.

Legislative Budget Reductions for the current 2008-2009 School Year (Senate Bill #4)
Due to declining revenues, the legislature was forced to reduce the state FY 2008-09 Minimum School Program budget. Granite’s share of this reduction is approximately $6.3 million. The law allowed these cuts to be taken from 2007-08 carryover funds from restricted categorical budget accounts. Unfortunately, we do not have this provision in the law for the new FY 2009-10 school budget.

Legislative Budget Reductions for the new 2009-10 School Year (House Bill #2)
By using one-time money as a backfill, and by shifting a greater portion of budget cuts to other state agencies, the legislature was able to reduce the full impact of declining state revenues to the FY 2009-10 Minimum School Program Budget. For 2009-10, the legislature made reductions of nearly $22 million for the Granite District budget. Some of these cuts were specifically identified by the legislature. These included the elimination of the Quality Teaching Block (which paid for 5 ½ days for teacher professional development, student achievement projects, instructional specialists, and mentors) and the Local Discretionary Block (which paid for school technology specialists) and a reduction of funding in the Student Success Block. The legislature also specified that an additional $7.5 million in budget cuts be determined by the local board of education. In addition to these cuts, there was no increase by the legislature in the value of the WPU. With a zero percent increase in the WPU we have no additional funding to meet the normal annual increases in such costs as health insurance and salary steps and lanes. As you can tell, this will be a very difficult budget year.

Given the magnitude of the budget reductions for the 2009-10 school year, it is essential that we have broad discussions and input from everyone. I have asked school principals and department heads to foster such discussions. I am interested in your thoughts and have established several avenues to receive your input. This new blog will be regularly updated with information specific to employees. You can email me here superintendentsblog@graniteschools.org or at sfronnenkamp@graniteschools.org. Recommendations to the board of education are also welcome.

Dr. Stephen F. Ronnenkamp

Filed Under: General Items

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