Guest opinion: Sense of urgency needed to save school programs
By now, we all know that our country is in an unparalleled financial crisis. Our local economy is among the worst in the country, a fact that will have a devastating impact on the future education of our children. The largest line items which should be considered for reductions are the costly transportation program, construction program, and the top heavy administration reflected in an administrator to teacher ratio significantly higher than the state average. Cost cutting actions must start now if we hope to minimize damage to the classroom. The following suggestions have the potential of saving the District millions of dollars and can hopefully enable our schools to maintain their most essential programs until the economy recovers.
* To reduce the enormous cost of our transportation program currently at $50 million dollars, we should explore returning wholly or in part to a neighborhood school model. Our current school choice program, which was implemented in 1974 pursuant to a Federal integration mandate, has resulted in transportation costs which are now 65 percent above the state average.
* Freeze all land purchases. We are currently sitting on an inventory of over 900 acres which is enough land to build more than 30 schools. At this time our enrollment is decreasing and for the next several years we are not likely to see growth in student population. Accordingly, we have more than enough land to accommodate any increased enrollment for the next 10 years.
* The District recently announced that it is cancelling plans to build three new schools due to diminished enrollment. This will save over $200 million in our capital budget and gives us the opportunity to place a referendum on the ballot in early spring to allow a transfer of some of that money to the operating budget giving the Board more flexibility to protect the classroom.
* Establish a plan to consolidate underutilized schools. Possible cost savings from such consolidations might be as high as $1 million per year.
* Explore partnerships with other governmental agencies to form health care pools to reduce costs.
* Offer an early retirement program to eligible employees.
* Conduct a comprehensive review of our management structure to determine why we have a high ratio of administrators to teachers and eliminate all nonessential management positions.
* Explore the feasibility of turning over ownership of the frozen SBA fund to the Department of Education to repay our student enrollment shortfall this year. The fund currently contains $15 million dollars which is not available to us due to state mismanagement.
* Use a portion of any realized savings from the above actions to reduce our $500 million construction debt and lower our $50 million annual payment used to pay down this debt.
n Most importantly, reconsider the ill-advised decision to eliminate the independent auditor position. Many multibillion dollar private companies and public agencies throughout the country utilize the services of independent auditors to ensure that procedures and practices are subject to ongoing review so as to maximize efficiency and effectiveness and minimize operational costs. This is a worthwhile expenditure because it is guaranteed to save far more money than it costs.
With serious cost cutting and program changes we can avoid classroom damage and maintain educational standards. Time is of the essence. We cannot engage in business as usual and wait weeks or months to put together workshops. Such a delay may result in the layoff of more personnel and reduction of educational programs. We can avoid such dire consequences if we act with a sense of urgency.
–School Board member Robert D. Chilmonik, represents District One, which includes Cape Coral.