Financial trouble could get even worse for local schools

That's really nothing new. It's just paying less because of the economy. But it's what lies ahead that concerns school officials.

"Every dollar we put out would come back in a perfect world," said Doug Hasler, executive director of support services for Elkhart Community Schools.

But it's never worked that way, he said. School corporations "have always received something less."

Schools are required to cover the cost of textbooks for any child who participates in the federal free and reduced lunch program. Theoretically, the state is supposed to reimburse those costs.

It's a double-edged sword. At a time when more and more families are struggling because of the economy, the number of students on free and reduced lunch is increasing. So the need for textbook reimbursements to schools is increasing. But at the same time, the state is suffering from declining revenues, also due to the economy. The state simply can't meet the needs.

Schools make up the costs out of their general fund.

At Elkhart Community Schools, about 70 percent of students participate in the free and reduced lunch program, Hasler said. The number could be higher this year.

Hasler said the state is paying schools all the money it has for textbooks. But schools are replacing books on an annual basis and vendors need to get paid.

Kevin Caird, business manager at Concord Community Schools, said the district is awarded about 85 percent of the claim it submits to the state for textbook reimbursements.

English as a Second Language classes are another area of concern for schools.

Bruce Stahly, superintendent of Goshen Community Schools, said the state originally set up a reimbursement of $200 per student for the classes. They're getting only $153. Goshen would receive another $80,000 if the program was fully funded, he said.

But Stahly said that even $200 per student is low for what the program costs. He said Elkhart studied the costs years ago and found it was more like $700 per student. "Our estimate is even higher than that," Stahly said.

Hasler said a federal grant flows through the state for ESL. In Elkhart, a certain number of staff members are paid through the federal grant. Others are paid through the system's state-supported general fund. In 2009, the grant was for $370,000. This year it will be $268,000, Hasler said.

He called ESL "a high-quality program" where students receive supplemental language instruction outside their regular classroom work. "That is a student that is more expensive for us to teach, given their language deficit, that we address through this program," Hasler said. "We've had great success."

About 20 percent of the student population at ECS is in ESL, he said.

Summer school is another area where school officials find the state isn't meeting the financial need. These are basic summer school classes -- not enrichment.

Goshen received 73 percent of its costs from the state -- $274,000 of the $371,000 cost. "Again, that's something we don't want to cut," Stahly said.

Hasler said Elkhart gets 50 percent or less of its summer school costs reimbursed. The state has a finite amount of money available for summer school reimbursement and it's all distributed, he explained.

The fear of another substantial budget cut has officials looking to what's next.

Stahly has proposed a consultant lead a community group to look at programs and make recommendations to the school board. It's a process the system has used successfully for feasibility studies and with the reorganization of Chandler Elementary School.

The group will set up a tiered system of possible cuts for the school board to consider. The board will likely have a series of community meetings before it makes any decisions. Final determinations would probably be made by April, Stahly indicated.

"Things could get even worse. That's what's most concerning," he said. "So I think it's going to be difficult."

Stahly said everyone is anticipating "significant cuts" to come from the state again in November.

It's Hasler's job to make the budget work at ECS and he understands how the state is struggling because he has to deal with the same issues locally. "It's bad all over," he said. "The state's having trouble making ends meet."

"It's a big challenge and it causes us to do things that we'd rather not do," Hasler said.

There have been teacher layoffs, positions have been eliminated and compensation has been reduced for administrators in Elkhart. "There's a lot of work to do. There's fewer people to do it. I'm not whining about that. That's the reality," Hasler said. "When there's not enough to make ends meet, you've got to make them meet somehow.

And the private sector is doing the same thing, he noted.

"Hopefully, the state will address these priorities that need to be addressed," Hasler said.

Caird said Concord was awarded a facility appeal for its new junior high school that amounted to about $1 million for the length of the bond issue -- about 18 years. It was additional money the school system was planning on to operate the new school, he said. The Legislature subsequently eliminated it. "We're left with trying to figure out how to absorb that in other areas," Caird said.

In an effort to make up that money, Concord is looking at energy conservation and maintenance savings, including opening a additional 294,000-square-foot building with no new maintenance staff for the system.

"We're anticipating a similar cut to the one that we received last year late in the school year and we are trying to plan for that, though we don't have information from the state saying yes it's going to happen," Caird said.