Wa-Nee Schools in Elkhart County hit for $887,848 in funding shortfalls

By Tom Lange, Truth Staff

tlange@etruth.com

NAPPANEE -- State tuition cuts and a decline in enrollment mean Wa-Nee Community Schools will lose $887,484 this year.

School officials must now look for ways to cut costs from the district's general fund, roughly 84 percent of which goes to paying employees. To make it happen, Superintendent Joe Sabo echoed the sentiment being heard from superintendents around the county.

"Right now everything's on the table," he said.

General fund cuts are nothing new for the district. In the last three years officials have trimmed $750,000 from the fund. Retirement buyouts, leaving vacancies unfilled and reducing the administrative staff played a big roll in making those cuts possible, as did a wage freeze during the 2007-2008 school year.

Sabo said potential action includes reducing salary and benefits for employees, cutting involvement with the Elkhart County Special Education Cooperative and scaling back on classroom and maintenance supplies. Summer projects may be put on hold and extracurricular activities could be affected as well. Sabo said cleaning of the administration office has been suspended and that could happen at the building level as well.

To help curb energy costs Wa-Nee has become the latest local district to partner with Energy Education Inc. While the district will have to divert some money into the program, Sabo said they can ultimately save around $250,000 per year.

In a perfect world, Sabo said, the district wouldn't have to lay off any employees. But the shortfall will cost the district roughly $70,000 per month, and Sabo knows he can't wait until the end of the year to decide whether or not faculty cuts will happen.

"I just don't know how you make $887,848 of cuts without affecting that in some way," he said.

Sabo said he's gathering input from employees about what they think the best cuts are to make. He's also hopeful more people will retire at the end of the school year.

"Every little bit helps at this point," he said.