Free Money. Blessing or curse?

With billions and trillions of dollars being discussed, budgeted, printed and spent it is no small wonder that some are giddy over the prospect of dollar windfalls raining from the sky into our district. It sounds like a done deal.
Not so fast. It would seem thus far that the additional funds to come to the Marietta City Schools are very much in question. In fact some of the money may be more curse than blessing.
How can that be? How, indeed, one wonders. It seems there are many opportunities along the way to alter the flow of funds coming from the federal government to local school districts. Governor Strickland’s proposed biennium budget actually shortstops the federal money in Columbus.
Most of us remember how the lottery was sold to the voting public. The promise was made that profits from the lottery would flow to education as an inducement to have the lottery concept approved. And we bought it.
But, there was a catch to the deal that was not widely publicized. It seems when all that money started showing up at the state from the lottery profits the legislators did as promised. They sent those dollars on to education. What they also did was stop sending dollars that had already been flowing to education and divert those funds to other projects.
In other words, the new lottery dollars displaced the old education dollars. Net gain? About zero. Put another way; no new money. We were cheated.
It’s about to happen again. This time the federal funds intended to serve impoverished students and students with special education needs are being thrown in to the education money pot in Columbus, pooling it with state money that will flow to schools. Any money will come with strings attached from both the state and federal governments.
At present we are among 230 districts whose new funds calculated by the proposed formula had to be capped to limit how much we will receive. We actually fall into a group with other districts that truly can be labeled wealthy under the new rules.
By contrast, Trimble Local in Athens County will receive no new funds the first year and actually lose 2% in the second year. Federal Hocking and Nelsonville-York are in similar condition with no hope under the new budget.
So what does that mean in Marietta? Great question. And as yet there is no reliable answer. The discussions continue in Columbus.
Original projections indicated we would receive about $1.1 million more than anticipated the first year and $1.2 million the second. But there’s a catch.
This is to be one time funding for some programs, covering only two years. We will have to be careful to only spend this money on short term programs. One wonders where the district would find the money to continue the services. So we will have to begin programs; run them for two years, then eliminate them.
There are actually more components contained in the Governor’s current budget proposal that could bankrupt districts.
One is a requirement to increase staffing in guidance departments. Another is to require a nurse be present in every building where students receive medications.
You recall this board took a knife to our budget last year to reduce spending. We trimmed programming and staffing to save money owing to finance shortages and projected deficits.
With personnel expenses at 83% of our total budget, Reduction in Force (RIF) is the most effective way to cut expenses. The Governor’s budget actually proposes eliminating RIF for financial reasons. What options does that leave for savings? Lights out!