By Ann Craig-Cinnamon
Hamilton Southeastern is the second lowest funded school district in the state of Indiana according to HSE Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Smith. The decreasing funding coupled with increasing enrollment has caused a projected multi-million dollar budget deficit over the next few years and has lead the school district to consider some creative ways to decrease the budget and raise more revenue.
At its regularly scheduled meeting on March 24th, the school board heard recommendations drawn up by a committee of diverse school officials that included members of the school board, principals, athletic directors, transportation department officials and others. HSE CFO Mike Reuter pointed out that the committee was formed to include all areas that would be affected by the budget reductions and that all ideas were put on the table and given consideration.
The goal was to find ways to reduce expenses by $5 million over the next two years while protecting classrooms and minimizing the impact of larger class sizes. The recommendations that were presented to the board represented nearly $3 million in savings identified so far.
The biggest line reduction by far was in the area of health insurance. The recommendation calls for cutting $1.5 from the amount HSE spends on its health plan across the district. It was pointed out that HSE has not increased its employee health plan contribution for 4 years and, if approved, this would be the first year that employees would lose some benefits.
A recommended area that would raise revenue is to expand “pay to participate” fees for both athletic and non-athletic extra-curricular activities by up to as much as $225 for high school athletes. There is also a plan to raise money by charging for diplomas and selling graduation CD’s.
Superintendent Smith commented that there has been $13 million cut from the schools’ budget since 2008. “People have this misperception that because we have so many new school buildings, that we’re a wealthy district. The fact is, those buildings look new because they are, because of our growth. The problem is that we can’t afford to put teachers into those buildings like we ought to be doing. This past year we had over 300 student growth and could afford to hire 3 more teachers. So our class sizes are skyrocketing. These cuts were specifically aimed at staying away from classrooms because they’re already really feeling the pain on this,” he said. Smith said that how schools are funded needs to be looked at in the longer term. “To just keep cutting every year, doesn’t make sense without addressing the fundamental issue about equity and the way dollars are distributed,” he said.
The school board will vote on the recommendations at its meeting on April 14th.
