School systems cut thousands of dollars from budget

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HICKORY - After being told by the state in November that they'd have to trim their budgets, the school systems in Catawba County have decided which programs and departments will see cuts.

Each of the 115 school districts and 86 charter schools in the state were notified that they'd have to cut .75 percent of their budget in November, in response to a statewide revenue shortfall. That sounds small, until you talk dollars. For the three school systems in Catawba County, that amounts to nearly $1 million.

Catawba County Schools had the biggest cut to make. The reduction in money is based on student populations. The amount equals $39.25 per student. For Catawba County Schools, that's $695,017. Hickory Public Schools had to eliminate $186,481 from its budget and Newton-Conover City Schools had to cut $112,140 from its budget.

Catawba County Schools


What's getting cut:

• $34,000 from a vacant career and technical education position

• $60,000 from disadvantaged students supplemental funds by eliminating a position and staff development

• $37,612 from the academically intellectually gifted (AIG) funds intended for materials and equipment

• $40,000 from the instructional supplies reserve

• $283,405 set aside for textbooks, based on $15 per average daily membership

• $240,000 for summer school

"Our number one concern has been ensuring that no jobs are lost and that quality instruction is not compromised," said Timothy Markley, superintendent. "The state has said that we should not impact instruction, however, any cuts made impact instruction."

Besides cutting the money for textbooks, the next largest cut in the budget is the one for summer school. This includes reducing the number of sites for high school summer school from five high schools to three, and eliminating summer school for grades three through eight altogether.

Carleen Crawford, public information officer for Catawba County Schools, said she is hopeful the changes to summer school are for one year. She said there are several things being done to ensure that students needing extra attention won't suffer from the changes in summer school this year.

"With high school summer school, the information is online, so the students were taking their courses online. We're just paying staff salary for someone to be there, which is why it was consolidated to three sites," Crawford said.

Kelly Rhoney, director of accountability services for Catawba County Schools, said the elimination of summer school for younger students shouldn't pose too big of a problem.

Testing for the lower grades is earlier this year — May 19 to 21. The tests will count for the students' state ABC and federal No Child Left Behind scores for the first time this year. If students don't pass the first time in math, reading or science tests, the students will have longer to be remediated, Rhoney said.

"Retesting will go up to the last day of school, because some students may have to remediate in three subjects, if they're fifth- or eighth-graders, and need to take the science test," she said.

Last year, anywhere from 30 percent to 40 percent of the students needed to go through remediation and retest, Rhoney said.

"With that being a baseline year, we're hoping to do better this year," she said.

Hickory Public Schools


What's getting cut:

• $68,052 by not buying state textbooks

• $10,000 from instructional supplies

• $68,328 by not filling vacant career and technical education positions

• $8,903 from AG supplies

• $5,000 from staff development for AG instructors

• $26,198 by not filling vacant ESL positions

Tracy Hall, public information officer for Hickory Public Schools, said that in addition to these cuts, individual schools also are trying to keep field trips and other costs down. Administrative travel is also to be kept at a minimum.

Newton-Conover City Schools
What's getting cut:

• Nothing

Newton-Conover City Schools has found a way around the budget setbacks.

It was required to cut $112,140 from its budget. The school system has cut two teaching positions from its budget that were paid with state money, but is still employing those teachers using local dollars, said Kathy Carswell, finance director for Newton-Conover City Schools.

"The state allocates money by position, with an average salary with benefits at $54,244," Carswell said. "So for the money we sent back, it was 2.07 positions."

She said a first-year teacher's salary with benefits gets paid less — only $42,911. By paying the salary of two first-year teachers through local dollars, Carswell said they're actually saving a little bit of money in the long run.