BAC, board and Biz Manager ax school NERCs

The Orcas Island School District board, business manager and Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) took a close look at the non-employee-related costs (NERCs) in the 2009-2010 school budget, and cut an additional $80,000 from them on Thursday, May 14.  

That still leaves the district facing a projected $419,000 deficit, but OISD board president Janet Brownell is hopeful that funds from the federal stimulus package will further whittle down the deficit.  
At the May 14 meeting, the school building NERC budgets,  were approached with a 30 percent across-the-board scalpel.

In addition to building budgets, athletic transportation, audits, maintenance supplies, and district office NERCS were among the items considered by the group.

BAC member and OISD payroll staff Sara Morgan said, “As we get tighter and tighter on line items, we need to look carefully at the contingency fund.”   Steve Diepenbrock, BAC chair, agreed that $40,000 was a reasonable figure for a contingency fund, saying” The reserve fund (now almost $250,000) can be used for a major calamity, this additional contingency fund is for immediately accessible money.”  

Superintendent Barbara Kline offered that the $22,000 budgeted for an annual state audit might be eliminated if she and Business Manager Ben Thomas could negotiate a three-year cycle of audit, rather than the two-year audit cycle that was ordered in response to the district’s poor financial condition in 2006-2007.  

Future rounds of budget cuts will consider district-wide personnel cuts — outside of the already reduced certified staff — which may include programs such as food service, the library and athletics, Brownell said.  

The dates for those meetings have yet to be announced.