School Board expects rollback

The Santa Rosa County School Board Budget Committee has determined major changes are going to be necessary to conform to serious budget deficits. 

The committee met on March 18 at the Canal Street Boardroom to discuss cost saving measures forwarded to School Board Superintendant, John Rogers. Rogers says effective July 1 there will be a 15% rollback district wide. “This cut will generate several thousand dollars,” says Rogers. “The priority of this group is to maintain the classroom and to focus cuts where the classroom will not be affected.”

Rogers said that there is a $2.5 billion deficit in the current budget projections. Doug Dillon, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, said, “Santa Rosa County Schools receive about 8/10 of 1% of what Florida puts into K-12 education, so a cut of $1 billion for the state would mean about 8/10 of 1% of that cut goes to Santa Rosa County.”

The committee discussed several incidences of paying vendors large amounts for jobs that he says could have been performed by trained county employees instead of vendors. In one example discussed at the meeting, the district spent $50,798.80 in a period of nine months on water sprinkler system maintenance and installation for one district elementary school. These charges include hourly labor rates of $45.00 per hour.

Another example showed a charge of $28.50 for a vendor to come to the Human Resources Department of the School Board and flip a switch on the phone, changing it from ‘night mode’.

Some of the proposed cuts and cost saving measures that the committee is considering are a cell phone policy, energy saving measures, voluntary retirement incentive program, leave buy back, three tier transportation plan, and rethinking courtesy transportation.

Navarre High Principal Bill Emerson says that energy conservation can result in a potential savings of $250,000. The committee stated that it would begin energy saving measures effective immediately  including turning computers off daily, forming energy committees at the school level, speaking with contractors about unnecessary light usage, ensuring that lights are off when no one is using a room, and considering implementing an energy incentive program.

Budget members proposed that implementing a cell phone reimbursement policy for key personnel will result in savings of time and money.

 Also proposed by the committee was the DROP buy-out, which would pay employees to voluntarily retire out of the system. The estimated average savings of the proposal was $15,000 per buy-out employee.

  Possible transportation cuts included stopping transportation within a two mile radius of schools and utilizing centrally located bus stops instead of picking up children from their houses. Rogers says savings will also come from the contract negotiations in progress. Laidlaw, who merged with 1st Student, has been the provider of transportation for the district, but now two other companies are vying for the contract.

The next budget meeting is tentatively planned for April 18 at 2 p.m.