On Feb. 22, the Kernville Union School District held a special board meeting where Superintendent Robin Shive explained the impact of the state’s budget shortfall in regard to the local school’s budget. 

Shive reported that this year the small Kernville Union School District will see between $500,000 and $750,000 in cuts. Some of the cuts are due to the historically high absenteeism that has occurred in the district. For the past several years the District has lost $165,000 to $250,000 per year of potential revenue because of the, “in your seat rule” by which schools are funded. That’s a loss of almost $1 million dollars in the past four years.

The District’s declining enrollment compounds the problem. With 24 less ADA (Average daily Attendance) from this year to next, we will see an additional loss of $120,000. The Governor’s proposed budget leaves us with a loss of $172,484. An additional $88,860 is expected to be taken from education when the revised budget is announced done in May. When you add this with the increased cost of the District, we find ourselves in a financial problem. The good news is that the District has a plan to keep the cuts far away from the students.  The plan to ensure the high quality education that you have come to know from KUSD  schools is for the employees to share the cuts instead of cutting positions. Sharing the pain across the board from the Superintendent on down, with a 2 percent decrease from next year’s salaries and 3-4 days of furloughs for employees that work more than 180 days will keep our school days instructional minutes and our teachers and support staff intact. The savings would amount to around $167,250.

To see Superintendent Shive’s presentation ‘Budget Woes 2010-2011: Plan for the worst and hope for the best’ readers can navigate to   http://www.kvsun.com/pdf/kusd.pdf.