We anticipate there to be further cuts to education for the coming school year. The state is projecting a revenue shortfall for the coming year nearing $3 billion. The Governor's Budget, based on an anticipated shortfall of $2.4 billion and no additional revenues, cut an estimated $920,000 from the 2010-2011 budget for Woodland. The state legislature is currently working on details of the budget that include some additional revenues. If this effort is successful, we anticipate the reductions for Woodland Public Schools to be less than the Governor's original budget proposal. Representative Orcutt predicted that the budget would, again, be released at the 11th hour, about 1 month from now.
Last year, we engaged a group in a process of study and review to make recommendations to the Board on reductions to the budget for the current year. This process was very thorough and very time intensive. The quality of the product was, in the belief of the administrative team, very good. The challenge we face going into the coming year is quite different, in that we have already deeply reduced or eliminated many programs.
The administrative proposal for making recommendations for future adjustments is as follows:
Convene a new Budget Advisory team that will include:
Using the work of the BAT from last year as a baseline, engage in a process, again similar to last year's process, of identifying possibilities for reduction, revenue enhancement, and recommendations for utilizing fund balance or capital projects funds in order to maintain an effective program for kids with fewer resources in the coming year.
The projected timeline will be as follows:
The work of this group will be presented to various groups in the community in order to gather feedback from the community and schools regarding adjustments. Different audiences who will be considered for feedback are:
Following the input of the Budget Advisory Team and the Community Meetings, the Administrative Team will review all input and make a final recommendation to the School Board.