Blaine County School District administrators say they are not particularly concerned about projected state funding cuts for the next school year.
"I haven't had much time to look at it, but really, there's not going to be much of an impact to the school district because of the reserves we have set aside," District Business Manager Mike Chatterton said.
Though a final decision on educational cuts won't be decided by the Legislature until later this legislative session, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter recommended a $130 million statewide cut in his State of the State address on Jan 11.
If that number holds true, Chatterton said he expects that the Blaine County School District will lose about $1.2 million in state funding.
The district carried a reserve of about $9 million into this year's $74 million budget, which Chatterton said is more than enough to offset the projected state funding cut.
The district lost about $1 million in state funding for fiscal year 2010, but some of that was offset by $850,000 in economic stimulus funds that the district is receiving, about half of it this year and the remainder next year.
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Future federal economic stimulus funds will be available through the Race to the Top grant program of the U.S. Department of Education, but the Blaine County School District has joined numerous other school districts in the state in opting out of the program. According to the Idaho Department of Education, only 59 of the state's 114 school districts opted into the plan.
Chatterton said district administrators and the board of trustees favored joining the plan, but decided not to because of opposition from the Blaine County Education Association, the so-called "teachers union."
Chatterton said the teachers' concerns were the same expressed by many other school districts that opted out of the Race to the Top initiative.
"They were afraid with all this money coming into the state that districts were going to start relying on it for teachers' salaries and would be in a tough spot when the money stops," he said.
Chatterton said there are also a lot of "strings" attached to the money that may not fit in with the district's plans.
The Idaho Department of Education stated in a news release issued last week that Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna plans to apply for $100 million in Race to the Top dollars over the next four years.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Wood River High School students seemed more concerned about staying on their feet Tuesday morning than about projected state funding cuts in education, but there’s probably no need for concern. Blaine County School District Business Manager Mike Chatterton said the district has enough funds in reserve to weather a cut, estimated at about $1.2 million for the next school year. Photo by David N. Seelig
