MANSFIELD, La. (AP) - The DeSoto Parish School Board’s proposed 2014-15 budget shows improvement over the previous year, and the district says it will be spending within its available revenue.
The Times reported (https://bit.ly/SXZTWU) that’s an improvement over last year at this time when district leaders were forced to make tough budget choices that upset many, including the closure of Pelican All Saints High School.
Closing the small community school was part of a $12.6 million spending reduction that also sliced 101 positions from the payroll, reconfigured the once separate Logansport schools, cut arts and music programs, altered pupil-teacher ratios in some grade levels and did away with eight positions in central office.
The cuts even touched the custodial staff, in-school suspension paraprofessionals and bus routes.
“Over the last two years, we’ve faced the challenge of declining revenue,” said schools Superintendent Cade Brumley. “But we bought our local economy time by reducing spending and now we’re in a very stable financial position.”
The decisions of a year ago were not pleasant ones, said board President Coday Johnston of Stanley. But they worked, he said, to move the district toward financial stability.
The budget process has been going on over the past few months. Board members recently received the 124-page document to review before voting on June 5.
“I’ve had conversations with the staff along the way, so I’m confident we’re going to be fine financially,” Johnston said.
The $86.1 million budget maintains at least a 15 percent balance in reserves to general fund expenditures. “We’re also celebrating an AA bond rating from Standard and Poor’s - the highest of any public school district in the state of Louisiana,” Brumley said.
And it’s being accomplished without raising taxes.
DeSoto’s school district is one of a handful selected by the Government Finance Officers Association to participate in a budgeting best-practices pilot project. The goal is to improve the budgeting process.
For DeSoto residents interested in how the School Board spends its money, that means the budget will be transformed to provide a clearer picture of how that equates to student education.
“We want our mission to drive our budget, not have our budget drive our mission,” Brumley said. “We’re aligning our resources to strategically reach our goals, which is uncharted territory in PK-12 education.”
In the past, the hefty budget document has been more focused on legal and financial aspects of the system’s operations. “But we need to present a budget that’s more educational and this new process is trying to do that,” business services director Steven Stanfield said.
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Information from: The Times, https://www.shreveporttimes.com
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