The Recession and its Effect on Schools
By Dave Ackerman
As everyone is certainly aware, our current economy is in a recession. All entities feel the impact of the current financial crunch including schools. The Central Lyon Community School is no different. In examining our recent financial history, Central Lyon has continuously operated on a tight conservative budget which is backed with sound financial decisions. The future financial condition of the district will take even more careful consideration as we work through this tenuous time in our nation’s economy.
Schools receive a majority of their funding for the operating budget from the state. This funding is based on student enrollment, which can fluctuate from year to year. It can be difficult to predict how the enrollment trend will go as students move in and out of the district more frequently than years ago. Enrollment can also be affected by graduating bigger classes and having smaller kindergarten classes in the fall. Enrollment in the Central Lyon district has been relatively stable but has also slowly declined overall for the last ten years. This year’s enrollment is slightly up compared to the number of students from last year. At $5333 per student, it’s easy to see how state aid can affect the budget. The district will receive operational sharing incentive money for sharing a superintendent equivalent to 14 students, but this funding will not come into the district until the 2009-2010 school year.
Recently Governor Culver announced a 1.5% across the board cuts for most government entities. This cut will amount to $43,702 less in funds sent to the district from the state for the general fund this year. Central Lyon’s budget is constantly monitored, and while this cut is not what we would hope to see, our current financial situation is strong enough that we can continue meeting the educational needs of our students without interruption. In planning for our financial future, there are two ways to continue our strong financial position: carefully monitoring expenses and working to increase revenues. In these tight financial times, know that the administration and school board are working hard to evaluate our expenses and explore methods to increase our funding. Again, these are tough financial times, but we are dedicated to offering the best education we can with the resources we have.
