The budget outside is frightful…

In case you haven’t heard, the state and local budget picture looming ahead is dismal, awful, nightmarish–you name the negative term.  Fiscal updates from the Va. House Appropriations Committee, Senate Finance Committee, our city’s legislative meeting, and workshops at the Virginia School Boards Association have all been similar, and RPS has begun its budget process with an overview of what to expect.  You can see the slides by pasting this into your browser:

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Give or take a few dollars, RPS is facing additional cuts in the current school year from the forecast sales tax revenue that goes to schools.  Next year, the large state budget gap of $250 – $300 million will definitely impact school systems across the state.  But to top that off, RPS is also being impacted by a major adjustment to the composite index, the formula that is designed to measure the locality’s ability to pay for education, means that Richmond city will pay over 49% of the schools’ costs, nearly a 7 point jump that would cost more than $9 million next year.  Employee health care costs are rising, as are Virginia Retirement System costs, so it costs more just to maintain the same levels of service.  In addition, stimulus funds that helped us maintain positions last year are getting used to plug other state budget holes, so those funds will likely not help next budget as they did this year.

Did you realize that RPS now spends 77 cents of every dollar on instruction and instruction technology (above the state average of 65 cents) and has decreased its administrative spending over the past eight years from over 10% of costs down to 2.86%?  But when personnel makes up 81% of a business’s costs, that’s where the business must look for major reductions when revenue declines.  Public education is no different.  The budget reductions being discussed will impact people in school systems throughout Virginia, plain and simple.  Hard choices are coming.

…but the kids are still delightful

Holiday performances abound this week and next.  Catch 1st District talent in action:

• Hill students perform Monday 12/14 at City Hall at noon
• Munford 1st graders will sing their hearts out Tuesday 12/15 at Munford’s PTA meeting
• TJ sings Wednesday 12/16 at City Hall at noon
• Hill will have a holiday play Thursday 12/17 at Hill’s PTA meeting and TJ will have holiday selections at its meeting that same night

Clearly, there’s no excuse to miss seeing our children sharing their holiday spirit this season.

And on one more bright, cheery note

At Monday’s board meeting, we received an update on disciplinary infractions throughout the system.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a 100% decrease this year vs. last.  We went from over 6500 separate violations in Sept/Oct. 2008 to 3265 this Sept/Oct. The serious infractions fell to a system total of 263, with 20 schools having 0 and just 11 schools showing anything above the single digits.

Discipline problems, which include everything from wearing inappropriate attire to the less common but more serious actions like fighting, have fallen that dramatically, and it’s great to see results from intensive personnel training this summer and the use of school-wide behavior programs at 20 schools.  It’s a work in progress, but this is a notable and extremely positive trend we’ll work to continue.

Kim Bridges

1st District School Board representative