Gore Schools are going broke and the school week was cut from five days to four Monday in hopes of relieving financial strain.

Beginning Tuesday students will attend school from 8 a.m. to 4:35 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Gore School Superintendent Keith Kincade said he had no other choice but to cut the school week due to lack of money and budget cuts.

Kincade said the buses will begin their routes 10 minutes earlier then usual in the mornings and leave the school by 4:35 p.m. to take the children home. He said the children should be home by 5 p.m.

“Like with anything new we will be a case study for the good, the bad or the ugly,” Kincade said.

School superintendents at Vian and Sallisaw said they are not considering a four-day school week.

Saving money

Kincade said the state cut funding to all state schools. State financial officials required a 5 percent cut in budget allocations. He said he is trying to keep the school out of the red.

“Eliminating that fifth school day could save the district $350,000,” Kincade said. “If we do nothing by May we could be in the red by $701,000.”

Kincade said he would like to have a surplus of $600,000 to $700,000.

“We will make payroll this month, which is around $300,000. I’m just not comfortable where we are standing. I know we will still be working in the black,” Kincade said.

Kincade explained that the estimate of needs presented to the board members during the last school board meeting totaled $4.3 million. He said it takes about $4 million to operate the schools for a fiscal school year. He said there was a significant decrease in the amount of money that was left from last year to use for this year’s fiscal year.

“We had $187,000 left from the previous school year to use for this year. That is a decrease of $390,000 from the 2007-8 school year,” Kincade said.

“That is from the cost of insurance, inflation, the cost of living and the state aid decrease that happened toward the end of the year,” Kincade explained.

Kincade said 98 people are employed in the three schools, the elementary, the middle school, and the high school. Thirty-eight are support staff and the rest are certified.

“Cutting support staff back is our next step,” Kincade said. “The bus drivers and cafeteria workers, who are paid hourly, will not be working on Monday, and that will save us money.”

Support staff who are paid hourly including cooks, janitors and bus drivers will take a hit since Monday will be cut from their wages. A 20 percent savings is expected to be the outcome of support staff cut backs.

Kincade said there will be a reduction enforcement layoff of teachers and some support staff. He said the board would hold a special meeting on the subject soon.

Cutting one day and extending the remaining four days by one and one-half hours is expected to save money, but the savings are something some people don’t understand.

“How is cutting one day and extending the hours going to help?” one parent asked.

Kincade told the parents, “The one day will save money by cutting utility costs since lights will be turned off, air conditioning or heat will be turned off or down and water will not be used.”

Kincade, who has been Gore superintendent for 14 months, apologized for the change but said he sees no other way of keeping the school’s budget out of the red.

“This is not a problem that just happened,” he said. “It goes back to years and years of waste. We’ve got to do something now or we’re going to be in a world of hurt.

“We chose to cut Monday since that’s the day there is the least extracurricular activities,” Kincade said. “LEAP (Learning Enrichment After-School Program) will continue so parents can still pick their child up at the normal time.”

The school day will be one hour and 30 minutes longer and the classes will let out for summer on May 4. Kincade said that is 24 fewer days the district has to run the air conditioners and the lights.

Several people that crowded into the high school cafeteria said they were not upset that the school was cutting one day but that they were completely in the dark about the situation.

“Why didn’t anyone communicate this with us,” one parent said. “I had to find out from my kid what was going on.”

Kincade said he understood parents concerns but that he needed to take his recommendation to the school board before going to the public.

“I didn’t want to miscommunicate information,” he said. “I thought it would be better to wait until the board meeting to explain things to parents.”

A special meeting will be held in the future to discuss the fate of teachers and support staff.

“We will announce the time and date after we find out more information,” Kincade said.

“I feel with my recommendation we’re heading in the right direction. If this doesn’t work then our next step will be to cut programs, and we’re trying not to do that,” Kincade said.

“We hired Mr. Kincade as the superintendent to run our schools,” Dana Tracey, board member, said. “I’ve been here a long time. It’s not fun for anybody but we need to take his recommendation if that’s what he feels is best for our schools.”

Childcare concerns

As to how the change will affect daycare in the area, Pam Bolin, owner of Lil’ Pirates Day Care in Gore, admits the new policy is a little scary.

“I might not have enough room to take children that are going to be out of school on Monday,” Bolin said.

She said she has 10 openings for Monday and will accept kids on a first come first serve basis.

Bolin said she is concerned with the money parents are going to have to spend for daycare expenses and parents finding a place for their children.

“It’s going to be a lifestyle change for the parent,” Bolin said. “But the kids will love only going to school four days.”

Kincade said he didn’t have an answer for the childcare situation.

“I didn’t want this to happen but we have to keep the school in the black and out of the red. If we don’t act fast then taxpayers will suffer through significant ad valorem tax increases,” Kincade said.

Ad valorem taxes and Sequoyah Fuels

Parents questioned the money owed to the school district from the ad valorem civil lawsuits against Sequoyah Fuels. The county won the lawsuits, for the years 1995 through 1998, against Sequoyah Fuels in district court, but the State Supreme Court overturned the verdict and remanded the lawsuits back to district court for re-trial.

In a previous article written by Your TIMES, John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said the civil lawsuit between the county and Sequoyah Fuels over ad valorem taxes is continuing.

He said, “We had a trial about a year ago, and the attorneys for both sides just recently submitted their briefs to District Judge Jeff Payton.”

In the lawsuit, the county alleges Sequoyah Fuels is not paying the amount of ad valorem taxes owed. Sequoyah Fuels argues that the property taxed is contaminated and useless, not worth the amount taxed.

Sequoyah Fuels continues to pay the ad valorem tax levied, but that money is placed in an interest-bearing escrow account until the lawsuit is settled.

Ellis said the account now has over $2 million. Most of that money would go to the Gore School System if the school wins the lawsuit. Kincade said he doesn’t look for that money to ever be released.

Kincade said when the school pulls out of the financial crunch the current decision of going to a revised schedule can be reevaluated and the district can go back to a five-day schedule if they choose.