School districts across the county are examining ways to cut spending with the least amount of impact on the education of their students.

The examinations follow funding shortages from the state aid formula — House bill 1017 and General Revenue funds. The General Revenue funds have had a shortfall for four straight months. The shortfall has resulted in all state agency General Revenue deposits being reduced by 5 percent.

House Bill 1017 accounts for more than 25 percent of education funding and according to James White, assistant state superintendent, is nearly empty. White said the fund collections have remained below estimates.

Since September, funds have fallen 16 percent below projections, or $26.1 million. September, which is usually the best month in state revenue collections, saw a $15.9 million shortfall to the fund, according to other media.

“As a result the November payment for financial support of schools was only 8.37 percent instead of the scheduled 9 percent,” White said in a letter addressed to school superintendents across Oklahoma. “That makes 34.46 the accumulated percentage paid to date.”

Ron Wyrick, Sallisaw School superintendent, said although most schools are still operating on the original state allocation of the 2009-10 school year and nothing official has been sent other than an emailed letter each month there is no official word showing a new allocation of a lower amount.

Wyrick said the letter would probably come after the first of the year indicating a new lower allocation. He said to date, $150,00 has been taken from Sallisaw School’s allocated general revenue.

School districts are required to make up the funds to pay health insurance for employees from their general revenue budgets, which is required to be funded by the State House Bill 1017.

Wyrick said if the state does not pay then the schools are forced to pay from the general funds to make up the short fall.

“Our budget is shorted for the insurance and we must use our already shorted funds to pay for more shorted funds,” Wyrick said.

He said the goal is to keep everyone employed through the economic crisis.

“Classrooms will be the last place we look to make cuts. We strive to continue to deliver the quality education to our students,” Wyrick said.

Gore Public Schools has been in a financial crisis since the state aid has been decreased.

Keith Kincade, Gore superintendent, said he has been preparing staff since August for possible layoffs. He recently had to let 10 support staff go and two teachers.

During Wednesday night’s special school board meeting a recommendation to let four more staff members go was discussed by the board. Kincade said a hearing for board members to discuss the matter further was set for 6 p.m. Dec. 10.

“We were anticipating at least a $150,000 cut in state aid, but the state is cutting into programs such as ACE remediation and other similar programs that aren’t tied to the funding formula by at least 40 percent.”

Kincade said the school has cut back in monthly expenses by going to a four-day school week, cut staff and are spending zero.

“We will have to keep cutting staff since 80 to 90 percent of our costs are in labor. We may even have to cut services such as transportation (buses) and tutoring,” Kincade said.

Lawrence Barnes, Vian School superintendent, said the decreased funding is a serious problem for the schools of Oklahoma.

Barnes said the problems schools are seeing is the shortage of revenue going into the general fund and a shortfall in the revenue of the 1017 fund for the first time since it was passed back in the 1980s.

“Another problem,” Barnes said, “is the unfunded mandates passed by the Legislature that forces the schools to pay for things not funded.” Barnes said.

He said an example would be the increase in insurance premiums for school employees and an increase in the retirement rates required by law, which starts in January.

“This past month, schools received a cut of 7.11 percent and if the trend continues schools will have to absorb the loss. This could force several schools to close or consolidate,” Barnes said. “We have until June to notify teachers if they will be rehired. We are looking closely at our expenditures for the remaining of this school year and will be as cautious as possible until we have a more concrete picture of the cuts for this year and next.”

Barnes said it was too early to predict any layoffs. He said layoffs or furloughs would be one of the last things considered.

“It may become necessary if we don’t get financial help from the State Legislature.”

Barnes said they have not considered going to a four-day week like Gore Schools recently did. He said he doesn’t think the saving would be significant and would hurt the overall education of students and put parents with small children in a tough place trying to find childcare for the off day.

Central Public Schools superintendent said Central School would not consider going to a four-day school week either.

“The school has been planning for a financial downturn. The school has been very careful about adding any reoccurring financial burden to the budget,” Central Superintendent Max Tanner said.

“We are constantly monitoring what is going on at the state level and looking closely at our expenditures for the remaining of this school year. We will be as cautious as possible until we get more information of the cuts for this year and next,” Tanner said.

The Muldrow superintendent said the school is looking at and examining the different ways that can cut spending.

“We are going to use reserve funds to meet our obligations for this year,” Roger Sharp, Muldrow School superintendent, said.

Sharp said he is concerned about the revenue outlook for the state.

“It appears it is a long term problem. Public schools have already been asked to do more with less and now to reduce funding at a time when expectations continue to increase seems like an impossible task,” Sharp said.

Muldrow School has not budgeted for cuts but Sharp said they have anticipated cuts coming in this year because of the state revenue shortage. Sharp said expenditures were reduced last year to protect the reserve fund.

“Depending on the final decision on the depth of the cuts, it could eliminate the reserve fund. This could lead to funding issues early next year when monies would not be available to cover payroll and utility costs in July and August,” Sharp said.

Brushy School is looking at cutting some supplemental programs that are used to enhance reading and math as well as doing in-house substituting with administration, teachers and teacher assistants.

Brushy Schools may have to stop providing free school supplies and lunches to all the students.

Greg Reynolds, Brushy School superintendent said a 7 percent cut to their schools general fund budget is costing the district $103,763.00.

“We are very concerned with what we’ve been hearing from the State Department of Education. We feel like this is a rainy day and the $600 million dollars from the state’s rainy day fund should be used to help state agencies cope with the revenue shortfall,” Reynolds said. “The last thing our district wants is to lay off employees. Unfortunately most of a school’s budget is spent in salaries. We are looking at cutting some supplemental programs.”

Extra curricular activities, field trips and the DARE Program are additional things that may need to be reduced or eliminated in the future Reynolds explained.

The loss in the general revenue fund and the state aid cuts has become problematic for all school districts.

“It causes anxiety among staff and creates a since of uncertainty with anyone involved in the education process,” Sharp said.