Teachers in Morgan Hill schools were surprised to learn Monday,
as principals distributed or read in staff meetings a memo from the
District Office announcing that effective immediately, school
budgets would be frozen. Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said the
situation is not as dire as it sounds.
Teachers in Morgan Hill schools were surprised to learn Monday, as principals distributed or read in staff meetings a memo from the District Office announcing that effective immediately, school budgets would be frozen.
Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said the situation is not as dire as it sounds.
“It is important to realize that we typically close spending sometime around the first or second week in April,” she said. “This year, as we are meeting to look at next year’s budget, we are closing it for two weeks to give us a chance to see where we are.”
Spending was frozen at the end of the day Friday, Feb. 27. In a memo issued to district leadership on Saturday afternoon, Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini described the spending freeze as “an opportunity to analyze each program within a two-week period to determine how to proceed in preparing for the budget reductions for next year.”
The memo also stated that any purchase made that was not on an approved purchase order by Feb. 27 “will become the responsibility of the purchaser.”
The timing of the memo was questioned by some. At least three School Board trustees were not notified before the freeze was in place. Board President George Panos did not comment on board notification of the freeze.
Panos said the way he understood it, the freeze is not unusual, it just came earlier this year.
“Due to budget cuts that our district is looking at for next year, and the fact that the staff wants to have an accurate picture of what the bottom line will look like for this year, it was decided to halt spending for two weeks to look at the fund balances,” he said Thursday.
“Once spending is resumed, the cutoff date for the current year spending remains Friday, April 16, for now,” he said. “After last year’s cuts of $2.6 million and anticipated cutbacks for this coming year, our people are in the midst of major number crunching.”
McKennan, her cabinet and representatives from the teachers’ union and the classified employees’ union met Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to put together a recommendation on budget cuts to the School Board.
Tognazzini’s memo clarified the terms of the freeze: “Do not spend ANY resources except petty cash if there was NOT a purchase order in the system by Friday, Feb. 27.”
Tognazzini, after speculation that spending on the new Sobrato High’s FF&E, or furniture, fixtures and equipment, was continuing, further clarified the freeze on Thursday. FF&E funds come out of bond money, not the district’s general fund.
“The freeze is on new purchase orders,” she said. “If a purchase order is already in the system, if it is encumbered, those are not affected … This (freeze) affects the entire district.”
It does not matter, she said, which fund the money comes out of because all have been frozen.
Estimates of proposed cuts for next year have been given at $2.3 million. McKennan said the district had projected possible cuts of $1.4 – 1.7 million. The additional $600,000 included in the $2.3 million could be a part of reports that the district has a deficit in that amount.
In response to reports that the district is $600,000 in the red, McKennan said that the district is in an unusual position with ADA, or Average Daily Attendance, funds.
“Enrollment is up, but attendance is down,” she said. “We’re experiencing a significant increase in student absences. The $600,000 is tied to that.”
The district will take a look at these absences, said McKennan. Site principals will be asked to be aware of excessive absences.
Panos said the $600,000 is “the estimated impact of lost ADA due to absences if attendance does not improve prior to April 2, when our ADA is submitted to the state for funding purposes.”
The upcoming budget decisions, he said, will be difficult.
“We cut $2.6 million last year with the largest cuts affecting District Office services, custodians and grounds, transportation and maintenance,” he said. “We did everything we could to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.
“The challenge before us is to provide a balanced budget with limited resources and continue to serve the needs of our students and the expectations of our community.”
The current general fund operating budget is $37.9 million, according to a report presented Jan. 26 when trustees asked for monthly budget updates.
