Summerville Journal Scene ®
On Monday, the School Board will likely be briefed on the financial state of Dorchester District 2 and the options the district has to make up for a budget shortfall tallying several million dollars.
Dorchester 2 Chief Financial Officer Allyson Duke says she hopes to have a report ready for Monday’s board meeting that details how the district can offset about $6 million in cuts this year. One of the options could be furloughing employees.
“If we do have to furlough people, the sooner we can do it, the better,” Duke said. “We would hope not to have to do more than two (furlough days), but who’s to say if we get more cuts from the state.”
Duke says implementing furloughs earlier in the year rather than later would be the better option because if there were to be more than one furlough day, they could be spaced out so employees wouldn’t be docked multiple days from one paycheck.
About two weeks ago, the Dorchester County Council voted to slash the district’s current operating budget by $4 million due to the shortfall realized in tax revenue from rental properties, businesses, vehicle taxes and a one percent sales tax. This reduced the school district’s expected tax revenue for its operating budget from $69 million to $65 million. The district’s total operating budget from all sources for this year is $134 million.
At that same meeting, the council voted to fund the school district an additional $472,000 for the shortfall that the school district experienced for the 2008-2009 school year.
In recent weeks, district officials have met to discuss how to deal with the budget shortfall, but no concrete decisions have yet been made, said Duke, who added that she doesn’t know whether the board will offer immediate feedback or take any action at Monday’s meeting after her budget presentation.
Prior to this school year, officials projected the district would grow by 300 students, but Dorchester 2 has actually grown by twice that number. Duke says that because of this, the district should receive between $300,000 and $400,000 more from the state than originally expected.
Nevertheless, Duke says the district will have to make adjustments to its budget. The district is still waiting to see how much it will collect from delinquent taxes and how much state revenues will total, but Duke says “there are not a lot of options” at this point as to how the district can handle the shortfall. She added that taking money from the fund balance is off the table because it’s too depleted.
Monday’s board meeting is open to the public and will be held at the Dorchester District 2 offices, 102 Greenwave Blvd., Summerville. It starts at 7 p.m.
Prior to the regularly scheduled board meeting, an audit report review for the district’s 2008-2009 operating budget will be presented to the school board. That meeting is open to the public and begins at 6 p.m.
Contact Michael Tannebaum at 873-9424 ext. 215 or mtannebaum@journalscene.com
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