Doing nothing would save Cary schools money

Cary Elementary School District 26 needs to trim about $2.5 million from its fiscal year 2010-2011 budget and officials say maintaining the current number of buildings would save the district more money than closing a school.

At a district finance committee meeting Tuesday, district Superintendent Brian Coleman presented the committee with six options for reallocating building space, from closing a school and moving students to another building to leaving the district unchanged.

While Coleman said the administration recommended making no changes, which would save the district about $385,000, finance committee members asked the administration to take a look at staffing numbers and how they would fit into each scenario.

“We need to keep this on the back burner and work with it in conjunction with staffing decisions, committee Chairman Scott Coffey said.

Other options included moving all kindergarten students to one location at Three Oaks School, while others included options that would eliminate Prairie Hill School or Briargate.

Much of the savings, Coleman said, were due to the transportation costs related to the closing of school and transporting students across the district.

Committee members also requested information on the savings from closing Maplewood Elementary, which closed in June.

In addition to the building reallocation options, the committee also discussed a list of reductions the school administration is considering for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to help the district trim about $2.5 million from the budget.

Those preliminary reductions include increasing class sizes to 35, districtwide pay freezes and reductions, supply reductions and eliminating physical education at the junior high level.

The district is among the five worst school districts in the state financially and has over the past two years slashed more than $6 million from its budget, cutting art, physical education and music classes, as well as laying off 71 full-time teachers.

This year, the district approved its first balanced budget in six years, but school officials said another $6 million would need to be pared from the budget to ensure expenditures remained in line with revenues and to avoid handing over financial decision-making power to a state-appointed panel. The state still owes the school district about $1.8 million, which officials said would affect the district's cash flow.